The Myanmar discovery circuit - Day 1 (late morning) - Downtown Yangon - The 12th of November 2015

We drove to downtown Yangon so as to walk around its area and get a feeling of what daily life was about before heading to the Shwedagon Pagoda. We stopped right in front of the Yangon Court Building and the Maha Bandula Park, from where we could see the dome structure of the Sule Pagoda topped by a golden spire. 

 

Clearly influenced by the South Indian influences this Pagoda is believed to enshrine a strand of hair of the Budda that he himself is said to have given to two Burmese merchant brothers, but the role it has played in anti-government and pro-democracy protesting is what people seem to vividly associate it with, once it was the first place to witness the brutal reaction by the Burmese government against protesters.

 

We walked around the Maha Bandula Park with its obelisk commemorating the Burmese independence from the British in 1948. In it we came across a young stern-looking Buddist monk asking for alms before we headed back onto the bus.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(To be continued)

 

The Myanmar discovery circuit - Day 1 (morning) - Yangon, the Kyauk Htat Gyi Pagoda (cont.) - The 12th of November 2015

(...)

We walked around the various galleries surrounding the reclining Buddha, where apart from the worshippers we came across family gatherings using the yard space to eat, as we kept on trying to follow our guide's explanations in what concerned Buddha's worshipping and his numerous representations.

 

 

 

 

 

The reclining statue did watch over us  all the time and even seen from the back it was imposing. I kept on being drawn to the facial expression of the Buddha, which I photographed on and on.

 

 

 

On the way out we stopped  at the main entrance to talk to two street vendors selling their goods in the pagoda, which despite having been built in 1907 with the exclusive money of the people of the city we were told to have been refurbished in 1966.

 

Just before leaving we had a taste of some local fruit Chocho felt we should try, as none of us had ever seen nor eaten any and which she got for all of us from one of the vendors.

 

 

 

The Myanmar discovery circuit - Day 1 (morning) - Yangon, the Kyauk Htat Gyi Pagoda and the reclining Buddha - The 12th of November 2015

We drove through the dense Rangoon traffic towards the Kyaut Htat Gyi Pagoda, which we were told by our guide Chocho  not to be a pagoda in the real traditional sense and more of  a "tazaung" (pavilion) housing a 70 metre reclining Buddha said to be highly venerated.

As we walked into the pagoda enclosure in which around 600 monks devoted to the study of sacred Buddhist manuscripts live I wasn't expecting to be so impressed by the majestic sculpture and particularly the facial expression of the Buddha representation. His expressive eyes are said to have been made with glass especially imported from Japan, but I believe it was more than a mere artistic approach that led me to photograph it the number of times I did.

We were then introduced to some aspects of the Burmese Buddhism, the various representations of Buddha in regards to his postures, as well as a rather thorough explanation as to the positions of the hands ("mudras") and their meanings, together with the devotional ceremonies and offerings. Despite being too much information for any of us to absorb in such a short period of time, it somehow provided us with a first approach to the religion of the country.

The Buddha's footprint displayed the description of his lives, whose explanation we could read on a panel close by, as we attentively listened to our guide's explanations.

(To be continued)