The Buddhist Art of Ancient Arakan 6

The Mahamuni Sculptures

If we travel from Akyab, the capital of the Arakan State, north wards by boat along the Kaladan River, we reach Kyauktaw town. The town is about 60 miles up the river from Akyab and is situated on the left bank of the river. See Picture. Go



On the right bank, opposite Kyauktaw town is the famous Selargiri Hill. According to tradition, Gautama Buddha journeyed to Arakan and landed on this hill first. At present, there is a standing Buddha image on the top of the hill pointing out to his disciples the various places in which his former lives had been passed. There is also one Buddha image in a reclining posture (parinirvana scene) and two caityas (one old type and the other new type). The entire view of the hill with these images and caityas is very scenic. This hill commanded a view of the rice plains towards Dhanyawadi which is situated about 5 miles east of the hill. See Chapter III for description of the city of Dhanyawadi.



Sirigutta hill, on which the Mahamuni shrine was built, lies on the northeast corner of the site once occupied by the ancient city of Dhanyawadi, whose walls are still traceable at present. See Picture. Go, the aerial photo map in Chapter III. The Mahamuni precincts occupied the whole hill which is leveled into three flat surfaces. These surfaces are surrounded with square-cut blocks of granular sandstone forming three enclosures. The lowest enclosure, which has an area of 500’ x 580’, is the base where there is a reservoir, known as Candasuriya reservoir, fed by a perennial spring The second enclosure is thirty feet up and has an area of 220’ x 240’. The third enclosure is again thirty feet up enclosing the leveled summit on which is built the shrine. It has an area of 116’ x 155’. There are a number of sculptures standing on these platforms. At the four cardinal points of the lowest enclosure are gates from which covered step-ways led to the shrine. See Picture. Go It is the oldest and most revered Buddhist site in Arakan.



In the central chamber of this shrine is the throne on which the Mahamuni image was once placed. The image was removed in 1784 to Mandalay. According to tradition, as well as the palmleaf manuscript Sappadanapakarana, Lord Buddha, while sojourning in Dhanyawadi, consented to the request of the king Candasuriya to leave an image of Him. The king collected the necessary metals and with the help of Sakra and Visvakarman made the image which was said to be exactly like the Blessed One. The Blessed One breathed upon the Image to impart life to the Image. King Candasuriya placed the Image on a throne in the shrine which he built on top of the Sirigutta hill. The image faced west where lay the places of the Four Principal Incidents of the Master’s life.



The entire religious history of Buddhistic Arakan centres around this “younger brother” of Gautama. The Image was believed by the people to be the original resemblance of Gautama taken from life and was very highly venerated. Pilgrims have for centuries come from various Buddhist countries to pay their devotions at the foot of the Image.



According to Arakanese historical records the shrine was destroyed by fire or by pilferage on many occasions throughout the centuries and was again and again rebuilt by pious kings of these centuries.



Of the original shrine, nothing remains except the three walls surrounding the three flat surfaces of the Sirigutta hill made of square cut blocks of granular sandstone, a reservoir at the southeast corner of the first enclosure, a number of stone sculptures standing along the terraces, and a few original architectural fragments.



The stone sculptures are the earliest group of specimen of the Buddhist Art of Ancient Arakan so far found. They consist of single images, dials and triads. They are all made out of the same type of fine -grained red sandstones and the sculptures are rather similar in design and dresses. The sizes of the slabs having single images are almost the same whereas the slabs having dials and triads are a little smaller.



Fortunately for us, there are some writings on one of the single images out of which two lines are still legible. See Picture. Go We can read Senapati Panada very clearly and therefore this image is the image of the Yaksa General Panada. Panada was one of the 28 Yaksa generals. Studying palaeographically, we can assign the writing to the 4th or 5th century A.D. This gives us the age of the group of these stone sculptures.



Unfortunately, one of the hands of most of the images are broken. In some cases both the hands are broken. The headdresses are a braised due to weathering and lapse of time. Almost all of them have the attributes of royalty such as ornate headdresses: sometimes with crown, earrings, necklets, armlets, bracelets, anklets and a waist band tied in different fashions.



The slabs consist of raised unornamented ledges about one foot high on which the images are seated. The back slabs are mostly plain and the tops are usually rounded. In some cases there are nimbuses behind the head, elliptical or otherwise in shape. Some of the slabs have decorations in the form of rows of coils behind the shoulders.



The images have no overt sexual characteristics. The sculptor or sculptors executed a balanced composition of the figures which have smooth curves of the flesh. The artists seem to be aiming at the reproduction of sublime beauty in figures by an attenuation of the limbs and waists. The faces are oblong and have round smooth chins. Most of them are seated with their knees raised in different fashions and the postures of one of the hands can be made out to be either in Abhaya or Varada mudras. The other hand may be resting on the knee or holding a sword.



To interpret these images, we must note that the Mahamuni Shrine was built to house the exact replica of Sakyamuni, the Buddha. The Arakanese called this image in adoration as Mahamuni. So, the Greatest will be the Image of Buddha in this shrine. Any other image found around the shrine cannot be superior in status to this Buddha Image. One should not interpret the images found here as the images belonging to the Buddhist Pantheon mentioned in many advanced Mahayana Suttras devoted to meditation and perception of the deities, such as Sadhanamala, Nispannayogacali, etc. According to these Suttras, there exist Dhyani Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, Mortal Buddhas and Saktis. In order to identify our sculptures with these gods and goddesses one has to search for attributes held in hands and the images of Dhyani Buddha on the headdresses. When the hands are broken and the headdresses a braised, one can speculate in many ways as one likes. It is only natural that the prejalicial mind will draw conclusions according to what one likes to.



In order to interpret these broken and braised images found in the shrine, one should first of all determine what stage the Buddhism has reached in Arakan at the period of making of these images. As we know the approximate date of making of these imges as the 4th or the 5th century A.D., the Buddhism prevailing at that time cannot be advanced Mahayana. Please refer to the last two chapters. So they should not be associated with the Buddhist Pantheon mentioned in the advanced Mahayana Suttras. What do these images represent then? We have known that all beings, men, Nats (celestial devas), Brahmas and creatures of the nether world worshipped Buddha and listened to Buddha’s preachings. According to Buddhist Iconographical Texts, there are eight classes of beings who listened to Sakyamini’s preshing. They are Devas, Yaksas, Gandharvas, Asuras, Garudas, Kinnaras, Mahoragas and Nagas. I am strongly convinced that the Mahamuni sculptures represent these figures.



Among the sculptures of the Mathura School of Art there are numerous Buddha and Bodhisattva images together with those of Kubera, the Yaksas and Nagas. Images of Tantric flavour are not met with here, not even the images of Avalokitesvara, Manjusri are to be found in this school. This school extended to the early Gupta period.



The situations in Arakan School of Art during the period of making the Mahamuni sculptures are the same as that of Mathura School. We found here Naga kings, Yaksas, Kinnaras, Asura diads, deva triads and numerous royal figures whom may also be taken as Bodhisattvas. Bodhisattva concept is already in existence ever since very early times of Buddhism. The Bodhisattvas here, however, should not be mixed up with the Bodhisattvas mentioned in advanced Mahayana Suttras after the advent of the doctrine of Three Bodies and the theory of Five Dhyani Buddhas.

Mahoraga or Naga (Serpent King)

See Picture. Go There can be no doubt about this figure. The outspread hood of a cobra with five heads rises above the head. The figure wears a three-pointed crown enclosing a two coiled jata with a lotus bud-like top. The figure sits with left knee raised with the foot drawn back to the centre and pointing to the side. The right leg is folded under. The right hand is in Abhaya mudra, i.e., the palm turned towards the front with fingers raised upwards. The left hand falls on the side of the raised left knee. The figure wears a pair of large circular earrings, plain and wide necklaces, plain Brahmanical cords, a stiff belt, tied at the front with the buckle in the form of a horse shoe and anklets.



Nagi (Female Naga)

See Picture. Go The outspread hood of a cobra with nine heads rises above the head. The face is shown frontally while the torso bends to the right. The arms are broken and the legs in kneeling position are turned towards the right. The figure is sitting in a feminine way.



The Yaksa General Panada

See Picture. Go The figure is a small one with a high back slab. There is a trefoil nimbus behind the head. On top of the nimbus is a flag. The headdress does not contain a crown. As usual with all the figures, the figure wears large circular earrings. Both hands are broken and the body is also badly damaged. The figure sits with left knee raised with the foot drawn back to the centre and pointing to the side and the right leg folded under. The left hand may have held a sword. On the upper portion of the stone behind the figure are traces of 12 lines of an inscription which contains only a few legible letters. The lines must have continued to the base. Only the two lowest lines are legible now. Fortunately, the lines contain the name of the figure, Senapati Panada. See Picture. Go As mentioned before, we can date the sculpture paleographically to either the 4th or 5th century A.D. Panada, as mentioned in Suttras of the Digha Nikaya, was one of the 28 Yaksa Generals led by Kubera.



Other Yaksa Generals

See Picture. Go The figure is similar to that of Panada, but is better preserved. There is a trefoil nimbus at the back of the head on top of which is a flag. The figure sits with the left knee raised with the foot pointing to the side. The right leg is folded. The headdress does not have a crown and as usual wears large circular earrings. There is no necklace but two straps pass over his shoulders twist over the chest and behind the arms. There is a girdle around his hips. The right hand is broken now, but it may once be in varada mudra. The left hand is moved sideways behind the raised right knee and is holding a sword.



There may be more images belonging to the group of Yaksa generals.



The Gandharva (The Deva Musician)

See Picture. Go The headdress has no crown but consists of four narrow coils on top of which is a bulbous bun. There is a flag above and two spikes can be seen to protrude from either side of the headdress. The figure wears, as usual, large circular earrings, plain wide necklaces, armbands, a short tunic and a belt. He sits with his right knee raised with the foot pointing to the side and the left leg folded with knee and toes touching the ground. The right hand is bent with elbow on the right knee and is holding a sword broken at the top. The left hand is placed flat on the left thigh. Small wing like decorations sprout from behind the shoulders. At the back of the figure is a raredos rounded at the top whose height is about the eye level.



Kinnaras

See Picture. Go The head dressed consist of five pointed crowns enclosing three or four coiled jata with bud-like tops of different shapes. From the sides of the headdresses issue flower like projections and from these fly tripartite feather-like objects curved outwards at the ends. Each figure has large circular earrings inserted in the lobe. The neck has three graceful folds and the necklaces are plain and wide. All have upper arm bands with a single fleuron projections, bracelets and armlets. A belt is always worn around the waist and is tied in front in various fashions. A belt is sometimes discernable around the hips. All figures, except one, sit with the right knee raised, foot pointing forward, and the left leg folded under. The right hands fall freely on the side of the raised right knees. The left hands are broken from the elbow. The left hands most probably may be either in abhaya or varada mudras. (To compare see Naga image). The exceptional one has left knee raised with the left hand on the side of the raised knee. The right hand may be in abhaya mudra.



The group is distinguished by round projections decorated with coil-like rows behind the shoulders. These projections seem to represent the wings of the Kinnaras. The feather-like tripartite objects issued from the sides of the headdresses and the wing-like projections behind the shoulders leads to the interpretation of this group of images as personified Kinnaras. Or the wing-like projections represent the blazing glory which emanates from the body of Bodhisattvas? In this case, the group may be identified as Bodhisattvas. See Picture. Go



We must note that Garudas also have wings.



The Lokapalas

See Picture. Go The headdresses are similar to the images of Kinnaras but they contain four coils instead of three. The ornaments and the sitting postures are also the same. The right hands are in varada mudras. That is, the hands are folded with the palms spread outwards with the fingers pointing down. The left hands hold swords with their buds on the left knees. There are elliptical nimbuses behind the heads.



The Diads

See Picture. Go There are two diads. One of them had been modified by chiseling out of the original. The other is intact. Here again, the ornaments and dresses are the same. The only difference is in the headdress. The headdress consists of no crown and, like that of Naga, has two coils only and topped with a bud-shaped protrusion Two straight horns come out from the left and right sides of the top coil and two curved horns from the sides just below the lower coil. Two straight horns can also be discerned below the curved horns. The right image has both hands broken from the elbows, whereas the left image has the right hand broken from the elbow. The left hand in this case is placed on the leg. Both of them are sitting with their legs folded but not crossed. The left leg is in front of the right. There is a nimbus at the back of the head. By carefully studying the headdress, one can speculate that the images belong to a different type of celestial being. Hence I want to interpret these images as images of Asuras.



