Burma's Custodian Of the Buddhist Way
Source : Thelma Menezes, The Times Of India(June 24)
SOME years ago, I made a trip to Rangoon to visit members of my family. It was April and the timing was perfect. Star flowers exuded fragrance; the golden pa-dauk was in full bloom and Burma was about to celebrate Thin-gyan, a Water Festival, to usher in the Burmese New Year. According to legend, Tha-gyar-min, King of the Celestials, comes down to the human world during this period to grace the event.
As the story also goes, a hermit living in a forest saw a huge flower, which he brought home. It gave birth to a beautiful girl Me-Lamu whom he raised as his daughter. Tha-gyar-min saw her and knew that she was destined to be the mother of a great king who would found the city of Dagon (now Rangoon) and that king would be sired by him. Disguised as a handsome young man he asked for her hand and out of the union was born King Okalapa, who later built Dagon. This city today has a satellite town to commemorate his name while the memory of Me-Lamu is enshrined in a pagoda.
When I arrived in Rangoon, preparations were already under way. Celebration committees had been formed. Teenagers were raising funds, selling picture postcards and souvenirs, servicing vehicles to transport celebrants.
Festooned mandats (pandals) were coming up along the roads with provision for storage of water for the revelry. Food stalls provided traditional fare. Bu-thi-gyaw, white gourd crisps fried in sizzling hot oil, to be eaten with lettuce and chilly sauce. Mo-hin-ga rice noodles in a rich gravy of curried fish. Glutinous rice steamed in hollow bamboo served with sesame seeds, peanuts and grated coconut. Light, unsweetened tea in bowls, hot and refreshing.
For four days people thronged the streets, some in open trucks, everyone dancing to the reverberating beat of drums, cymbals, bamboo clappers and flutes, squirting, splashing water on each other, quelling the summer heat. It was an explosion of gaiety overflowing with goodwill.
However, Tha-gyar-min's annual visit is not just to initiate a period of merry making. He is regarded as the Custodian of Buddhist teachings, responsible for ensuring that people live in accordance with the Buddhist way.
Khin Myo Chit in her book, Colourful Burma, writes that children are told by elders that they should not steal, hurt or kill anyone. Names of the good would be inscribed by Tha-gyar-min on a plate of gold while the bad ones would be relegated to a parchment of doghide, which he would carry with him to dispense justice. It was a blueprint for good behaviour equally applicable to adults.
Emphasis is also laid on Dha-na, acts of giving through meritorious works.The spirit of Dha-na is humility, selflessness, expecting no reward, not even recognition. The quality or quantity of the gift does not matter as much as the spirit in which it is given - feeding monks, giving alms, sharing food and sweets, fetching water for the aged, washing their hair and bathing them with home-made concoctions of soap nuts, acacia and bark of the linden tree.
Under the watchful eyes of Tha-gyar-min, it is also time for novitiations into the Buddha's Order of the San-gha when boys are sent to the kyaung (monastery) for a week or more, where they have their head shaven, don yellow robes, do their early morning rounds collecting their meals in black lacquer bowls, all the while learning and adhering to the Buddhist precepts imparted to them by phon-gyis (monks).
Parents consider it an act of omission in they fail to follow this ritual. If they do not have sons, they help those with limited means through mass novitiations. For the boys, it is a renunciation of worldy pleasures of a life of austerity and discipline and to experience the essence of Buddha's teachings even if it is for a short while.
Ceremonial processions to the monastery added colour, with the novices-to-be in richly embellished princely costumes astride caparisoned horses shaded by golden umbrellas, followed by family members and damsels carrying offerings of robes, bowls and flowers. And always, with the Burmese love for fun, the pageants were enlivened by dancers and music troupes.
It was four days of an unforgettable blend of religion and revelry, with water symbolically cleaning and purifying, and Tha- guar-min reigning supreme over the country as Custodian of the Buddhist Way.