Tuesday 11/1/2016 - Yangon Circular Railway, Hledan Vegetable Market, Chanmyay Yeiktha Meditation Centre, Burmese antiquities lecture, National Museum, Sunset at Shwedagon PagodaWe woke up this morning at 6 a.m., refreshed and ready for another day of adventure!This morning, we had breakfast at the hotel around 8 a.m. After a full night's sleep, our stomachs were starting to adjust to the time zones and we were hungry for more adventurous food. Craig really enjoyed the local noodles. We had freshly made donuts, and I had cheesy pasta, beef curry, cheese, dragonfruit, and butter cake. We eacxh had a cup of coffee and some pineapple juice. Toni joined us for a few minutes, and we enjoyed a short chat with her. We met the group in the lobby at 8:30 to start our day. We drove a short distance to the Yangon Central train station, where we took the Circular Train, which encircles the city of Yangon in a 45 km loop. When we boarded the train, there were no seats available. A local gentleman vacated his seat and offered it to me. Though Craig (with his MS-related balance issues) needed it more than I did, Craig insisted that I take the seat. The windows were open and there were oscillating fans on the ceiling. Soon other seats opened up and the whole group was able to sit. I remained in my separate seat, as it had a nice window view and I was able to take photographs out the window. It was interesting to see the hawkers selling food by the tracks. People were very friendly, returning smiles and waving. I noticed some graffiti on the underpasses (No More War, etc.) which, according to Zaw, is a very new phenomenon. We enjoyed the train ride, disembarking in Hledan to visit the outdoor vegetable market. This local market is open daily, and is not limited to produce. The sellers set up their stalls under multicolored umbrellas on a road lined with 5 and 6 floor walkup apartment buildings. As we walked by these buildings, we noticed small baskets at street level hanging on a long string from the upper floors. Because these buildings have no elevators, if people on the top floors want something from the market, they can send down the basket to retrieve it rather than going all the way down the stairs and back up again. Women and children had thanaka paste on their faces. This is a natural cosmetic made from grinding the bark of a thanaka tree and mixing it with water. The result is a light-colored paste which protects the skin from sun. We learned how to greet people in Burmese ("mingalaba"), and tried it out on local folks we met. People were very receptive, and Craig got the best reaction out of an elderly lady. We saw much colorful produce for sale. We walked by stalls selling tofu, dragonfruit, fish, chicken, beef, crabs, avocados, bitter gourds, apples, fresh flowers as offrerings to the Buddha, chilies, eggs, grapes, durian, palm oil, corn, eggplant, cheese, dried prawns, and rice. We bought some loose tea for about 50 cents. Burmese pancakes were being cooked over wood coals. We have been to markets in many countries, and they always have a palpable energy. Sometimes foreigners are given the hard sell, but here everyone was curious and friendly, amenable to being photographed, and there was absolutely no sales pressure. One couple started doing a little pantomime with a fish that they were trying to sell, and they all dissolved into laughter, as did we. The bus driver met us outside the market, and at around 10 o'clock, we drove to the Chanmyay Yeiktha Meditation Centre. This is the main branch of the center, which has since expanded to other sites across Myanmar, and also New Zealand, South Africa, Thailand, and the United States (Springfield, IL). It is a Vipassana meditation center, and monks and laypeople can meditate here for 10 days or longer. There is no set fee, though if participants choose to make a donation, they can do so. The center provides two meals per day for participants. As we arrived, they were finishing up their last meal of the day, at around 11 a.m. The first thing we noticed was how slowly everyone moves and walks. It is obvious that they are practicing mindful movement. We went to the office, and were greeted by a monk named Dharamsala. He was extremely personable. He has been to Boston and speaks very good English. He took us into a small room where we watched a video explaining the meditation style practiced at the center. This was quite educational for me. Though I am comfortable with yoga asana practice, I have never had much success with meditation. I have trouble quieting my mind. In the video, the abbot of the center, Chanmyay Sayadaw, explains techniques of mindfulness for walking meditation and seated meditation. He encourages "mental notes" to keep focus. This is a way of labeling thoughts and actions so that the mind doesn't wander. You focus on your breathing.
