We've continuing our odyssey in the mystical land of Myanmar (aka Burma), where gleaming golden stupas rise up out of the idyllic fields of rice paddies and the big-humped buffalo run freely through the bumpy streets. People chew betelnut here, a mild stimulant similar to the effects of nicotine or caffeine, which gives many young people red-stained spotty teeth and many old people downright black gnarled teeth. The big sacred sites and tourist sites are owned by the rigid military government, which charges exorbitant fees (relatively) and create all kinds of bureaucratic regulations regarding transportation and entry.We inconsistently have to show our passports to get from one town to another and have to contend with exchanging currency on the black market (which offers 800 kyat per dollar, while the government offices offer only 600). But generally the generals are friendly to tourists, though they are not so kindly to dissidents and successful independent entrepreneurs. I've heard of people who refuse to give huge sums of their profits to the government "disappearing" overnight. When I asked our cab driver about it on the way from the airport (after he brought it up) he merely said, "Police," and pointed to a long line of passing police trucks filled with machine-gun-donning uniformed men. Crazy place.
It really is beautiful though. So we set out from Yangon, the capital until about 2 years ago, to the north a few hours to Bago, land of unrealistically enormous Buddha images. After spending a couple of days recovering from some vicious food poisoning, we tracked down some red-toothed motorbike drivers who were willing to show us all over town for a reasonable fee.
They first took us to this enormous statue of a reclining Buddha, depicting the Buddha moments before his enlightenment, that is 178 feet long and covered in beautiful mosaics of colorful tiles and radiant mirrors. This statue was built in 994CE (of course it's been restored) and was lost after war in the 18th Century and discovered a century later, overgrown in the jungle----what a discovery to make! On the back in gleaming mosaic is depicted the story of the origin of this statue and Buddhism in Myanmar: a "heathen" [sic] prince goes to the forest and falls in love with a Buddhist woman and asks her to marry him, saying she can still practice Buddhism. When the "heathen" king finds out he is so enraged that he sentences her to death! When the "heathen" court officials throw her before their "heathen" god statue for sacrifice, she prays to the three gems (the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha) and the statue crumbles to pieces. The king is so terrified of this sorcery that he converts the whole kingdom to Buddhism and built this giant reclining Buddha statue. This is yet another account of a S.E.Asian misrepresenting the meaning of Buddhism: "submitting" to the "power of the Buddha" out of fear!
This giant Buddha is pretty spectacular but just 200 meters down the road is an even more epic sight: a slightly BIGGER reclining Buddha statue! This one is a full 242 feet long, a good 64 feet longer than the other one, though it was built only 10 years ago. They really like their giant Buddha statues and immediately across the road stands 4 monolithic Buddhas, holding out their capes, on the 4 walls of a towering temple. Out back of this temple there is a garden where over 2 dozen life-sized Buddha statues in painted golden robes sit in silent meditation, the bindis of their third eyes swirling with enlightenment. The Buddha wasn’t in favor of representations of his own body, and therefore the proper question is actually, why are there so many Buddha statues? I'll spare you the details of the sitting Buddhas, suffice it to say they were preposterously large, but describe our coming: We drove past the main entrance, where the government ticket-booth is, and went in the back. They surely could have seen us but I guess we were out of their "agro zone" (as Sarah put it, comparing the Burmese government to the programmed enemies in World of Warcraft) and so we didn't have to pay them; quite odd.
There was a towering zedi that is EVEN BIGGER than the Shwedagon but is only painted gold, not covered in real gold (not that I can tell the difference). It's cool how many shrines to the Buddha they have surrounding this golden monolith, so you can pick the Buddha you worship to your mood: feeling excited and bright? Go to the Day-Glo mirror Buddhas! Feeling sad and depressed? Go to the black-robed gothy Buddhas. We chose a modest wooden Buddha to reflect before, then reflected some more on the state of the bathroom floors, which we were not allowed to wear shoes into because it's a temple---nice. But you can always wash your feet right outside---whew!
