Shwedagon: Myanmar's Holy Land
continued
Worshippers at the temple.
Along with gold, gold, and more gold, teak wood is a common building material. One building that stands out like a sore thumb is the Mahabodi shrine, a replica of the Mahabodi temple in India that stands at the exact spot where the Buddha attained enlightenment. The Mahabodi temple in India was built shortly after the Buddha's death, when Buddhist architecture hadn't yet evolved from Hindu architecture. Thus, the shrine is a piece of Hindu India in the middle of Buddhist Myanmar. It is a four-sided tower decorated with several square murals of the Buddha's life. The shrines with the most spectacular interiors are the shrines to the previous Buddha and the one of this era, which are located at the four compass points around the main zedi. I won't do them the disservice of describing them, except to say that they are filled with gold, glittering glass murals, and have huge, gilded walls and pillars covered with images of nats, angels, floral designs, etc., all in gold. Pulling myself away from all this wasn't easy. The pictures couldn't do justice to the place, nor can my description. There was the magical atmosphere of a pilgrimage site filled with people fulfilling their life's dream to come to a place they consider to have been holy since before creation. There were children playing and adults walking in quiet meditation through the warm night air, all combined with the wonderland of nats and mythical beasts, the smell of incense and the fascinatingly exotic appearance of the people. But I would need some sleep as I had to start bright and early in the morning, so I got a taxi and left the glittering, golden wonderland for the poor, ramshackle reality of modern Yangon. A journey to a sacred place awaited me the next day.
Robert Wilson is an English teacher in northern Thailand. Pictures of his travels can be seen at photos.yahoo.com/robert_92122.
Other stories in this series:
Into the Burmese Supernatural
A Thai Funeral
Brunei: The Abode of Peace
A Glimpse of "Last Time" in Borneo
Finding Religions—Plenty of Them—in Kuala Lumpur
Luang Phabang: The Lao Fairy-tale City
From Monkey to Monk
Along Cambodia's Backroads
Listening to the Rice Grow: A Journey Up the Nam Ou River in Laos (Part 1 and
Part 2)
Don't miss future articles from Robert in our continuing series, Window on Southeast Asia.
