Dhamma Seminars Part 2

Its filling up!

Early picnicers

Straw matsat the back

Final carpets

The monk arrives

Dhamma Seminars, Part 1

Down come the carpets!

On with the market!

All set!

View from our balcony

Baking soda to keep down odours

Hard work!

Street washing

Our street has been very exciting this week!  On Saturday/Sunday the street was hosed down, dusted with baking soda and the market stalls were pulled back and covered.  Each evening for a week we have carpets laid down and a procession of monks walk up the carpet through the seated public.  Then from a red and gold stage at the front different monks each night deliver a 2 hour lecture on various aspects of Buddhism and how to live your life with inner peace.  All is in Burmese so I have to go on what I've been told.  At various intervals there are chants and at the end of the evening, about 9.30, the religious group leaves, the mats are rolled up, the toadstool lights are taken away and all is ready for the busy market the next day.

Hosing the street

More Bago

At the Chinese pagoda

The python and his money!

Shwemahdaw Pagoda

Shwemawdaw Pagoda

Entrance to Shwemahdaw Pagoda the tallest in Myanmar

Mahazeti Pagoda

In the victory ground at Mahzeti Pagoda

I love the feet

Picnicers at the Shwethalyaung Buddha

I couldn't upload any more on the last post so I started again to continue the Bago photos1

A Trip to Bago

Shwethalyaung reclining Buddha teachings on side

Shwethalyaung reclining Buddha .. Andy and a monk who wanted his photo taken with him.  He had quite a following!

Us aMya Tha Lyaung reclining Buddha

Shwethalyaung reclining Buddha

Mya tha Lyaung reclining Buddha

Mya tha Lyaung reclining Buddha

Kyaikpun Pagoda

Kyaikpun pagoda

Once the capital of the Mon kings, Bago is about an hour and a half driving time NE of Yangon.  We were lucky that there were no traffic jams en route to slow us down.  We visited an
allied Second World War cemetery just beside the highway and then arrived in Bago.  We saw Kyaikpun pagoda, built in the 15th century.  This is 4 seated Buddhas around the base of a large pillar.  Then we saw the  Mya Tha Lyaung reclining Buddha.  The soles of the feet are incredibly painted as are the fingernails!  The Shwethalyaung reclining Buddha is the second largest in the world measuring 55 metres long and built in 994AD.  It was lost after a battle in 1757 but rediscovered during British rule in 1880.  It had been completely overgrown with jungle. The mosaic pillows were added in 1930.  We saw the Shwemawdaw Pagoda  built by 2 merchants 1000 years ago.  It is the tallest in Mysanmar and parts were destroyed by a 1917 earthquake  but have been restored.  The Mahazeti Pagoda was built in 1560 to enshrine a tooth of Buddha but it was later proved to be a fake and was removed.  It has been destroyed and rebuilt after wars and earthquakes.  this one is climbable almost to the top but in the heat we didn't do that, spending more time in a small victory ground pagoda nearby.  We visited the snake pagoda, supposedly the reincarnation of a famous monk.  The 6 metre long Burmese python was just lying under a long table and people put money on it for good luck.  The Kanbawzathadi palace where some Mon kings lived and were crowned was reconstructed in 1990 - 1992 having burnt down in 1599.  It was only built in 1556 but certainly showed the opulence of the mon dynasty.   On the way back to Yangon we stopped briefly at a Chinese pagodaquite different from the Mon ones we had been seeing,

War cemetery 1939-45

War cemetery 1939 - 45

Kathein

Pagoda snake!

With a friend after the ceremony,  See the snake cage back right!

Reaching the pagoda

Arriving with our gifts

Listening to the monks

Snacks after the ceremony

Kathein is a Buddhist holiday at the end of the rainy season.  Communities and groups donate money and essential items to a chosen monastery.   No monastery can have more than one supporting group.  The monks receive new robes, slippers, soap, towels, begging bowls and money to look after them while they remain in the monastery for 3 months of meditation.  the day to deliver the gifts is the day before the full moon in November

High load

Ready to go

Shopping and cooking

We spent a Saturday a week or so ago touring a local market and then going to a

Market

local NGO called Graceworks to learn to learn how to cook in the Myanmar way.  Graceworks is a social enterprise teaching cooking, English and computer skills to needy children who will be able to tour visitors around markets and teach them Myanmar cooking.. a bit like the Thai model I guess. some also get jobs in restaurants. This is the month when Bhuddists fundraise for the monastries so the markets were buzzing with vendors shoppers and fundraisers.

Fundraising: note the money pinned to the people

Pigs snout and ear!

Preparing live eels

What a great variety of vegetables!

Fundraising

River fish for sale!

Three of us in cooking classmaking a curry

Our group of five and the trainee instructors