Procession on way to Kuangmudaw Pagoda

Saturday December 6

Kuangmudaw Pagoda

Subject: Procession December 5                             

Yesterday, a day with no primary classes, I taught a couple older level, more English proficient classes for students from Sagaing. After lunch I went with Thuzar Win on her motorcycle (with helmet) about thirty minutes away to Kuangmudaw Pagoda, one of the famous Sagaing ones, built by a king in the 1600s and supposedly housing some relics of the Buddha including I think his bowl.  What was most interesting however, was the ordination procession we chanced on along the way.  I’d come across one last year with truckloads of fancily garbed and crowned little boys and accompanying villagers, but this was a whole different experience.

 

It was an immensely long procession of women in many varieties of traditional garb in many different silken colors, and beautifully decorated horses bearing the white garbed and crowned boys fanned by the men on foot accompanying them, and oxen-drawn golden carriages carrying richly garbed and jeweled mothers holding a parasol over their equally beautifully garbed little daughters.  There was even an elaborately adorned large elephant in the procession!  I wasn’t able to get a good photo of it—but happily
on the way back we ran into the procession again. The women walking in their variously colored garments looked a little weary, but the elephant was in full form. And I’d learned by this time to make my way across the road so as not to have passing trucks block my camera view, and got some good shots.

 While at the pagoda, we both got little Myanmar style tops, and Thuzar spent much time selecting a thanaka stick (which people put on their face for sun protection as well as beautification). I helped her decide at last by saying “That one looks good” (something I think I picked up from others helping me cut my own decision making process short; what do I know about thanaka? but it seemed as helpful for her). Back in Sagaing, I picked up a usb stick; I realize now it was double the size I needed, but I wanted to back up the photos in my camera, even more so after the other volunteer shared his experience of three years of Asia photos being lost when he had to bring in his apple computer to get fixed in the Philippines (and the computer didn’t even come back fixed!).  Next Thuzar wanted to buy sweaters some (rust-colored) for a couple of the novices, and some make-up for herself.  By the time we finally got 
back, had no time for the rest I was hoping for, just barely time to wash clothes and bathe at the cistern before my 4pm weekend upper-level class. 

At the Kuangmudaw Pagoda

There are individual bowls to dip into the cistern to wash oneself with, so you don’t actually put your hand in the cistern ever, and there are separate washing buckets.  The girls wash their clothes very
thoroughly (much more thoroughly than I ever do). And their dishes as well. On the other hand, people seem to share soup bowls and even spoons, not sure about the cups either.  Fortunately little garlic cloves are served along with the chilies and other condiments at most meals, so I’ve been trying to avail myself of those to bolster my immunity.  Though I do seem to have managed to come down with a cold, the garlic did work in making my very sore throat of the last couple evenings go away.

 Aung took me on his motorcycle just after sunset to another pagoda in the hills—the full moon was just rising over the hills as we set off on the road, and once at the pagoda, the moon shone over the Irrawaddy river, the sky a rose twilight color in the other direction.  It was extraordinarily beautiful.

As always, one sees little monks and little nuns, some can’t be more than seven, walking in pairs and even alone down the dark roads at night. 

 As far as pagodas themselves, I think I’m reaching Reagan’s stance with redwoods….. (Here in the Sagaing hills with pagodas it’s like what Mark Twain said about Montreal, that you couldn’t throw a stone without it landing on a church somewhere.) But, as they say, it’s the journey not the destination. 

Afterwards we went to the bustling night market in Sagaing, where had some rice and a chicken morsel (having returned first to my guesthouse to pick up my sweater, and in the process Thuzar and her friend with a motorbike).   

Have a great day.

Love,

Zoe




[Note:  to see more photos at any point, you can go to: https://www.flickr.com/photos/129187095@N02/sets/.  The first album "Top 400" is a selection of the best photos, so that would be the one to look at unless you want to look at even more in any particular phase of the trip.]