This all seems so simple and accessible, I think that I may have more success with meditation following this technique. We purchased the DVD that we had watched for a couple of dollars. Due to traffic, we were a bit late for lunch at Padonmar Restaurant, where we met Cherie Aung Khin and her sister Mimi. Daw Cherie is an expert in Burmese and Thai antiquities. She is a successful businesswoman, running the Green Elephant Restaurant Group in Myanmar as well as Elephant House, a company which produces decorative home goods which can be found at Crate & Barrel, Neiman Marcus, and Pottery Barn, among other places. She told us about her background while we ate lunch. This particular restaurant is owned by her ex-husband, Sonny Aung Khin. The meal was family-style, and the food was plentiful. Highlights included tempura vegetables, lentil soup, and butter fish curry. There was also a very spicy condiment made from dried prawns. Craig enjoyed a Myanmar Beer, and I had fresh lime soda. After lunch, Daw Cherie showed us some examples of antique (120 - 150 year old) lacquerware, as well as some modern pieces produced bby her company. She is a very interesting person, and we enjoyed her lecture very much. After lunch, we went to the National Museum. The most amazing exhibit was the Lion Throne (Thiha Thana), built of yamanay wood and covered in gold leaf in 1857. King Thibaw would preside over legal matters in this throne at Mandalay Palace. There were 9 such thrones, but this is the only one to survive World War II. It had been taken by the British in 1886, and returned as a gesture of good will in 1964. The throne was so impressive! It was massive; 27 feet tall and to me looked much more silvery than gold. There were carved animal mitifs including a peacock (symbolizing the sun) and a rabbit (symbolizing the moon). Cameras were not allowed inside, so I was unable to photograph it. However, cell phone photos were allowed, and Toni graciously allowed us to use one that she took. We also saw many gold gem-studded royal regalia, including chalices, pitchers, and even shoes. Another exhibit focused on the evolution of the Burmese alphabet over time. Zaw explained that astrology plays into the naming of babies in Myanmar. The alphabet is segmented into different related consonants grouped by the 8 days of the Burmese week (Wednesday morning and Wednesday afternoon are two separate days). A baby's first name starts with a particular consonant depending on which day he or she was born. Zaw was born on a Tuesday, which corresponds to "Z". He also told us that there is no concept of a family name in Myanmar. Occasionally, a child will carry the honorific name of a notable relative (for instance Aung San Suu Kyi's name is prefixed by the name of her father Aung San). Everyone was hot and tired by this point, and Toni offered an hour's break at the hotel befor visiting Shwedagon Pagoda. However, traffic was so bad that we wouldn't make it to the pagoda by sunset if we did this. We all decided that it was better to keep going rather than risk missing the sunset, so we continued on to the pagoda. We learned yesterday about the brothers from Okkalapa (Taphussa and Ballika) who attained strands of hair from Gautama Buddha is 588 B.C. When they returned with these relics from India, the King of Okkalapa commissioned the Shwedagon Pagoda in which to enshrine the hair relics, along with relics from three other Buddhas. The pagoda as originally built was 66 feet tall. In 1453, it was raised to 302 feet, and it 1774, it was rebuilt to its current height of 362 feet. Its circumference is 1421 ft. The pagoda sits on a 16 acre terrace which was built in the 15th century, inlaid with marble slabs. We ascended to the terrace via elevators at the southern entrance. We immediately saw an immense bodhi tree called Mahabodhi, which is said to have been grown from a cuting of the original bodhi tree, a banyan in Bodh Gaya, India, under which the Buddha attained enlightenment. The impressive stupa, or zedi, towered above us. On the very top of the spire is a 22-inch "diamond orb" (sein bu), containing 4351 diamonds and a total of 1800 carats. The diamond at the apex of the orb is a whopping 76 carats (for comparison, Rena Pederson brings up in her book Burma Spring that the Hope diamond is 45 carats). Below that is a 924 pound gold bejeweled flag-shaped vane which indicates weather direction. Below that is the finial umbrella, or "hti". This umbrella weighs 5 tons, and contains 4,016 small gold bells which jingle like a chime in the breeze. Other architectural elements represent banana flowers, lotus blossoms, inverted alms bowls, and bells. Below all of that are octagonal ridges representing the earth. The entire structure is covered with gold - gold plates or gold leaf, depending on the feature. It is said that over 22,000 solid gold bars were used to gild the stupa. During the British colonial period, it was said that Shwedagon Pagoda contained more gold