Triads

See Picture. Go All the three figures have the same type of headdresses. They are more complicated than the headdresses of the other images and crowns cannot be discerned. There are elliptical nimbuses behind their heads. They wear the same type of ornaments as other Mahamuni images. All of them are seated with their legs folded and the left legs are slightly raised. The central image has his right arm raised in front of the body and left hand rests on the left leg. The hands of the side figures are broken from their elbows. The inner hands of these images appear to hold long stalk like objects, wider at the top. Are these spears or some sort of musical instruments? The outer hands are also raised in front. They can either be Devas or Gandharvas (Deva musicians) and definitely not Dhyani Buddha sitting together with two Bodhisattvas at his sides, since they cannot have been developed in this region at this period even if one wished to.



In addition to the above sculptures, there are two more types left. One is an unfinished standing dvarapala (See Picture. Go) and the other, a squatting figure with the upper portion of the body together with the head lost. See Picture. Go



These are the strange sculptures of Mahamuni. They have been interpreted as Hindu deities by many people. Some are attempting to interpret these as deities of the Buddhist Pantheon of the advanced Mahayana Buddhism. But after studying carefully the stage of Buddhism reached in Arakan in its evolution during the period of making these sculptures , one can conclude that they are the personified images of the Devas, Yaksas, Gandharvas, Asuras, Garudas, Kinnaras, Mahoragas and Nagas, who used to listen to Buddha’s preachings. They can be distinguished only from their headdresses and the decorations behind the head and the shoulders as all other ornaments worn are almost the same.

BY U SAN THA AUNG
from arakanlibrary.tripod.com

The Buddhist Art of Ancient Arakan 5

Buddhism In Arakan

Two thousand five hundred years have passed since the time of parinirvana of Gautama Buddha. Throughout the centuries, ever since the introduction of Buddhism up to the present time, Arakanese professed Buddhism without break.



The present-day Buddhism in Arakan is the Theravada Buddhism using the Pali canon of Tripitaka which are Vinaya (conduct), Sutta (Sermon) and Abhidhamma (a mixture of metaphysics, psychology and mind development) Pitakas.



The Buddhist’s here worshipped caityas and stupas. They believed that one can acquire great merit by building and decorating them. The Buddha images are also worshipped after glorifying by conducting a ceremony called Anekasa, which is recitation by a number of monks surrounding the image.



The people worshipped these caityas, stupas and Buddhas images by offering flowers, food, incense, light and prayers. They believed these acts to be meritorious. They believed in the idea of the transfer of merit. That is, by making gifts one can acquire religious merits and one can also transfer such merits to one’s near and dear ones or their welfare and happiness. By performing meritorious deeds like offering alms and the four necessaries to the sanghas and giving charities to the poor and the needy, and doing good deeds personally or in words or in thoughts, one gains merit and will go to devas abode after death. Whereas by doing evil deeds or getting involved in evil acts personally or in words or in thoughts, one falls into a downward state of existence, a state of suffering or even to the abyss of hell such as Rauruwa, Avici etc., after death.



They believed in the three ways to salvation, i.e., the Arahatship, the Pratyekabuddhahood and the supreme Buddhahood. The lay people strived for Arahatship as the way to Nirvana. They accepted the idea that the universe is cyclic and that they live in a Buddha cycle called Bhadrakalpa and are expecting the coming of the fifth Buddha, Maitreya.



There are many members of the Buddhist Order, that is, the monks (sangha) who wear yellow robes and strictly observe the Vinaya pitaka. They have given up all the worldly pleasure and lived a pure life striving to attain Nirvana.



The lay people have noviciating ceremonies for boys who spend sometimes, usually a week or more, in a monastery under the guidance of a revered abbot to experience the life of the monkhood. During his stay in the monastery as a monk, the boy learns for himself the religion of his parents, the abbot guiding him of course. If he likes the life of a monk and wants to forego the worldly pleasures, he can become a monk for life. But he will be qualified for full membership of the Order only after attaining the age of twenty. If not, this ceremony can be taken as a preparation for adult life. In Arakan State, unlike Burma proper, the noviciating of a boy is done only when the boy reaches an age when he can understand and assimilate Buddha’s teaching.



Especially during the period of Wasoe (Buddhist lent which falls during rainy season), people used to keep Sabbath taking five, eight, nine or ten precepts. People in more advance stage of piousness used to meditate to free themselves from ten “fetters”, i.e., Samyojana.



Such are the beliefs and practices of present-day Buddhists of Arakan State.



The same is true for the past centuries. To state very briefly, the historical periods of Arakan may be divided into the following dynasties.



1. Dhanyawadi (? – 370 A.D) (According to our historians, Dhanyawadi came to existence since about 3,000 B.C)

2. Vesali (370 – 994 A.D)

3. Sambawak or Pyimsa (1018 – 1118 A.D)

4. Parein (1118 – 1142 A.D)

5. Khrait (1142 – 1250 A.D)

6. Launggrat (1250 – 1404 A.D)

7. Mrauk_Oo (1430 – 1784 A.D)



One can travel to Arakan and see for oneself numerous Caityas (pagodas), Stupas and innumerable Buddha images built and made by the kings of these dynasties. Especially the town of Mrauk_Oo (former Mrauk_Oo city), being the last of the Arakanese capitals, is rich in these religious edifices and images.



From the inscriptions and palm-leaf manuscripts, we can find that the kings used to choose the way to Nirvana by desiring to become a Supreme Buddha, the first step of which is the Bodhisattvahood. In our literature, when a king died, he was not mentioned as dead, but mentioned as went to the abode of devas. We can read many descriptions of this kind in the Anandacandra inscription, inscribed about 729 A.D. Since Bodhisattva in advanced stage used to reside in the abode of devas, it is natural that the kings should go there after their death. As the king promised to look after the welfare of all the people in his dominion during the abhesika ceremony, it is only natural that he should not strive to attain Nirvana alone. He should also help his subjects attain Nirvana. So he should aim to become a Bodhisattva.



I have shown in this book miniature stupas, miniature caityas, bronze bells, bronze lamps and many types of bronze Buddha images, crowned and uncrowned. These were obtained from the relic chambers of the old ruined caityas and stupas. They belong to the period of Dhanyawadi and Vesali.



When Buddhism did first introduced into Arakan? And what type of Buddhism was that?



According to tradition and our historical annals, Buddhism was introduced into Arakan during the life-time of Buddha himself. Keeping tradition part, let us search for concrete evidences which will give us at least the upper limit for the period of introduction and the type of Buddhism introduced.



I have mentioned in Chapter IV that we have found one Fat Monk image with a line of inscription in Brahmi script used about the beginning of the Christian era. This Fat Monk, Saccakaparibajaka, was related to an incident in Buddha’s life. Images of Buddha were also found together with this image. As there were no inscriptions nor dates inscribed on them, it is difficult to assign them to the same period as the Fat Monk.



Apart from this image, we can search for more concrete evidences. We may take the miniature stone stupas with Ye dharma verses on them, the stones with Ye dharma verses fallen out of the ruined stupas or caityas, and the inscription found on one of the Mahamuni sculptures as the solid evidence for dating the upper limit of the introduction of Buddhism in Arakan. The dating can be done palaeographically and these writings can be assigned to some time about the 4th or the 5th century A.D.



I have explained the Ye dharma verse and mentioned that it reveals the cream of the teaching of the Buddha. See Chapter V. It is very clear that the people who made these stupas and who inscribed the Ye dharma verses for the posterity professed the type of Buddhism based on the teaching of the Buddha and not on the personality of the Buddha. Again, the word Mahasramana in the verse means the Great Monk. By using this word, it is clear that the Buddha was referred to as a Great Monk and not as a God. Again in Chapter XI we have seen a ceti dedicatory inscription from eighth century Vesali. The inscription mentioned one to purify his own mind to attain nirvana. The three impurities, lobha, dosa and moha should be discarded revealing that the Buddhism practiced at that time was based on the teachings of Buddha. Therefore, we can definitely say that the Buddhism that flourished during this period was not Tantric Buddhism nor the advanced Mahayana with plenty of Gods and Goddesses.



We can infer that the Tantric Buddhism, which is an advanced state of Mahayana Buddhism, never flourished in Arakan. Even in India, this type of Buddhism became popular only after the 8th century A.D. According to scholars studying Indian Buddhist Iconography, the monks who professed Tantric Buddhism in Bengal fled to Nepal, instead of Arakan which was more easily accessible, during the Muslim invasion. This definitely proved that there was no ground for them to flourish in Arakan and the Arakanese never accepted the Tantric Buddhism.



A substantial amount of Buddhist Art which may be assigned to this earliest period belongs to the stone sculptures of the Mahamuni Shrine. The relief sculpture found on the Selargiri Hill representing Buddha preaching King Candasuriya also belongs to this period. This is the period of the famous Candra dynasty mentioned in Anandacandra inscription of Shitthaung Pagoda, Mrohaung. (See Picture. Go)



The Mahamuni sculptures are varied and many. If one does not study the Buddhism prevailing in the country at the period of making these sculptures, one may presume these to be the Gods and Goddesses of the Tantric Buddhism. That is why these sculptures are described in the last chapter of the book after discussing about the various aspects of Buddhism and the type of Buddhism flourishing in Arakan at that time.
BY U SAN THA AUNG

The Buddhist Art of Ancient Arakan4

Buddhism In Arakan

Two thousand five hundred years have passed since the time of parinirvana of Gautama Buddha. Throughout the centuries, ever since the introduction of Buddhism up to the present time, Arakanese professed Buddhism without break.



The present-day Buddhism in Arakan is the Theravada Buddhism using the Pali canon of Tripitaka which are Vinaya (conduct), Sutta (Sermon) and Abhidhamma (a mixture of metaphysics, psychology and mind development) Pitakas.



The Buddhist’s here worshipped caityas and stupas. They believed that one can acquire great merit by building and decorating them. The Buddha images are also worshipped after glorifying by conducting a ceremony called Anekasa, which is recitation by a number of monks surrounding the image.



The people worshipped these caityas, stupas and Buddhas images by offering flowers, food, incense, light and prayers. They believed these acts to be meritorious. They believed in the idea of the transfer of merit. That is, by making gifts one can acquire religious merits and one can also transfer such merits to one’s near and dear ones or their welfare and happiness. By performing meritorious deeds like offering alms and the four necessaries to the sanghas and giving charities to the poor and the needy, and doing good deeds personally or in words or in thoughts, one gains merit and will go to devas abode after death. Whereas by doing evil deeds or getting involved in evil acts personally or in words or in thoughts, one falls into a downward state of existence, a state of suffering or even to the abyss of hell such as Rauruwa, Avici etc., after death.



They believed in the three ways to salvation, i.e., the Arahatship, the Pratyekabuddhahood and the supreme Buddhahood. The lay people strived for Arahatship as the way to Nirvana. They accepted the idea that the universe is cyclic and that they live in a Buddha cycle called Bhadrakalpa and are expecting the coming of the fifth Buddha, Maitreya.



There are many members of the Buddhist Order, that is, the monks (sangha) who wear yellow robes and strictly observe the Vinaya pitaka. They have given up all the worldly pleasure and lived a pure life striving to attain Nirvana.



The lay people have noviciating ceremonies for boys who spend sometimes, usually a week or more, in a monastery under the guidance of a revered abbot to experience the life of the monkhood. During his stay in the monastery as a monk, the boy learns for himself the religion of his parents, the abbot guiding him of course. If he likes the life of a monk and wants to forego the worldly pleasures, he can become a monk for life. But he will be qualified for full membership of the Order only after attaining the age of twenty. If not, this ceremony can be taken as a preparation for adult life. In Arakan State, unlike Burma proper, the noviciating of a boy is done only when the boy reaches an age when he can understand and assimilate Buddha’s teaching.



Especially during the period of Wasoe (Buddhist lent which falls during rainy season), people used to keep Sabbath taking five, eight, nine or ten precepts. People in more advance stage of piousness used to meditate to free themselves from ten “fetters”, i.e., Samyojana.



Such are the beliefs and practices of present-day Buddhists of Arakan State.



