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by Padma Edirisinghe

Then a golden mystery upheaved itself on the horizon - a beautiful winking wonder that blazed in the sun of a shape that was neither a Moslem dome not Hindu temple spire. "There is the old Swedhegon", said my companion. The golden dome then said, "This is Burma. And it will be quite unlike any land you know about".

Rudyard Kipling letters from the East 1898.

Nikini Poya falls on August 22. Some 2,500 years back, the first Dhamma convocation was held on this day at the foothills of the Vebhora Rock at Rajagaha city. Missionary activity was in full sway and Burma or Myanmar too had its fill. Hence it would be relevant to describe a famous shrine of this land, for the information of Buddhist pilgrims. i.e. the Swedegon Chatiya, put up in honour of the great one. As the setting sun's glow falls on this great Stupa enshrining the Keshadathu or the hair relics of the Buddha it almost provides a celestial sight, as if a piece of high heavens has fallen down on our mundane earth. In fact that famed English writer, Rudyard Kipling born and bred in India called it "a golden mystery, a beautiful winking wonder." He says this stupa, also called the Golden Dagon is almost the essence of Burma.

Burma or Myanmar like our country is studded lavishly with these sacred domes but the difference is that while our stupas are pristine white the Burmese Dagobas radiate a golden sheen, a fantastic mixture of orange and yellow hues, almost that strange russet hue of the robes of the Sangha.

The Burmese like to ascribe a 2,500 old history to this bell shaped dome said to rise 98 m. but archaeologists maintain that its present form metamorphosed somewhere in the period between the 6th and 10th centuries.

Of course the site's antecedents as a holy place are well-known for the stupa enshrining the hair relics of the Buddha handed over the merchants, Tapassu and Bhalluka, was built here, a place already sacred as the spot where relics of earlier Buddhas to have been deposited.

Not only nature but man's cruelty too played its part in the great Stuap's destruction. In 1612, like in our country colonial raids were in full sway. The misguided emissary of colonialism thought it was due to razing to the ground all sites sacred to the indigenous religions of the Eastern races. So in 1612 De Britto had raided the stupa and carried away the huge Ghantara for melting it down to canyons.

Incidentally the bell at Kayman's Gate is said to have initially been a Gantara at an ancient temple in Kotte and then moved and carried to a church finally ending at Kayman's Gate during Dutch times.

Coming back or going back to Burma the British equally had no respect for the sacred place and subsequent to the first Anglo-Burmese war in 1824, the compound of the Swedhegon Stupa was used as military base.

It remained under their military control for 77 years. However King Mindon Min from Mandalay put up the decorative top of the Stupa almost defiantly at this time. As if all these disasters did not suffice a raging fire started in 1931 destroying the Western stairway. Swedhegonpaya further was transformed into a venue for much political activity during the Burmese Independence Movement. Today it looms above almost all other golden domes of Mandalay, the temples of Bagan, Mrawku and South Myanmar drawing visitors from all over the world.

Despite a few colonial vestiges that remain from an inglorious colonial past Burma or Myanmar remains completely oriental, an epitome of the Eastern and Buddhist culture, its people unpretentious and prone to simple living. Travel agencies arrange trips to Myanmar several times a year, that span over several days allowing the tourist to relax in the placid rurals of this ancient state, even take ferry rides along its waterways. Burmese population like ours too is also a hotch-potch of many ethnic communities as the Burmans, the Mons, the Pyus.

Legend and even history tell us that the whole of Burma or a part of it was once known as Swarnabhoomi - the land of gold, an apt name indeed in the context of the golden domes that have sprouted all over its land of course crafted by man's ingenious labour in honour of the most compassionate one with his own heart of gold.

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