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| Sunday, 20 October 2002 |
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Today is Wap full moon poya day Tale of two cities from Buddhist Burma by Padma Edirisinghe The writer who recently visited major Buddhist shrines in Myanmar and Thailand recounts the tales for Poya cum general readers.
There are thousands of stories in the countries of the world handed down from one generation to the next. Some are fabricated, while some are made of authentic stuff while a third category oscillates between the two. The writer came across two such stories that can be called authentic and historical. If one yearns for more labels they are a tale of two cities too. And they are both connected to the progress of Buddhism, the tale of Amarawathie in fact connected to the progress of Buddhism not only in Burma but in Sri Lanka too. The cities are Amarapura also called Amarawathie and Mandalay both hugging the banks of the mighty 2000 km. Irrawady river that runs like a life giving artery from North to South of Myanmar. I wonder whether our tour guide was exaggerating or whether he was on the boundary of truth when he declared that Irrawady can be described as a water run that begins in China and India and embraces the ocean in the Andaman sea area. Rivers are insentient and do not know the fences that divide countries, hence maybe somewhere a small rivulet from these two countries get connected to the Irrawady at its Northern source. But my theme is a duo of cities and not the river Irrawady. Amarapura means the Immortal city or the City that never dies. But the city provides a historical irony in that it was perhaps Myanmar's capital with the shortest life span. It was king Badowpaya who in 1782 shifted Burma's capital from Awa to another city naming the new capital Amarapura. (A popular travel book comments that the Burmese capitals played musical chairs and changed rapidly as if to substantiate a cardinal teaching of Buddhism i.e. impermanence of all worldly things.) But even Badowpaya would never have expected the tragedy that befell the city. Just 28 years later in 1810 a huge fire engulfed the city destroying most of it and in 1823 the capital shifted back to Awa. So Amarapura existed as Myanmar's capital only from 1802 to 1823. This was the dawn of our British period. An ecclesiastical crisis was slowly brewing in the South of Lanka due to a royal decree made during king Kirthi Sri Rajasinghe's time that limited the Upasampada or Higher ordination only to the Govi caste. Many senior prelates ordained from the Govi kula seem to have been behind this decree that led to much dissatisfaction in the Southern littoral majorly peopled by castes other than Goigama. That the Buddha himself strongly condemned the caste system via the Vasala Sutta where he preached that a human becomes high or low purely due to his actions and not due to a caste he or she is incidentally born to, had been deliberately overlooked by this royal decree. To maintain the sequence of this tale it must be mentioned that the political upheavals of the times had extinguished Upasampada bhikkhus in Lanka and hence fitting monks were brought over from Siam for the restoration of the higher ordination by a team of bhikkhus and laymen from Mahanuwara. Now senior prelates in the South decided to follow this example and a team led by Ven. Welitara Ambagahapitiye Gnana Vimala Tissa thera set off to Siam. But on the way they heard that Theravada Buddhism was also flourishing in a more proximate country and they landed in a port by the Andaman sea and proceeded by boat along the Irrawady river and reached Amarapura that was then the Burmese capital. At this time the king Bodawpaya being a fervent Buddhist, the city was almost a repository of Pali texts on Buddhism. A huge temple square had been built with temple towers at each corner. The king not only fulfilled the wish of the team from Sri Lanka that marked the genesis of the Amarapura nikaya in our island but also gifted a large number of Buddhist texts. The Amarapura Upasampada ordination brought over from Burma was performed on the banks of Balapitimodera. The connection between South Lanka and Myanmar did not stop with this. In the years 1810, 1811, 1812 and 1813 Ven. Kapugama Siri Dammakkanda, Ven. Bogahapitiya Dhammajothi, Ven. Attudawe Dhammarakkitha and Ven. Kataluwe Gunaratana theras visited Amarapura respectively, perpetuating the contacts. Today, though Amarapura city's glory has waned and the temple square is in a sorry state, a huge monastery has come up with a scholastic institution for young monks who stroll even on the pavements carrying their books and papers. Now we come to Mandalay. Like phoenix rising from the ashes, the city has come up from British destruction in 1857 and the havoc caused by the Japanese and British again during the Second World War when what was left of the city was blasted by bombs. People shrug and say, "Oh, Myanmar, it has a military government. but when overviewing the splendid metarmophosing of this last royal city to its original form by this military government," In a matter of few years then one begins to be pregnant with the question what is wrong with a military government if it focuses on culture and religion to this extent? However, I better stop the subject at that for at the entry airport of Rangoon I had an unpleasant experience. Someone had alerted that I was a journalist and a uniformed officer came up to me and asked what sort of topics I write on. I got away by saying that I am just an old retired director of education who writes on very innocent matter that many find too boring to read. He left me, smiling, he smiling, me smiling. (Earlier I had been shivering in my boots, sorry, in my humble sandals that I might be refused entry due to a remark made by only the Gods know whom). But Mandalay has a unique history. Like our Mahanuwara it was the country's last citadel of independence and the great king who put up that magnificent capital was Mindon. The extreme care that has gone into its planning is indicative of his desire to make Myanmar an immortal country. The Fifth Buddhist Council that purified the Tripitaka was held there under his patronage. He had also added a spire to the remarkable Swedhegon chaitya that dazzles the vicinity of Rangoon. But his main feat was getting the whole voluminous Tripitaka inscribed on 729 marble slabs to last forever. and today they spread over a vast area like the Pindiya limestone caves of Shan state that exhibit about 8000 - 9000 gold plated Buddha statues in its natural cavities. But luckily King Mindon did not live to see the tragic end to the city that just trailed into a mere outpost of the busybody Britishers who thought that they were destined to be masters of the whole world. Thibaw, son of Mindon was the ruler then and his weak personality facilitated matters for the trespassers. Photography had filtered into Burma by this time and I saw a photograph of the last royal couple, the queen on the right and the king on the left. Normally it is the male who stands on the right but Thibaw had lived in fear of not only the British invaders but of his wife too and given her the place entitled to him! History is not made only of wars, feuds and treaties but of queer human comedies like this and that ends my tale of the two cities of Buddhist Burma. To give some final information, actually Myanmar was the original name of this country but the British baptized it Burma, after the main tribe, the Burmans. Some of the other tribes denizening this country are the Mons, the Pyns and the Shans. It is a very disciplined country, disciplined both by a military
government and by Buddhism. Even on normal days temples are crowded with
devotees. Grandeur of Thai temples
Thailand's glittering Buddhist temples and the golden pointed silhouettes of stupas are a tribute to a gentle people's faith in a philosophy that has professed peaceful traditions for over two thousand years. Architecturally unique Thai temples make landmarks of the country. Buddhist architecture and decorative arts of finest Thai craftsmanship is portrayed in every temple in Bangkok, known as "The city of Angels." It has no less than 400 temples and monasteries with a further 25,000 spread all over the country.
At the first glimpse, these magnificent temples certainly compel the visitor to take a closer look at their architectural splendour. Steeply gabled roofs painted and decorated in red and gold Buddha images, the scent of joss-sticks, tinkling temple bells, and saffron robed monks are some of the most colourful sights and elements in Bangkok. Of all Bangkok's temples which are famous as 'Wat', Wat Benchamabopitr or the Marble Temple has a unique 'Uposatha hall' (ordination hall). These pictures featured here were captured during the visit to Thailand where peace and freedom blend with Buddhism. |
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