The same is true for the past centuries. To state very briefly, the historical periods of Arakan may be divided into the following dynasties.



1. Dhanyawadi (? – 370 A.D) (According to our historians, Dhanyawadi came to existence since about 3,000 B.C)

2. Vesali (370 – 994 A.D)

3. Sambawak or Pyimsa (1018 – 1118 A.D)

4. Parein (1118 – 1142 A.D)

5. Khrait (1142 – 1250 A.D)

6. Launggrat (1250 – 1404 A.D)

7. Mrauk_Oo (1430 – 1784 A.D)



One can travel to Arakan and see for oneself numerous Caityas (pagodas), Stupas and innumerable Buddha images built and made by the kings of these dynasties. Especially the town of Mrauk_Oo (former Mrauk_Oo city), being the last of the Arakanese capitals, is rich in these religious edifices and images.



From the inscriptions and palm-leaf manuscripts, we can find that the kings used to choose the way to Nirvana by desiring to become a Supreme Buddha, the first step of which is the Bodhisattvahood. In our literature, when a king died, he was not mentioned as dead, but mentioned as went to the abode of devas. We can read many descriptions of this kind in the Anandacandra inscription, inscribed about 729 A.D. Since Bodhisattva in advanced stage used to reside in the abode of devas, it is natural that the kings should go there after their death. As the king promised to look after the welfare of all the people in his dominion during the abhesika ceremony, it is only natural that he should not strive to attain Nirvana alone. He should also help his subjects attain Nirvana. So he should aim to become a Bodhisattva.



I have shown in this book miniature stupas, miniature caityas, bronze bells, bronze lamps and many types of bronze Buddha images, crowned and uncrowned. These were obtained from the relic chambers of the old ruined caityas and stupas. They belong to the period of Dhanyawadi and Vesali.



When Buddhism did first introduced into Arakan? And what type of Buddhism was that?



According to tradition and our historical annals, Buddhism was introduced into Arakan during the life-time of Buddha himself. Keeping tradition part, let us search for concrete evidences which will give us at least the upper limit for the period of introduction and the type of Buddhism introduced.



I have mentioned in Chapter IV that we have found one Fat Monk image with a line of inscription in Brahmi script used about the beginning of the Christian era. This Fat Monk, Saccakaparibajaka, was related to an incident in Buddha’s life. Images of Buddha were also found together with this image. As there were no inscriptions nor dates inscribed on them, it is difficult to assign them to the same period as the Fat Monk.



Apart from this image, we can search for more concrete evidences. We may take the miniature stone stupas with Ye dharma verses on them, the stones with Ye dharma verses fallen out of the ruined stupas or caityas, and the inscription found on one of the Mahamuni sculptures as the solid evidence for dating the upper limit of the introduction of Buddhism in Arakan. The dating can be done palaeographically and these writings can be assigned to some time about the 4th or the 5th century A.D.



I have explained the Ye dharma verse and mentioned that it reveals the cream of the teaching of the Buddha. See Chapter V. It is very clear that the people who made these stupas and who inscribed the Ye dharma verses for the posterity professed the type of Buddhism based on the teaching of the Buddha and not on the personality of the Buddha. Again, the word Mahasramana in the verse means the Great Monk. By using this word, it is clear that the Buddha was referred to as a Great Monk and not as a God. Again in Chapter XI we have seen a ceti dedicatory inscription from eighth century Vesali. The inscription mentioned one to purify his own mind to attain nirvana. The three impurities, lobha, dosa and moha should be discarded revealing that the Buddhism practiced at that time was based on the teachings of Buddha. Therefore, we can definitely say that the Buddhism that flourished during this period was not Tantric Buddhism nor the advanced Mahayana with plenty of Gods and Goddesses.



We can infer that the Tantric Buddhism, which is an advanced state of Mahayana Buddhism, never flourished in Arakan. Even in India, this type of Buddhism became popular only after the 8th century A.D. According to scholars studying Indian Buddhist Iconography, the monks who professed Tantric Buddhism in Bengal fled to Nepal, instead of Arakan which was more easily accessible, during the Muslim invasion. This definitely proved that there was no ground for them to flourish in Arakan and the Arakanese never accepted the Tantric Buddhism.



A substantial amount of Buddhist Art which may be assigned to this earliest period belongs to the stone sculptures of the Mahamuni Shrine. The relief sculpture found on the Selargiri Hill representing Buddha preaching King Candasuriya also belongs to this period. This is the period of the famous Candra dynasty mentioned in Anandacandra inscription of Shitthaung Pagoda, Mrohaung. (See Picture. Go)



The Mahamuni sculptures are varied and many. If one does not study the Buddhism prevailing in the country at the period of making these sculptures, one may presume these to be the Gods and Goddesses of the Tantric Buddhism. That is why these sculptures are described in the last chapter of the book after discussing about the various aspects of Buddhism and the type of Buddhism flourishing in Arakan at that time.

BY U SAN THA AUNG

The Buddhist Art of Ancient Arakan 3

Fundamentals of Theravada Buddhism

Happiness and sorrow exist in this world. Happiness means lucky, successful, possessing or enjoying pleasure or good. Every human being likes to be happy. But in some form or other sorrow is inevitable in every aspect of life. Man, weak as he is, is subjected to sickness, old age and death. Contact with unpleasant things, separation from pleasant things and not getting what one wants are all painful. From all that he loves man must part. Nothing is permanent.



Buddhists believed in the conception of the world as samsara, a stream without end, where the law of Karma functions. All beings are subject to rebirth, decay, disease, death, and again rebirth. The process is continuous.



The doctrine of the Chain of Dependent Origination or the Chain of Causation (Patticca – samuppada), a series of twelve causes and effects; explain this chain of rebirths or the wheel of existence.



Avijja – paccaya sankhara: “Through ignorance conditioned are the sankharas,” i.e., the rebirth producing Volitions (cetana) or karmaformations.



Sankhara-paccaya vinnanam: “Through the karmaformations (in past life is conditioned Consciousness (in the present life).”



Vinnanapaccaya nama – rupam: “Through consciousness are conditioned the mental and physical phenomena (namarupa)”, i.e., that which makes up our so called individual existence.



Nama – rupa – paccaya sajayatanam: “Through the mental and physical phenomena are conditioned the 6 bases.” i.e., the 5 physical sense organs and consciousness as the sixth.



Sajayatana – paccaya phasso: “Through the 6 bases is conditioned the (sensorial and mental) impression.



Phassa – paccaya vedana: “Through the impression is conditioned feeling.”



Vedana – paccaya tanha: “Through feeling is conditioned craving.”



Tanha – paccaya upadanam: “Through craving is conditioned clinging.”



Upadana – paccaya bhavo: “Through clinging is conditioned the process of becoming”, consisting in the active and the passive life process i.e., the rebirth producing karma-process (kamma bhava) and, as its results, the rebirth process (Uppathibhava).



Bhava – paccaya jati: “Through the (rebirth producing karma) process of becoming is conditioned rebirth.”



Jati – paccaya jara – maranam: “Through rebirth are conditioned Old age and death (sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief and despair. Thus arises, this whole mass of suffering again in the future).”



The highest goal of a man should, therefore, be the stage in which there is neither birth, nor disease, nor fear, nor anxieties, nor old age, nor death, and in which there is no continuous renewal of activity.



Buddha meditates, for six years, on the human suffering; its causes and the means by which it could be overcome. He had found the secret of sorrow, and understood at last why the world is full of suffering and unhappiness of all kinds, and what man must do to overcome them. He pointed a way from the world of suffering to a beyond, the undying, and those who follow the path for liberation may also cross to the wisdom beyond. The goal is to attain Nirvana, which is a state when one becomes free from sensual passion, free from the passion of ignorance, free from the passion of existence, free from Samsara.



The Sermon of the Turning of the wheel of the law, which Buddha preached to his first disciples, the five ascetics at Varanasi, is the kernel of Buddhism. This contains the “Four Noble Truths,” and the “Noble Eight – fold Path” which are accepted as basic categories by all Buddhist sects.



The voluminous writings of Pali Canon, which consists of three sections called ti-pitakas or three pitakas, known as Vinya (Rules of the order), Sutta (the Teachings or Sermons) and Abhidamma (a complex mixture of metaphysics, psychology and mind development), in the final analyses, all lead to the Four Noble Truths. Refer page 76.



The last of the Four Noble Truths is the Noble Eight-fold Path which is the Path leading to the cessation of Pain and Sorrow.



Now, we are shown the Path. How shall we traverse this Path? From where shall we start? The following is the method usually practiced by Theravada Buddhists.



Out of the three pitakas the largest is the sutta pitaka, which is divided into five “groups” (Nikaya). They are: -



1. Digha Nikaya, 2. Majjhima Nikaya, 3. Samyutta Nikaya, 4. Anguttara Nikaya and 5. Khyddaka Nikaya.



The Dhamapada, a part of the Khuddaka Nikaya of the Sutta Pitaka, has in the Pali version 423 verses divided into 26 chapters. The verses of the Dhamapada were believed from very early times, i.e., from the period of the First Council which settled the Canon, to have been the utterances of the Buddha himself.



Verse 183 of the Dhamapada states

“Sabbapapassa akaranam

Kusalassa upasampada

Sacittapariyodapanam

Etam buddhana sasanam”



We may translate the verse as follows.

“To abstain from all evil,

To do good deeds,

To purify one’s own mind,

These are teachings of all the Buddhas.”



To abstain from all evil

All evil mean evil courses of action (akusalakammapatha). They are ten in number and are called ten duccaritas. They are:-



Kaya kamma 1. Panatipata (destruction of living beings)

(bodily action) 2. Adinnadana (stealing)

3. Kamesumicchacara (unlawful sexual intercourse)

4. Musavada (lying)

Vaci Kamma 5. Pisunavaca (tale – bearing) (slander)

(verbal action) 6. Pharusavaca (harsh language)

7. Samphappalapa (frivolous talk)

Mano kamma 8. Abhijjha (covetousness)

(mental action) 9. Vyapada (ill – will)

10. Miccha ditthi (wrong views)



All these actions are unwholesome. They all cause to unfavorable kamma results and contain the seed to unhappy destiny or rebirth. He who does these actions, if reborn as man, will be short lived, afflicted with diseases, ugly looking, poor and needy and born of parents of inferior or mean lineage, i.e., of low descent.





By U SAN THA AUNG

The Buddhist Art of Ancient Arakan2

The Evolution of Buddhism in India

Immediately after the parinirvana of the Buddha, a large number of monks led by Mahakassapa gathered at Rajagriha, the capital of Magadha, under the patronage of Ajatasatru, to recite Buddha’s teachings. This was the First Great Buddhist Council. The Vinaya Pitaka, the rules of the order, as prescribed by the Master, was recited by Upali, one of the chief disciples of Buddha, as recollected by him. The Sutta Pitaka, the collection of the Blessed – One’s sermons on the matters of doctrine and ethics were recited by Ananda, the devoted discriple and constant companion of Buddha.



There seemed to have no written records of the teachings at that time and they were handed down from mouth to mouth by reciting and memorizing. Thus the teachings were preserved through memory.



A Second Great Council was held at Vaisali about one hundred years after the parinirvana of Buddha. It was held in the reign of King Kalasoka, a descendant of Ajatasatru. The Venerable Yasa led the Council. This council resulted in a schism among sanghas over ten points of monastic discipline. The orthodox Sthaviravadins (Pali Theravadi) won in this case and the Mahasanghikas seceded from the orthodox sanghas.



The Thirds Great Council was held at Pataliputra under the patronage of the great king Asoka (276 B.C). This council resulted in the expulsion of many heretics and false monks from the sangha community and also in the firm establishment of the Sthaviravada School. Tissa Moggaliputta led the council and succeeded in restoring the original teachings of the Buddha. It was at this council that the Abhidhamma Pitaka was supposed to have been added.



The Fourth Great Buddhist Council was held in Kashmir under the patronage of the great kusan king Kaniska (1st – 2 nd century A.D). The Sarvastivadins, another sect of orthodox Buddhists, were strong in this region and the sect’s doctrines were codified in a summary called the Mahavibhasa. This council made Sanskrit the language of Buddhist scriptures.



