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Family Pic

Monday, February 20, 2017

Shwedagon Pagoda Light Festival (Thadingyut)

Thadingyut Light Festival at the Shwedagon Pagoda 
Octobre 16, 2016

The Shwedagon Pagoda is the most sacred Buddhist Pagoda in Myanamar.  In the center is a 99 meter (325 feet) tall stupa and it is dominates the Yangon skyline.  It is supposed to contain 4 relics of Buddhas:  staff of Kakusandha Buddha, the water filter of Konagamana Buddha, a piece of the robe of Kassapa Buddha, and eight strands of hair from the head of Gautama Buddha.

Thadingyut is "held on the full moon day of the Burmese Lunar month of Thadingyut. As a custom, it is held at the end of the Buddhist lent (Vassa) and is the second most popular festival in Myanmar. Thadinyut is the celebration to welcome the Buddha’s descent from the heaven after he preached the Abhidhamma to his mother, Maya, who was reborn in the heaven" (Wikipedia). 

It's a huge celebration and Shweddagon is one of the places that many Buddhist from different regions make a pilgrimage to celebrate the special day.  There are extra food and toy stalls everywhere, lots of people, and often free entertainment offered.  People set off fireworks (our neighbor did in his backyard) and some light floating lanterns, although we didn't really see that.  We went to the Shwedagon Pagoda to celebrate and it was a beautiful cultural experience, definitely one I will remember.  


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The end of Buddhist Lent (usually end of October) in Myanmar is marked by a national 3 day festival of lights called Thadinyut.  According to my very limited understanding, the lights are meant to celebrate when Buddha returned to earth after his ascension into heaven.  Those on earth set out lights to guide his path to them.  All pagodas, but especially Shwedagon, are packed with people (many from farther distances) that have come to light candles and lanterns to pay homage to and gain favor of Buddha.
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My light haired blue-eyed girls are often met with ooos and awes and people asking to take their picture.  They are usually very gracious and will even smile most of the time.  However, when we went to the light festival, they were even more of a sight for many of those who had come from long distances for the festival and had never or rarely seen a fair skinned person.  We went with a group from the embassy to the festival and it took us a million times longer to see the sights because we were being stopped every few moments by people who wanted their picture with the girls.  Maya was in the carrier and we decided to keep her in there because otherwise we might never move!  Here are just a couple of the girls' many admirers:

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We finally did make it to the area where people were lighting candles.  At the pagoda, people offer food and other items for the pagoda, but light candles is the main way to celebrate this festival.  During the festival lights are lit and electric lights are strung to light the way for and commemorate Buddhas return to earth.  We were just going to watch but then this kind Buddhist monk came over and offered candles to the girls and helped them light them.

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(poor Sienna burnt her little finger a little trying to get the candle to stick on the table)

We were able to walk the circle of the pagoda seeing many different shrines and worship areas along the way.

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As the night grew dark, the lights shining against the magnificent gold leafed stupa was quite beautiful.

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Lighting the candles,  offering prayers 

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I will leave you with our girls ringing in the festival with bang.  It is said to be good luck to ring the bells in the pagoda, but you must only ring it in increments of odd numbers… or was it even?  Shoot, I should try to figure that out. 

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See you again soon!


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Thursday, February 9, 2017

Our Neighborhood: Yangon Myanmar and first Excursion


MYANMAR --- WE  ARRIVED (cough cough...6 months ago)

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After a long full day and half of plane travel (about 35 hours door to door),  we got to our home in Yangon exhausted but excited to see what's in store.  Here's a few of our first sights:  

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Inya Lake (above) -- not far from my home.  

The main Buddhist Pagoda in Yangon: Schweddagon Pagoda.  We visited this awesome pagoda a couple months later, so I will do a post focused on this beautiful place later. 

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And OUR HOME (or as Sienna calls it: The White House)
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 Colonial style built when the British occupied and controlled Yangon and most of Myanmar.  It's very grand on the outside and the ceilings are high and spacious.  It lacks any closets in the bedrooms but it does have very modern toilets, with a Myanmar flair.  Instead of toilet paper, most places here offer a little squirt gun to spray yourself clean.  Luckily, our home also has a place for the toilet roll.


