Ant and I spent a crazy day visiting many sights in and around Mandalay – Myanmar’s second largest city – 1hr20 north of Yangon by plane. Early May and it is definitely summer in Myanmar. To say we were hot was an understatement.
In the centre of the city is the Mandalay Palace and fort, which has a huge moat running round all 4 sides. Each side is about a mile long, and according to one of our guide books the government enslaved the people of Mandalay to dig out all the muck and silt a few years ago. I think much of the original palace was destroyed in WWII, but the walls were impressive.
At Sandamuni Paya we saw what is reportedly the world’s largest book – 1774 carved marble slabs each housed in a little white stuppa – very very impressive.
At Mahamuni Paya Ant was able to go up to an area in front of the Buddha image reserved exclusively for men, where they can place gold leaf on the image. Over the years so much gold has been applied that the Buddha has become distorted, with the gold 6 inches thick in some places. Us women folk got to watch the men do their gold leaf application on the handily installed TV screens.
My favourite part of the day was chancing across several ceremonies for novice monks. Almost all Buddhist Myanmar men will have been a monk at one point or another in their lives, even if just for a week or so. Being a temporary monk is very common – some men even take leave from my work just to go and do this. The first time a boy/ man becomes a monk is a very important occasion and a big celebration for the family. At Mahamuni Paya the children who were to become monks for the first time were dressed in pink and orange, sheltered from the sun by traditional golden umbrellas, held by not very traditional looking men. I was assured that all the children in pink were boys… somewhat hard to get our heads around what with our British pink-for-a-girl gender colour stereotypes.
Further down the road we came across an amazing procession of novice monks. In Yangon you see these processions quite often at this time of year… but the difference is that everyone rides in the back of a flat bed truck with golden umbrellas pointing forwards like tusks towards the oncoming traffic. Seeing a procession of pom-pom clad horses and bulls was much more exciting!
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