New ideas were developed from the Sarvastivadins and the Mahasanghikas which were to form the basis of the division of Buddhism into the Lesser Vehicle (Hinayana) and the Great Vchicle (Mahayana).



These were the Four Great Councils held in different parts of India after the parinirvana of Buddha. Scriptures of Buddhism developed by a long process covering several centuries, and many sects of Buddhism’s which formed in course of time in the evolution of Buddhism, the “Four Noble Truths” and the “Noble Eightfold Paths” (Refer P 76) are accepted by all sects as basic tenets of Buddhism.



The Lesser Vehicle (Hinayana)

The Buddhism of the Lesser Vehicle is a religion without souls and without God. Buddha was a man, not God, a teacher and not a savior. His supreme insight was gained by his own efforts. He was only a guide who had pointed out a way from the world of suffering to a beyond, the undying, and those who follow the path of liberation may also cross to the wisdom beyond.



Buddhists believe in the round of rebirths – Samsara. In page 14 of “The word of the Buddha” by Nyanatiloka, the word is defined as: Samsara the wheel of existence, lit, the ‘Perpetual Wondering’, - is the name given in Pali scriptures to the sea of life ever restlessly heaving up and down, the symbol of this continuous process of ever again and again being born, growing old, suffering, and dying. More precisely put: Samsara is the unbroken sequence of the fivefold Khandha-combinations, which, constantly changing from moment to moment. Of this Samsara, a single life time constitutes only a tiny fraction”.



The goal of every Buddhist is to attain Nirvana, which is a state where one becomes free from sensual passion, freedom the passion of ignorance, free from the passion of existence, free from Samsara.



There are three different ways to attain nirvana. The disciples can attain nirvana through Arahatship. The two other ways are to become Pratyekabuddha or the Supreme Buddha. Pratyekabuddhas attain full enlightenment but do not teach the Dharma to others. The supreme Buddha attain full enlightenment and teach the Dharma to others. In order to become a Pratyekabuddha or a Supreme Buddha one has to request a living Buddha to grant the boon of being allowed to become such a Buddha. These three ways lead different type of beings, with different intellect, to nirvana.



To attain Arahatship there are four stages. Before going to these stages we need to recognize the ten ‘Fatters’ samyojana-by which beings are bound to the wheel of existence. They are (1) Self Ilusion (Sakaya – ditthi), (2) Sceptism (vicikiccha) (3) Attachment to mere Rule and Ritual (silabhataparamasa), (4) Sensual Lust (Karma raga), (5) Ill-will (vyapada), (6) Craving for Fine Material Existence (ruparaga), (7) Craving for Immaterial Existence (arupa-raga), (8) Conceit (mana), (9) Restlessness (Uddhacca) and (10) Ignorance (avijja).



One who is freed from the first three Fetters is called a Sotapan, i.e, one who has entered the stream leading to nirvana. This is the first stage. One who has overcome the fourth and the fifth Fetters in the grosser form, is called a Sakadagam. This is the second stage. One who is freed from the first five Fetters is called an Anagam. This is the third stage. When one is freed from all the ten Fetters he becomes an Arahat, a worthy man. This is the last stage.



The Buddhists of the Lesser Vehicle believed in a cosmological scheme based largely on the prevalent Indian ideas. The universe is cyclic with Buddha cycles and empty cycles. We live in a Buddha cycle of five Buddhas (Bhadrakalpa). Out of the five Buddhas four have already taught in this world, the last one being Gautama Buddha. A fifth is yet to come. The four passed Buddhas were Krekucchanda, Kanakamuni, Kasyapa and Gautama. The future Buddha is Maitreya who is at present passing the life of a Bodhisattva in the Tusita heaven, preparatory to his descent to the earth in human form. He is supposed to come to the earth full 5000 years after the parinirvana of Gautama Buddha for the deliverance of all sentient beings.



The Pali canon of the Sthaviravadins consists of three sections called pitakas. They are known as the Vinaya Pitaka (Rules of the order), Sutta Pitaka (the Teachings or Sermons) and Abhidhamma Pitaka (a complex mixture of metaphysics, psychology and mind development).



The Sutta Pitaka is divided into five “Groups” (Nikaya). One of the Groups, “Khuddaka Nikaya,” contains the Jataka Stories. These stories are usually described as histories of the previous lives of Gautama Buddha as a Bodhisattva. In these stories the Buddha is shown to have done many deeds of kindness and mercy in a long series of rebirths as a Bodhisattva before he achieved the final birth as Gautama Buddha. This collection of myth and legend contributes greatly to the Buddhist art up to the present day. They are also among the most important ethical teachings.


By U SAN THA AUNG

from www.arakanlibrary.tripod.com

The Buddhist Art of Ancient Arakan

The Life of Gautama Buddha

In the seventh century before the Christian era, there was a small kingdom of the Sakya located in the North – eastern part of India along the southern edge of Nepal. The Sakyas were of the Ksatriya solar race. Their king at that time was Suddhodana and the chief queen was Mahamaya devi. The capital of Sakya kingdom was Kapilavastu.



One night Mahamaya dreamt that a great white elephant holding a lotus blossom in his trunk entered her womb. This dream was interpreted by wise men to mean that she would give birth to a son who would either be a Universal Emperor or a Buddha.



While Mahamaya devi was traveling from Kapilavastu to her parent’s home in Devadaha for her confinement, she gave birth to her child, a son, in the Lumbani grove between two tall sal trees. At birth the baby was supposed to have stood upright, to have taken seven steps and have spoken: “This is my last birth – henceforth there is no more birth for me”. This happened on the full moon day of Vaisakha (May,) 623 B.C. This is the First Principal incident of the Master’s life.



The boy was named Siddhattha, or one whose purpose has been fulfilled. His family name was Gautama by which he was referred to in Buddhist literature.



An old sage, named Asita, visited the new— born child and predicted that a savior had come to the earth for the salvation of the people. The other sooth sayers prophesied that he would become a Universal Emperor.



Maya devi passed away seven days after the birth of her child and the child was nursed by his mother’s sister Mahaprajapati Gautimi.



To prevent the prophecy of his becoming a Universal Teacher from coming true, his father reared him in delightful palaces and took great precautions not to let him know the sorrows of the world. He thus grew up in luxury and led a sheltered life from which the world’s miseries were hidden.



As a student he learned all the arts that a prince should learn. When he grew into a young man, he married his cousin Yasodhara after winning her in a contest of arms.



In spite of all the efforts of his father, he saw the “four signs,” an old man, a sick man, a dead body and an ascetic. At the sight of each he asked his charioteer the meaning of what he saw. These sights and the answers he obtained from the charioteer made him ponder deeply. He realized that all men must grow old, fall sick and die. These were the miseries of existence. The ascetic, peaceful and calm, showed him a way of escaping from them. He could never forget the four signs.



One morning he learnt that Princess Yasodhara had given birth to a son. That night there were great festivities. The dancing girls after performing their dances fell asleep on the floor of the dancing hall in unbecoming postures. Prince Siddhattha sat up in bed and saw his women lying around like corpses. He sat meditating for a while and then made up his mind to leave the palace that night. He went to the chamber where Yasodhara was fast asleep with the baby in her arms. After having caught a glimpse of them he turned away. He woke up Chhandaka, his charioteer, and asked him to saddle his favorite horse Kanthaka. He then rode away towards the forest unknown to any body else. The rejoicing demigods cushioned the fall of this horse’s hooves so that no one should hear his departure.



When he reached a place far from the city he discarded his royal robes and cut off his long hair and sent them back to his father through Chhandaka. He put on a hermit’s robe provided by an attendant demigod and became an ascetic. He was twenty nine years old at that time. This was the Great Renunciation.



He left his home, wife and child to meditate on human suffering, it’s causes and the means by which it could be over come. He first went to a teacher Alara Kalama and then to another named Udraka Ramaputra He learned from them the technique of meditation and all else that they had to teach him. But his quest for Truth was not attained. He moved on and reached a place near Bodh Gaya.



He was not convinced that men could obtain liberation from the miseries of the world by mental discipline alone. He found five ascetics who were practicing the most rigorous self-mortification in the hope of wearing away their craving and he joined with them. For six years he practiced rigid austerities and resorted to different kinds of self-torture and was reduced to a skeleton. See Picture. Go



He aimed at a spiritual experience in which all selfish craving is extinct and with it every fear and passion. He wanted to reach a stage in which there is neither old age, nor disease, nor birth, nor death, nor anxieties and no continue renewal of activity.



His self-tortures became so severe that one day, being too weak, he fainted. After a while he recovered consciousness, and realized that his fasts and penances were useless, and this was not the way to achieve enlightenment. He decided to take food again and his body regained its strength. The five ascetics who recognized him as their leader left him in disgust.



One morning, while he sat beneath a large Bodhi tree on the outskirts of the town of Gaya, Sujata, the daughter of a rich merchant, brought him a bowl of rice boiled in milk. After accepting the food, he bathed in the Niranjana river. Then he ate the food and spent his midday in a grove of sal trees on the river bank. In the evening he went back to the Bodhi tree. On his way he met a grass cutter who gave him a bundle of grass. He spread the grass at the foot of the Bodhi tree and sat in meditation. He made a solemn even that he would not leave his seat without attaining enlightenment, even though his skin and bones should waste away and flesh and blood dry up.



For forty-nine days he sat beneath the tree meditating ardently. During this period, Mara, the Buddhist devil approached and tried to shake Gautama’s resolve by temptations of all kinds. He attacked Gautama with whirlwind, tempest, flood and earthquake. He attacked using his demon army, shooting arrow, throwing stones, and using all sorts of weapons. He then challenged Gautama to produce evidence of his goodness and benevolence. At this, Gautama touched the ground with his hand, and called on the mother earth as a witness. The great Earth roared and sound with a deep and terrible sound: “I am his witness”. Mara then used his three beautiful daughters, Desire. Pleasure and Passion, who tried every means of seduction. But Gautama sat firm and meditated more vigorously. At last Mara gave up the struggle leaving Gautama alone.



At the dawn of the forty-ninth day he attained enlightenment. He had found the Law of Causation, a cycle of twelve causes and effects conditioning the universe. That is, he had found out that the world is full of suffering and unhappiness of all kinds, and also what man must do to overcome them. Thus his understanding opened and he attained enlightenment. This is also called Illumination or Sambodhi. He was thirty five years old then. This is the Second Principal incident of the Master’s life. This again took place on the full moon day of Vaisakha (May).



As the attained bodhi or supreme knowledge, he became a Buddha and he referred to himself as Tathagata.



The newly awakened Buddha met two merchant brothers Taphussa and Bhallika, who offered the Blessed One some food. Buddha broke his fast by eating the food and gave the two brothers some strands of his Hair for them to worship when they reached their home land.



For a while he was in doubt whether he should preach the Dharma to the people of the world. The god Brahma himself descended from heaven and persuaded him to do so. He then searched for someone who could understand his Dharma. His teachers Alara Kalama and Udraka Ramaputra, who could have understood, were dead. He set out for the Deer Part (Mrigadava) near Varanasi (Sarnath) where his five former disciples had settled to continue their penances. He preached his First Sermon to them, thereby setting in motion the wheel of the Law (Dharmacakra – Pravartana). This is the Third Principal incident of the Master’s life.



Buddha collected a large number of disciples among who were Sariputra and Moggalana who were revered in the circles of the Buddhist, order as second only to the Master himself. Buddha and his disciples traveled far and wide and taught his Dharma to the people of those places. The Blessed – One’s arguments were most of the time persuasive but sometimes he had to perform miracles such as the miracles at Sravasti. In course of time he became wellknown throughout North – East India. He had many followers whom he gathered together into a disciplined body of monks or Sangha (called biksus in Sangha (called biksus in Sanskrit and bhikkhus in Pali). They had a common discipline. Many stories are told of his long years of preaching. The Sangha continued to increase in strength. He allowed the formation of a community of nuns at the request of his foster mother Gautimi.



Buddha’s cousin Devadatta tried to kill Buddha on many occasions on account of his jealousy and hatred.



For about forty five years Buddha and his sangha traveled from place to place, preaching to people of all walks of life. The greatest kings of the time favored him and his Sangha.



