Day 258- Shwedagon Pagoda by Gregory
Friday, March 22nd, 2019. Written by Gregory (Meaning there'll be no humor in this one- Daniel)
The Shwedagon Pagoda is something you see in all the photos of Yangon and Myanmar, but it is still huge and impressive in person. What you do not see in the photos are the hundreds of surrounding stupas, shrines, pagodas, and temples in the 114 acres that surround the main stupa (that big golden turnip in the tourism posters), which is over 2600 years old.
There are 4 entrances, one at each point of the compass. We arrived at the north gate by taxi and walked up the steps, past vendors selling religious souvenirs, children’s toys, and flowers, stakes, etc.
Foreigners (we are easy to spot) have to pay to enter. In addition to the 10,000 Ks ($6.50) per person charge, Lili had to leave a 3000Ks deposit to borrow a lungyi because there were slits in the side of her long skirt.
We arrived shortly before sunset, and the place was full of locals as well as foreigners. Truthfully, there might have been 50 foreigners there, not more, compared to several hundred locals. The lighting was perfect for photos, with the sun going down and reflecting off hundreds of gold roofs and spires.
We found out later that there is officially over 10 tons of gold covering the buildings here, but unofficially there is more like 65 tons. That’s not mentioning the thousands of diamonds, rubies, and sapphires! The main stupa alone is rumored to be worth over $3 billion in gold and precious stones.
We wandered through the crowds, watching families, monks, young couples, and tourists all mixing together. The monks, I noticed, tended to speak English well and some were in conversations with foreigners, talking about the pagoda, Buddhism, the monastic life, and more. I was beginning to feel left out. I walked into one shrine to see what people were doing. They were buying gold leaf and applying it to one particular statue, which was so covered in gold leaf that the features were barely visible anymore.
A man walked up to me and told me that the statue was a miraculous Buddha -- if you or someone you loved had a headache, or a backache, you could apply the gold leaf patch to the corresponding spot on the statue and you or the person suffering would be healed. It sounded a bit too superstitious to me, but the man followed me out and back to where the family was sitting. I sat down and this man continued explaining the pagoda to me -- to us. Turns out, he is a lay person who lives and works in a nearby monastery. We had seen his monk/master/mentor meditating in one of the shrines. He took us on a small tour, explaining some of the things we had seen, like people pouring water over a statue, some of the numerology behind the pagoda (4, 8, 64, 108), and the origin of the pagoda (two Burmese merchants met the Buddha in India and offered him some sweet rice cake. In return, he gave them some of his hair, which they brought back to Yangon and the original stupa was built to store those hairs).
He then walked us behind the shrines to a quiet spot with a large bodhi tree. The tree was planted in the 1750s from a seed of the bodhi tree under which Siddhartha Gautama was sitting when he achieved enlightenment. Students studying for their final exams are known to come here and pray for enlightenment!
By now it was dark, and the golden structures were all gleaming under the lights and thousands of oil lamps lit by the faithful. It was a little less crowded, but we were getting hungry and our feet were starting to hurt from walking on the marble floor barefoot, so we said goodbye to our “guide” and left, being sure to recover our deposit, although I told Lili she should have kept the lungyi for that price, since it was a pretty nice one.
We are very happy that the vendors and taxi drivers here are not pushy -- they ask once, politely, if you want whatever they have. If you say no, they stop asking. What a relief after the Middle East and India where we were constantly pestered!
The Shwedagon Pagoda is something you see in all the photos of Yangon and Myanmar, but it is still huge and impressive in person. What you do not see in the photos are the hundreds of surrounding stupas, shrines, pagodas, and temples in the 114 acres that surround the main stupa (that big golden turnip in the tourism posters), which is over 2600 years old.
There are 4 entrances, one at each point of the compass. We arrived at the north gate by taxi and walked up the steps, past vendors selling religious souvenirs, children’s toys, and flowers, stakes, etc.
Foreigners (we are easy to spot) have to pay to enter. In addition to the 10,000 Ks ($6.50) per person charge, Lili had to leave a 3000Ks deposit to borrow a lungyi because there were slits in the side of her long skirt.
We arrived shortly before sunset, and the place was full of locals as well as foreigners. Truthfully, there might have been 50 foreigners there, not more, compared to several hundred locals. The lighting was perfect for photos, with the sun going down and reflecting off hundreds of gold roofs and spires.
We found out later that there is officially over 10 tons of gold covering the buildings here, but unofficially there is more like 65 tons. That’s not mentioning the thousands of diamonds, rubies, and sapphires! The main stupa alone is rumored to be worth over $3 billion in gold and precious stones.
We wandered through the crowds, watching families, monks, young couples, and tourists all mixing together. The monks, I noticed, tended to speak English well and some were in conversations with foreigners, talking about the pagoda, Buddhism, the monastic life, and more. I was beginning to feel left out. I walked into one shrine to see what people were doing. They were buying gold leaf and applying it to one particular statue, which was so covered in gold leaf that the features were barely visible anymore.
A man walked up to me and told me that the statue was a miraculous Buddha -- if you or someone you loved had a headache, or a backache, you could apply the gold leaf patch to the corresponding spot on the statue and you or the person suffering would be healed. It sounded a bit too superstitious to me, but the man followed me out and back to where the family was sitting. I sat down and this man continued explaining the pagoda to me -- to us. Turns out, he is a lay person who lives and works in a nearby monastery. We had seen his monk/master/mentor meditating in one of the shrines. He took us on a small tour, explaining some of the things we had seen, like people pouring water over a statue, some of the numerology behind the pagoda (4, 8, 64, 108), and the origin of the pagoda (two Burmese merchants met the Buddha in India and offered him some sweet rice cake. In return, he gave them some of his hair, which they brought back to Yangon and the original stupa was built to store those hairs).
He then walked us behind the shrines to a quiet spot with a large bodhi tree. The tree was planted in the 1750s from a seed of the bodhi tree under which Siddhartha Gautama was sitting when he achieved enlightenment. Students studying for their final exams are known to come here and pray for enlightenment!
By now it was dark, and the golden structures were all gleaming under the lights and thousands of oil lamps lit by the faithful. It was a little less crowded, but we were getting hungry and our feet were starting to hurt from walking on the marble floor barefoot, so we said goodbye to our “guide” and left, being sure to recover our deposit, although I told Lili she should have kept the lungyi for that price, since it was a pretty nice one.
We are very happy that the vendors and taxi drivers here are not pushy -- they ask once, politely, if you want whatever they have. If you say no, they stop asking. What a relief after the Middle East and India where we were constantly pestered!
For pictures please click here
https://photos.app.goo.gl/271FT7WPFYkZ9WpX9
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