Traveling Classroom to Myanmar 2009: Shwedagon - Last Scene

I was lucky to stance the chance of visiting the symbol of Myanmar, which was said by Ajarn Sunait that “I have saved the best for last since if you go to Shwedagon at first, then you don’t want to see any other pagodas.”

- Moon

I must say that the site that left the biggest impression on me was our last site, Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon. It was so beautiful and serves the justice of its popularity. The place was packed with both tourists and the locals because of its sacredness.

- Nat

The old name of Yangon is Dagon, as it appears in the name of largest pagoda in Myanmar that situated in the middle of city named Shwe Da Gon pagoda or Shwe Da Gon paya. The Shwe Da Gon is the landmark of Yangon. It can be seen from every direction of the town. It is believed that the Buddha hair is kept inside.

- Aon

The origins of Shwedagon are lost in antiquity, its age unknown. Long before the pagoda was built, its location on Singuttara hill was already an ancient sacred site because of the buried relics of the three previous Buddhas. According to one legend, nearly 5000 years had passed since the last Buddha walked the Earth, and Singuttara hill would soon lose its blessedness unless it was reconscrated with relics of a new Buddha. In order that such new relics might be obtained, King Okkalapa of Suvannabhumi spent much time atop the hill, meditating and praying. A series of miracles ensued and eight hairs of the historical Buddha were, somewhat magically, brought to the hill. To enshrine the relics, multiple pagodas of silver, tin, copper, lead, marble, iron and gold where built one on top of the other to a height of twenty meters. During the following centuries, passing from myth to historical fact, the pagoda grew to its present height of ninety-eight meters. Much of the continued construction of Shwedagon was actually reconstruction following disastrous earthquakes. During the 17th century the pagoda suffered earthquake damage on at least eight occasions. A particularly bad quake in 1786 brought the entire top half of the pagoda to the ground and its current shape and height date from the reconstruction of that time. Surrounding the pagoda are a plentitude of smaller shrines housing pre-Buddhist spirits called Nats, miracle working images, and even a wish granting stone. The entire temple complex radiates a palpable sense of beauty and serenity.

- Moon

Students who shared this experience:

Above: William Charles Bredesen (USA), Yoothasart Ngamin -Aon- (Thailand), Nquyen Anh Nguyet -Moon- (Vietnam) Below: Khamla Soubandith (Laos), Jesse Earle Odum (USA), Nguyen Anh Tai (Vietnam), Seang Sopheak (Cambodia)

Overall, from this trip, I have learnt many things, from the different practices of Burmese culture, the Nats belief, the meaning of different stances of Buddha statues, the architecture and the different styles of various pagodas, to the way local people lead their lives. I will always treasure the memories from this trip and the fun that the class of Southeast Asian Studies shared in Myanmar. Thank you!

- Patarin Khaochan (Nat)

Thailand

Traveling Classroom to Myanmar 2009: Mandalay

In Myanmar, Buddhism plays an important role in people’s spiritual life. People get up early in the morning and go to temples to pray and stick gold leaf into the Buddha image. They go to temples to seek peace in their mind to escape from the difficulties surrounding them.

- Tai

Evidence really showed that until now the people of Myanmar still putting religion as a center for their way of leading and ruling this country. A lot of temples, giant stupas and Buddha images, which we visited, had been built by the current government. They definitely spent a huge amount of money for those achievements. The Myanmar people, in other words, spent most of their time to pay homage to their Nat (spirits), sitting and praying loudly at the temple, as in the cases at Mahamuni sitting Buddha, that people get up very early to attend the Buddha face washing ceremony.

- Sopheak

Beside agriculture, people also make handicrafts and sell them in the markets or to tourists. I have been to the silver smith, silk, lacquer ware shop and I can say that they were very skillful to make sophisticated products. However, in term of price, these products did not have competitive price. They also did small business or service. It seems that service sectors in Myanmar are still behind other countries in the regions because of the slow development of tourism.

Thanks to the popularity of Buddhism, it also promotes the handicrafts to develop and create jobs for local citizens. Making gold leaf is very widespread in Myanmar. Buddhism followers buy gold leaf to stick to Buddha image to do merit.

- Tai

The language ability of some vendors, including the little children, surprised me. Some could speak up to five languages, although most of what they knew was only simple sentences. That is the reason why I strongly felt that these people should have an access to proper education, because they are more than capable to learn new things. I hope that one day these children would not have to approach foreigners and say to them ‘you buy, you buy, I give you cheap price’ anymore, and get to be in the school, studying, where they belong. Behind the happy face of the local, I know that they have to struggle a lot to survive day-by-day.

- Nat

Through the visit to their great sites, such as the old Palace Museum in Mandalay, the National Museum in Yangon, other old cities and monasteries, I pictured myself the glorious past of Myanmar and the power of their Kings which I think were extremely powerful, compared to the Kings in Cambodia. However, the glory of Myanmar appeared at the same time of the decline of Angkor. It was then no doubt that the Kings of Myanmar invaded Ayutthaya of Thailand many times. It is perhaps (my conclusion, which maybe wrong) that the current government is proud of their past and the way of ruling a vast area of land.

