A Tale of Four Pagodas

On our visit to Myanmar in 2017, we indulged our appetite for pagodas by visiting the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon, and then simply gorging on them when we visited the temple city of Bagan.  This year, our pagoda visits were more targeted -- partly because William doesn't have an adult's patience for walking around looking at old buildings.

We had a chance to see four of the most significant pagodas within range of Yangon.

SULE PAGODA

The first we saw was the Sule Pagoda, which we caught sight of as our taxi took us to the ferry for our day trip to Dala on December 27:

(credit Jason Eppink - https://www.flickr.com/photos/jasoneppink/8428246875, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=33445686)

The Sule Pagoda is a Burmese stupa located in the heart of downtown Yangon, occupying the centre of the city and an important space in contemporary Burmese politics, ideology and geography. According to legend, it was built before the Shwedagon Pagoda during the time of the Buddha, making it more than 2,600 years old. Burmese legend states that the site for the Shwedagon Pagoda was asked to be revealed from an old nat who resided at the place where the Sule Pagoda now stands. The Sule Pagoda has been the focal point of both Yangon and Burmese politics. It has served as a rallying point in both the 1988 uprisings and 2007 Saffron Revolution.

SHWE SAYAN PAGODA

The story of our Tuk Tuk Tour of Dala is in another blog entry.  However, one stop we made which fits more with the theme of this blog entry was the Shwe Sayan Pagoda:

Shwe Sayan Pagoda lies just outside the center of Dala.  Our guide Htou Htou told us that, in the stupa lies a mummified monk enclosed in glass protected by a locked gate. The monk lived in Dala before he died.  He was put in the pagoda 150 years ago. His body is wrapped as a mummy and covered with gold. One of his eyes is said to have opened in 2008. The villagers took this as a warning sign from the monk of the cyclone that destroyed Dala later that year. Our guide related that, above the monk's glass resting place is a photograph showing his eye open that year.  We could not enter to see the monk's resting place or the rest of the interior of the pagoda, our guide told us, because the pagoda was under construction.

SHWEDAGON PAGODA

Because Katie and her mom and aunt had not visited Yangon in 2017, we revisited the Shwedagon Pagoda in downtown Yangon:

According to legend, the Shwedagon Pagoda was constructed more than 2,600 years ago, which would make it the oldest Buddhist stupa in the world.  According to tradition, two merchant brothers from the north of Singuttara Hill what is currently Yangon met the Lord Gautama Buddha during his lifetime and received eight of the Buddha's hairs. The brothers returned to Burma and, with the help of the local ruler, King Okkalapa, found Singuttara Hill, where relics of other Buddhas preceding Gautama Buddha had been enshrined.

The pagoda is surrounded by the teeming city, which makes some of the approaches quite dramatic:

Inside the pagoda, the main stupa dominates every scene:

This year, the stupa was undergoing renovations, so it was surrounded in scaffolding, which you can see behind this shrine:

The pagoda grounds are enormous, which makes navigating the entire complex challenging.  It would take hours to see the entire pagoda complex.

In various sites around the grounds, large bells are situated where visitors may strike them three times for blessings.  The one who tolls the bell is blessed, but anyone who hears the gonging of the bell is also blessed.

The gold seen on the stupa is made of genuine gold plates, covering the brick structure and attached by traditional rivets. People all over the country, including monarchs, have donated gold to the pagoda to maintain it. The practice continues to this day after being started in the 15th century by the Queen Shin Sawbu (Binnya Thau), who gave her weight in gold.  On our visit December 29, 2018, we were lucky to watch part of the ceremony of accepting a donor's contribution of gold for the stupa.  After the donated gold is received, it is carried up to the stupa via at gondola as if rising to heaven (the white forms on the scaffolding are, indeed, representations of clouds):

The whole ceremony is impressive.  Here is a video of a gondola hoisting contributed gold leaf up to be applied to the stupa.

GOLDEN ROCK (KYAIKTIYO) PAGODA

On December 30, 2018, we embarked on a 3.5 hour journey up to see magnificent Golden Rock Pagoda:

(Attribution, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=598470)

Kyaiktiyo Pagoda (also known as Golden Rock) is a well-known Buddhist pilgrimage site. It is a small pagoda (24 feet tall) built on the top of a granite boulder covered with gold leaves pasted on by its male devotees.  According to legend, the Golden Rock itself is precariously perched on a strand of the Buddha's hair. The balancing rock seems to defy gravity, as it perpetually appears to be on the verge of rolling down the hill. The rock and the pagoda are at the top of Mt. Kyaiktiyo. Another legend states that a Buddhist priest impressed the celestial king with his asceticism and the celestial king used his supernatural powers to carry the rock to its current place, specifically choosing the rock as the resemblance to the monks head. It is the third most important Buddhist pilgrimage site in Burma after the Shwedagon Pagoda and the Mahamuni Pagoda.

When we decided on New Year's weekend to make the trip, we didn't realize that that weekend is the heaviest travel weekend of the year for people in Myanmar.  This meant that EVERYONE traveled up to see Golden Rock.  The local village was absolutely besieged with vehicles, and it took nearly a half hour for our little van to work its way from the edge of town in to the bus station where the transport trucks were picking people up to shuttle them to the pagoda.

People were everywhere, waiting for their rides, including this large group of Bhuddist nuns:

There were so many pilgrims, and so few trucks, that people mobbed a truck as soon as it appeared, jumping up into seats even before the fortunate pilgrims returning from the pagoda could get off.  To get an idea of the mayhem, check out this video of the mass confusion where everyone was trying to jump on transport trucks to golden rock pagoda.

Katie pointed out that, if it was so mobbed at the bottom during the morning, it could be impossible to get a truck ride back from the pagoda later in the day.  We might not get out of the village until late in the day.  We decided that discretion was the better part of valor, and we piled back into our van for the long ride back to Yangon. While we stopped for lunch at a pretty resort along the way, this still didn't stay the fatigue of 7 hours of riding in a van.  Little William had to exercised his last nerve of patience to endure the ride:

As a result, we never actually saw Golden Rock, as you might guess from the credited photo above.  But we certainly experienced a slice of Myanmar cultural life that we'll never forget!

Perhaps when we visit Myanmar in 2019, we won't put pagodas on the list.  We know William will agree with that.