Daily Archives: October 31, 2012

Temples in Mrauk U

October 31, 2012 – 8:22 am

Tuesday, October 30, 2012 Full moon and a Buddhist Sabbath

Mrauk U Princess Resort

Believe it or not, today was another temple day, as if we have not seen enough.  There are some differences, however.  Most noticeably, the Mrauk U temples are made of sandstone, while the Bagan temples are made of brick.  Also, the temples here are considerably younger than those in Bagan. dating mostly from 1430 to 1784, when Mrauk U was one of the richest cities in Asia.  At its peak under King Minbin (1531-53) it traded with the Middle East, Asia, Holland, Portugal and Spain.   In the late 18th century the Rakhine king was defeated, by the Mandalay king and the city began to decline.  Under British rule, the center of activity in Rakhine State was shifted to Sittwe and Mrauk U became an unimportant backwater that the Burman government continues to ignore.  The government collects taxes from people who make a reasonable wage or better, but appears to return little to the community.    The roads, for example, are in abominable condition and there are schools and clinics, but not enough.  Today, Mrauk U has a population of 80,000, 60% of which are Rakhine.  Chinese, Indians, Muslims and other minority tribes make up the difference.

We were out at 8am to avoid some of the heat.  Our first temple, Kothaung, is the largest in Mrauk U.  The son of King Minbin, who wanted to outdo his father’s temple by 10,000 images, built it in 1553.   It contains 90,000 images of Buddha.  On the upper terrace, were originally 108 stupas.  Even now, with fewer stupas, it reminded us of the temple complex in Borobudur, Jogjakarta, with its many small stupas surrounding a central large stupa.  Completely over grown like all the temples in the area, this one has been uncovered and partially restored so that we could walk around the complex on the inside and get a look at many of the bas reliefs on the walls along with numerous Buddha statues.  Unfortunately, vegetation is reclaiming the site, as the government has done nothing to protect the temples in recent years.

On a hill immediately opposite Kothauang, was a small, unrestored four-door pagoda, called Peisi Daung, housing five Buddha statues—four on each side and one at the top.  Each of them has large white eyes with a black dot.   It was prickly pushing through the brush on the way up, but, for once, we did not have to take our shoes off and the view from the top was worth the trouble.  We could see Kothauang well and the surrounding fields and tree-covered hills.  Several “hills” are really temples that have yet to be uncovered.  The ancient capital was surrounded by three walls, which are also over grown, yet unmistakable.

Our next stop was Mingoung Shwaygu, a stupa built in 1629.   It is unique for its sandstone umbrella at the top.  Every other stupa top has been made of metal and is usually gold painted, if not gilded.  Aside from the umbrella, our only memorable  aspect of the place was the caretaker and his twin daughters of about 10.  These were the first people we have encountered at the temples so far this day and the first twins we know of on this trip.  Dad was most gracious to let us take “family photos”.  It feels like we must be the only tourists in town.

For a temple break, Kyaw, our guide, took us on a walk down one of many narrow lanes with old, often rickety, wooden houses packed closely together on both sides.  They were uniformly dark and dingy with no vegetation around them.   We saw trash everywhere and one stream between some houses that looked like a cesspool. Many people looked pretty raggedy too.  No one, however, was thin like the people in Putao.  We stopped at a house where a woman was making bamboo hats, while another woman was cooking lunch for her family.  I was fascinated by her process of cooking three separate courses, plus rice, on the ground over one small wood fire.  Luckily she had several large pots to hold the different dishes of green vegetables and bamboo shoots, a separate bowl with water to keep things clean and a crock and grinding rock to mash the roasted chili peppers and mix them with dried, separately roasted shrimp.  She was very organized and efficient.  Soon she and her two children were happily eating away.  The hat lady stripped a lot of bamboo into thin lengths for her hats, but we did not see her make one.