- Sopheak

Concerning the preservation and rebuilding of the Royal palace, based on the visit of two Royal palaces in the Union of Myanmar--Hongsavady (Bago) and the last King of Myanmar’s Palace in Mandalay-- I think the Government of the Union of Myanmar spent a lot of money (many thousand millions) to rebuild both palaces. As you know, the palace has many components and each of the components is very expensive. Moreover, the Union of Myanmar is a rich country. They used gold and many kinds of material in rebuilding the palace. It would have been better for the government to use this budget to develop the economy and infrastructure in their country. However, the preservation is good. If Lao PDR rebuilt the palace like that I think it would be very useful for the young generation and tourists to study about the country in the past and very important for tourism.

- Khamla

Traveling Classroom to Myanmar 2009: Amarapura - Sagaing - Mingun - Inwa

Amarapura situated on the bank of Taungtaman Lake. The way to go to Amarapura was fascinating because we had to choose between riding boats and walking on the bridge, which was the longest teak wood bridge named “U bein’s bridge”. At the bank stood Kyauktawkyi temple, which was built by Pagan Min in 1847. I was told that this had been modeled of Ananda temple in Bagan. Inside the temple situated the Kyauktawkyi Buddha image, which was so stunning with its beauty.

- Aon

My favorite part of the trip was a river tour. From the river we could see beautiful temples in the cities of Mingun, Saigang Hill and Ava (Inwa). We also stopped and toured these cities by horse drawn carts and walking.

- Jesse

In addition, people also lived on boats along the Irrawaddy river and it was rather interesting to see many people both male and female taking a shower along this river in the afternoon. This river is very important for people, not only for farming but also for their daily activities.

- Tai

A very incredible thing I saw in Mingun was the Mingun bell. It is the largest bell in Myanmar and also known as the second largest bell in the world. If we consider the bell that can be rung, then Mingun bell is the largest ringable bell in the world. It was built in 1808 and is still hung for use nowadays.

- Aon

Before coming back from Mingun, our visit to the welfare caring center was interesting. Similar to Thailand, which also has welfare caring centers provided by the government, the number of older people who are taken to stay there is increasing. Many people in the welfare caring center in Myanmar don’t have families. However, some people just want to get rid of older family members and take them to the center. This also happens

in Thailand.

- Aon

Traveling Classroom to Myanmar 2009: Bagan - Mt.Popa

Myanmar’s countryside is similar to that in my country, Cambodia. You can see many similar activities, such as people growing palm trees and gaining benefit from these trees, people using the trucks with plenty of passengers sitting on the roof. These reminded me of what I had seen in Cambodia.

- Seang Sopheak

Something special that I found in Bagan city was growing palm trees. Because this area is dry, it is not suitable for growing others crops, so the Myanmar government organized a system of growing palm trees to assist their villagers’ livelihood. In this area they grow a lot of palm trees in large areas. Around the road villagers there were many shops to sell their products from palm trees such as sugar, alcohol, etc. These products can bring a lot income to the people in this area.

- Khamla Soubandith

We had a chance to visit the Nat house in Mt. Popa where situated 37 Great Nats. A Nat is the spirit of a person who died unnaturally. People worship different Nats for different purposes – for education, health, wealth, etc. Later, I also started to notice the Nat shrines on the trees in different villages or places that we visited. This belief interests me a lot because there is no such belief in Thailand.

- Nat

Besides Buddhism, the Union of Myanmar also believes in “Nat” (spirits) as well. You can see The Nat clearly in the POPA Mountain. Many people in Myanmar also believe in Nat together with Buddhism. I was surprised that the Nat images in the Union of Myanmar were very beautiful. They are opposite to the ugly images of ghosts in other countries.

- Khamla

“You see and you believe.” That’s what I heard before departing for Myanmar. It’s true that many things surprised me during the trip. What impressed me the most was a huge range of temples in Bagan and the semi-desert climate there. This pre-eminent ancient religious city can be compared to Angkor in Cambodia for their expanse of sacred geography and the number and size of their individual temples. Interestingly, it was unlike Angkor in that when sprawling across a vast dusty plain, the ruins of Bagan were unhidden. There were no trees to obstruct the view, and I was able to gaze over forty square miles of countryside, upon literally thousands of temples.

- Moon

Bagan became a powerful kingdom in the 11th century, after the Ancient Khmer kingdom. When came to the reign of King Anawratha, Bagan was a major city which had important objects such as the Tripitaka scripture which later changed Bagan into a religious center. When I arrived in Bagan, I was stunned by many various styles of pagodas.

- Aon

"If you point your finger in any direction, you will hit at least one or two pagodas," says Dr.Sunait. With fervent devotion, these (Bagan) people constructed more than 3,000 temples, stupas and monasteries, and what remains is a magnificent, impossible feat: a collection of religious monuments literally strewn across the 42-sq-km landscape, some no bigger than a pile of bricks, others rivaling the grandest accomplishments of the ancient world.

- William Charles Bredesen

More than 2,000 temples and stupas have already been rebuilt or repaired, although the process has been widely criticized by archeologists and historians. "If you want to know what the temples looked like before reconstruction, you should look at Shwezigon," says Dr.Sunait. The magnificent gold and white pagoda, famous because of the Buddha forehead relics believed to be stored inside, was largely untouched by the quake.

- William