Bagan Journal 7, January 2015

Parting Thoughts

There's a pilgrimage in Bagan. You have to visit four pagodas, namely Tantkyi Taung, Lawkananda, Turin Taung and the Shwezigon. These structures enshrine replicas of a tooth of the Buddha. Hence, they’re considered sacred. They say your most fervent wish will come true if you're able to visit these pagodas within the same day. Thousands of people, locals and tourists, join this pilgrimage, which starts at 4AM and ends before dusk.

Our time was limited and we weren’t able to to do it.

It made me think, however, of the lengths that people go through to make their wishes come true. No harm in that, I suppose. I grant the good that it does: one could always use a boost, the comfort that help would come from on high. But I would also submit that one’s wish-making should be combined with honest to goodness hard work – and a clear-eyed acceptance that the wish may not come true, in spite of it all. Tossing a coin in a well is the easiest thing to do. But life isn’t easy …

The Well of Grief

by David Whyte

Those who will not slip beneath

The still surface on the well of grief

Turning downward through its black water

To the place we cannot breathe

Will never know the source from which we drink,

The secret water, cold and clear,

Nor find in the darkness glimmering

The small round coins

Thrown by those who wished for something else.

Bagan Journal 6, January 2015

Stalls and vendors abound on the temple grounds, especially on the big and popular ones. It makes sense: the tourists are there. It reminds me of Jesus and his rampage over temple sellers, however.

 Outside Ananda Temple was a huge tiangge (flea market), which would be running for the rest of this month. They call it a pagoda festival. Everything from clothes to food, tools to toys, amulets to artefacts are there on sale.

In Htolominlo Temple, local art was the offering. A man pulled me over to show me his sand paintings. Another one placed a stone carving of Buddha on my hand. A woman waved a small brass bell near my face. Either the bell was ancient or was made to look ancient.

But the thing that caught my attention were two women with brass coil rings on their necks, arms, and legs. They're Padaungs, an ethnic group from central Myanmar. The name literally means "copper necks." At age 9, they start putting brass coil rings on their necks and continue to add more rings over time. Some of them have as many as 20 on their necks. The practice gives the illusion that their necks are stretched disproportionately. They're not. It's the shoulders and collarbones that are pushed and distorted. The Padaungs remove these rings when they go to bed.

The women quietly tended a loom. The fabric they wove was curiously similar to the ones our own Ifugaos make.

I left with mixed feelings. While I was pleased to see Padaungs in person (I've seen them in pictures and read a bit about them), I also felt uncomfortable at the way the tourists were gawking at them. A French woman called them "giraffa" - giraffe. I thought it was a bit like what we do in a zoo ...

Our trip to Bagan is almost done. Read my parting words in my Bagan Journal 7.

Bagan Journal 5, January 2015

Ananda Temple is one of the biggest and most beautiful temples in Bagan. Built by the mighty king, Kyansittha, in the 11th century, it has a Greek cross floor plan and parallel corridors. Its interior is lit by natural light, which enters through openings set high on the walls.

The Temple houses four standing Buddhas, representing the three Buddhas who came before Gautama, and Gautama himself. (Gautama is Siddhartha, the most popular and most recent Buddha. When people say Buddha today, they're referring to him.) They each face a cardinal direction: Kakusanda Buddha faces north, Kassapa Buddha faces south. Konnagona Buddha faces east, Gautama Buddha faces west.

The Buddhas are about 32 ft high and are made of wood. The original Konnagona image was made of sandalwood, which burned down when a nun made a candle offering and left it unattended. What we saw was a replacement. Gautama's image was also a replacement.

The images of Kakusanda and Kassapa are original. Made of gilded teak wood, they're quite interesting. When viewed up close, the Buddhas' faces look stern. Step back, say eight or 10 ft, and they seem to smile. Step farther away and the smiles get bigger.

What a reminder, I thought. If your nose is too close to a problem, it looks incomprehensible. Unsolvable. You can lose your cool. But when you step back, you see it more clearly. Or differently. You begin to see your way through it. Or around it. Next thing you know you're smiling.

Read about our encounter with Padaungs in my Bagan Journal 6.

Bagan Journal 4, January 2015

Around 5:30PM, we rushed to get to Shwe Lake Too, one of three temples where you could get a great view of the sunset. As soon as we reached it, our guide ushered us to a narrow staircase that led to the temple's tower. A number of tourists - Germans, Italians, Spanish, Brazilians (judging from their accents & looks) - got there ahead of us and occupied the upper ledges. We took a corner spot and waited for the magic to happen. It didn’t keep us waiting …

Read about our visit to the Ananda temple in my Bagan Journal 5.

