Shwedagon Pagoda: 2,500 Years of Myanmar’s Buddhist Legacy

At the first light of day, a thousand-year-old golden building sparkles. The Shwedagon Pagoda. This sacred monument is located in the heart of the capital of Myanmar, Rangoon. Legend has it that 2,500 years ago, during his lifetime, the Buddha asked for the construction of a sacred shrine in the form of an inverted cone that in Asia is called a pagoda or stupa. This pagoda, the largest in the world, would house eight strands of his hair, making it unique and sacred. Timeless, it literally dominates the city it protects with its aura. Entirely covered in gold, the Shwedagon Pagoda symbolizes the importance of Buddhism in Myanmar, practiced by 90% of the population. Early morning, and the faithful come here to find inner peace before their day's work. Uo Nguyen has frequented the pagoda since childhood. He wouldn't miss his daily appointment for anything in the world. I came to Shwedagon regularly, as soon as I could get there by myself. At the time, I must have been 13 or 14 years old, and I lived in a district which is about eight kilometers from the pagoda, and I always made my journeys on foot. All morning long, a large crowd gathers around the big stupa. On each side, a representation of the Buddha is placed for each day of the week. The faithful gather there according to their day of birth, so each one keeps within him a feeling of belonging to the monument. The octagon formed by the large golden stupa is surrounded by 64 small pagodans. At each of the compass points of the building, pagodas dedicated to the Buddha seal the enclosure. From the large marble platform, there are four covered stairs that connect the place to the alleys of the city. Wherever we are in Rangoon, the stupa is present and invites us to prayer. This emblematic sacred architecture, an assembly of squares representing the earth, and circles, symbols of the sky, has always fascinated historians. For Dr. Charlotte Galloway, an Australian specialist in Buddhist art, it is the most fascinating of the stupas. If we come back and look at the architecture itself and the form of this building, as it stands today, it's very much a representation of some of the core aspects of Buddhist cosmology. So we have a foundational base, the classic sort of eight-sided form, four main sides aligned to the cardinal directions. And as we move up the layers, we move also through a spiritual journey, which takes us up through those layers of the earthly realms, into the spiritual realms of the gods, and right up at the very top, as we reach the spire, to the final goal, which is represented here by all Buddhists, which is actually the void, a final attainment of enlightenment, as we reach that peak at the top of the building. Wherever you look, gold is omnipresent. No less than 20,000 gold plates cover the stupa, whose end is inlaid with 2,000 golden bells. The wealth all the more astonishing, as Buddhism advocates renouncing the material world. One of the things you can't help but notice when you come to the Shwedagon is that on all of the eight corners, we see these activities of people pouring water over images of the Buddha. What is the importance of this water? Water is actually, really has a very prominent place to play in Myanmar Buddhism. The legendary origins for this are associated with the Buddha's moment of enlightenment. And this has led to a ritual of pouring water, which is a way of washing away our anxieties, washing away our troubles, trying to bring us back to that sort of spiritual calmness that the Buddha had at that moment of enlightenment. In the many temples scattered on the marble platform, the figure of Buddha is everywhere. Famous throughout the world, this Shwedagon pagoda holds a special place for all Buddhists, thanks to its history, which links it to the original Buddha. One of the reasons the Shwedagon is so important in the Buddhist world is tied up in its histories, which are both legendary and also have some foundation in more in historical fact. According to local legend, the stupa was actually built at the time of the Buddha, so well over two and a half thousand years ago. And we have a legend where two merchants, brothers from the Mon region, had traveled, traded to India, and they came to where the Buddha was seated just after he'd spent 49 days of meditation. And they offered him his first food, and the Buddha gave them eight hair relics. They brought the hair relics back here. They decided that this was the place where the relics should be interred, and the stupa was built here. The other really interesting thing about the stupa here is the stupa was actually the first sort of visual representation of Buddhism. The legend of its origins has remained alive in the hearts of Burmese people. However, archaeologists and historians place the construction of the central stupa between the 6th and 10th centuries AD, and the construction of the annex buildings from the 16th century onwards. Another aspect we see here in visual form, which attests to its importance and legendary history of Buddhism here, is the Buddha footprint. The Buddha footprint, wherever we see, is meant to symbolize that the Buddha actually had physically been here at some point. Again, we cannot really know that for a fact, but it is what is believed. So when we see, like here, images of the Buddha footprint, it links this place back to the time of the Buddha, and a really long historical past and spiritual connection. It's noon at the Shwedagon. For the Burmese, this monument is above all a place of life, a peaceful place to meditate, in which one can also meet to rest of the family. For the millions of visitors who tread its grounds each year, it is both a global landmark of Buddhism and Myanmar's most emblematic monument. Its power of fascination through the ages lies in the fact that the monument is not fixed. It is constantly enlarged, restored, and perfectly maintained by the inhabitants of Rangoon. Below the plaza, just at the foot of the north staircase, entire alleys house the workshops of craftsmen dedicated to the restoration of the Shwedagon. They work with wood, leather, glass, and offer their art in service of this sacred place to attract the Buddha's goodwill. So Win Neng, in charge of renovating the glass mosaics, has left his workshop for his daily visit to the site. At 37, he represents the fourth generation of master glassmakers at the Shwedagon. In my family, it was my great-grandfather who started working. He learned the trade from a very famous sculptor called U Shwedong. When restoring ancient mosaics, ancestral techniques are used. But when we build new buildings, we invent new techniques. The designs are more modern, the shapes straighter, not curved as in the past. We create new designs while respecting the donor's choice. By contributing to the conservation of this sacred place, private donors accumulate good deeds so as to help improve their