Site Seeing in Mandalay

Wow, I forgot how tiring site seeing can be. Since I have been working for six days in a row( if not more), I decided to take today off (Sunday) and tour Mandalay. I hired Ujo, my driver, for the day and me, Nyein, the registrar and Sim, the counselor, went off on our adventures. What was nice was that we could go at our own pace and did not have to climb off the bus and visit every tourist trap this side of New York City as other tourists do who take the large tour buses.

As you can see from the pictures, we started at a shop making gold leaf. What I could not get over, and was frankly transfixed by it, was the manual labour involved. Two guys were literally hammering away at the gold to make the leaf, each beating in syncopated rhythm. They used a timer to let them know when they could take a break. The timer was a jug with a little hole in it placed in water in a bucket. When it sunk, they could take a break. They do this literally back breaking labour for at least 8 hours a day I would presume.

We also went to another craft areas where they were chiseling marble statutes of the Buddha or weaving or making wood carvings. It was all the same, using manual labour to do the work that machines could probably do better ( maybe) and certainly less labour intensive. Having said that, when you are probably paying the labour about $1 a day, it is probably better than buying an expensive machine and having to worry about electricity in a land where electricity powers off about as often as I have to urinate from all of the water I am drinking in this 40 degree weather (and this is almost the cool season!)

We had to rush to get to the Mahegandahayon Monastery by 10:15 since all the monks have their meal together at that time. As you can see, they stand obediently in line and walk up separately in silence to receive their portion of rice (covered with flies or maggots just seconds before). They eat in silence and then get back to their studies. They certainly learn obedience, self discipline, and humility, all probably good things. I bought a little book on meditation so I should be an expert by the time I read and practice it. I realize though that it is probably impossible for a westerner who has very little of the virtues mentioned above to practice meditation.

At this point, we went to the ancient city of Innwa and as usual, when something really spectacular comes up, the battery of my camera responds inversely and gives up the ghost, so you will just have to let me paint a word picture. We had to cross the Irawaddy river by barge, to get to the other side. Once there, we had to take a horse drawn carriage for transportation since there was no other way other than foot to travel. We started at a monastery that could have very well been used for “Raiders of the Lost Arc”. It was cavernous inside with huge pillars and birds literally flying around in the belfry if there was one). It was interesting to see the classroom in the monastery where the tables and desks were affixed to the floor and I could almost hear the choral chanting of the students even though there were no classes because today was Sunday. Interesting enough, since Myanmar is on the lunar calendar, Sunday is not necessarily the Sabbath. The Sabbath does happen every seven days but not necessarily on the same day each week.

We then took our carriage to what can best be described as the Leaning Tower of Myanmar. It was a watchtower that literally leaned to one side and I am surprised it still remains standing after all these years. The piece de resistance though, was the castle, or so it seemed, of the Queen who tried to do her husband in but was found by the king and executed by having an elephant that step on her. The pagoda was really beautiful and if I can get Sim’s pictures ( her battery did not run out), I will post the pictures later.

I have to go to sleep since I am going to Yangon early tomorrow. I have that math workshop after school that I have been putting off preparing it. I wrote two blog entries instead of working on the seminar, but sooner or later, and obviously sooner, I have to get at it.