Burma: Heaven & Hell

Myanmar – formerly Burma:  Heaven and Hell

Buddha, Buddha statues, Buddhist pagodas, Buddhist temples, tremendous reclining Buddha’s, a weeping Buddha, huge seated Buddha, Buddha in niches, literally thousands of forms of the Buddha, all with devout people praying before them.

The Buddhas are both ancient (BCE) and modern - with LED lighted halos no less. 

 

HEAVEN:  With golden temples and golden pagodas and white marble plazas illuminated by golden light; with Burmese families and red-clad monks wandering or sitting, almost dematerialized; with the evening air warm and softly humid; visiting the Schwedegon Pagoda in Yangon was exactly like the joyful childhood conception of Heaven.

At Schwedegon Pagoda there are more than 60 tons of gold and gold leaf which is continuously being re-applied.  In the photos you can see some of the spires are covered with golden-brown papers which protect the gold leaf during application. I visited the Schwedegon Pagoda on the first night, in the mid-day blaring heat of the second day, and finally again on our last night in Burma.  It was dreamy and wonderful. Heaven!

Just like going to Heaven!

I made 3 wonderful visits to Schwedegon Pagoda: first at night then the following day at midday and finally again at night. 

In the heat of the midday, these Burmese pray in a small space of shade.

 At one site, Mt. Popa, I climbed 760 stairs to the top of a volcanic-plug rock which is crowded atop with shrines and temples to the Buddha.  

In the foreground is the modest entrance.  Above you can see the pagodas at the top - 760 stairs up. 

Venders are located along the sides at the bottom and on every landing

One of several shrines to Buddha at the top,

View over to Mt. Popa from a resort on the next mountain.

Burma is a developing nation,  newly opened to the west after Obama’s visit to the country in Nov. 2012.  Coming to Burma now, at this point in time, is a rare privilege since contact and exchange with the rest of the world will surely and rapidly change Burma. Burmese people are friendly, kind, smiling and open to the ever-increasing flow of tourists to their country.

 

Going to work early in the morning

Reading the morning newspaper

Parasols and more parasols

An early morning street sweeper

Nobel Lauriet Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who is voyaging with SAS until we reach Cape Town, met with Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi at a special audience.  They both sit on The Council of Elders. The Archbishop Desmond Tutu has been a voyager on Semester at Sea Spring 2013 from Mexico to Cape Town.  His infectious laughter and extraordinary talks have been an inspiration to all of us.

Behind these gates Aung San Suu Kyi was held under house arrest for 15 of the 21 years from 1989 to 2010.

First morning in Yangon we visited a wonderful early-morning market with fruits, vegetables, home cookware, and of course souvenirs for the tourists.

In Burma, both men and women wear their national dress, the Longyi.  A good percentage of the SAS voyagers (myself included) left the country with one or more Longyis, struggling to tie them in the traditional fashion. Additionally the girls and women wear a “sunscreen” “cooling” facial make-up called Thanaka which has been applied to the face in Myanmar for more than 2000 years.  Thanaka is an off-white paste made from ground bark and applied to the face in a variety of patterns by girls, women, and some boys and men. 

Fashion for the young girls

This Burmese instrument is called the Saung.

Many girls and young women wear the cosmetic Thanaka for sunscreen, cooling, and fashion

 By good fortune down the street we witnessed a local parade for the children novitiates:  these children will either go to the monastery for a week of introduction to religious life or they will enter the monastery for life. All over Burma in the first half of the day the red-clad monks  walk the streets with their bowls “begging” for food; monks are sustained by the regular ‘householders.’

Local parade for the Novitiates to the Monestary.

Beautiful and proud families of the Novitiates.

Bagan, Burma is an amazing site of thousands, yes thousands, of ancient, old, and reconstructed temples, large and small, some with one Buddha, some with many large and painted and gold Buddhas.  These temples were built during a prosperous era of the Kingdom of Pagan, 9^th through 13^th centuries. During that period Bagan’s rulers and wealthy subjects constructed stupas, small temples, 3000 monasteries, and pagodas numbering more that 10,000 at the height of the era. 

Climbing to the top level of this temple was MUCH harder than it appears.The steps and the metal railings were burning hot to the touch ..... so, smartly, we decided to descend on the other (shady) side ....!

Ponycart rides for all from one temple to a distant pagoda.

This little fellow drew his own "postcards" ..... and yes, I did buy the packet.

HELL:  And what about the hell?

During our time in Burma and immediately after the return to the ship 60+ voyagers were SICK SICK SICK with TD (Traveller’s Diarrhea) and terrible intestinal distress.  These were serious cases with many needing IV rehydration, etc.  The food or the water of Burma aggressively did NOT agree with so many of these American tummies! Fortunately, I did not experience this hell…. Thank Heaven!