future lives. Their participation ranges from the small gold leaf to the construction of a new hotel in accordance with the rules of the style. But there are certain rules for making mosaics. For example, red glass should be surrounded by white glass. You shouldn't use any old wire to wrap beads, etc. Until now, we've used the old methods, but the material has changed a bit. During the work, the colours chosen depend on the donor's taste. For example, blue is a royal colour, so we use it a lot. As for green, it's widely used nowadays because it's the army's favourite colour, so we find a lot of it now. Eight workers are employed full-time in So Wing Neng's team. They are part of a large family of over a thousand people paid by the administration of the pagoda for the renovation of the site. Through their dedication to the Shwedagon, they all hope to obtain better karma upon their reincarnation. Buddhists believe in nirvana, it's our paradise. To achieve it, we must obtain what we call merit by making donations or by making everything beautiful and shiny at the pagoda. For us, glass or mirror represent clarity, purity, transparency, reality, truth. The transparency of the glass makes it possible to see through. It represents nirvana, where everything is visible. This is why this material is used a lot in the construction of religious buildings and objects. Not everywhere in the Buddhist world is there such a focus on these acts of donation. And here it's what we call karmatic Buddhism, where karma is the key focus. Through our good actions, good deeds, which must be done with good mind and good thought, we will earn karma and in our next existence, we'll move further up these levels towards attaining enlightenment. To achieve the supreme status, those who are neither employees of the pagoda nor rich enough to make donations offer their time. They take it in turns to never let the monument decay. Lia Long Ting joined this army of benefactors three years ago. Our association is in charge of polishing the bronze statues that decorate the pagoda and cleaning the toilets located at the four compass points of the Shwedagon Pagoda. We do this on a volunteer basis to get credit. We feel joy and at peace when we perform tasks on the pagoda. This joy cannot be compared to any other joy in this world. Au Nguyen, faithful to this sacred place since childhood, today presides over the association, gathering all the volunteers dedicated to the regular maintenance of the site. We Buddhists believe in a next life and reincarnation. We do good deeds to be reincarnated in the best way possible in our next life, or in a better life than this. That's why I come here every week. People from all over the country are in a rush to earn these famous merits so as to be reborn in a better life. Today the association has about 4,000 volunteer members. Originally there were only men in the association. We did the cleaning with soap and water. But we stopped 30 years ago to conserve water for people who come on pilgrimage. Since then we've been using grass brooms, and it's the women who master the technique the best. For these women, performers of meticulously orchestrated choreography, sweeping the immense marble plaza with their expert hands, is also a form of prayer. All these benevolent actions contribute to the great history of the pagoda. The ultimate goal of our association is to allow Buddhism to continue for 5,000 years. It has existed for over 2,600 years, and we will continue our actions to keep Buddhism alive for another 2,400 years. Buddha himself predicted that his teaching would last only 5,000 years. And if Buddhism has profoundly captured the Burmese people, then the ancient gods have not disappeared. One of the other things particular about Myanmar Buddhism is the integration of the indigenous net spirits, which are based in animist traditions. So we see here though that nets come to become integrated into Myanmar's Buddhist practice. At the time of the introduction of Buddhism in Myanmar, Buddha became the greatest of the nets, the traditional local geniuses. There is still a strong belief in their power among Burmese people. If they place their future life in Buddha's hands, their daily life belongs to the nets. In the middle of the afternoon, as in every week, Dol Khin Mau comes to visit the nets of the pagoda. Generally, Burmese people ask the nets to act for them. They can help with success in business, or in life in general, but also to stay healthy, to have successful studies, or to be happy as a couple. When people get what they want, they come back to the pagoda to thank the spirits by making donations. That's why people worship the nets for their incomparable protection. There is a net of the waters, of the forest, of the home, and even a net who can ward off evil fate when it falls on the family. 37 of these supernatural creatures watch over all mortal life. Dol Khin Mau is a medium. She has often experienced their presence. The nets are spirits, thus they can express themselves through mediums. I don't normally drink alcohol at all, but when I'm possessed, I drink a lot. Once the session is over and I'm no longer possessed, I'm as sober as if I hadn't drunk at all. That's why I think there are spirits. If it wasn't a spirit, I'd be drunk. Cigarettes, sandwiches, sodas, offerings in the image of half-angel, half-demon divinities who, unlike Buddha, inherited the desires and needs of men. The nets all share a tragic destiny and haunt the Burmese universe who attribute unexplained phenomena to them. They'll always be here, because their cult is passed down from generation to generation. Nets play an important role in Burmese culture. They can't be avoided. The day falls on the Shwedagon. The illuminations reveal the splendor of the monument and recall the grandeur of certain gifts, such as that of this Burmese queen who, in the 15th century, gave her weight in gold to cover the Shwedagon. Everywhere we look here, we see everything here is a result of these acts of donation, the idea of earning merit by respecting the three jewels of Buddhism, which are the Buddha, the Dharma, which is the Buddha teachings, and the Sangha, the Buddhist monkhood. And all of that has come together in this living environment which is continually changing as people are renewing, not just their own cycles of rebirth, but it's like a physical rebirth of this environment as well. Some pilgrims begin a ritual march. They turn clockwise around the stupa, which protects the precious relics and mimics the course of the sun in the sky. At this almost magical moment, in this grand setting of Buddhism, which is constantly undergoing transformation, the curious and the faithful alike are united in a single impulse towards the sacred. Soon, the pagoda will close for a few hours. At dawn, the first of the faithful arrive, followed by thousands of others throughout the day, a day in the most sacred of Myanmar's monuments.