Wednesday 6 April 2016
Sailing the Bay of Bengal
Yangon, Myanmar, to Cochin, India

Today is the first of three sea days on the way to India and it is hard to believe that there are only five days and one port remaining until I disembark in Mumbai.  Just as you become really comfortable on board, it is time to start packing again--that's why I prefer longer itineraries.

But as I promised at the end of the last blog, I return now to Yangon for the final visit on a very long touring day:  Schwaedagon Pagoda, which translates literally as "Power Tower," as it indeed is.

Sunday 3 April 2016
Yangon, Myanmar:  Schwaedagon Pagoda

We arrive at the pagoda about 30 minutes before sunset, which gives us some time to examine the details of decoration in the fading light of day.  But the glories of Schwaedagon are not in the details, but in the overall effect of size and color.  The pagoda was built to house four original strands of hair from the head of the fourth Buddha, the last one to walk the earth.  The fifth and final Buddha is expected, but not for another one thousand years.  In the meantime, we must all strive to live by the principles of meaningful action embodied by the earlier Buddhas.  Although there are no female Buddhas, women can achieve enlightenment by the same means as men.

After removing shoes and socks, we ride a lift to the middle platform, which forms the base of the central golden tower. The

tower is a solid structure gilded entirely in gold leaf.  It is surrounded on the four cardinal sides by dozens of smaller temples and stupas, each group associated with a particular day of the week. Pilgrims are thus always aware of the passage of time as they encricle the shrine in a clockwise direction.  The mood of the large crowd is celebratory rather than meditative; adherents wear their best clothes and bring offerings of flowers and fruits for the monks to share (the monks take care of the temple and the grounds).

Lower Level Temple at Schwaedagon Pagoda

First View of the Central Pagoda Tower

Exiting the Lift at the Main Platform

As the sun sets and the sky darkens, the temples encircling the central tower are lit with thousands of colored lights--some garish and glaring neon; others softer candlelight.  The golden tower itself is bathed in floodlights. This place is finally worth the barefoot walk.  

 

 

 

After an hour of awe-struck gazing and taking too many photos we are ready to board the bus and start back to the ship.  Traffic is much lighter at this time of the evening, and we make the return trip in under one hour.  But it is already 8:30pm and I have a 2:50am wake up call for tomorrow morning.  So it will be a fast room service dinner tonight and an attempt to get a couple of hours sleep.