In a land of pagodas in glittering gold, the
Shwedagon pagoda in Yangon is a must-visit attraction. And with Tripadvisor's
Travellors' Choice Awards of 2018 listing it as one of the top 10 landmarks of
Asia, it should be on the bucket list of every footloose traveller.
Mingalabar,
said our local host in Yangon, welcoming us to his country, which has been in
the news for the wrong reasons – the ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims from
Rakhine state of Myanmar. Mingalabar
means "auspiciousness to you" and is the traditional Burmese
greeting, one that can earn you a warm welcome anywhere in the country, he told
us. To many of us pre-millenials, Myanmar may be better known as Burma and its
former capital Yangon as Rangoon, once the eastern limit of the British empire
in the Indian subcontinent.
Myanmar, one of the South-east Asian
nations practising Theravada Buddhism, is renowned for its pagodas in
glittering gold. And the crowning glory of Myanmar's rich tapestry of pagodas
is the Shwedagon, the gold-plated pagoda on a hilltop that has benevolently watched
over Yangon for 2600 years.
Legend has it that two men from
Okkalapa land (present-day Yangon) visited Gautama Buddha shortly after he
received enlightenment in 588 BC. They
gave him alms and in return he gave them eight strands of his hair as blessing.
When they returned to their land, they were received with much fanfare by King
Okkalapa and his people. The King had
the Buddha's hair enshrined along with the relics of three other Buddhas before
him - the staff of Kakusanda Buddha, the water filter of Kawnagamana Buddha and
a piece of the robe of Kassapa Buddha. Since the stupa contained the relics of
four, it was called Shwedagon (Shwe-dag-on, as they call it) or the Reliquary
of the Four.
Standing on Sanguttara Hill in
Yangon, the gold-plated Shwedagon pagoda today commands a height of 326 feet,
up from its original height of 66 feet thanks to its careful nurturing and
maintenance by successive kings. It is the bejewelled crown of Yangon, lighting
up the night sky with its golden brilliance. Be it against the dark clouds with
the sun playing peeping Tom or the calm night sky, the pagoda dazzles in its
golden splendour. It is also the last visual to leave your gaze as your
aircraft soars away from the city and into the clouds.
Sprawled on 114 acres of land, the
pagoda has entrances on all four sides, each facilitated with escalators, elevators
and stairways. Foreign nationals pay an entrance fee of $8 or 8000 kyats
(pronounced chyats). One has to be barefooted inside the pagoda complex; I opt
to carry my footwear in a bag provided free of cost instead of leaving them at a
counter near the entrance.
The crowning glory of the pagoda is
a diamond-studded orb at its zenith - it has 4,351 diamonds in all and the apex
diamond weighs 76 carats. Just below the orb is the vane studded with assorted
gems, and then comes the umbrella or hti
in gold with over 4000 gold bells. The umbrella is a distinctive and auspicious
feature of Burmese pagodas - which also explained why devotees carried little
golden paper umbrellas along with flowers and candles to place around the main
pagoda.
Open from 4 a.m. to 10 p.m., the
pagoda is a rallying point for the tourist and the pilgrim alike. While the
tourist is advised to wear modest clothing, the local pilgrims could be seen in
their colourful longyis (one piece cloth wrapped around the waist and
reaching the feet) and tanakha (a
cosmetic paste made from ground bark) smeared on their faces. For many Burmese,
the pilgrimage is also a picnic - some of them could be seen resting or having a
packed breakfast in the pavilions around the pagoda. The scene was reminiscent
of that in a huge Hindu temple complex in south India. Interestingly, Yangon
also has Hindu temples for its remnant Tamil and Bengali population, who had
made it their home during the British Raj of Burma and India.
Bodhi trees -- the first of them reportedly
brought from Bodhgaya in Bihar -- at the
peripheries of the sprawling complex shelter the weary-footed for a while.
There are two smaller pagodas - the Naundawgi and Htidaw pagodas - apart from a
replica of the Shwedagon in gold, as many as 16 images of the Buddha, two humongous bells commissioned by King
Singu and King Tharyawady in 1778 and 1841 respectively, and a museum.
One could spend half a day studying
the whole place but looming rain clouds and the prospect of shopping bargains
at Scott market make me wind up my circumambulation of the pagoda.
Driving us to Scott market, our loquacious
taxi driver informs us that it would take four hours by road to reach Naypitaw,
the capital since 2005. Unlike Yangon, bustling with life, taxis and an old-world
charm, Naypitaw is believed to be an empty city, devoid of people and a soul. "Naypitaw
means palace," the driver tells me, "but ironically [the junta chief]
Than Shwe, just as Aung San, came from the village. Only Suu Kyi grew up in
Yangon." Mia-maa, he sings out his
country's name. Most of the taxi drivers in Yangon, which seems to have more
taxis than private vehicles, use a smattering of English.
There is a curious discrepancy in
Yangon's road traffic system that makes it look chaotic and dangerous. While
the taxis, mostly imported Japanese cars, have steering wheels on the right,
the buses have steering wheels on the left and all chaotically try to follow a
right-hand drive. The country, which followed a left-hand drive just as most
former British colonies, had shifted to right-hand drive in 1970 on the whim of
General Ne Win.
The traffic snarl makes the short
distance to the tranquil Kandagwyi Lake painfully long. Just as at the pagoda,
an entry sticker ticket is stuck on my sleeve leaving me free to wander around
the souvenir shops and the boardwalk. The lake, which was originally a
reservoir built by the British, had a teakwood boutique hotel that once housed
the British rowing club. On October 19
last year, it was gutted in an early morning fire reducing it to a mere memory.
The Karaweik Palace, a huge barge-shaped restaurant, is an eye-catching piece
of Burmese architecture on the lake. Two mythical karaweik birds appear to
float in the lake as they support the golden structure.
A few kilometres away is the covered
and cobblestoned Scott market _ built in 1926 by the British _ now known as the
Bogyoke Aung San market (after General Aung San, the architect of Burmese
independence), and is your one-stop destination for clothes, paintings,
handicrafts, lacquerware as well as semi-precious stones especially jade in
hues from dark green to yellow. There are eateries and also carts selling
jackfruit or durian by the wayside.
China Town is another must-visit place
for those who enjoy gastronomic adventures. It is famous for its street food,
but it definitely is not for the faint-hearted. The cuisine on offer includes
barbequed squid, chicken and pork offal like the pig's tongue on skewers.
Traditional Burmese food can be
spicy and oily; rice is the staple with side dishes involving fish and meat,
often fermented. At breakfast, the hotel often served the national food mohinga, a broth of rice noodles in fish
sauce and topped with fried lentils and other condiments.
Myanmar has a tropical monsoon
climate, quite like Kerala's. The rains come between May and November, following
a short winter and summer, and explain why the whole country is so verdant.
I left Yangon on a rain-drenched
night, glad that I would not be caught in a traffic snarl the next day when an
inter-faith rally to promote peace and religious harmony was scheduled. The
Shwedagon, glowing in the dark, watched us go.
