Living the Good Life: Yangon

Hi Guys,

As you read in the last blog, we took a rather harrowing train journey back into Yangon to spend our last two days in Myanmar. What a wonderful place it's been, I'm so glad we made the effort to come here.

The first place we checked out that morning was Sule Paya, a small pagoda in the middle of the city. Literally, it's in the middle of a traffic circle. It was a super interesting contrast because the traffic is pretty chaotic from the outside, yet it is very serene on the inside. I circled the stupa while Jared sat in the shade, because apparently he was 'templed-out.'

People selling durian on the street. If you ever get a chance, give it a nice smell. To me it smells like rotting carcass, but some people really love this fruit. You can see what it looks like before it's chopped up in the bottom left of the photo.

A Buddha statue inside Sule Paya

A man making an offering, pouring water on the Buddha statue.

There were some beautiful buildings in Yangon, though admittedly some of the architecture was crumbling. Humid climates like this are not very forgiving, yet the Brits have still left quite a legacy in buildings.

Here is a view from the top of the Sakura Tower where we stopped for lunch. It was expensive by Myanmar standards, it was maybe an $11 lunch? You can see Sule Paya smack dab in the middle of the traffic circle. Really cool to see how the city has grown up around the 2000 year old temple.

That's a lotta Buddhas

Here we are making our way into Shwedagon Paya- the main attraction in Yangon. From the back of my ticket: "The origin of Shwedagon Pagoda materialized in brilliant epoch in Buddhist history over 2600 years ago. In India, Prince Siddhartha had just attained Buddhahood when he was visited by two brothers Tapussa and Bhallika, merchants from Myanmar who offered him a gift of honey cakes. In return, the Buddha personally removed eight hairs from his head and gave these to the two brothers for enshrinement in their native town of Okkalapa (now the city of Yangon). On their return, the brothers presented the Buddha's hairs to the King of Okkalapa who erected the pagoda and enshrined the eight hairs together with relics of three previous Buddhas."

The original height of the pagoda was 66 feet. From the 14th Century onward, successive monarchs in Myanmar rebuilt or re-gilded it until Shwedagon reached its present height of 326 feet. It has ten unique different sections, namely the base, the three terraces (called Pyisayan, Khaung Laung, and Buang Yit), the Thabeik (monk's food bowl), the Kya-lan (an ornamental lotus flower), the Hngnet Pyaw-Bu (banana bud), the Hti (umbrella), the Hngetmana (flag-shaped vane that moves with the wind direction), and the Seinbu (diamond bud). Whewf.

The Hti, the Hngetmana, and the Seinbu are decorated with 3154 inlaid gold bells and 79,569 diamonds and other precious stones! I tried to find a reliable number to quote on the value of the gold and jewels at this place, but no one seems to want to commit to a single number. They all agree the number is in the billions though! The Hngetmana (vane) alone contains 419 kilos of gold. Add that to the Hti (umbrella) with it's 500 kilos of gold, and you can see how the amount of gold in this place adds up very quickly! It was the most gold I have ever seen in one time, and may be the most I will ever see. So impressive.

A novice monk ringing a bell after giving an offering

This Burmese family wanted to pose for a picture with us. We ended up standing there for a while because people started lining up to get a pic with the whiteys!

A Bodhi tree brought from Buddhagaya, India in 1926. The Bodhi tree is significant to Buddhists because it was under a Bodhi tree that the Buddha attained enlightenment.

There are planetary posts all around the stupa, and you can make an offering at the one that corresponds to the day of the week you were born on. Here is Jared pouring his five cups of water on the Buddha image, three on the statue behind (Jupiter for Jared), then three on the animal in front (rat for Jared), then leaving one cup full (drinking water for Buddha).

A woman rubbing gold foil onto a Buddha image. See how it grows with repeated layers of gold foil?

This is a replica of the Buddha tooth relic

Here is King Tharyarwaddy's Bell (1841) which weighs 42 tons.

Here I am at my planetary post, Monday.

Walking out of Shwedagon via the North Entrance after 4 hours of temple gawking. I think it was even impressive enough that Jared wasn't too 'templed-out' to appreciate it.