stupas, pagodas and monasteries, the Burmese use Paya or "holy " word referring to people, places or deities, defines them and understand them all. Speaking of Myanmar I think we can only begin with the "sacred", with constant and daily maintains that people with Theravada Buddhism, the oldest event (Theravada means "doctrine of the Elders") of this "religion," a kind in India, apparently already begun to spread in the third century before the Common Era through missionaries sent by a fervent Indian emperor Asoka and centuries later by monks from Sri Lanka to become the state religion in Burma finally starting around the first millennium of our era.
use the word "religion" in quotes very carefully, it is certainly not in the traditional sense of the monotheistic religions, absent the transcendent, faith the sense of mystery and of the inscrutable, the idea of \u200b\u200ban afterlife, any dogmatic certainty, in fact a philosophical and ethical doctrine developed Gautama Buddha from the Indian in the sixth century before the Christian era and the man who puts his life on earth at the center of his reflection. In fact the Buddha himself, despite the exorbitant number of statues and the veneration of which is made object, has no divine character, is not a God or a supernatural creature but a man who has become Master, an Enlightened One recalls that by example of his life and his teachings the way to go.
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| Pindaya |
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| Kyaiktiyo (Golden Rock) |
Yet "religion", because in spite of contents "others," nonetheless offers a path of salvation from suffering and pain and "religion" are the rites, individual and collective observances, precise rules to be respected, a way of ethics which conform. No distinction between Western sacred moments of life and secular life, and no torment introspective soul to be given on Sunday morning in church, the Buddhist belief permeates every moment of everyday of course, the provision of food to the monks' daily alms gathering in front of 'altar of the house.
stupas, pagodas and monasteries I appear to have the unique figure in this country and the coordinates of living of its people, going around the eye is routinely filled with golden pinnacles that rise everywhere. The architecture and the art of the rest of Burma have traditionally existed as an expression of the sacred function of education and teaching, and who painted it grew on the walls of a temple, who sculpted a work created to put inside it, the ' common goal to perform meritorious deeds to secure a future good life was spent in building temples and pagodas, is now restoring those already exist.
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| Mount Popa |
course, every place is different and has its own specificity, but some features are common to begin with the choice of place, apart from the vast the central plain of Bagan and Mandalay and the temples on the water, always on top, perched on mountains and hills, making every corner of rocks and stones. The Mount Popa (near Bagan) almost surreal shrouded in the mists of the morning , Pindaya (near Inle Lake) and Kyaiktiyo (near Bago) are the most striking examples. On the summit of Mount Popa we did not arrive, apart from the necessary courage to go I do not remember how many steps there was a tribe of monkeys and many of their excrement on the floor and as you enter the sacred places always strictly no shoes, we have postponed the . Kyaiktiyo, formerly inaccessible, it is incredible stupa perched on a boulder poised on the rock, the most sacred place in the country. Legend has it that the boulder maintains its precarious balance with a hair of Buddha in place a precise point of the stupa. Place of great charm is that dawn to sunset, the golden leaves that only men (women are not allowed) systematically stick to the rock, give reflections dream, pilgrims recite chants, light candles and meditate all night.
At 13 kilometers from the homonymous city, a steep path, full of souvenir stalls with local crafts and snack climbs the mountain. The most commendable course is to have it all on foot, or the first 10 miles on a truck caracollante packed like sardines and just boldly walk the final stretch as the monks and my friend Gaston. The undersigned, and is ashamed to confess it to death, he tried, but could not make it, finishing in a sedan chair with four bearers to the goal like a maharaja.
Endless stairs, often narrow and very deep as to reach Pindaya , limestone cave in which, in the company of giants, there are thousands of stalactites Buddha statues of all sizes and all materials, alabaster, ceramic, porcelain, teak, lacquer, cement, made here over the centuries and arranged to form a labyrinth that winds through the various chambers of the cave. "But these people with short legs and small-but-I thought why the hell did the steps like that? And here is the second common feature of Paya, the difficulty, the difficulty of access. To get there, to improve, to progress, to rise, (which everyone uses the verb is the more appropriate) and not only materially, but also spiritually, we must make hard, hard work. Is there a way to go up the hill, the silence and the difficulties that accompany it, the clarity of motivation, direction and process to find when you arrived at the top. These values, universal, valid at all latitudes, came to my mind all the monasteries of monks and hermits scattered among the mountains, came to my mind the stairs, which challenged the sky of Mayan temples of Tikal and Copan in Guatemala Honduras and visited a few years ago. Of course my legs then scrambled up agile, but the thoughts that I had not inhabited the same and the eagles were flying high.
