Myathalon Paya Festival

The entrance to the Myathalon Paya in Magwe is in a particularly beautiful setting. It is right at the end of town and surrounded by forest. It is guarded, as is normal, by fierce-looking stone lions. The Buddha never came to Magwe, but he did visit a town directly opposite across the Ayeyarwady River. Two ogres, who were brothers, brought a mya tha lon, which means emerald bed, for the Buddha to sleep on. It is enshrined in the paya and a carving of the bed is displayed over the entrance and reflected in the name of the paya: Myathalon.

We walk upwards on a covered walkway where huge paintings depict scenes from the Buddha’s life, which are often displayed. What was unusual here were sixteen sets of two paintings. Apparently King Kawsala had sixteen dreams that frightened him and he asked the Buddha what they meant. One painting showed a man making rope at a table, beneath which a dog was eating the rope. The picture of interpretation revealed a group smoking, drinking and playing cards. This showed that you can make money by making something, but you will lose it if you have heavy outgoings.

Nearing the top of the hill, where so many pagodas perch in Myanmar, we came across two women filling infinitesimally tiny glass bottles with powder. The filling for one woman was fawn, the other, white. Apparently if you sniff it, it makes you sneeze and therefore improves your health or fixes an illness you may have coming on.

The white powder reminded me of when Hla Myo arrived in Brisbane Airport. I sat outside waiting for him for over an hour. All other passengers on his flight had long since gone into town. Had he missed the plane, I wondered? It was a huge achievement to fly to Australia from Myanmar having hardly left Mandalay up until then. But no, this was not the reason.  He showed them a little parcel that a friend had asked him to take to another friend (in Perth – I lived in Brisbane). A Myanmar man carrying white powder was of great interest to the airport officials. I assume my long wait was for them to test what Hla Myo called ‘licking powder’ and fortunately they did not find it a banned substance. To add insult to injury I then had to send the parcel by special delivery to Perth. Hopefully the recipient was duly grateful.

In a pavilion at the top of the hill was an old hti or spire of the pagoda. It was donated thirty years ago on the death of Min Htin Min Hla Kyaw Khaung. The present hti was impossible for us to see, because the entire paya was covered in woven bamboo mats. When the festival really starts, no doubt the mats will come down and the people will enjoy the beauty of the paya and continue to donate squares of gold leaf. A large notice stated that 6,200 squares were needed to decorate a particular part. As our paya-visiting itinerary was quite crowded, we could not return to admire the paya with its covers off. Fortunately huge paintings stood on one side so that we could appreciate just how magnificent it was.