Day 64-66 – March 10-12, 2015

For these 2 days we have been in Thilawa (Rangoon), Myanmar. Myanmar, called Burma by the British, is the name long used by its people for their homeland. It is also known as the “Golden Land” because of its rich soil and its wealth of minerals and precious stones. King Anawrahta formed the country in the 11^th century, with Bagan as its capital. The empire collapsed with the invasion of the Mongols 200 years later. Yangon was founded in 1755 by King Alaungpaya, on the location of a small town named Dagon. In 1852 the British seized Burma, gradually transforming Yangon into a prosperous trading center for rice, oil, and teak, and Anglicizing the name to Rangoon. Their rule lasted until 1848 broken up by the Japanese occupation during World War II. When General Ne Win seized power in 1962, Myanmar closed its doors to the outside world, and Yangon became an urban remnant, remaining isolated for over three decades. Although the military government officially relocated the capital to Naypyidaw in 2006, Yangon serves as the country’s main seaport and entrance port, making it the country’s largest city, and most important, commercial center. The city is a melting pot; a diversity of unique cultures and communities in terms of people, neighborhoods and religions.

On the first day we took a private tour of the pagodas and temples. The country is about 80% Buddhists, then come the Christians, Hindus and Jew. There are 20 Jew in the whole country. This are of Myanmar is considered the delta and they mainly grow rice. They have two crops a year. In the north they have mountains up to 5800 meters high with snow on the top. But down here it is hot. It has been in the 100’s these three days. Everywhere you go are these beautiful pagodas. All of them are covered in gold. The evening tour showed us a different side of Yangon and the pagodas. You will see in the pictures those from the evening and those from the evening.

The second day we took a morning tour that is an introduction to Yangon. We traveled back to Yangon, but this time it was light. We saw water buffalo along the road as well as cows. They feel these animals help them with their work, so they do not eat the meat. The water here is very muddy, and there is a lot of trash along the side of the road. But, it is cleaner than most recent ports.

Our guide this day, as well as the one the day before, was very informative. One of the interesting things that we learned was about the monks. From age 5-18 you are considered a novice and have to have your parents permission to enter the monastery. And, you can leave at any time, and then return at any time. Our tour guide on day 1 had been a monk three times, for a total of about 30 days. Once they are over 18 they can enter the monetary themselves. They eat, meditate and go out for alms. They teach Buddhism to the people. They are considered monks over the age of 18. Girls can enter the monastery also. They are called nuns. They must shave their heads as well as the men. They only go out for alms every 8 days, where the monks go twice every day. Because of this the nuns must cook their own meals and the monks get served. Our driver for day two had been a nun for about 34 days. Then she went back to being a tour guide and had to wear a wig. She can go back any time she wants.

The architecture is both English and Burmese. The British built many of the buildings when they were here. Buildings such as the Strand Hotel (115 years old), Myanmar Port Authority, Yangon District Court, and the Customs House have the British architecture. All the other major buildings are more Burmese. On both of out tours we went to the city center where there is a park where they had had demonstrations a couple of days previous, and still had the barbwire fences up. In the park was the Independence Monument. They received independence on 1/4/1948 and the monument was built in 1950. Two other building there were the Supreme Court building and the Department of Immigration, which they are trying to turn into a hotel.

The main building we saw was the Shwedagon Pagoda. This origin of this pagoda materialized in Buddhist history over 2600 years ago. The story is that in India, Prince Siddhartha had just attained Buddhahood when he was visited by two brothers Tapussa and Bhallika, merchants from Myanmar who offered a gift of honey cakes. In return, the Buddha personally removed eight hairs from his head and gave these to the two brothers for enshrinement in their native town of Okkalapa, which is now the City of Yangon. On their return, the two brothers presented the Buddha’s hairs to the King of Okkalapa who erected the pagoda and enshrined the eight hairs together with the relics of three previous Buddhas. The original height of the pagoda was 66 feet. From the 14^th century onward successive monarchs in Myanmar rebuilt or regilded it until Shwedagon reached its present height of 326 feet. It has ten unique different sections, the base, the three terraces, the “Baung Yit” with distinct embossed bands, the “Thabeik” (monk’s food bowl), the “Kya-lan” an ornamental lotus flower, the “Hngnet Pyaw-Bu (Banana Bud), the “Hti” (umbrella), the “Hngetmana” a flag shaped vane which revolves to the direction of the wind, and the Seinbu (Diamond bud). The “Hti”, “Hngetmana” and “Seinbu” are inlaid with 3154 gold bells, 79,569 diamonds and other precious stones. It was beautiful.

On the way back to the ship we stopped at Bogoke market. There were over 2,000 stalls in there and we only had 45 minutes. We bought a few odds and ends.

And, this time we are docked behind a Pakistani missile carrier. Again, very interesting.

We decided to stay on the ship for the last morning here, so here are the pictures.

Sunrise

Fishermen

Dancers on dock

Shwedagon Pagoda at night and day

Baptist church – blue cross on top

Buildings night and day

Independence monument night and day

Missile carrier and seaman

Buffalo

Roadside pictures

Novice monk

Train station (long building with four spires)

Market

Wednesday afternoon shrine in Shwedagon Pagoda. There is a station for each day of the week and two for Wednesday. If you are born on that day you go to that station and pour water over the Buddha and ask for something or thank him for something. The woman in orange shirt is 87 and a friend of ours on the ship. She lost her husband thirty years ago, and is asking for a young man J.