The Hindu Business Line : A day in Rangoon, nay, Yangon...

Our first glimpse of Myanmar from the air, marked by the curving path of the river Ayeyarwady, promised nothing unusual. Rather, after the majestic Brahmaputra winding away out of sight only less than a couple of hours ago, the Ayeyarwady seemed a poor apology. Despite this, on landing, the city of Yangon surprised us with its broad roads into the city centre, its neat-tiled and asbestos roofed buildings — not modern, but not in disrepair — endorsing Kipling's description of Burma as a "cleaner, greener land" than his own, and certainly than the city of Kolkata we had just exited! Perhaps, we had expected to see poverty and repression — both are not apparent in this capital city of Myanmar.

The formalities of customs clearance and money change imposed upon you at the airport are best not resisted. Every traveller has to get the customs clearance stamp on his passport as he enters — no walking out through the green channel here, and every foreigner must buy at least 300 Foreign Exchange Certificates (FEC) at the airport. Each FEC is equivalent to a US dollar, and both the FEC and the US dollar exchange for kyat (pronounced `chyat'), the local currency, with not very much of a differential — so the regulation in no way inconveniences you.

The Yuzana Garden hotel, where we stayed at a very modest $38 for a triple, again surprised us with its spacious, wooden-floored, high-ceilinged room with well-designed teak furniture, large beds, and a quaint bath with pleasing touches of the old — all in all spelling luxury and great value for the money spent. A tasty lunch at the Center Bar of the hotel, where we feasted on fish fried in batter, and chicken in a lemony sauce accompanied by deliciously fragrant rice, the staple food of the Burmese, left us a little guilty at the little we were paying for such delightful fare, and anxious that our indulgence should not affect our appreciation of the yet-to-come highlight of the day — a visit to the Shwedagon Paya.

The Golden Temple or the Shwedagon Paya is best viewed at sunrise or sunset, so we decided to postpone the treat awhile and pay a visit to the Bogyoke Aung San Market, still sometimes referred to by its British name, the Scott Market. A row of gem and jewellery shops greets you as you enter. Inside are shops selling longyis, the traditional dress worn by both men and women, exquisitely finished lacquer ware, and rattan and teak furniture. Some bargaining is mandatory, but this is an ideal place for picking up souvenirs. The market closes early at 4 p.m., and nearer that time, shop owners get busy winding up their affairs for the day. Here also moneychangers are available who give you a good exchange for your dollar.

We moved towards the Shwedagon Paya. This most famous of Buddhist shrines is visible some distance away, since it is located on a 58-metre high hill. Though three km from the city centre, the Paya still dominates the Yangon skyline. We entered through the western gate where, after the entrance ticket of $5 was bought and our shoes and socks lodged, an elevator took us to the top of the hill. All entrances have covered walkway approaches too. Out of the elevator, a corridor led to the centre of the sprawling area, where the various constructions started.

The history of Shwedagon is a mix of legend and fact, as is the case with most such ancient monuments. The legend recounts how two merchants were asked by the Buddha to carry eight of his hairs as relics to be enshrined in Myanmar. Accordingly, they were placed in a sealed casket, which was buried, and the stupa built over it. Fact reveals that the temple in its present form existed only from the 15th century, after being rebuilt many times. Kings and queens contributed the gold to gild the stupa. The visual splendour that greets your eye and the magic that it invokes is an experience by itself.

The main stupa is solid and stands above the rest on a platform, which is more than six metres high. The platform holds a number of small stupas; the main stupa rises in terraces — first octagonal and then circular, culminating in the shape of a bud, on which is placed the several-tiered hti. The whole stupa is gold leaf covered, however, the bud is gold-plated and the hti is encrusted with diamonds and precious stones. At the top is a single diamond of 76 carats.

Our guide made us locate the day of our birth from his little calendar book and then led us to the corresponding planetary post which displayed the animal sign at the foot of the Buddha statue. Worshippers bathed the Buddha using little plastic glasses of water — if you did it as many times as was your age, then you were blessed.

The concept of earning "merit" which leads to a higher form of existence in future life, by simple acts of charity like feeding the monks or contributing to the upkeep of places of worship, is very strong in the Burmese view of life. There are several small shrines, prayer or adoration halls, each with its Buddha and its own significance. There is a place for wish-fulfilment; there is also a 200-year-old Buddha image behind, which is supposed to be the passage that leads to the sealed relic chamber.

There are two bells prominently displayed. One is a 23-tonne affair, which the British, in their attempt to carry away after the first Anglo-Burmese war, dropped into the Yangon River, and had to be retrieved by the Burmese later.

Our guide, however, insisted that the bell was never recovered — the one we saw, he said, was a replacement. The second bell is larger and heavier and the enclosure in which it is housed has a lacquer ceiling with glass inlay.

Two peepul trees grown from the original Tree of Enlightenment of the Buddha at Bodhgaya, are also revered. All over, devotees — most with the dried-up thanaka paste on their faces, which they sported as both protection for their skins from the sun and make-up — moved on the clean marble floors, stopping here and there to contemplate and, pray. Monks spread their mats in view of the hti, and chanted hymns of praise, while dusk came upon us. At first, the central stupa emitted a glow of its own, which seemed to emerge from within it, giving it an eerie otherworldly took. We settled ourselves on steps nearby and watched as darkness fell.

What happened next was remarkable. The glow brightened and sharpened the outlines, till the central stupa seemed to rise and sway and float above you ethereally, detaching itself from its worldly links below — a flame reaching out for the sky. The hush that descended was both a physical and emotional experience. When we finally pulled ourselves away, subdued by the glitter and gleam, and traced our way back to the exit, not even the sight of the Maha Wizaya Paya located across the road, which Ne Win had audaciously topped with a hti higher than the Shwedagon, could diminish our feelings of awe and wonder at what we had seen and experienced.

Dinner at the upmarket Green Elephant, located in a garden setting, with tasteful cane interiors, known for its Bamar cuisine of salads and curries was a fitting finale to our first day in Myanmar.

Pictures by the author).

Fact file

How to get there: Bi-weekly Indian Airlines flight from Kolkata to Yangon.

Where to stay: Quality, low-priced ($25 onwards for a double) are available for booking on the Internet.

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