I have started this blog in a little odd and unorthodox way..I was suppose to write my Burma/Myanmar photo blog in a little order..meaning days and places in the best order than I can remember..Well the thing is I have been there at the end of glorious 2005..and it has been 6 years so it is less and less I remember everyday. That was mainly the reason I thought of writing it down.
So with no Order I give you Kuthodaw Pagoda day.
I visit this amazing place at the very last day of 2005.I do remember it because it is one of the most amazing things I have ever seen in my life so far.
Early waking and viewing one amazing morning mist over Mandalay..
I have choose to visit this Pagoda cause everyone was talking of it in
Mandalay and since I am a book "lover" when I heard about the "Largest
book on Earth" I could not imagine not seeing it.
I arrived there and it was still a beautiful misty weather.
I went in the Pagoda from the west saungdan approach.
The first thing I saw was the Pagoda it self.
The Pagoda lies at the foot of Mandalay Hill and was built during the reign of King Mindon. The stupa itself, which is gilded above its terraces, is 188 feet (57 m) high, and is modelled after the Shwezigon Pagoda at Nyaung -U near Bagan. (I will post also of this amazing site in coming days)
I walked around the grounds of the Pagoda cause it was also amazing to see.
A zayat on the southeast terrace of Kuthodaw
In the specific Zayat one more rear treasure was kept.
The sculpture of the Starving Buddha.Actually to see this is something really rear..there is only few places in the world to find this .
It is about two feet high, seated in the lotus
position.
The skin is shriveled up and the Greek god-like body -a common feature of
Hellenistic art of the time - is consumed in the trauma of wilful self-abnegation.
The
Buddha’s eyes receded into dark hollows, his cheeks became blades of
bone and his rib-cage a shocking skeleton. The facial hair is grey on
the dark-blue stone.
A truly mesmerizing sculpture of a Fasting Siddhartha
I toke my time there since I have never seen anything like it and taking advantage of been alone got to look at it for a long time.
Did not take many photos of the sculpture tho cause I did felt I was not aloud to even tho nobody stopped me.
And then I moved on.I was actually looking for the book when I realized I was always looking at it even from the Zayat where the statue of Buddha was.
Sign craved also about the World's Biggest Book.
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It was all so clear when I saw the sign.
All the little Kyauska gu (Stone caves shaped like stupas ) that I was looking all time while walking ...WAS the book leaves!!
I was amazed.
In the grounds of the pagoda are 729 kyauksa gu or stone-inscription caves leaves and 1460 pages!!
Each page is three and a half feet wide, five
feet tall and five inches thick.
Each stone tablet has its own roof and
precious gem on top and they are arranged around a central golden pagoda.
I do not know if I could ever describe how it feels to walk among a book leaves .
In
some of the small Kyauska gu a monk would be inside reading with soft
voice the script.That was something I think I will never forget as long
as I live.
The feeling of this place and its energy is beyond words.
All I know is I could stay there forever.
All those shots you can see in my Flickr account also.
Ugh! That fasting statue was so cool.
ReplyDeleteHmm loved it too!!Glad you like it Ulysses Lynn Harp !
ReplyDeleteI am also glad you visited here.