He was in a place near Vaisali during the last rainy season of his life. After the rains he and his followers journeyed northwards. On the way he arrived at the town of Pava where he was invited by Cunda, the blacksmith, to a meal. He ate “sukaramaddava” which may have meant boar’s tender flesh and was taken ill with dysentery. Despite his illness he moved on to the nearby town of kusinagara. Here on the outskirts of the town he laid down between two sal trees.



He asked the weeping Ananda, the devoted disciple and constant companion of the Buddha, not to weep, telling him that from all that. One loves One must part. He told Ananda that the doctrine he preached will be Ananda’s master after he himself has passed away. According to Digha – nikaya of Mahaparinibbhanasutta, Buddha’s last words were quoted as follows: “Then the Blessed – One addressed the brethren, and said: ‘Behold now, brethren, I exhort you, saying, “Decay is inherent in all component things; Work out your salvation with diligence! “This was the last word of the Tathagata!”



After uttering the last words, his spirit sank into the depths of mystic absorption. When he had attained to that degree where all thoughts, all conceptions had disappeared, when the consciousness of individuality had ceased, he entered into the mahaparinirvana. This is the Fourth Principal incident of the Master’s life. This end came at the age of eighty in 544 B.C. This incident also took place on the full moon day of Vaisakha (May) as did his birth and enlightenment.



His body was cremated and the ashes were divided between various groups of his disciples. Eight Stupas were built over those divided ashes by the various recipients in different parts of India
By U SAN THA AUNG

ANDAW PAGODA

Andaw Pagoda

The Andaw Pagoda of Mrauk U means the Pagoda enshrining the tooth-relic of Buddha. The pagoda is located about 86 feet from the Shittaung Pagoda in the north-east direction. Min Hla Raza was the original builder of this pagoda in 1521 A.D. Due to some damaged parts, the King of Mrauk U, Minrazagyi reconstructed this pagoda in 1596 A.D. The central tower of the shrine contains the tooth-relic of Buddha. It was originally obtained from Sri Lanka by King Minbin (1534-1542 A.D.)
Structure

The shrine is an octagonal structure of pure sandstone, with two internal concentric passages. Fifteen small circular pagodas, built of bricks stand on the platforms of south, north and west of the shrine. On the east, there is a prayer hall, which has an entrance each on the east, north, and south sides. A stonewall divides the prayer hall from the outer court. The east facade of the shrine measures 31 feet from north to south and is only 14 feet high from the ground to the roof. On each side of the entrance are three niches which get into the wall, 6' high, 1' 2" deep, and 2' wide, and these contain stone images of Buddha. Passing through the vaulted passage a gallery opens on either side. Each is 3' 7" wide and 9' high.

KOE THAUNG PAGODA

Koethaung Pagod

Koethaung Pagoda, the name means 90,000 and probably signified the number of Buddha images it was supposed to contain. To the north of the Pisei Hill at a distance of 400 yards is the Koethaung Pagoda. The pagoda stands on a plain and is surrounded by paddy fields. The upper tiers of the pagoda had disappeared. The remaining lowest tier is about 30 feet high including earth foundation. The King Mintaikkha who was the son of the King Minbin, the donor of the great Shitthaung Pagoda, built the Koethaung Pagoda in 1553 A.D.
Structure

The pagoda is the biggest in size among the pagodas in Mrauk-U. It measures 230 feet from east to west and 250 feet from north to south. The Koethaung Pagoda is very similar to Shitthaung Pagoda. They are of the same type from the historical and archaeological viewpoints. This tradition of donation of religious buildings by royal families came down from the royal ancestors.

The pagoda was constructed of massive stonewalls and terraces. The small one hundred and eight pagodas, all made of sandstone, were built on the terraces. The entrance to the pagoda on the east side leads to a long vaulted passage which spirals round the tiers until it reaches the central chamber. The construction of the Koethaung Pagoda resembles a rock cave tunnel. The main tower above the pagoda is octagonal in shape. It is believed that there may be treasures of sculptures, artworks and even valuable jewelleries buried underneath the ruins. The platform is scattered here and there with vestiges of pagodas, images and many other such paraphernalia.
Legend

The legend says that the pagoda was demolished and hit by a thunderbolt because the King Mintaikkha built the Koethaung Pagoda (ninety thousand images), which exceeded in number to the images of his father, King Minbin's, Shitthaung Pagoda (eighty thousand images). It was unlikely. Really, the Pagoda, Koethaung was built in six months time by the advice of his astrologers. In building this pagoda, the workmen used both bricks and stones. Other pagodas were mostly built of pure sandstone, which had been carried, from the Rakhine-coasts. The six-month's time was not long enough to collect the required number of blocks of stone. As a consequence, Koethaung was inferior in quality in materials as well as in workmanship compared to Shitthaung Pagoda.

Lawka Man Aung Pagoda

Lawka Man Aung Pagoda

Lawka Man Aung Pagoda is known to be one of the five most revered "Man" paya of Mrauk U. This Pagoda is known to be one of the five most revered pagodas in Mrauk U. The five revered "Man" payas of Mrauk U are Lawka Man Aung, Zeenat Man Aung, Sakkya Man Aung, Mingalar Man Aung and Yadanar Man Aung. In Myanmar known as "Man Ngar Par".

The architecture of this pagoda is in the form of four steps. The base step is a square shape with four statues at each corner. From the second to the topmost step, there are small pagodas at each corner. Inside the pagoda, there is a 12 feet high Buddha image made of stone.



In A.D 1676, King Oakka Balar became a monk in this pagoda's compound and at such a time, was also called Lawkamu Pagoda. This pagoda was also built by Candathudhammaraza (1652­-1674 A.D) in 1658 A.D. It stands on a flat ground. The shrine was constructed with stone blocks, well hewn and ce­mented. It is square at the base, each side measuring 74 feet; the first four tiers are also square; in the center of each side of the tiers stands a porch containing an image of the Buddha. The sides of the porch are made of stone slabs; the architectural design is similar to that of the Laungbanpyauk Pagoda. There are traces of ornamental designs on the face of the porches. A guinea pig guards each corner of the lowest tier.



On each corner of the first four tiers stands a small circular pagoda, solid and without niches. From the garbha upward the central spire is circular; the apex is crowned with an iron hti (umbrella) once gilded and still in good order. The east facade of the pagoda has a portal 20' high, protruding 2' from the main wall, a vaulted passage 4' 8" wide, 16' high, and 29' long leads to a chamber in the center of the pagoda. It contains a stone image of the Buddha 12 feet high, sitting cross-legged on a stone alter. The ceiling is a hemispherical dome and the apex is 16 feet above ground.



The pagoda has a wall measuring 300 feet around the base and 100 feet high.The old roads to Vesali and Mahamuni begin here. These roads are still known as the gold road and the silver road.

EXPLAINATION FOR THE CLAUSE ' I AM THE ONE WHO WAS BORN IN ARAKAN SO I AM ARAKANTHAR'

This is good statement but need to clarify a bit more. Being Rakine Thar can be explained by so many ways, for instance, land and blood law sometime we know in our culture as Rakhita and Rakhawantha ideologies. I assume that Rakhita is law of blood and Rakhawantha is law of land in which the first means just rakhine blood can bring one to become real rakhine wherever s/he born, and the latter means everyone can become rakhine if they were born in Rakhine Pray whatever their parents are. Your statement can be the same to the latter one. Therefore if one English man was born in Arakan, s/he can claim as Rakhinthar eventhough his or her family derived from English blood line. Moreover according to your statement, everyone like Burmese, Kulars and every ethnics can become Rakhinthar because of their birth place in Arakan. It is no need to deny whether to accept your statement or not. But in my opinion, being Arakanese should be only define as one's blood line rather than birth of place. So if I was born in England rather than in Arakan and if both of my parents are Arakanese, I should have rights to claim that I am real Arakanese. However, nowadays most countries in the world recognize their citizens according to both law of blood and law of land. As a result of that, if some one born in Arakan but their parents aren't not real Arakanese cannot become Arakanese (Rakhinethar)but can become Citizen of Arakan(Rakhin Pray Thar). You should look at very carefully the distinction between being Rakhinethar and Rakhine Pray thar. I hope you will find out the difference between them. To sum up, being rakhinethar and rakhinepraythar is not really important in reality, just their commuity spirits to contribute their society in order to achieve particular social improvement is vital one. Tar!
Khine Maung(University of Edinburgh, Scotland)

Chronological List of the Kings of Mrauk-U

No.

Name


Relationship


Period (AD)
1 Narameik Hla -@ Mong Saw Mwan Son of King Razathu (Laungret Period) 1430-1433
2 Naranu @ Mong Khari @ Ali Khan Brother 1433-1459
3 Ba Saw Pru @ Kalima Shah Son 1459-1482
4 Mong Dawlyar @ Maha Mawkhu Shah Son 1482-1492
5 Ba Saw Nyo Son of Mong Khari 1492-1494
6 Mong Ran Aung Son of Mong Dawlyar 1494
7 Salingathu @ Theingathu Uncle from mother's side 1494-1501
8 Mong Raza @ Ali Shah Son 1501-1513
9 Gazapati Son 1513-1515
10 Mong Saw Oo @ Thirithu Brother of Salingathu 1515
11 Thazata @ Ali Shah Son of Mong Dawlyar 1515-1521
12 Mong Khaung Raza Brother 1521-1531
13 Mong Ba Gree @ Mong Bong Song of Mong Raza 1531-1553
14 Mong Taikkha @ Mong Diyar Son 1553-1555
15 Mong Saw Hla Son 1555-1564
16 Mong Sekkya @ Sekkyawadai Brother 1564-1571
17 Mong Phaloung Son of Mong Ba Gree 1571-1593
18 Mong Raza Gree @ Thadoe Damma Raza Son 1593-1612
19 Mong Khamong @ Wara Damma Raza Son 1612-1622
20 Thirithudamma Raza @ Mong Hari Son 1622-1638
21 Mong Sanai @ Thadoe Mong Hla Son

1638
22 Narapatigri @ Nga Kuthala Son 1638-1645
23 Thaddoe Mong Tara Son 1645-1652
24 Sandathudamma Raza Son 1652-1674
25 Oaggabala Raza @ Thirithuriya Son 1674-1685
26 Waradamma Raza Younger brother 1685-1692
27 Manithudamma Raza Elder brother 1692-1694
28 Sandathudamma Raza Younger brother 1694-1696
29 Ngaton Naw Rahta Son 1696
30 Maronpiya Outsider 1696-1697
31 Kalamandat Outsider 1697-1698
32 Naradipadi Son of Sandathudamma Raza 1698-1700
33 Sandawimala Raza Grandson of Thadoe Mongtara 1700-1706
34 Sandathuriya Raza Grandson of Sanda thudamma Raza 1706-1710
35 Sandawizaya Raza Outsider 1710-1731
36 Sandathuriya Son in law 1731-1734
37 Naradipati Son< 1734-1735
38 Narapawara Younger brother 1735-1736
39 Sandawizala Younger brother

1737
40 Madareit Younger brother of Narapawara 1737-1742
41 Nara Abbaya Uncle 1742-1761
42 Thirithu Son

1761
43 Sandaparama Younger brother 1761-1764
44 Ahbaya Maha Raza Brother in law 1764-1773
45 Sandathumana Brother in law 1773-1777
46 Sandawimala Outsider

1777
47 Sandathadaiktha Damareik Outsider 1777-1782
48 Mahathamada Aggaw Ponnyazaw Raza Outsider 1782-1784

Maha Mrat Mu Ni Stone Image (DYANNYAWADI-Kyauktaw)

" Maha Mrat Mu Ni Stone Image "

Maha Mrat Mu Ni Stone Image (former site in Tong Oo village, Mrauk U township), donated by Chandra Suriya, 6th century BC..!!The well-known traditional Saying in both Arakan and Burma...........


..." thazon pan-khaing ta-mraing-mraing Rakhaing Payar paunn"
."hle' win yoe than ta nyan nyan Bagan Payar Paunn"

indicates that total number of Buddhist pagodas in Rakhine-pray (Arakan) is up to more than six milli.Religious harmony in the independent-sovereign Arakan Kingdom was remarkable. Annual contributions of the Arakanese Kings to all religious are acknowledged their respect to secularism though they all are authentic Buddhists. !!!!!