I will say I apparently haven't taken any photos of the inside of our home, except for the toilet and a pic of our constant companions: the geckos.  They roam all around here which is fine by me.  They eat mosquitos and spiders and most importantly, roaches.  We haven't seen one roach in our house since being here, which is super awesome considering they were frequent visitors in Japan and Taiwan.
And here is our city: There is much to learn and much to love.

The People

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I love all the carrying methods.  And they have great balance!
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The markets 

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Unique Food options! 
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Really unique
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And some pretty interesting meat options as per usual in Asia


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And Yes thats a tail coming out of that meat (looks a little rat-like to me).  Not my cup of tea, but others seem fine with it. 
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Apparently the meat area is quite COZY too!
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Let's get that meat cut!                                        Hello Pig!
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 These guys happily displayed their bucket full of chicken or duck to me. 
Notice all the meat waiting right behind them!
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And FISH and some sort of Live Eel/snake too! In some ways I wish I was more brave to buy and cook this stuff, but I'm afraid my stomach won't even consider it. 

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So this is where we usually buy are meat from a Korean store, a little more palatable for me. 
Although, you still get to find some fun meat options:  Cow tongue, pork leg, pork belly, greenish beef shank, full octopus and squid, and meat labeled "random".  :) 

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NOW on to some beautiful pictures architecture here: quiet overgrown allies, rundown structures, Pagodas, beautiful structures,  preserved British structures and unpreserved British structures from the 1820s, wires and crazy nests of electricity with the ever present hoards of crows.  
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Not sure if you can tell- but thats a huge web of tangled and cut and scraggly and working wires

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Bikes and doorways (thinking of my brother-in-law Josh, what do you think Josh?) 
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And a few precarious things along the way

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TRANSPORTATION is also fun at times, but mostly not fun at all.  Even the tri-shaws get stuck in these traffic messes.  For such a long time, the government made cars pretty unaffordable except for the really rich, and then one day, they weren't.  So tons of people without driving experience, new street lights that may or may not work, limited parking places so parking is wherever people want,  a ton of cars on roads not equipped for them, parades of gods and idols, trucks abounding with people or carrying precarious cargo, right and left hand drive cars mixed together, bikes, trishaws, broken down cars, pedestrians that cross randomly (no crosswalks and severely limited sidewalks), all add up to... well... not the best combo to say the least.  Lots of hours stuck in traffic and I'm thankful for my driver cause otherwise I would be staying at home.  


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Are those metal rods secured?
Here was our first exploring outing as a family:
 Chauk Htat Gyi Reclining Buddha: 65 meters long, built 1907

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The soles of the feet contain 108 segments in red and gold colors that show images representing the 108 lakshanas or auspicious characteristics of the Buddha.

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Nga Htat Gyi Pagoda: 14 Meter tall “five storey Buddha
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We have started out experiencing some Yummy food too! 
Coconut milk curry and fried fish for starters

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Lucky to have people who have welcomed our friendship too! Thanks friends!


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We love our church community too and love being of service here.
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And don't worry about the kids: We have found some great things for them and they still lead a semi-normal life.  A great school for Elli, indoor and outdoor playgrounds, a club pool, daisy scouts, and weekly gymnastic and theater drama classes keep them busy for sure.

1st day of school and then 2nd 1st day of school at British School Yangon
 (we changed schools in January) 
Elli was thrilled about her "Hermoine" uniforms.
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Why can't America have indoor places like this at the mall? and its not very expensive either! 

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 Drama Class: Shakespeare theater group with an awesome teacher
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Daisy Scout Camp out at the American Club
and secret night heart attack

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 Gymnastics: This is actually where the official Myanmar Olympic team trains.  Their teacher is this rough old man who speaks only a little English and demands a lot, but does it in a way that the girls really respond well too.   He is a former teacher of the Myanmar prospective Olympians as I understand.  Classes are 30,000 kyat for a month (less than $22) and we could come multiple times each week (although we only come once each week usually).
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Outdoor playgrounds when we can stand the heat and a club pool when we can't.
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Here we are wearing traditional Myanmar clothing: Longyi (left) and Karin State Clothing (right with my awesome driver Saw Gwai Say and his wife at their home).


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 We do feel at home now and we look forward to sharing more of our adventure with you. (and in the future, we will get Todd in a longyi as well!)  
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