than the Bank of England. We walked around the stupa in a clockwise direction, per tradition. There was so much to see, as the terrace contains many more structures than the stupa alone. There are many prayer pavilions (tazaung), which are architecturally elaborate and contain beautiful Buddha statues. There are also many rest houses (zayat), which are topped with gilded pyatthat roofs, which have an odd number of tiers that get progressively smaller. The complex looks like a fairyland. Set at various intervals around the stupa are eight "bo bo gyi" (planetary posts). Each of these represents a celestial body as well as a day of the week (Wednesday morning and Wednesday afternoon are considered separately). There are shrines to the Buddha at each of these stations, and if you were born on a Monday, you light candles, meditate, and/or wash the Buddha statue at that station. Craig and I realized that neither of us knew what day of the week we were born. Google has rectified that (Craig was a Monday and I was a Thursday). It was absolutely beautiful. As we walked around, Craig directed my attention to the pagoda, where three monks were actually many feet in the air, climbing down the pagoda. Zaw told us that birds often mistake the rubies adorning the spire for berries, and pluck them off. They drop them when they realize they are not edible. The monks regularly climb the pagoda to recover these stolen gems. We've never seen anything like it!  Monks walk on the octagonal ridges of Shwedagon Pagoda looking for gems displaced by birds As the sun began to set, lights illuminated the pagoda. It was gorgeous! The gold took on an ethereal glow in the twilight. Although the sunset wasn't spectacular, this was still a good time to visit the pagodaz, as we got the best of both worlds: the warm tones of the gold shining in the sun and the cool tones of the gold reflecting the lights at night. The site is an historical time capsule, in a way, linking anicent history to modern. It was supposedly founded during the 6th century B.C. to house the Buddha's relics. A replica of Mahabodhi shrine (which commemmorates the spot in Bodh Gaya India where the Buddha attained enlightenment) was built here in 1250 A.D. We also saw a massive bell, known as the Maha Tithaddha, which dates back to the reign of King Thayarwady (1841). The massive bell weighs 42 tons. The bottom is chipped and uneven, but engraved script can still be read on the bell's surface. The gilded clamp which held the bell aloft was massive! Still, this bell is nothing compared to the 294 ton Great Bell of Dhammazedi. The largest bell ever cast was created in 1484 by King Dhammazedi and given as a gift to Shwedagon Pagoda. In 1608, it was stolen by the Portuguese, and they intended to melt it down and re-cast it as cannons for the Portuguese ships. They rolled it down the hill to a creek and used elephants to haul it on a raft to the river. The raft and the boat it was lashed to capsized at the confluence of the Bago and Yangon Rivers. It is lost to history, but historians and treasure hunters are still trying to locate it. Shwedagon pagoda has been important in Burmese history not just as a religious site, but also as a political one. In the 1920's and 1930's, university students demonstrated here. Aung San Suu Kyi's father, Aung San, gave a speech demanding independence from Britain in 1946. In 1988, Aung San Suu Kyi addressed half a million people here, calling for democracy from the military junta. And in 2007, monks protested against the policies of the junta here as part of the so-called Saffron Revolution. We left at around 5:45 p.m. Craig was exhausted. It had been a very busy day, and due to the number of stops on the itinerary, we hadn't had a siesta today. Neither of us were hungry, so we opted out of dinner. Many others in the group felt the same way. We need to leave the hotel at 5 a.m.tomorrow to catch our flight to Bagan, so resting was a good option. Toni and Patrick were the only ones who ended up going out for a hot pot dinner. We went back to the hotel and Craig fell asleep immediately at 6:30 p.m. I wrote some Facebook posts and did some packing, going to sleep at 9:30. Chanmyay Yeiktha Meditation Centre Shwedagon Pagoda |
 Getting off the train in Hledan  Flowers for sale at the Hledan market  Hledan market  Mother and son wearing thanaka paste to protect them from the sun  Dharamsala the monk greets us at Chanmyay Yeiktha Meditation Centre  Lunch with Cherie Aung Khin at Padonmar Restaurant  Lion Throne (Thiha Thana) at the National Museum Photo courtesy of Toni Neubauer  Shwedagon Pagoda  Worshippers wash a statue at the bo bo gyi (planetary post) corresponding to the day of the week of their birth  Buddha statues, Shwedagon  Monks walk on the octagonal ridges of Shwedagon Pagoda looking for gems displaced by birds  Monks walk on the octagonal ridges of Shwedagon Pagoda looking for gems displaced by birds  Shwedagon Pagoda in the twilight 
|
|
 |
|
 |
