Yangon Journal 7, July 2014 - Pagoda of the Sacred Hair Relic

We visited another pagoda, this one situated close to Yangon River and a marketplace. It isn't as tall nor as grand as Shwedagon, but it has its charm & uniqueness. Remember the 8 strands of hair the Buddha gave the two brothers from Myanmar? One of the strands is enshrined at the innermost chamber of this pagoda.

Like Shwedagon, the pagoda is covered in golden leaves & plates and has the same basic structure. Unlike Shwedagon, however, you can go inside this pagoda. (Shwedagon is a solid monument.) You'll see the reliquary - made of gold (of course!) and glass - that contains the Buddha's hair. Then you'll pass through 10 or so chambers, clockwise, before you could get out. The walls and ceilings are all covered with gold, carved with the most intricate of designs. You will find people on their knees meditating and hundreds of images of the Buddha in gold & silver, some of which are studded with gems.

I visited Stockholm, Sweden, in 2000, and I went to the Viking Museum. They have a room called the Viking's Hoard. In the middle of this room is a pile of treasures - crowns, rings, necklaces, bracelets, plates, cups, knives, swords, belts, etc. - all made of gold. I thought I'd never see as much gold anywhere. Well, well, well. The Viking Hoard has nothing on this pagoda!

Read about my random observations in Myanmar's capital in my Yangon Journal 8.

Yangon Journal 6, July 2014 - Gilded Bronze Buddha

This image of the Buddha is one of the most striking we've seen in Yangon. Enshrined in the Pagoda of the Sacred Hair Relic, it is made of bronze, gold & silver. Green, white, red & gold neon light flicker behind it to indicate the Buddha's aura, which represents his state of Enlightenment. The locals seem to like the touch. (Sorry, it doesn't work for me.)

Remember King Singu's bell? The Brits also tried to bring this image to London - and succeeded this time! It was on display at the Victoria & Albert Museum for a while. Then, as the story went, Queen Victoria began suffering from a terrible headache that her doctors could neither cure nor alleviate. One night, the Queen had a dream. The Buddha told her to return his image to Myanmar. She did, and her headache disappeared.

Read about the Pagoda of the Sacred Hair Relic in my Yangon Journal 7.

Yangon Journal 5, July 2014 - Food

Those are bags of crickets - fried & honey-roasted. It's a local delicacy. Nope, we didn't try it. (I very nearly did ...).

Staple food is rice & curry, strongly influenced by Indian & Thai cuisine, hence quite spicy and oily. But delicious! They use coconut milk a lot. I like mohinga, a breakfast offering of rice noodles, herbs, bits of fish & fish crackers, and boiled egg. Reminds me of laksa, but less heavy.

Their desserts are extremely sweet! Like eating pure sugar. They have all sorts of rice cakes, too.

They sell lunch on the street, like Vietnam. They give you a stool and you're ready to go.

They have the same fruits that we do - guava, pineapple, mangosteen, rambutan, and mango. There are bananas everywhere. They have sweetened mangoes and flatten them in sheets and eat them bit by bit like candy.

Read about the Gilded Bronze Buddha in my Yangon Journal 6.

Yangon Journal 4, July 2014 - King Singu's Bell

This bell was commissioned by King Singu in 1778. It's an alloy of gold, silver, copper, iron & lead. It is 7 ft and 8 inches long and weighs 24 tons.

The Brits, who occupied Myanmar in 1885, tried to ship this bell to England, but failed miserably. The boat they used sank to the bottom of the river because of the bell's enormous weight. They made several attempts to salvage the bell, none of which succeeded.

The locals knew better. They did the salvage operations during the low tide, using bamboo rafts. The Brits eventually decided to keep the bell in Myanmar.

It is a practice amongst the Burmese to ring a bell after meditation. They feel blessed after the ritual and by ringing a bell, they hope to spread the blessing.

Read about local food in Myanmar in my Yangon Journal 5.

Yangon Journal 3, July 2014 - Spirits for the Day You Were Born

There are smaller shrines around the base of the Shwedagon Pagoda. These shrines house the spirits of the respective days of the week. Now in Myanmar, there are 8 days in a week! That's right. How does that happen? Wednesday counts as two - a full morning & a full evening. (I wonder if the Beatles have heard of this.) If you knew the day of week when you were born, you are encouraged to go that shrine and pour water over the spirit so you can receive its blessing.

Read about King Singu's bell in my Yangon Journal 4.

Yangon Journal 2, July 2014 - The Bodhi Tree in the Shwedagon Pagoda

The Buddha became enlightened while sitting underneath a bodhi tree (a banyan tree). The tree in this picture grew from a seed supposedly taken from the original tree of Buddha. This tree is therefore sacred to the Burmese.

Read about how you can receive a blessing from a spirit on the day you were born in my Yangon Journal 3.

Yangon Journal 1, July 2014

The Shwedagon Pagoda is the grandest of Myanmar’s religious monuments, of which there are thousands.

Legends say that in one of the Buddha's travels, he met two merchant brothers from Myanmar who gave him food and alms. Grateful, the Buddha gave them eight strands of his hair as a blessing. When the brothers returned to Myanmar, they turned over the Buddha’s hair to the King, who decided to enshrine the strands together with the relics from the three other Buddhas before him. The shrine came to be known as Shwedagon, the Reliquary of the Four.

The Shwedagon sits on top of a hill that is 190 ft above sea level. The pagoda itself is about 326 ft high. You can see it from anywhere you are in Yangon. Edged terraces rise above its octagonal base, followed by circular bands, upon which a bell-shaped structure rests. From the bell, a tower rises. The tower consists of mouldings, bosses, structures shaped like an upturned lotus petal, a banana bud, an umbrella, and a vane. The so-called umbrella is about 43 ft long and 15 ft and 6 inches wide. The vane is 4 ft and 2 inches long and 2 ft and 6 inches wide. At the very top is a diamond orb.

The marvel of this pagoda is that it’s covered with gold and precious gems. The circular bands are pasted with gold leaves, the bell and the tower with gold plates. It is so shiny in the afternoon, the glare is almost unbearable! Every five years, the citizens of Myanmar donate gold to replace the old plates. The umbrella I mentioned earlier is golden; it weighs half a ton. It contains 83,850 gems and 4,016 golden bells. The vane is also studded with gems – rubies, sapphires, emerald, jade, topaz, agate, chalcedony, etc. At the apex is 76-carat diamond. The orb contains 4,351 diamond pieces, totaling 1,800 carats.

We took turns using a telescope to see the design intricacies, the gems and the bells. We passed by the photo gallery to see them in detail. Amazing! Even more amazing is that the place has never experienced a heist!!

Read about the Bodhi tree in the Shwedagon temple in my Yangon Journal 2.