Beez Neez now Chy Whella - Shwedagon Pagoda

Shwedagon Pagoda

Beez Neez now Chy Whella

Big Bear and Pepe Millard

Fri 15 Dec 2017 23:47

Shwedagon Pagoda, Yangon, Myanmar

Our grand finale to our three weeks in Myanmar was to visit the Shwedagon Pagoda. Off we went in the hotel shuttle, dropped near one of the entrances, we were impressed by the size of the guardians - Chinthes - Burmese mythical lions with white bodies and golden heads.

There are four entrances to the pagoda complex, we had to run the gauntlet of many women who wanted to take care of our shoes, for a profit. We said we would exit from the far side and would need them, guess we are not on their Christmas card list.....Wow, what an entrance, stunning woodwork on the ceiling. The upper parts of the walls at the entrances are decorated with beautiful Burmese style depictions of the Jataka tales, the stories about the previous lives of the Buddha.

All the entrances, except the Eastern one, have either an escalator or lift, guess which one we used…..Mmmm, steps it is then. Impressive dragon guardians up each side and of course....shops by the score.

Oh Wow. We came out into the sunshine and wow. The stupa (one of the temples blocked us just now) is surrounded by sixty-four small stupas, many are currently undergoing a spring clean or renovation. This large complex is a huge platform (some two hundred and seventy-five metres wide), covered in marble with some plastic matting walkways because the marble gets really, really burning hot in the afternoon sun. Once or twice we strayed and had to walk incredibly quickly.....

The main stupa is visible on this hillside location from much of Yangon city. Standing at ninety-nine metres it is completely covered with gold plating and enshrines the sacred Buddha relics. Its core is solid and not open to the public.

According to legend two Burmese brothers met the Buddha not long after he had reached enlightenment. The Buddha gave the brothers eight of his hairs and told them to enshrine the hair relics on Singuttara Hill, where relics of the three previous Buddhas had already been enshrined. The brothers returned to Burma and gave the Buddha’s hair relics to the King. The spot where the relics of previous Buddhas were enshrined was found. At that spot a relic chamber was built and a Pagoda was built over it.

The World’s Largest Bell: King Dhammazedi of the Pegu Kingdom at the end of the 15th century, had an enormous bell cast in 1484. The bell, that is believed to have weighed in at 300 tons was installed in the Shwedagon Pagoda. In 1608 a Portuguese called Philip de Brito e Nicote, who ruled Syriam (now called Thanlyin stole the great bell to be melted down to make cannons. The raft carrying the bell sunk in the Yangon River and to this day the bell sits quietly in watery repose.

One of the official photographers, trying to flog tourist shots offered to take a few pictures of us which was really sweet of him. The top of the pagoda is called the Diamond Orb. Twenty-two inches in height, ten and a half inches in diameter, number of diamonds 4,351, total carats 1,800 - Apex diamond a whopping 76 carats........If you stand in the right spot of the pagoda platform, you will see the reflection of the rays of the sun from the huge diamond on top of the gold plated hti in various colours like red, purple and orange.

The Vane below is four feet two inches tall, two feet six wide, weighing 419 kilograms. Variety of gems 2000 assorted......... The total Umbrella (the total top bit) is forty-three feet, sixteen feet six inches at its broadest diameter, weight of gold is 500 kilograms, total variety of gems 83,850......Small gold bells 4,016. Total weight is 5 tons.........All that glitters is gold and more........

Lots of clacking as we found families sitting around eating their late lunch as we found one of the ‘must sees’. Housed in a glass display is a replica of Buddha’s tooth. It was donated in June 2013 by Ling Guang Buddha’s Tooth Relic Monastery, Beijing, PRC. and is displayed at the Saetana Sambara Prayer Hall on the north-west side of the site.

At each corner of the octagonal pagoda is a shrine with a Buddha image (one for each day of the week, Wednesday is split into two). Every shrine has a planet and an animal sign associated with it in accordance with Eastern astrology. Burmese people pray to the shrine belonging to their day of birth burning candles, offering flowers and pouring water over the image. We found Saturday, Sunday and Monday very nice indeed.

Behind Sunday corner on plinth is

While the oldest original structure of the Shwedagon is what is within the main stupa, the oldest dated structure is the Dhammazedi Inscription. This tablet written in Burmese, Mon and ancient Pali language, housed behind the Sunday Corner on the pagoda platform is dated 1485 and contains information about the history of the Golden Pagoda. Originally, it stood on the northern side of the eastern middle terrace but was moved here in 1984

Just to prove we kept going – here’s Tuesday and Wednesday.

So many pavilions and pagodas around the main stupa.

Mahabodhi Shrine, my favourite. A very attractive pagoda which resembles the Mahabodhi temple in India, is decorated with very colourful Buddhist depictions. Next door was the Hair Relic Well or Hsandawtwin. Lord Buddha’s sacred hairs were washed in this well before being enshrined in the main pagoda. Today, the well is encased in a brick structure on which a prayer hall was built.

We both loved this man, deep in prayer and hoping for enlightenment. When he finds it he can use the thoughtfully placed map to find his way out......

Opposite my favourite was a very sumptuous temple, originally built in 1894. Sir Po Tha and Lady Tha paid to have the temple repaired and renovated for their children and great grandchildren.

What looked like a mat in the entrance, was in fact bespoke marble tiles inlaid with gold. The pillars were art in themselves, tiny pieces of mirror, gold and coloured paint in an elaborate pattern.

The Naungdawgyi Pagoda (a men only pagoda because of the hairs....) is situated in the north-east corner of the Shwedagon platform. Its height is 150 feet (46 metres). As the hair relics obtained from Gautama Buddha were enshrined in it by the older (Naungdawgyi) of the two traders, Taphussa, it was called the Naungdawgyi Pagoda. It was renovated in the reign of King Depayin (Kandwin Sikhon Donor Elder Prince), son of King Alaungmintaya in 1760-1763, and it was renovated 1819-1838 in the reign of the builder of the Fourth Yandanaeura City, again in Sakarit 1237 when the umbrella was deteriorating and falling apart. Forest Superintendent of Hmainglongyi, in Kado Village, Mawlamyine and wife Daw Phwar (Htidawyone Prayer Hall donor), renovated the umbrella, the vane and attended to the masonry. In 1975, the Board of Trustees donated a new umbrella.

In the year 2000 the Government sponsored the all-round renovation, replacing resin and masonry with copper frames and copper plates.

The Htidaw Pagoda. The umbrella donated and hoisted by King Mindon in 1871 A.D. had deteriorated, having been exposed to the elements for many years. In 1999, under State sponsorship and with the participation of the Buddhist faithful, a new umbrella was donated and hoisted in April. To enable the laity to pay respects to the old umbrella, it was encased in a pagoda in 1999 for posterity.

After typing the names in the last two pagodas, I’ve gone for something simple. The Jade Buddha. The Buddha image was made from one piece of commercial jade from the Phakant jade mines in the northern part of Myanmar. He weighs in at 179 kilograms and his beautiful pedestal is 145 kilograms. He wears 2.5 kilograms of gold, 9 diamonds (0.85 carats) and 91 rubies (112.65 carats). He was donated by Myanmar Gems Enterprise, Ministry of Mines in 1999 and sits in a locked glass room on his own.

Behind the scaffolding of one of the stupas under repair, we saw a flash of yellow. A chap busy at work.

We tackled three levels of museum.

Even though Buddha’s footprint was in a glass case with awful reflections, there was no getting away rom the fact that it was at least four feet long........according to the label this is a Leftside Buddha footprint made of gilded bronze, which was cast according the ancient footprint from Lokananda pagoda of the Bagan period...