Super Moon over Myanmar
Today, November 14, 2016, is an important national holiday in Myanmar – the Tazaungdaing Festival (Festival of Lights) held on the full moon day in the eighth month of the Myanmar calendar, and officially celebrates the end of the rainy season. This year, it is even more special because we get to experience a Super Moon, which is the brightest moon in almost 70 years. It is a day of celebration, a day of visiting a temple, a day to light up the river with candles, and a day to light up sky with fireworks. It is a day to fill the air with very loud, pounding, disco-type Burmese music, which seems to be a hallmark of every village and hamlet party.
Temple grounds as the sun comes up.
Our shuttle ship has docked.
We’ve found the beach and the welcoming committee.
Walking the plank to get ashore. Looks safe?
Fishing on the river.
Curious about the landing party.
A fisherman’s family out to enjoy the day.
We can see the temple marking the center of the village from our ship. After transferring to the shuttle ship, we head down river a short distance, round a bend, and aim for a sandy beach, which just a week ago was under water. Today, it is dotted with make-shift shelters for the fishing families whose boats line the shore, and curious villagers excited by our visit. Following several minutes of negotiating and moving a few of their boats, we have a clear shot at a landing. The draft of our boat will only allow us to get within 50 feet of dry sand…even though we ground the bow. The crew and village improvise by rolling a tree log into the water, halfway between shore and the boat, as a post to support two 20-foot wood planks that would be our bridge to get ashore. Our captain shed his uniform and donned the traditional longyi to join us in visiting a temple and one of the monks. As we came ashore, we were greeted by many women and children, welcoming our taking their photos and showing them the picture we took. It never fails to bring a smile to their faces. Yet again, we find very few men or boys. As we walked down a nicely shaded ‘road’ thru town towards the pagoda grounds, I took note that most young boys keep a distance and ‘hang back and together.’ Some buzz by on their mopeds. Few smile. I just noticed this and reflect that it has been consistent with other stops we’ve made. I wonder why? Well, perhaps they’re just teenagers, behaving like all teenagers.
Walking to the temple grounds.
Local woman came out to see what all the excitement is all about.
Watching all the excitement.
Bringing food to the monestary.
Chanting to reaffirming their commitment to the five Buddhist precepts.
As we approach the temple complex, we encounter several women and men carrying elaborate lacquer food boxes containing warm food for the monks in the monastery. They must complete eating (their second meal of the day) by noon. We followed one of them to a meeting hall, where she deposited her box in a back room and then proceeded to join 30-40 people kneeling before a monk who was leading a chant. A few of us knelt and joined the group. The chant was a repetitive affirmation of the basic, five Buddhist precepts or code of ethics that every layperson must live by and practice:
No killing
No lying
No adultery
No drinking of fermented drink
No stealing
A novice monk or nun would be subject to 10 precepts. Depending on a follower’s level of enlightenment, the number of precepts that they must live by increase. At the highest level, an enlightened monk would be required to know, recite, and live by 227 precepts.
Temple grounds.
Statue of Buddha dying, with monks in attendance.
Everyone is so BIG, except for Roselie.
The temple complex was filled with stupas of various sizes, as well as enclaves with statues of Buddha at which a few followers were kneeling and bowing. At one of these, an elderly woman, dressed in what looked like ‘going to church’ clothes, sat with her adult daughter. Noticing us, she got up and approached us with a smile (Tin was with us to help communicate). She welcomed us and was curious to know what we ate to be so big and tall – all of us were at least 5’ 10,” compared to her height of less than 5.’ We assured her that not everyone was tall, and began to look around to find either Kristina or Roselie. Ah…there is Roselie, who came over to join us. The woman was delighted, asking her all sorts of questions and wanted to know Roselie’s age…76. She volunteered that she was 68 years old, and insisted that Roselie must be younger than she claims since she didn’t show her age – she was eager to touch and embrace her. What a wonderful experience!
Local garage for truck repair.
Continuing on, what looked like a repair garage caught my attention – love these old trucks. A couple of mechanics were working on it. They said it had an ignition problem. It is absolutely amazing how they can make these old, junk vehicles work. This one obviously had a fuel tank problem at one point, since they teased it back to being usable by jury rigging a plastic, 5-gallon container, strapped next to the driver in the cab as the new gas tank. Definitely not OSHA compliant.
After returning to our ship, we hoisted our anchor and continued downstream to our overnight destination near Katha, about 50 miles. We could hear the celebratory music blasting out in village after village. As the sun set, darkness revealed our Super Moon, and its reflection on the calm river waters. The sky was clear. The temperature was perfect. On the opposite shore, fireworks were lighting the sky on both sides of the moon, as brackets to cradle the moon like a cherished jewel. Our accompanying shuttle ship repositioned upstream about half a mile, and sent more than 1,400 banana leaves supporting votive candles adrift in the river- it was a river of lights gently floating by our ship. Taking a moment of quiet to absorb, Kristina summed it up: Does it get any better or special than this – with a glass of wine in hand, of course?
Super moon across the river.
River of lights.
Set up for a wonderful dinner on the top deck.
The stage is set for the performance later tonight.
Roselie is ready to celebrate.
Colorful, local group came on board to put on a traditional dance.
The finale!
The festival celebration continued as the staff provided a special meal and entertainment on the top deck, with the sky, stars, moon, and lights as our canopy.
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