MAHAMUNI SHRINE : (DYANNYAWADI-Kyauktaw)

According to Rakhine chronicles, Lord Buddha in his life time visited the city of Dhannyawadi (Grain Blessed) in 554 B.C. The Rakhine king Sandar Suriya (Candrasuriya-Sun Moon) requested Lord Buddha to leave the image of Himself. This Buddhist shrine is one of the most revered sites in the whole country as the Maha Muni Buddha Image is believed to have been cast in bronze and five kinds of precious metals by Sakka or Indra the Lord of the Celestial Realm.After casting the Great Image Maha Muni (Great Sage) Lord Buddha breathed upon it which resembled the exact likness of the Blessed One. Maha Muni was worshipped by Rakhine kings for centuries and regarded as a protector of the country. In 1784 A.D , Rakhineland was conquered by king Bodaw Paya and the Great Image was carried across the Rakhine Yoma to Amarapura (now Mandalay).

In the main shrine on the topmost level are three very old stone images of Buddha. The central image four feet, two inches high is known as Maha Muni's brother. The shrine is a peaceful, quiet place about 10 km east of Kyauktaw town and about 40 km north of Mrauk U. It is on a small hillock called Sirigutta surrounded by three low walls on three successive terraces, the main shrine built on the highest platform. On the lowest platform is an old library built by king Minkhari in AD 1439; it is a rare example of a library from this early period Also a large tank dug by king Sandasuriya can be seen in the vicinity. In the year 1900, a rich man from Akyab (Sittwe), U Rai Kyaw Thu cast an image and installed it at the former place of the Great Image. Up to this day, Maha Muni site has become the most venerated site in Myanmar and the former glory has again been restored due to the new highway linking Yangon and Sittwe. Mahamuni Site now can be reached by car either from Sittwe or Mrauk U. Throughout the year, pilgrams flocked to visit from all parts of Rakhine State as well as devotees from different parts of Myanmar. There is a small museum near the shrine which displays some oldest stone sculptures in Myanmar. The Maharmuni festival falls in the month of Tabaung (March).

!!The well-known traditional Saying in both Arakan and Burma "thazon pan-khaing ta-mraing-mraing Rakhaing phara paung" indicates that total number of Buddhist pagodas in Rakhine-pray (Arakan) is up to more than six milli.Religious harmony in the independent-sovereign Arakan Kingdom was remarkable. Annual contributions of the Arakanese Kings to all religious are acknowledged their respect to secularism though they all are authentic Buddhists.

"The Mahamuni Sculptures"

If we travel from Akyab, the capital of the Arakan State, north wards by boat along the Kaladan River, we reach Kyauktaw town. The town is about 60 miles up the river from Akyab and is situated on the left bank of the river.
On the right bank, opposite Kyauktaw town is the famous Selargiri Hill. According to tradition, Gautama Buddha journeyed to Arakan and landed on this hill first. At present, there is a standing Buddha image on the top of the hill pointing out to his disciples the various places in which his former lives had been passed. There is also one Buddha image in a reclining posture (parinirvana scene) and two caityas (one old type and the other new type). The entire view of the hill with these images and caityas is very scenic. This hill commanded a view of the rice plains towards Dhanyawadi which is situated about 5 miles east of the hill. See Chapter III for deion of the city of Dhanyawadi.
Sirigutta hill, on which the Mahamuni shrine was built, lies on the northeast corner of the site once occupied by the ancient city of Dhanyawadi, whose walls are still traceable at present. The Mahamuni precincts occupied the whole hill which is leveled into three flat surfaces. These surfaces are surrounded with square-cut blocks of granular sandstone forming three enclosures. The lowest enclosure, which has an area of 500’ x 580’, is the base where there is a reservoir, known as Candasuriya reservoir, fed by a perennial spring The second enclosure is thirty feet up and has an area of 220’ x 240’. The third enclosure is again thirty feet up enclosing the leveled summit on which is built the shrine. It has an area of 116’ x 155’. There are a number of sculptures standing on these platforms. At the four cardinal points of the lowest enclosure are gates from which covered step-ways led to the shrine.It is the oldest and most revered Buddhist site in Arakan.
In the central chamber of this shrine is the throne on which the Mahamuni image was once placed. The image was removed in 1784 to Mandalay. According to tradition, as well as the palmleaf manuSappadanapakarana, Lord Buddha, while sojourning in Dhanyawadi, consented to the request of the king Candasuriya to leave an image of Him. The king collected the necessary metals and with the help of Sakra and Visvakarman made the image which was said to be exactly like the Blessed One. The Blessed One breathed upon the Image to impart life to the Image. King Candasuriya placed the Image on a throne in the shrine which he built on top of the Sirigutta hill. The image faced west where lay the places of the Four Principal Incidents of the Master’s life.
The entire religious history of Buddhistic Arakan centres around this “younger brother” of Gautama. The Image was believed by the people to be the original resemblance of Gautama taken from life and was very highly venerated. Pilgrims have for centuries come from various Buddhist countries to pay their devotions at the foot of the Image.
According to Arakanese historical records the shrine was destroyed by fire or by pilferage on many occasions throughout the centuries and was again and again rebuilt by pious kings of these centuries.
Of the original shrine, nothing remains except the three walls surrounding the three flat surfaces of the Sirigutta hill made of square cut blocks of granular sandstone, a reservoir at the southeast corner of the first enclosure, a number of stone sculptures standing along the terraces, and a few original architectural fragments.
The stone sculptures are the earliest group of specimen of the Buddhist Art of Ancient Arakan so far found. They consist of single images, dials and triads. They are all made out of the same type of fine -grained red sandstones and the sculptures are rather similar in design and dresses. The sizes of the slabs having single images are almost the same whereas the slabs having dials and triads are a little smaller..In order to interpret these broken and braised images found in the shrine, one should first of all determine what stage the Buddhism has reached in Arakan at the period of making of these images. As we know the approximate date of making of these imges as the 4th or the 5th century A.D., Bodhisattva concept is already in existence ever since very early times of Buddhism. The Bodhisattvas here, however, should not be mixed up with the Bodhisattvas mentioned in advanced Mahayana Suttras after the advent of the doctrine of Three Bodies and the theory of Five Dhyani Buddhas..

by zinyaw17

ရင္ကြဲနာ

ျခက္စားလားခေရ ႏွစ္ေပါင္း
ႏွစ္ရာ........ေက်ာ္..............
အႏိွုင္းမဲ့ အဆံုးအရံွဳး
သမိုင္းထဲ က ရုပ္ၾကြင္းတိ
ထိုတစ္စု......
ေဒတစ္စု........
အဘာကယ္ပါ
အမင္ကယ္ပါ ေခၚနိန္ကတ္ေတ............||
ရညိွ႔တက္နိန္ေရ
ေက်ာက္ဆစ္တိ.............
ခြာခ် ဖို႔လူမဟိ
သမိုင္းက ဟားတိုက္ခံထားရေရ
လူမ်ိဳးတစ္စု ..............
ၾြကြင္းလားခေရ ဟင္းဇကြဲတိပိုင္...............||

အိမ္မက္ထဲက ႏွစ္ေပါင္း
ငါးေထာင္က
ငါ့ကို နိန္႔တိုင္း
ေျခာက္လန္႔ွကတ္ေတ..............||

topography of rakhine

Category: Books
Genre: History
Author: location ; population & race of rakhine
RAKHINE STATE
Location : Rakhine State is situated in the westernmost part of the nation. Bordering Chin State in the north and Magway Division, Bago Division and Ayeyawady Division in the east and facing Bay of Bengal in the west, it is located between latitudes 17°30' north and 21°30' north and east longitudes 92°10' east and 94°50' east. The area of the State is 14,200 sq.miles.
Rakhine State is located in tropical monsoon region. Temperatures never rise or fall extremely as it is a coastal region. The average temperature of Sittway in May the hottest month of the year, is 84'F(29'C) and in January, the coldest month of the year, is 70'F(21'C). Rakhine State gets a lot of rain annually as the north-west monsoon winds blow from the sea almost right angle to the Yoma. Rakhine State gets rain from storms that formed in the Bay of Bengal. Annual rainfall at Thandwe is 221 inches, Kyaukpyu 186 inches and Sittway 203 inches. Torrential rains fall and tidal waves rise from the sea when cyclones that are formed in the Bay of Bengal enter Rakhine State, causing property damages and flooding of salt water in low land areas. Though the storms appear mostly in early and later periods of rainy season, they sometimes appear in the mid rainy season.

Population, inhabitants languages and religion: State is a sparsely populated area as its mountainous landscape is covered by thick forests. Its population is 2,698,000 and Sittway is the most populous town in the state. Rakhines and Banners live in valleys and on Yambye and Manaung islands. Chins are inhabitants of mountain regions of the north. Mros, Thets, Khamis, Dainets, Maramagyis and Kaman& live on mountain ranges in the west and north of Sittway plain. The majority of people are Buddhists. Main languages are Rakhine and Myanmar.
Formation of districts, townships and villages : The total area of Rakhine State is 14,200 square-miles. The state is formed with five districts, Which are Sittway, Maungtaw, Buthidaung, Kyaukpyu and Thandwe districts. These districts are formed with 17 townships and 1,164 village-tracts. Sittway is the capital city of the state. Other well-known towns are Thandwe, Kyaukpyu, Mrauk-U Kyauktaw, Punnagyun, Minbya, Taungup, Yanbye and Gwa, Rakhine State Day falls on 15 December.
Sown acreage and produce : Rakhine State has a cultivated area of over one million acres including over 850,000 acres of paddy farm, nearly 20,000 acres of other crops. 15,000 acres of silted-land cultivated areas, 36,000 acres of garden farms, over 12,000 acres of hill-side cultivation and 13,000 of nipa palm trees. Eighty-five per cent of total sown acreage is paddy fields. Over 860,000 acres are put under monsoon paddy in the state yearly. Annual yield of monsoon paddy is 48 million baskets. Summer paddy is cultivated on over 15,000 acres yearly. Mastard, groundnut, onion, chilli and beans and pulses are also cultivated in the state.
The main crop of Sittway plain is paddy. Other crops such as mustard, sesame, chili, sugarcane, onion, potato, corn, areca nut, betel leaf, tobacco and vegetables are also cultivated in the region. Rubber is grown in Thandwe and Gwa townships.
Coconut farms can be seen along the coastal areas and nipa palm plantations along the banks of creeks and rivers. Some people of the coastal areas conduct both fishing and agriculture. A kind of small fish called by locals "Nganidu"is the significant product of Rakhine State.
facts17 Other products : There are fishing stations in Sittway and Kyaukpyu townships, using modern trawlers in catching prawns and fish at sea. Most of the catch (fish and prawns) is transported to Yangon. Some of the catch is exported. Cold storages are located at Tattaung near the mouth of Ann Creek. Kyaukpyu has a Fisheries Training School. The State-owned pearl culture station is situated on Apawye Island near Thandwe. Sun-dried salt and refined salt is produced along the coast. Wood products such as timber, bamboo and fuel wood are extracted from forest. Small amount of crude oil is produced from shallow wells on Yanbye. Manaung, Ye, Phayonga and Mozi islands. Alabaster is mined at Naypu Hill near Taungup Township.
Traditions, culture and festivals : Rakhine State Day falls on 15 December. Buddha pujaniyas of Hsandawshin Pagoda on West Phayonga Island, Shitthaung Pagoda in MraukU and Bhudawmaw Pagoda are famous in the state. Rice Pounding Festival which is observed at the end of Buddhist Lent. Carriage Festival which is held in Tabodwe, Boat Festival which is held in Tagu and Kyin (Wrestling) Festival are traditional Rakhine festivals.
Historical sites and interesting places: Located between Kaladan and Lemyo rivers, MraukU an ancient royal town, is rich in interesting historical sites such as pagodas and other cultural edifices and antiques. Moreover, the ancient cities Danyawady and Vassali are located in the state. Ngapali and Kanthaya are beautiful beach resorts.
Radio and TV retransmission stations and microwave stations : A 10- kilowatt TV retransmission station is located in Sittway Township; seven stations in other townships. There are six microwave stations in Rakhine State.

THE FOUR PERIODS OF ARAKAN

. Period I : Independent Arakan Kingdom (Dhanyawady) BC. 3325 - AD. 326

1.


The First Dhanyawady


BC. 3325 - 1483


King Marayu

2.


The Second Dhanyawady


BC. 1483 - 580


King Kanrazagree

3.


