Sule Pagoda

Sule Pagoda is the most recognisable and stunning landmark in downtown Yangon. It has been on this site for over 2000 years. It is now the heart of downtown Yangon. Downtown Yangon's streets

were designed on a grid pattern by the Brits when they were in charge. Sule Pagoda was the centrepiece of the layout. The road that heads directly north of Sule Pagoda, Sule Pagoda Rd. divides
downtown Yangon into east and west. West of Sule Pagoda lays the areas of Chinatown and Little India. East lays the government offices law courts and a developing business centre. Sule Pagoda is on a roundabout which preserves its circular base.The site is also important for being the home of a nat. A nat is a spirit which provides a form of  protection for an area. It is not uncommon for nats to be present in a Buddhist place of worship as usually the places found to make a temple is often seen as being important. Nat worship in fact predates Buddhism in Myanmar. Various types of spirituality are widely practised in Myanmar and they go hand in hand with Buddhism. As I mentioned Sule Pagoda is located on a roundabout. At the base there is a diverse array of businesses selling items from SIM cards to cameras. There's even a camera museum!


hand in hand
 

Along side these are a number of  palmists. This is a very common sight in Myanmar especially around pagodas. All of these forms of spirituality are seen as being complimentary to each other and certainly not exclusive of each other. Belief in Buddhism encourages a reasonably grim view of life,in that we are born into suffering and we will continue to until we reach a state of enlightenment. (I'm not a theologian so I'm not going to go too far into this) but it makes sense that palmists and astrologers would be popular (in as far as a palmist or astrologer would"make sense"). People would want to avoid as much suffering as they can...so it would be a good idea to know for example when is the best time to get married...have children...make a business deal etc. Doing good deeds is another type of insurance policy against bad karma. This is evident in Sule Pagoda in the form of a karaweik. Sadly at the moment I can't get access to the photos so I will have to insert them later. This is a contraption in the shape of a mythical bird on a line attached to a winch where you can for $US1 or 1000 kyats buy some gold leaf. The gold leaf is placed in the bird and winched up to a smaller temple like structure. I assume someone will get it out and apply it to the zedi. Buying gold leaf is another common practice in Buddhist temples. Adding a bit of gold to a temple is another way of attracting good karma. Like many important pagodas in Myanmar Sule attracts its own little community and economic activity. Apart from gold leaf you can also buy offerings for the various statues found throughout the pagoda. In this case large green bananas and coconuts. In Sule there an entire warehouse which stores the offerings. Once again another way to increase one's store of good karma.

Temples are not just places for quiet contemplation but also a place which generates its own little economy. Although there are certain rules to conform to ,especially dress, the atmosphere is generally quite relaxed even informal. People will be praying,  lighting incense, reading ,snoozing , eating, talking on their phones and of course tourists will be snapping photos. There are usually people selling religious items or tourist stuff and in Myanmar you will usually have people trying to sell postcards. Quite probably there will be a few cats lazing around or even a lot of cats lazing around. Most important pagodas will have a monastery or school attached. Sule is interesting in this respect because directly beside it almost joined by a foot bridge is a Bengali Sunni Mosque. This photo was taken from the foot bridge which leads to an entrance of Sule above SP road. The mosque is on the left. I'm not sure how long this mosque has been here but I assume it dates from the colonial era.

Because Sule Pagoda is on an island really it can't spread out as much as other pagodas and claim all the area around it. It has to live peacefully with the mosque right on its doorstep. Well I suppose it doesn't have but I would think they have tolerated each other's presence for a while I imagine why there would be no reason to continue to do so