SHWEDAGON PAYA

This is an immense stupa built on top of a hill. There are four entrances – NESW – at the base of the hill, impressive archways flanked by enormous lions, and at this point shoes have to be removed.
This is just at the entrance......

The way up is via a wide covered marble stairway with pillars and ceilings impressively decorated. It’s a long way up – there is even a series of 3 escalators. At the top you emerge onto a wide terrace (maybe 100 yards) around the base of the stupa itself where there are shrines of various sizes and places for people to sit and contemplate. As we arrived we saw a large group of little boys sitting with eyes closed – apparently being instructed in some aspect of Buddhism.

Although some were more diligent than others......

It was Saturday afternoon so there were a lot of people there – apparently it is a site of major importance within Buddhism so there were a lot of people from other Asian countries there. Only foreigners must pay an entrance fee and need to wear a sticker as evidence of payment, so it’s easy to see who is from outside Myanmar.

A young man started talking to us – reasonably good English – said he had been a monk for 20 years, since he was about 9, but had recently left to look after his ageing mother. He proudly showed us his passport – picture of him in his monk’s robes – and his Schengen visa and evidence of trips to various other places. We were a bit surprised by this – we thought that monks lived very simple lives with few possessions and no income, receiving food donated each day. Apparently not………

As the area is a wide expanse of marble and everyone is barefoot, the place needs to be kept clean and we saw a large group of women, each with a broom in each hand, form a line and slowly move forward sweeping methodically.

Every so often a small pile of the debris would be gathered and left for the person who had the responsible job of collecting it up with a dustpan and brush - and, yes, that was a man......

The stupa itself is huge and painted gold. It can be seen from all over the city and is spectacular at night when it is illuminated – in a city which is otherwise quite dark.