The Third Dhanyawady


BC. 580 - AD.326


King Chandra Surya

Gautama Buddha, Himself, visited Dhanyawady and the Great Image of Mahamuni was casted, and Buddhism began professed in Arakan. Currency system by coinage is said introduced in Arakan economy.

B. Period II: Independent Arakan Kingdom (Vesali – Lemro) AD. 327 – AD. 1430

1.


Vesali Kyauk Hle Garr Period

ဆရာေတာ္ဦးဥတၱမအေၾကာင္း တစ္ေစ့တစ္ေစာင္း

အဂၤလိပ္ကိုလိုနီလက္ေအာက္ခံႏိုင္ငံေတြက ေဂ်ာ့ဘုရင္ေနတႏႈန္းဆိုၿပီး ဘဂၤလိပ္ဘုရင္ကို ဘုန္းေတာ္ဘြဲ႕ေတြ သီက်ဴးေရးသားေနၾကရခ်ိန္မွာ ဆရာေတာ္ဦးဥတၱမက ``ကရက္ ေဒါက္ ဂက္ေဒါက္´´ဆိုၿပီး ဘုရင္ခံကို ေျပာခဲ့တာဗ်။ အဲဒီအခ်ိန္တုန္းက အဲဒီလို ေျပာႏိုင္တဲ့အစြမ္းသတၱိဆိုတာ ဘယ္ႏိုင္ငံေရးသမားမွ မေျပာႏိုင္တဲ့အရွိန္အ၀ါမ်ဳိးေပါ႔။ အဲဒီအခ်ိန္မွာ ဦးဥတၱမက တစ္ခါတည္း ေရွ႕တန္းထြက္ၿပီးေတာ့ကို ေျပာခဲ့တာ။ အဲဒီလိုေျပာခဲ့တဲ့ ဦးဥတၱမဟာ သူ႔အသက္ (၃၁) ႏွစ္က အိႏၵိယႏိုင္ငံကို သြားၿပီး ဂႏၵီတို႔ ေန႐ူးတို႔ အိႏၵိယႏိုင္ငံေရးေခါင္းေဆာင္ေတြ ႏိုင္ငံေရးကို ဘယ္လို လုပ္ၾကသလဲဆိုတာကို ေလ့လာတယ္။
အဲဒီအေၾကာင္းေတြကို ရာဟုလာသံကိစၥည္းတို႔နဲ႔ အၿပိဳင္ေပၚထြန္းခဲ့တဲ့ ဘိကၡဳအာနႏၵာေကာသလႅယနဆိုတဲ့ ဟိႏၵီစာေပပညာရွင္က မဟာမိဂဒါ၀ုန္က ဟိႏၵီဘာသာနဲ႔ထုတ္တဲ့ ဓမၼဒူတဆိုတဲ့ မဂၢဇင္းထဲမွာ ဘိကၡဳဥတၱမဆိုၿပီး ေဆာင္းပါးေရးခဲ့ဖူးတယ္။ အဲဒီေဆာင္းပါးထဲမွာ ဘယ္လိုေရးထားသလဲ ဆိုေတာ့ အိႏၵိကို ဦးဥတၱမ ေရာက္လာစမွာ သူက ဟိႏၵဴဘုန္းႀကီး။ ဒါေပမယ့္ ဟိႏၵဴဘုန္းႀကီးျဖစ္တဲ့သူက ဗုဒၶဘာသာထဲ၀င္ ရဟန္းခံၿပီးေတာ့ သီဟိုဠ္ကို သြားဖို႔ စိတ္ကူးတယ္။ အဲဒီလိုမသြားခင္ ဦးဥတၱမနဲ႔ေတြ႕ေတာ့ ဦးဥတၱမက `လာ…ငါ႔ေနာက္ လိုက္ခဲ့´ဆိုၿပီး ေခၚသြားတယ္။ သူက ဦးဥတၱမရဲ႕ ကိုယ္ေရးအရာရွိလိုေနခဲ့တယ္။ ဦးဥတၱမ အိႏၵိယကို ေရာက္စခ်ိန္မွာ ဟိႏၵဴမဟာစပါနဲ႔ ကြန္ဂရက္ပါလီမန္ဆိုၿပီး အသင္းအဖြဲ႕ႀကီးႏွစ္ခုရွိတယ္။ ဘယ္သူေတြနဲ႔ ၿပိဳင္အေရြးခံရသလဲဆိုေတာ့ ေန႐ူးတို႔ရဲ႕အေဖ မိုတီပါလာလေန႐ူးတို႔နဲ႔ အၿပိဳင္အေရြးခံခဲ့ရတာ။ အဲဒီပုဂၢိဳလ္ႀကီးေတြ မရဘဲနဲ႔ ဦးဥတၱမ ရသြားတယ္။
ေနာက္ ဦးဥတၱမက ဟိႏၵဴမဟာစပါအသင္းရဲ႕ဥကၠ႒အျပင္ ကြန္ဂရက္ပါလီမန္ရဲ႕ အမႈေဆာင္လည္းျဖစ္သြားတယ္။ အဲဒီလိုကို သူက ထြန္းထြန္းေပါက္ေပါက္ ျဖစ္သြားတယ္။ အဲဒီလိုသူ ဥကၠ႒ျဖစ္ၿပီးခ်ိန္မွာ ဘာျပႆနာေပၚလာသလဲဆိုေတာ့ အဲဒီအခ်ိန္တုန္းက ဗုဒၶဂါယာကို မဟန္႔ဆိုတဲ့ ဟိႏၵဴဘုန္းႀကီးေတြရဲ႕ အႀကီးအမႉးေတြက ထိန္းခ်ဳပ္ထားတယ္။ အဲဒီမွာ ဗုဒၶဘာသာ၀င္ေတြက အဲဒီနယ္ေျမကို ျပန္ရေအာင္ ႀကိဳးစားေနတဲ့ကိစၥက ဟိႏၵဴမဟာစပါအသင္းဆီကို ေရာက္လာတယ္။ ေရာက္လာေတာ့ ဥကၠ႒ျဖစ္ေနတဲ့ ဦးဥတၱမက ဘာေျပာသလဲဆိုေတာ့ ျခေသၤ့မင္းနဲ႔ ယုန္မင္းပုံျပင္ေလးကို ျပန္ေျပာျပၿပီး ငါလည္း ဒီကိစၥမွာ ႏွာေစးေနတယ္ကြာဆိုၿပီး အစည္းအေ၀းခန္းမထဲက ထြက္သြားေတာ့ မိုတီပါလာလေန႐ူးတို႔လူႀကီးေတြ အံ့ၾသၿပီး က်န္ခဲ့ၾကတယ္။ အဲဒီအေၾကာင္းေလးေတြလည္း ထည့္ေရးထားတာေတြ႕ရတယ္။
ေနာက္တစ္ခုက ေဒလီမွာ သူေဌးႀကီးေတြရွိတယ္။ သူေဌးႀကီးေတြက ဦးဥတၱမကို ဆြမ္းပင့္ေကၽြးတယ္။ ေကၽြးေတာ့ သူတို႔က ဦးဥတၱမ အားရေက်နပ္ေအာင္ဆိုၿပီး သူတို႔ခ်ိတ္ထားတဲ့ ကရီသွ်နတို႔ ရာမတို႔ ဗုဒၶတို႔ ပုံေတြျပၿပီး ``ဒီမွာ ဆရာေတာ္ ဒီပုံေတြ ရွိပါတယ္ဆိုၿပီး ေျပာေတာ့ ဦးဥတၱမက ဘာေျပာသလဲဆိုေတာ့ ဒီကရီသွ်နတို႔ ရာမတို႔ဆိုတာက ကာမေဘာဂီ (ကာမဂုဏ္ကို ခံစားေနတဲ့) လူတြ။ အဲဒီလိုလူေတြၾကားထဲမွာ ဗုဒၶကို မင္း အတူတူထားရသလား´´ဆိုၿပီး အျပစ္ေျပာေတာ့ ဆြမ္းပင့္ေကၽြးတဲ့ သူေဌးေတြ ပါးစပ္အေဟာင္းသားျဖစ္သြားတယ္။
ကၽြန္ေတာ့္အေနနဲ႔ အိႏၵိယမွာေနတုန္း အဲဒါေတြကို ဖတ္လာၿပီးေတာ့ ျမန္မာျပည္ျပန္ေရာက္လာၿပီးခ်ိန္မွာ ဆရာေတာ္ဦးဥတၱမကို နဂုိကလည္း ၾကည္ညိဳရင္းစြဲရွိေနေတာ့ သူ႔အေၾကာင္းကို အမ်ားႀကီးေလ့လာတယ္။ ေလ့လာေတာ့ အဂၤလိပ္လက္ထက္ၿပီးစက ရန္ကုန္ျမဴနီစပါယ္ဥကၠ႒ ဦးမင္းအိုဆိုသူလက္ထက္မွာ ေရႊတိဂုံဘုရားေတာင္ဘက္မွာ ဦးဥတၱမပန္းျခံဆိုၿပီး လုပ္ခဲ့တယ္။ ႐ုပ္တုႀကီးလည္း တည္ထားခဲ့တယ္။ အဲဒီေနာက္ ေတာ္လွန္းေရးေကာင္စီတက္လာေတာ့ အဲဒီပန္းျခံကို ကန္ေတာ္မင္ပန္းျခံလို႔ အမည္ေျပာင္းလိုက္တယ္။ အဲဒီေနာက္မွာ ဦးဥတၱမရဲ႕ ႐ုပ္တုႀကီးကို ပန္းျခံနဲ႔မနီးမေ၀းက ျခံတစ္ခုရဲ႕ ျခံဳပုတ္ထဲေရာက္ေနတာ ေတြ႕ရတယ္တဲ့။ အဲဒီ႐ုပ္တုႀကီးကို ပန္းပုဆရာေတာ္တစ္ေယာက္ ထိန္းသိမ္းထားေသးတယ္လို႔ သိရတယ္။
ဦးဥတၱမအေၾကာင္းေတြ ကၽြန္ေတာ္ အေတာ္မ်ားမ်ား ေရးခဲ့ပါတယ္။ ေနာက္ ရွစ္ေလးလုံးျဖစ္လာေတာ့ အဲဒီထဲမွာ ဘုန္းႀကီးေတြ ပါလာေတာ့ အဲဒီေနာက္ပိုင္းမွာ ဘုန္းႀကီးနဲ႔ႏိုင္ငံေရး မပတ္သက္ရဘူး၊ ဘုန္းႀကီးေတြ ႏိုင္ငံေရးမလုပ္ရဘူး၊ ဘုန္းႀကီးေတြ ႏိုင္ငံေရးလုပ္တဲ့အေၾကာင္းေတြလည္း မေရးရဘူးဆိုၿပီး ေပၚလစီခ်မွတ္လိုက္ေတာ့ ဦးဥတၱမအေၾကာင္းေတြ ေရးလို႔မရဘူးျဖစ္သြားတယ္။ ဒီအစိုးရက အေျခအေနေပၚ မူတည္ၿပီး ေပၚလစီ ခ်မွတ္တာမ်ဳိးကိုး။
ေနာက္ ကၽြန္ေတာ္ စစ္ေတြကိုေရာက္ေတာ့ ဦးဥတၱမအေၾကာင္း ေဟာေျပာမယ္လို႔ ေၾကညာလိုက္ေတာ့ ဘုန္းႀကီးေတြ အမ်ားႀကီး လာနားေထာင္ၾကတယ္။ လူေတြကလည္း ျပည့္ၾကပ္သြားတာပဲ။ အဲဒီမွာ ဦးဥတၱမအေၾကာင္း ကၽြန္ေတာ္သိတာေတြ ျပန္ၿပီးေျပာတယ္။ ဦးဥတၱမက ဇာတ္သိမ္းသိပ္မေကာင္းဘူးတဲ့။ ေနာက္ပိုင္းက်ေတာ့ ဦးေႏွာက္ နည္းနည္းထိခိုက္သြားတယ္။ ဦးဥတၱမကို အပုပ္ခ်ခ်င္တဲ့သူေတြက ဦးဥတၱမဟာ ဦးေႏွာက္ပ်က္တယ္လို႔ ေျပာၾကတယ္။ ဦးဥတၱမ အဲဒီလိုျဖစ္တာ ဘာေၾကာင့္လဲဆိုေတာ့ ဦးဥတၱမက သိပ္ေမွ်ာ္လင့္တာ၊ ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံ လြတ္လပ္ေရးရဖို႔ဆုိတဲ့ ဦးတည္ခ်က္တစ္ခုတည္းရွိတာ။ အဲဒီဦးတည္ခ်က္နဲ႔ လုပ္ေနခ်ိန္မွာ ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံရဲ႕ ႏိုင္ငံေရးေခါင္းေတြ ငါးပြင့္ဆိုင္တို႔ ဦးခ်စ္လႈိင္တို႔ အဖြဲ႕ေတြက သူေမွ်ာ္လင့္သလို လြတ္လပ္ေရးအတြက္ ေစာက္ခ်မလုပ္ဘဲနဲ႔ ငါးေထာင္စားရာထူးေတြ ယူသြားေတာ့ သူအရမ္းစိတ္ထိခိုက္သြားတယ္။ အဲဒါေၾကာင့္ အဲဒီလိုျဖစ္တာပဲဆိုၿပီး ေျပာျပေတာ့ စစ္ေတြလူထုက သိပ္သေဘာက်ၾကတာပဲ။
ေနာက္ စစ္ေတြလူထုကို ဘာေျပာခဲ့သလဲဆိုေတာ့ ဦးဥတၱမရဲ႕ ေထ႐ုပတၱိ ခိုင္ခိုင္ခန္႔ခန္႔ မရွိေသးဘူး။ ဘုန္းႀကီးေတြက ႀကီးမႉးၿပီး ျပဳစုၾကရင္ ေကာင္းမယ္လို႔ ေျပာေတာ့ သူတို႔က ဆရာပဲ ေရးေပးပါဆိုၿပီး တာ၀န္ျပန္ေပးတယ္။ ျပန္ေပးေသာ္လည္းပဲ ဒီေရာက္လာေတာ့ ေရးလို႔မျဖစ္ျပန္ဘူး။ ေရးၿပီးရင္ ထုတ္ေ၀ဖို႔ ကိစၥေတြက ရွိလာဦးမွာကိုး။ အဲဒီလို အေၾကာင္းေတြေၾကာင့္ မေရးျဖစ္ေပမယ့္ အခ်က္အလက္ စုေဆာင္းထားတာေတြရွိတယ္။ အဲဒါေတြကို ရခိုင္သံဃာေတာ္တစ္ပါး အိႏၵိယမွာ ပညာသင္ၿပီး သူက်မ္းျပဳစုခ်င္လို႔ ဦးဥတၱမနဲ႔ ပတ္သက္တာေတြ မွ်ေ၀ပါဆိုေတာ့ သူ႔ကိုေပးလိုက္တယ္။ ေရးျဖစ္လား မေရးျဖစ္လားေတာ့ မသိဘူး။ စုေဆာင္းထားတာေတြကိုေတာ့ အခုထိျပန္မပို႔ေသးဘူး။
ျမန္မာစာေပပညာရွင္တစ္ဦး