Afterwards we attended the immense exodus of monks out of the various corners of the monastery into the cafeteria, where a feast had been prepared for them (monks are not allowed to cook for themselves and must walk around with alms bowls begging for food---good karmic merit for the giver---or pay others to make it for them). The monks walked in in their burgundy robes, flowing in single file for a good 15 minutes---so many monks! The portions of food necessary for this volume of people was preposterous: huge cauldrons as big as bathtubs full of rice and a variety of curries. We think it's a bit odd that although the Buddha said that all creatures are equal and part of the same karmic cycle, that Buddhist monks in S.E.Asia will eat meat. They get around this tough moral conundrum by paying other people to kill animals for them to eat, which apparently doesn't violate any karmic code of ethics to them. Another fun thing about monks, particular to Burma, is that they think it necessary to chant for 24 hours a day in one hour shifts over loudspeakers broadcasted at full lo-fi volume over the entire town---even in the middle of the night!
Well from Bago we unwittingly decided to undertake an arduous pilgrimage to one of the holiest sites in all of Myanmar: the Golden Rock. We took a bus that dropped us off 16km outside of the town it was supposed to drop us off in so after some motorbike drivers tried to deceive us and charge us $8 to take us to town, we managed to find a bus for $1. We got to town just in time and after checking into a hotel we went to the point of departure for the Golden Rock, where massive flat-bed trucks with hard wooden benches cart pilgrims and tourists up the mountain. We arrived and the truck said that they would take us the 30 minute drive to the base of the mountain for $2 each but only once the truck is full, loaded up with 48 people. There were about 10 there. Now the rainy season is well upon us and the heavens spit their fluid spite upon us daily (actually it's often quite refreshing), which tends to drive away tourists and so after 2 hours of waiting we realized that it would be too late to get back on the last truck anyway so we abandoned pursuit for the evening. We got delicious mango ice cream! The monks chanted over blaring loudspeakers all night.The next day we awoke early and returned to the truck, where a promising 25 people had aggregated, including an Irish fellow named Connor who we've since been traveling with and a very fun Dutch couple. We declared our solidarity and waited for 3 hours in the truck to reach 48 people when another truck pulled up and people started piling on. They told us that no foreigners were allowed on this other truck, also headed for the golden rock, and that we would have to wait for the first truck to fill again. Outraged, I calmly pestered the ticket office until they unexpectedly ushered us onto the already overcrowded truck. We drove for 45 minutes through beautiful lush jungle on seriously windy roads, bouncing on the hard wooden seat and generally crushing those on all sides with the various accelerations of the truck.
Eventually we made it and headed up the mountain! The Golden Rock was within our sight! We saw sedan chairs for lazy tourists who want to make the pilgrimage on the backs of other people but walked on for the hour up the mountain, ascending into the clouds. Our fine crew of 5 arrived at the ticket gate and debated whether we ought to each pay the $6 fee directly to the oppressive government but ultimately decided that all our effort on this epic pilgrimage would be wasted should we fall short so close to our golden destination. So we waited out a torrential downpour and gave the illegitimate authority its undue and moseyed on over to this rock.
Let me tell you, it was some rock. It's truly incredible that this precariously balanced mastodon of a boulder defies gravity by stubbornly refusing to tumble down the side of the mountain. This incredible rock is supposed to be keep balanced by a strand of the Buddhas hair, placed there 2500 years ago by a King upon the instruction of an esthetic hermit. The hermit told the King to find a rock shaped like his head (which is apparently weird and lumpy) and the magical King, inheriting powers from his alchemist father and serpent-dragon-princess mother, found this rock at the bottom of the ocean and had it whisked away to balance precariously atop Mount Kyaiktiyo, where it still apparently teeters today. Oh yeah, and the rock is totally golden. Devote followers have covered the entire rock in golden foil and hang bells from the surrounding railings, sending mystical reverberations through the air. Perched atop this epic golden boulder is a 24 foot tall conical pagoda that is painted, you guessed it: gleaming gold.We walked down the much more difficult way, down a steep mountain path and through a series of villages built on the intense mountain incline. It really was quite a pilgrimage.
Now we've headed up north to Kalaw, where we shall venture to trek through the mountains for 3 days, staying with villagers and seeking the coming wonders of Inle Lake!
Photos of Bago, giant Buddhas and a Golden Rock:
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Originally written June 6, 2011.
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