According to Kyaw, there is no large industry in Rakhine State and little work unless you are a farmer, fisherman, tuk tuk driver, local merchant, government worker or in a cottage business.  The rice and vegetable crops here receive over 200 inches of rain per year and satisfy the food needs of the people in the area.  He also said there is not much malaria in this region.

While driving to the Bandoola Monastery, we passed a number of street side vendors selling miscellaneous goods and several second hand stalls with clothes supplied by western countries.  Most stores were closed for the Sabbath.

Bandoola is a rambling hilltop monastery with lots of small spaces for everything from Buddha images to napping child monks.  All the way at the back and top of the hill is a large room where a third century polished bronze Buddha is encased behind glass.  It is said that to keep it from being stolen by the British when they arrived in 1824, it was encased in concrete and buried under water.  After independence in 1948, it was dug up and placed in the monastery.   Today, Buddhist Sabbath and the last day of Buddhist lent, a monk sat in front of it and began talking to the 30 or so faithful in attendance.  It seemed like a good time for us to leave.

By this time it was mid day and we were very hot, sticky and glad to get back to the resort.  After a cold beer and lunch, I stayed in our room to write and keep cool.  Mark got a nice Thai massage.  The $40 charge was too attractive for him to resist.

Back out at 4pm, Kyaw promised us no more temples after today.  It was still very hot, but slightly more bearable.  First stop was the Shittauang Temple built by King Minbin in 1535.  It contains some 84,000 Buddha images in statues and bas-reliefs and is the most complex temple in Mrauk U.  There are many stupas of various sizes; 26 of which surround a central stupa.  Thick walls with windows and nooks, surround the two-tiered structure.  Inside the temple’s prayer hall, two passageways encircle the main Buddha image in the cave hall.  The square, outer passageway has over 1000 sculptures, some still sporting a bit of paint, that show a lot of detail of Rakhine customs, including traditionally dressed dancers, boxers, acrobats, beasts of burden and hundreds of scenes from Buddha’s 550 past lives.   At each corner are larger figures including King Minbin and his queens in one corner.  The passageway is dimly lit, but the figures are impressive in their quantity as well as skillful execution.  The other passageway leads past scores of monotonous Buddha images in niches and circles in on itself until we reached a dead end and hade to circle back to get out of what feels like a maze.  It was the most interesting of all the temples we have visited on this trip.

From Shittaung we walked about 50 paces to the next temple called Andaw.  It was built in 1596 and is smaller and 8 sided and supposedly laid out in a similar linear layout.  We did not go inside, but enjoyed the play of late afternoon light on the exterior of the building and stupas.

Across the road is the Dukkanthein Temple, built in 1571.  The interior features a spiraling narrow passageway lined with images of Buddhas and common people such as landlords, governors, officials and their spouses sporting all of Mrauk U’s 64 traditional hairstyles. The passageway encircles the center nearly three times before reaching the “sun-drenched” Buddha image, that is lit by a flashing neon halo and colored Christmas tree lights.  It was a disappointing pay off for my trouble and I still had to retrace my steps to get out.  Mark skipped this temple and watched kids playing.

When I exited the temple there was still enough light to drive to one last stupa on a hill to watch the sunset.  Haridaung is a small temple, built around 1750.  We had to race up well over 100 steps to get to the top timely.  I was totally out of breath, but we did get to see the day depart nicely.  Back down the steps we were happy to know there would be no more temples on this trip.

On the way back to the resort we noticed many banana leaf luminaries placed every 5 feet or so along both sides of several neighborhood lanes.  We learned that the candles in them would be lit at dark to celebrate the full moon Sabbath and the end of lent.   The gatekeeper promised to call us when they were lit so we could walk down the street to see them.  I was in the shower when the call came and hurriedly dried off, put my dirty clothes back on and ran out the door to meet Mark who was carrying two beers and a flashlight.  We walked a few blocks to the first illuminated street and took several photos of the pretty lights and the people, especially children, enjoying the scene.   The moon made its appearance and we slowly walked back to the resort for dinner and bed.  We were especially saddened to learn of the death of Bill Riddle yesterday.  That brings the count to three since we left home.  Glad we are coming back soon.  Only one day more in Burma, before we start the long journey home.