ဦးဥတၱမ နားေထာင္ေနတယ္

ရခိုင္ေျမက ဦးဥတၱမပန္းျခံ
အပန္းေျဖရန္ အေမွာင္ခြင္းí
ရအလင္းေဆာင္သူ တဆူဆရာေတာ္
ဇာတိေက်ာ္က မ်က္စိခ်ထားေန
နားေထာင္ေနတယ္။
ရခုိုင္သားတို႔
အနားယူရန္ ေလညွင္းခံဖို႔
လာလို႔ေရာက္လာ၊ငါနားေထာင္ေနတယ္
ဘာေတြေျပာလဲ ဘာစကားလဲ။
ကိုယ့္လူမ်ဳိးအတြက္ တိုးတက္ၾကီးပြါး
စကားမ်ဳိးလား၊ကိုယ့္အမ်ဳိးသားတို႔၏
အသိျမင့္မား ႏိုးၾကားတက္ၾကြ
ေ၀ါဟာရမ်ဳိးလား၊နားေထာင္ဂရုစိုက္ေနတယ္။
မဟုတ္ပဲနဲ႔
ေသြးကဲြျပားစြာ၊မညီညာ
ယုတ္မာစိတ္ထားပ်က္ျပားေဖာက္ျပန္
အမွန္မလုပ္သိမ္ႏုတ္စကား
ေျပာျခင္းလားလို႔၊ နားစြင့္ဂရုစုိက္ေနတယ္။
ဒီလိုမွမဟုတ္၊စိတ္မယုတ္ဘဲ
ဒဟိုလဲမက်၊ဒီလဲမက်
ဘ၀မသိ၊သတိမရ
ရခိုင္စိတ္မ၀င္၊ၾကင္ေဖာ္မျဖစ္
အိပ္ငုိက္ေနစြလား။
အရွင္နားေထာင္ေနတယ္၊ၾကည္႔ေနတယ္။
အရွင္ၾကားလို၊ျမင္ရလိုေသာ
စိုျပီသာယာ၊ငါတို႔ရခိုင္ေျမ
ျဖစ္ရပါေစ------ အေဆြတို႔။

မူရင္းစာဆို သႏၱာေမာင္ေမာင္ (ရခုိင္ျပည္)
By Kumara

ဘုန္းႀကီးဦးဥတၱ (ေခၚ ) ဆရာေတာ္ဦးဥတၱမ (ေခၚ ) ဘိကၡဳဥတၱမ (ေခၚ ) ေပၚထြန္းေအာင္(ဖုိင္တြဲအမွတ္ - ၃ A – 1 OF 1927 )

အဖအမည္ - ဦးျမသာဦး။
ေမြးရပ္ - စစ္ေတြၿမိဳ ႔။
ေမြးသကၠရာဇ္ - ခရစ္ႏွစ္ ၁၈၈၀- ခု။
လက္ရွိေနရပ္ - ကလကတၱားၿမိဳ ႔ ၄ ေအ၊ ေကာလိပ္စကြဲ
(College Square ) - မဟာေဗာဓိအသင္း(Maha Bodhi Society)။
အလုပ္အကိုင္ - ဘုန္းႀကီး - ၀ါဒျဖန္႔ခ်ီေရးသမား။
ပုံသဏၭာန္
အရပ္အျမင့္ - ၅ ေပ ၄ လက္မ။
ကုိယ္လုံးကိုယ္တည္ - ေတာင့္တင္းသည္။
ဆံပင္ - ေျပာင္ေအာင္ရိတ္ထားသည္။
မ်က္ခုံးမ်ား - ပါး၍ေကာက္ေကြးသည္။
နဖူး - က်ယ္၍ျမင့္သည္။
မ်က္လုံးမ်ား - နက္ေျပာင္သည္။
မ်က္စိအျမင္ - မ်က္မွန္တပ္ရသည္။
ႏွာေခါင္း - ႀကီးသည္။
ပါးစပ္ - စိစိပိတ္သည္။
လက္ေခ်ာင္းမ်ား - တုိ၍ တုတ္သည္။္
နားရြက္မ်ား - အေနေတာ္။ ဦးေခါင္းႏွင့္ ကပ္ေနသည္။နားေဖာက္ထားသည္။
မ်က္ႏွာ - ၀ိုင္းသည္။
အသားေရာင္ - အ၀ါေရာင္ေဖ်ာ့ေဖ်ာ့။
မွတ္ဆိတ္ေမႊး - မရွိ။
ႏႈတ္ခမ္းေမႊး - မရွိ။
အမွတ္အသား - အေပၚႏႈတ္ခမ္းလက္၀ဲဘက္တြင္ေစာင္းေစာင္း
ဓါးျပတ္ရာတစ္ခုရွိသည္။ ဂုတ္တြင္ မွည့္တစ္လုံးရွိသည္။ နဖူး၏ လက္်ာဘက္၌ အမာရြတ္တစ္ခုရွိသည္။

ထူးျခားခ်က္မ်ား - မတ္မတ္လမ္းေလွ်က္သည္။ စကားကို က်ယ္က်ယ္ႏွင့္ျမန္ျမန္ ရခိုင္သံ၀ဲ၍ေျပာသည္။ အိႏိၵယ အမ်ဳိးသားတစ္ဦးကဲ့သို႔ ၿပဳံး
ရႊင္ေသာ အမူအရာရွိသည္။ စကားေျပာရာ၌ ပြဲက်ေအာင္ေျပာသည္။

၀တ္ဆင္ေနက် - ပင္နီိပိတ္ျဖင့္ လုပ္ထားေသာ သကၤန္းအ၀ါေရာင္။

ျမင္လွ်င္မွတ္မိေသာအရာရွိမ်ား
ျမန္မာႏုိင္ငံ မႈခင္းစုံစမ္းေထာက္လွမ္းေရးဌာန ( C. I .D Burma) ရွိေထာက္လွမ္းေရးဌာနမွ ျမန္မာအရာရွိအားလုံး။

ေဆြမ်ဳိးမ်ား
မေအာင္ေက်ာ္ျဖဴ (မိခင္) ေမာင္ေက်ာ္ထြန္းေအာင္ (ေခၚ ) ရွင္အရိယ(ညီ )။
ၾကည့္ျမင္တုိင္ လင္းလြန္းကြက္သစ္ေန မအိမ္စုိးေမ (ႏွစ္မ)။

မိတ္ေဆြမ်း
တစ္ျပည္လုံးရွိထင္ရွားေသာ ႏုိင္ငံေရးသမားမ်ားအားလုံး။

ရခိုင္အမ်ိဳးသာေရး၀ါဒ

လူမ်ိဳးတစ္မ်ိဳးတိုးတက္ဖို႔
လြတ္ေျမာက္ဖို႔ဆိုစြာမာက
ပညာရီးက အဓိက
စီးပြါးရီးက ပထမ
ညီညြတ္မႈက ထာ၀ရ။

အျမင္ကက်ဥ္းေျမာင္း
ေဟာင္းႏြမ္းေရ အေတြးအေခၚ
အယူအဆတိလြဲေခ်ာ္စြာက
ငါဆိုေရ တယူသန္ ၀ါဒ
ေတာင္ပိုင္းသား ၀ါဒ
ေျမာက္ပိုင္းသား ၀ါဒ
သံတြဲသား ၀ါဒ
မာန္ေအာင္သား ၀ါဒ
ေက်ာက္ျဖဴသား ၀ါဒ
စစ္ေတြသား ၀ါဒ
စည္းလံုးမႈမဟိေရ ၀ါဒ
ဟိုလူ၀ါဒ ေဒလူ၀ါဒ
အဆြီးအေဟာင္း ယင္း၀ါဒတိအားလံုးကို
ခ၀ါခ်ထားလိုက္ကတ္ေမ။

တာ၀န္သိ သီအိုရီ
ေခတ္ စနစ္္နန္႔ေလ်ာ္ညီေယာင္
ငါဆိုေရ ဆရာႀကီး ၀ါဒ
ေရႊလူေမာင္ ၀ါဒ
ေအးေက်ာ္ ၀ါဒ
ေအးခ်မ္း ၀ါဒ
ဟို၀ါဒ ေဒ၀ါဒ
၀ါဒတိအားလံုးေပါင္းပနာ
ထြက္ေပါက္ရွာကတ္ပါေမ။

နည္းပညာတိ တက္ကၽြမ္း
ရႊီလမ္း ငြီလမ္းတိဖြင့္
စီးပြါးေရး အင္အားတင့္ေကလည္း
စည္းရံုးမႈမဟိကတ္
ညီညြတ္မႈမဟိကတ္ဆိုေက
လူမ်ိဳးႀကီးတိဆိုစြာလည္း
ဒိုင္ႏိုေဆာတိပိုင္ယာထြား။

မ်ိဳးပ်က္ ညႊန္႔တံုး
လူမ်ိဳးမျပဳန္းေယာင္
ၾကံေဆာင္ျခင္း အာမခံ
ေတာ္လွန္၀ံ့ေရ သတၱိ
လူတိုင္းမာဟိေကလည္း
စည္းရံုးမႈမဟိကတ္ဆိုေက
ရခိုင္လူမ်ိဳးဆိုစြာလည္း
၂၁ ရာစုမာ
endangered စာရင္း၀င္လားပါဖို႔။

proud of being arakanthar

we are proud of being arakanthar
we love arakan
we love arakan culture