Hi Folks !
How are you ?!
I am just back from an awesome 3 - week trip to Myanmar and want to tell you all about it !
In instalments !
First off is, of course, the stunning Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon ( former Rangoon ).
It is situated on Singuttara Hill which is pretty small in size.
In fact, the hill is not noticed at all, but is said to be a powerful spiritual place since ages.
When Siddhartha Gautama became the Buddha, he 'journeyed in seven places and 2 merchants from Myanmar- Tapussa and Ballika, gave him alms food'.
In return, He gave them 8 strands of his hair with his blessings, which they brought back with them.
King Okkalapa ruled at the time and he received the precious hair with great honour and enshrined them along with the relics of 3 previous Buddhas.
This bit was a marvellous surprise for me.
I know that there is a lineage of Buddhas before Gautama and there will be others after him.
There is an entire book on it.
But there is actually a country which revered the tradition and teachings of ALL the Buddhas completely, honoured them correctly by following the teachings since the earlier Buddhas - was new to me.
ALL the Buddhas have been born in India.
ALL taught how to liberate oneself from the cycle of birth and death and misery.
And we managed to lose the teachings of each one of them !
Consigned them to an obscure peripheral place, as a mere appendage to someone -
Prefering to whine for mercy, unwilling to take responsibility for our actions.
We deserve what follows.
Honestly.
Let's get back to Shwedagon !
So King Okkalapa enshrined the staff of Kakusanda Buddha, the water filter of Kawnagamana Buddha and the nether robe of Kassapa Buddha along with the hair of Gotama Buddha in a Chaitya of gold.
(A Chaitya holds the body relics of monks of nuns).
There are temples to all the 4 Buddhas in the 4 main directions and the way to pay respect, as I noticed was, to close your eyes and chant or meditate.
Silently!
There are beads and booklets kept which people
use and put back.
They consecrated this as Shwedagon, the Reliquary ( container of holy relics) of the Four Buddhas.
This temple of gold was then enclosed in one of silver, then of tin, copper, lead, marble and finally of plain brick.
The gold - plating began in the 15th century when the Queen Shinsawbu who made many improvements and offered her own weight in gold.
Her successor offered four times his own and his wife's weight in gold.
The current Pagoda is gold - plated.
There are areas of gold plates, of layers of beaten gold leaves and very little area of thinner gold leaves, like the rim.
The detailed brochure gives mind - boggling weights -
The Umbrella -
Height - 43 ft (13 mtrs ).
Weight of the gold - 1/2 ton or 500 kilos.
Various items of jewellry - 83,850 .
Small gold bells - 4016
Total weight - 5 tons or 5,000 kilos!
The Vane -
Height - 4'2"(130 cms)
Weight - 419 kilos of gold
Assorted Gems - 2000
The Diamond Orb -
Height - 22" (56 cms)
Diameter - 10.5" (27 cms)
Number of Diamonds - 4351
Total Carat - 1800
The Apex Diamond - 76 Carat !
There is a museum with colour photos of the jewels and there are a couple of Telescopes through which you can gaze awestruck at the jewels and the diamond!
Shwedagon's periphery has many huge Buddha temples, always with place for people to sit and meditate.
There is a large Bodhi tree, a big Jade Buddha, 2 huge bells and many, many small temples on the main periphery.
It is a lovely place to go at sunrise, and on full moon nights or any night.
Yangon looks beautiful from even that little height of about 150'.
Myanmar is very, very easy on the pocket.
You will come back peaceful and contented, I promise you!
Visit it soon and enjoy -
How are you ?!
I am just back from an awesome 3 - week trip to Myanmar and want to tell you all about it !
In instalments !
First off is, of course, the stunning Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon ( former Rangoon ).
It is situated on Singuttara Hill which is pretty small in size.
In fact, the hill is not noticed at all, but is said to be a powerful spiritual place since ages.
When Siddhartha Gautama became the Buddha, he 'journeyed in seven places and 2 merchants from Myanmar- Tapussa and Ballika, gave him alms food'.
In return, He gave them 8 strands of his hair with his blessings, which they brought back with them.
King Okkalapa ruled at the time and he received the precious hair with great honour and enshrined them along with the relics of 3 previous Buddhas.
This bit was a marvellous surprise for me.
I know that there is a lineage of Buddhas before Gautama and there will be others after him.
There is an entire book on it.
But there is actually a country which revered the tradition and teachings of ALL the Buddhas completely, honoured them correctly by following the teachings since the earlier Buddhas - was new to me.
ALL the Buddhas have been born in India.
ALL taught how to liberate oneself from the cycle of birth and death and misery.
And we managed to lose the teachings of each one of them !
Consigned them to an obscure peripheral place, as a mere appendage to someone -
Prefering to whine for mercy, unwilling to take responsibility for our actions.
We deserve what follows.
Honestly.
Let's get back to Shwedagon !
So King Okkalapa enshrined the staff of Kakusanda Buddha, the water filter of Kawnagamana Buddha and the nether robe of Kassapa Buddha along with the hair of Gotama Buddha in a Chaitya of gold.
(A Chaitya holds the body relics of monks of nuns).
There are temples to all the 4 Buddhas in the 4 main directions and the way to pay respect, as I noticed was, to close your eyes and chant or meditate.
Silently!
There are beads and booklets kept which people
They consecrated this as Shwedagon, the Reliquary ( container of holy relics) of the Four Buddhas.
This temple of gold was then enclosed in one of silver, then of tin, copper, lead, marble and finally of plain brick.
The gold - plating began in the 15th century when the Queen Shinsawbu who made many improvements and offered her own weight in gold.
Her successor offered four times his own and his wife's weight in gold.
The current Pagoda is gold - plated.
There are areas of gold plates, of layers of beaten gold leaves and very little area of thinner gold leaves, like the rim.
The detailed brochure gives mind - boggling weights -
The Umbrella -
Height - 43 ft (13 mtrs ).
Weight of the gold - 1/2 ton or 500 kilos.
Various items of jewellry - 83,850 .
Small gold bells - 4016
Total weight - 5 tons or 5,000 kilos!
The Vane -
Height - 4'2"(130 cms)
Weight - 419 kilos of gold
Assorted Gems - 2000
The Diamond Orb -
Height - 22" (56 cms)
Diameter - 10.5" (27 cms)
Number of Diamonds - 4351
Total Carat - 1800
The Apex Diamond - 76 Carat !
There is a museum with colour photos of the jewels and there are a couple of Telescopes through which you can gaze awestruck at the jewels and the diamond!
Shwedagon's periphery has many huge Buddha temples, always with place for people to sit and meditate.
There is a large Bodhi tree, a big Jade Buddha, 2 huge bells and many, many small temples on the main periphery.
It is a lovely place to go at sunrise, and on full moon nights or any night.
Yangon looks beautiful from even that little height of about 150'.
Myanmar is very, very easy on the pocket.
You will come back peaceful and contented, I promise you!
Visit it soon and enjoy -
1 comment:
Mme. Shubha - That was a lovely travelogue of your tour to Myanmar and to the Shwedagon Pagoda! Thanks much for the info on how Myanmar culture has honoured the Buddhas before Gautama, the only Buddha most of us have heard of.
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