Will try to get this message off tonight, if possible.

Love to you all with special thoughts for Judith Ciphers, Betty Hahn and now Bev Riddle, Julia

By adventureswithjulia | Posted in 2012 Oct: Laos & Myanmar | Comments (0)

Mrauk U

October 31, 2012 – 1:29 am

Monday, October 29, 2012

On the Mrauk U Princess….

….a 60 foot “wooden tourist boat” built in 2012, motoring up the Kalanden River to Mrauk U or, as Mark described it, “cruising up the river on our spacious yacht, having had a sumptuous lunch in the salon and spent the afternoon on the sun deck, being meticulously catered to by seven crew members”.

Cho, the Tour Mandalay rep in Yangon, picked us up at 9:30 this morning and accompanied us to the airport.  She speaks excellent English and provided us with many details we had missed during our last few weeks.  The 1-hour drive flew by.

She talked about how Burmese people are named for the weekday on which they are born.  Each day has a few characters of the Burmese alphabet assigned to it.  She was born on a Monday and could have been named using any one of the first 5 characters of the alphabet.  Each day is also assigned a planet and a number of years during which that planet affects the person.  Monday, for instance, is under the influence of the moon, so she was affected by it for the first 15 years of her life.  Tuesday is connected to Mars and she was under its influence from age 16 through 23.  Then comes Wednesday, which is influenced by Jupiter.  She was under that planet for 17 years.  Currently she is under Mercury, the planet for Thursday and will be with it for 19 years.  That will be followed by Friday’s planet, Venus, for 21 years, then Saturn for Saturday for 10 years and finally the sun for Sunday for 6 years.  After which the whole cycle repeats.  It is very bad luck for a family to have a firstborn child on a Saturday.  Saturn, in Burmese cosmology, is a bad planet.  Her father was such a birth.  So his parents gave him to his grandparents, who adopted and raised him, as he was not their firstborn child.  Cho agreed that it was all very superstitious, but people still continue to do it anyway.  It reminded us of the naming practices in Bali, where every child is named according to their birth order—first born are called Wayan, second born are called Made, third are Nyoman and fourth are Ketut.  The naming starts over with the fifth born.  Fortunately, children in Bali often get second names.

Then we got on the subject of calendars.  Myanmar uses three.  For business and every day they use our Christian calendar.  Buddhists use the lunar calendar, since Buddha’s death in 703AD, to determine Sabbath days, as I have explained earlier.  The Myanmar Calendar, which was adopted from the Hindu calendar, came into use in 638AD.  The people in the area were a mix of Hinduism, Buddhism and other religions for centuries and did not take up pure Buddhism until 1057AD.

Buddha, as he is known, is the 4th person to have reached enlightenment according to his teachings.  The previous Buddhas are unknown.  According to him, his teachings will last for 5000 years.  Therefore, the 5th and final Buddha is not expected for another 2400 years.  Just then, you will be relieved to know that we had arrived at the airport and the lecture was over.

Our flight to Sittwe was uneventful, except that I managed to finish George Orwell’s 1934 book, “Burmese Days”, which describes Burma rather well and tells a sad story of life in a British settlement.  As we approached the city we could see many rice fields.  This area is much more fertile than the north from our perspective.  Once on the ground, we were again the only tourists to deplane.  Others carried on to the popular beach areas at the next stop.   Our guide, Kyaw (pronounced Chaw), was waiting and soon we were headed to the jetty on the other side of town.  There are 300,000 people in the area—70% Rakhine and 30% Muslim.  The streets are crowded with pedestrians, tuk tuks, bicycles, rickshaws and motor scooters, but not many vehicles.   We observed a number of military personnel standing guard at the airport and in the city and later learned there are army squads who are keeping the area around Sittwe and Mrauk U peaceful.  This was good news after all the conflicting reports we have had about serious unrest in Rakhine State, where the capital, Sittwe, and Mrauk U are located.

