Myanmar 56 Inle Lake Hpaung Daw Oo Pagoda

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Myanmar
INLE LAKE
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Hpaung Daw Oo Pagoda
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Inle Lake, the second largest lake in Myanmar, is
a freshwater lake located in the Shan Hills.
Hpaung Daw U Pagoda (also spelt Hpaung Daw Oo or
Phaung Daw Oo) is a notable Buddhist site located
on the Inle Lake in Shan State.
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The pagoda houses five small gilded images of
Buddha, which have been covered in gold leaf to
the point that their original forms cannot be
seen. The gold-leaf application to such excess is
relatively recent. Old photographs hanging on the
monastery walls show some of the images in a more
pristine form. It is reported that some gold has
been removed on occasion to reduce its mass
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With Burmese architectural style, this pagoda is
the most important symbol of religion of the
area. Inside the pagoda, visitors can see five
gold-leaf covered small Buddha images at the
central shrine which is used for the 18-day-long
Phaung Daw Oo Festival. This festival is
considered as one of the biggest festival in
Myanmar and it is held from September to October
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Although the monastery is open to all for
veneration, only men are permitted to place gold
leaf on the images. Another part of the ritual
for pilgrims is to place a small robe or thingan
around the images, and to take the robe back to
their houses and place it on their own altar as a
token of respect for the Buddha and his
teachings. Myanmar lies between two great
civilizations, India and China but it has
developed its own distinctive culture, mostly
depends on the Buddhism.
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The images are of differing sizes, range from
about nine to eighteen inches tall. Being
essentially solid gold, the images are extremely
heavy. It is believed that the Buddha images were
brought to Inlay Lake by King Alaungsithu. Annuall
y, during the Burmese month of Thadingyut (from
September to October), an 18-day pagoda festival
is held, during which four of the Buddha images
are placed on a replica of a royal barge designed
as a hintha bird and taken throughout Inlay Lake
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a replica of a royal barge designed as a hintha
bird
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Hamsa is a mythical bird in Myanmar Legends
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The barge is towed from village to village along
the shores of the lake in clockwise fashion, and
the four images reside at the main monastery in
each village for the night. The high point of the
festival is on the day when the images arrive at
the main town of Nyaung Shwe, where most pilgrims
from the surrounding region come to pay their
respects and veneration.
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The elaborately decorated barge is towed by
several boats of leg-rowers rowing in unison, and
other accompanying boats, making an impressive
procession on the water
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Sometime in the 1960s during a particularly windy
day, when the waves were high on the lake, the
barge carrying the images capsized, and the
images tumbled into the lake. It was said that
they could not recover one image, but that when
they went back to the monastery, the missing
image was miraculously sitting in its place
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Surrounding the Pagoda, and in the basement are
shops selling traditional Shan and Burmese
merchandise. A local market serves most common
shopping needs and is held daily but the location
of the event rotates through five different sites
around the lake area, thus each of them hosting
an itinerant market every fifth day.
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The 5-day rotating market around Inle Lake offers
a good opportunity to meet many different local
tribes. Every 5 day all the hill tribe people
come down from the mountains to buy and sell
their goods, such as many different hand -made
items
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Text Internet Pictures Sanda Foisoreanu
Internet All copyrights  belong to their
respective owners Presentation Sanda
Foisoreanu
2014
Sound Saung Zaw Win Maung- The floral
bridge