Bagan Journal 3, January 2015

Our first adventure for the year - riding a balloon to catch the sunrise! A smooth and pleasant romp, 2000 feet at its peak, and 40 minutes of viewing temples, stupas, pagodas and the Irrawaddy River.

The balloon and its wicker basket weigh 550 kilos. Add 8 passengers and the pilot, and that's 1.4 tons, yet it floats like a feather in the air. Amazing! 18 balloons flew that day - 10 red balloons (from Balloons Over Bagan), 6 green balloons (from Oriental Ballooning) and 2 yellow ones (from Golden Eagle, one of which we took). We were one of the first to take off so we saw the others float up one by one. Quite a sight!

Our pilot was a gentleman named Curt Frieden, a quiet, but friendly Swiss German. He personified calmness and confidence. If there was something like floating on a cloud, he made us feel like it.

Bagan has over 3,000 temples, stupas & pagodas of varying sizes, importance & disrepair. Our flight covered 8 km. We saw ruins everywhere and basked in the sunrise.

In keeping with ballooning tradition, Curt Frieden served champagne when we landed. I couldn’t imagine a better way to start the day. Jim R. Roger’s poem, “Good Morning!” was echoing in my head …

I love the way a new day feels.

Those few moments when

Yesterday’s memories

Are slept into a docile file for later.

When rest gives birth to new eyes

That see a life with energy and hope

And a chance to try again.

We also visited Shwe Lake Too, too. Check out my Bagan Journal 4.

Bagan Journal 2, January 2014

Shwezigon Pagoda

What's the difference between a temple and a pagoda? You can enter a temple, but you can't go inside a pagoda. A pagoda is made of solid brick or rock. It's a massive reliquary. Yangon's Shwedagon is said to contain four strands of the Buddha's hair. Bagan's Shwezigon claims to have a tooth from Buddha.

Shwezigon, built in the 11th century, is a cylindrical structure resting on three terraces. Around the terraces are enamelled plaques depicting the previous lives of the Buddha Shwezigon has a bell-shaped dome from which concentric mouldings rise and terminate in a tall spire.

On the four sides of the temple grounds are small pavilions with images of standing Buddhas. Each Buddha is about 13 ft high. In the pavilion closest to the entrance gate, apart from the Buddha, you would also see the painted figures of the aged, the sick, the dead and the monk. These were the characters that Gautama Buddha encountered when he ventured outside his palace. They caused him to reflect on his life as a prince, abandon his lifestyle, and seek enlightenment.

Seeing so much gold again (we were in Yangon in July last year) reminded me of William Stafford’s poem, “Deciding” …

One mine the Indians worked had


gold as good they left it there


for God to keep.

At night sometimes you think

your way that far, that deep,

or almost.

You hold all things or not, depending

not on greed but whether they suit what

life begins to mean.

Like those workers you study what moves,

what stays. You bow, and then, like them,

you know –

What's God, what's world, what's gold.

Read about our first adventure of 2015 on my Bagan Journal 3 -- riding a balloon to catch the sunrise!  

Bagan Journal 1, January 2015

Rhodora and I went back to Myanmar on January 7-10, 2015. This time, we visited the fabled Bagan, land of over 3,000 temples, stupas and pagodas …

Bagan Journal 1

When the guide said our first stop would be a public market in Nyaung U, I thought, quietly, "Hmmm. What makes him think I'd like to go there?" I guess, given my limited time, I was in a hurry to see the main attraction - the temples and pagodas. But I'm glad I didn't push my way and went along with his plan. A public market, after all, is a window to a people's way of life … Grateful for the glimpse, I thanked the guide as soon as I hopped back to the van.

Eggplants! Green, round & plump. Having been under Great Britain, they call them aubergines.

Thanaka branches. The Burmese apply an all-purpose cream on their faces that come from the bark of the thanaka tree. They grind the bark on a stone and mix it with water. I don't know the science, but let me tell you: men or women, they have a nice complexion.

Bamboo shoots

They love bananas here as much as we do. They're everywhere! In fact, they honoured the banana by making it part of the architectural design of their pagodas. The column from the base to the top is a banana stalk impression.

Chilies!!! Local food is usually spicy, heavily influenced by Thai and Indian cusine.

Tea leaves from Upper Myanmar

Dried fish of all varieties and sizes

This is a cigar and peanut stall. This lady was proudly telling me that she rolled the tobacco leaves herself. She gamely posed for a picture, then tried to sell me a bag of peanuts. Hahahaha!!! Tit for tat, I guess ...

Read about the Shwezigon Pagoda in my Bagan Journal 2.