The Gyaungs of the Sagaing Hills

The Sagaing Hills are famous for what are called “gyaung,” ( ေခ်ာင္) These are small, isolated nooks where a monastery or nunnery is located. The word can be translated as a “secluded place where spiritual seekers go to escape the trials and tribulations of worldly life."

Over a century ago, the British traveler George Bird wrote about these in more detail: “A Gyaung in the vernacular means a valley, or ravine; but in Sagaing the name is applied to the monasteries and religious buildings built in the valleys, in which live, surrounded on all sides by the bare and rugged hill-sides, communities of very religious and austere monks and nuns. From the river these establishments are not visible, but on ascending to the top of any of the hills at the back of the village of Wachet the eye is enchanted by the view of these vales, in which nestle, amidst groves of graceful trees, and surrounded by pretty flowering shrubs, the monasteries of this austere sect of hermits....These at the time numbered 657. There were originally only nine, but there are now twenty-four of such establishments. Paved, zig-zag paths lead from one to the other, and to the pagoda platforms on the summits, and some are supplied with tanks and wells cut out of the rock. In the hill-sides, at the back of the monasteries, a series of caves have been cut out of the solid rock by the hermits themselves, the aperture being closed in each instance by a massive teak door, and in these dark, unwholesome cells, with the doors shut, excluding both light and air, these recluses spend from five to eight hours a day in silent meditation…Attached to each gyaung are several lay-pupils, whose duty it is to bring in supplies of wood and water, and to collect the offerings of the pious supporters in the villages and town below. They are so celebrated amongst Buddhists that no pilgrim from the lower province would think of returning to his home without paying them a visit.”

Syriam: from Orwell to Ledi Sayadaw, where the Great Game met the great Dhamma practitioners...

Than Lyin-- across the river from Yangon, and known historically as Syriam-- is a place combining such dynamic figures as Philip de Brito, Mahasi Sayadaw, George Orwell, Ledi Sayadaw, the Burmah Oil Company, Mohnyin Sayadaw, etc. Following tells how these all happen to come together in this unlikely place...

Way back in 1897, George Bird was already recording (in Wanderings in Burma) that “beyond the ruins…nothing now remains of the once flourishing European settlements [of Syriam].” Now, over a century later, there are very few European footprints left in the sand here anymore, either. These include a ruined Portuguese church from 1750, some Armenian tombs, and parts of the old wall of the city. And at nearby Henzada village, a small pagoda bears the inscription of the apparent descendants of the Portuguese (and anti-Buddhist) warlord Philip de Brito, (a somewhat ironic twist of Dhamma that one of the few remaining testaments to the existence of that foreign pagoda-destroyer in Burma would be…a pagoda, and built by his own descendants to boot).

Syriam was certainly not known for its beauty during the Colonial period, during which time the Burmah Oil Company set up a refinery here, although it was later destroyed in World War II. George Orwell was posted here from 1924, where he worked as an Assistant District Superindentent. It was a toss-up as to whether the rough town was better known for its frequent murders or acrid air at that point. It seems that Orwell spent much of his days reading what British literature he could acquire from nearby Rangoon bookstores. According to Keith Ferrell in George Orwell: The Political Pen, Orwell “lived in a house that lacked all the amenities to which Europeans were accustomed: there was no running water, toilets, or electricity.” Today, Than Lyin’s port—Thilawa—is the largest port in the country, building on its status as the port of choice for European ships during the Colonial era.

But on more of a Dhamma note, the area does have some significant Buddhist past. Small Gonnyinsu Village is where the deeply revered Mohnyin Sayadaw was born in 1873, and who went go on to become one of Ledi Sayadaw’s most important disciples. And yogis today can attend a course at the Saya U Than Kammathan Center, which offers teachings in the tradition of Saya Thet Gyi. Mahasi Sayadaw arrived here just one year after Orwell, in 1925, after leaving his hometown of Seikkhun and prior to his intensive study in Mandalay and Moulmein. Finally, Ledi Sayadaw practiced the jhanas here in 1895 following his Indian pilgrimage. 

The photos seen with this text are from a monastic education monastery in Than Lyin today.

Maha Myat Muni Pagoda: A Single Dhammic Object

The Maha Myat Muni Buddha image! In this single object, now heavily coated in gold, can be seen the intersection between myth and documented history, between ancient India and modern Myanmar, between political power and the quest for liberation, and between external devotion and internal faith. Meditators from lands without a strong Dhamma history may not understand how— or even be aware that— centuries of devoted Buddhist practice manifest through material objects, especially Buddha images. One of the clearest examples of this is the Maha Myat Muni Buddha statue. As British colonial writer George Bird wrote over a century ago, “[S]o highly venerated was this image, that from the earliest times pious pilgrims from most distant Buddhist countries have been in the habit of coming to the shrine to pay their devotions.” The tradition and reverence continues to this day.