Burmese Days

Je lis Burmese days, roman du temps de la colonisation anglaise. Je comprend mieux le lien entre la corruption rampante dans ce pays et les pagodes qui remplissent le paysage. Orwell decrit comment un officiel Birman ultra corrompu peut racheter ses peches pour s assurer une bonne reincarnation:

U Po Kyin was a good Buddhist and intended to provide
against this danger. He would devote his closing years to good
works, which would pile up enough merit to outweigh the rest of his
life. Probably his good works would take the form of building
pagodas. Four pagodas, five, six, seven--the priests would tell
him how many--with carved stonework, gilt umbrellas and little
bells that tinkled in the wind, every tinkle a prayer. And he
would return to the earth in male human shape--for a woman ranks
at about the same level as a rat or a frog--or at best as some
dignified beast such as an elephant.