The local unrest is historical in origin.  In 1942, Muslims living in Balgladash, about 60 km west of Mrauk U, moved into Myanmar and killed many indigenous Rakhine people to occupy the area near the border.  The Rakhine moved east to Sittwe and Mrauk U and neighboring towns.  Things remained mostly calm until this last May when a 16 year old Rakhine girl was raped and killed by 3 Muslims 20 year olds men in a village about 100 km south of Sittwe.  At the time, the government did nothing about it.  The Rakhine people were very angry, especially after seeing the gruesome photos of the girl’s death on TV.  In retaliation, some of them killed 10 Muslim men 150km south of Sittwe in early September.  Killing and house burning escalated and the fighting is still going on in some remote places.  Near the Bangladesh border Muslims killed some Rakhine and burned their houses and now the Rakhine are retaliating by killing some Muslims and burning Muslim houses wherever they find them.  It is all very messy.  In early October the government stepped in to put a stop to the fighting and burning.  All this explains why our plans to come here were revoked in September and reinstated on October 4, just before we left home.  We failed to mention this to any of you as we did not want to alarm you.  We were not afraid for ourselves and we are glad we did not let the conflict stand in our way.

At the jetty we boarded our vessel, the Mrauk U Princess Resort boat and departed immediately.  We were served a very nice lunch aboard the “yacht” and settled in to read and while away the hours of “stinking” sticky heat until the temperatures finally cooled and a breeze picked up.  Only then was I able to write.  Soon we were watching the nearly full moon come over the flat horizon and the sun set at the same time.  Shortly, we were motoring by moonlight.  There are no lights anywhere on the shore.  A few fishing boats flash a light now and then to call out their position.  Finally, after nearly 6 hours on the river, we pulled up to the Mrauk U Princess Resort’s jetty.  This place was lit up nicely.  Once on shore we were greeted by several staff and presented with the usual cold towels and juice drink.  A short walk led us to the reception where we met the manager and several more staff.  Sure enough, we are the only guests.  The last ones checked out a couple of days ago and the next ones arrive after we leave.  We are in one of 30 bungalows.  This facility is no match for the Malikha Lodge, but it is attractive, with many lotus ponds and spacious, charming bungalows.  The heat is our issue and the fact that none of the spaces are air conditioned, except our bedroom and there is no other place to cool off.

We head straight for our bungalow to get a shower.  The AC was turned on only when we walked into the room, so we were disappointed that we had to wait quite a while for cool air.   The bathroom was very toasty with no AC at all.  On the other hand, the bed had flowers placed on it in the shape of three hearts and the bathtub was half full of cold water and flowers.  What can you say?  We showered and hoped the room would cool down enough for us to sleep.

The dining hall is an open-air room upstairs above the reception.  The place felt cavernous, with just us and the staff.   Thankfully, two electric fans blowing on us kept us from wilting.  We were too hot to eat much and I made the mistake of asking for my salad to come spicy.  It was so hot I could not eat but a few bites.  The heat stayed in my mouth a long time.  Mark took it and finished it off without a problem.  The spicy dishes we have had in other parts of the country have left a warm glow in my mouth and throat.  Nothing so intense as this.

After dinner Mark tried to get on line in the computer room next to the reception, but was unsuccessful.  I suspect we will not be able to send anything until our next stop in Bangkok.  The room was much cooler after dinner and we were able to sleep.

The Resort manager has agreed to try and help me send posts.  We shall see how that goes.     Julia

By adventureswithjulia | Posted in 2012 Oct: Laos & Myanmar | Comments (2)