Ledi Sayadaw and Mahasi Sayadaw... sharing a home?

On a visit with Myanmar Pilgrimage to the Pyinmana monastery where Ledi Sayadaw lived between 1914-16, we were taken into the inner shrine area where Ledi resided, wrote, and meditated. Here we found two photos: one of Ledi, and the other of an elder Mahasi Sayadaw. In the West such a side by side juxtaposition would be comparable to the American baseball fan hanging Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees pennants in his house (e.g., that of two opposing teams). But in Myanmar, there is nothing the slightest bit out of the ordinary by this arrangement, in which the current monastic resident merely wishes to show his great respect for the two meditation masters, scriptural scholars, and Burmese Buddhist reformers.

Where the lineage lines outside of Myanmar can appear as fixed and rigid, these hard lines are transposed within the country as being dotted instead of solid, and fluid rather than set. Here, it is well understood that spiritual masters usually develop through a variety of influential teachers (either living or in the past) as well as contemporaries, and in many cases charting clear causal lines of influence can be somewhat arbitrary or artificial. That is why, then, it is completely normal to find a portrait of Mahasi Sayadaw in the monastery where Ledi lived and taught for two years, and just a drive away from the site where he ultimately passed away and was cremated.

This site is called "Zingyan Monastery", the Burmese word zingyan indicting a walking meditation path, so the site name suggests that this is where Ledi practiced mindful walking. The current abbot kindly showed us the very path where the great Ledi's feet once tread. Passing through a row of trees on either side and heading towards the ruins of an old water tank that captured and stored rain water, the modern yogi can retrace Ledi's very footsteps while following his instructions of mindfulness. The last picture is the Burmese plaque still standing of the donor who sponsored this practice area for Ledi.

"The Meditator's Guide to Burma, Part 2".... moves to layout!

The Meditator's Guide to Burma, "The Golden Path" or Shwe Lan Ga Lay, was begun in April 2013, originally believed to only take a few months in duration to complete. Envisioned as 14 separate chapters, the dana project was intended to help spiritual seekers find access and gain understanding to some of the country's special Dhamma locations.

In 2015, Part 1 was released, with four completed chapters, providing a cursory look at planning and arriving in the Golden Land. As the years stretched on and the core team of volunteer contributors persevered in the work, the five new chapters included in Part 2 took shape as something above and beyond-- clocking in at nearly three times the site, the team undertook intensive research to provide unprecedented access and information about important Burmese and Shan Buddhist sites far outside of the normal tourist-- and even known meditator-- path.

As Jenny Phillips, creator of The Dhamma Brothers comments, "A Myanmar Guide for Dhamma Seekers, with its hauntingly beautiful photographs, is much more than a travel guide. It becomes a deeply experiential inner map toward finding wholeness beyond our limited sense of self in a world of impermanence and interdependence.” Or as the American nun Sayalay Daw Candavatī, creator of the documentary, The Golden Land of Myanmar, puts it: "You, dear reader, dear seeker, have a treasure before you. This book is a gift of untold blessings as you step into the world of a unique spiritual journey that is found with such depth in Burma. You have no idea how much this book will help you."

Four main regions are included in this work... Shan State, Around Mandalay (see above image), Around Yangon, and Mandalay. Each region is then broken further in terms of towns and districts, uncovering a plethora of pagodas, caves, meditation centers, monasteries, nunneries and much more which give a different glimmer into the wealth behind Myanmar's nearly 1,000 year Buddhist history. From anecdotes to monastic biographies to poetry to history recounted to original artwork and photography, there is certainly something in these pages for everyone.

Hundreds of pages are devoted to such topics as the lineage behind S.N. Goenka, particularly Webu Sayadaw, Saya Thet Gyi, and Ledi Sayadaw; the early days, education, and first teachings of Mahasi Sayadaw in Seikkhun; the unique development and practice of dhamma as found among the Shan people; the ethno-religious connotations behind such historically significant sites as Maha Muni Pagoda and the five Buddha images of Inle Lake; the development of Buddhist monastic education as practiced at Mahagandayone Monastery in Amarapura, and much more.

The volunteers behind this effort seek no renumeration, and the electronic copies will be freely available when layout is completed. However, no physical copy is as yet possible, and donors interested in helping in this area are encouraged to write at burmadhamma@gmail.com.

May all volunteers be happy, peaceful and liberated!

A Day in A Myint, northern Burma

Zaw Win Htet describes a day discovering ancient Buddhist sites around his hometown:

"Last Friday morning when I was having Monti (Burmese rice noodles) as my breakfast with all my family members, a car arrived and parked in front of my house. Ven. Pinnyasara, a chief monk of Bodhi Tahtaung Monastery's meditation centre, and his guests from Yangon came in and then asked my dad if anyone of us would mind to take them to A Myint as a volunteer guide. My dad and brother looked at me at the same time, then they pointed to me. I said happily, "yes." Thus, my wife and I became "Saw Ke Kings" as in a proverb of our township, "Saw Ke became a King (of Innwa) without any intention." This proverb is not strange to us as natives of Chaung U township because King Saw Ke from that proverb and from the history was not from other far sites and he was from A Myint in our township.

The monk and two guests let my wife and little niece come along with me that a space was available for two of them as well. On the way to Amyint, we went in a village beside the road where there is the sole palmprint of Buddha, the only one in the country and the world. We were taken to the pagodas by 76-year old Chief Monk of that monastery. In that monastery, though there were many old pagodas, many of them have been rebuilt. We feel missing of them and local people should be started to be educated how to preserve the ancient works. We saw a brick Buddha statue of a square face under a heap of bricks. Historian scholars inferred that this statue has an artistic sculptural style of Bagan Era. At about 10.30, we left there and went on.

Just a few minutes drive later, the recently preserved moat with no water was welcoming us, so was a high heap of old reddish bricks that local people call "Mingalar Myo Oo Pagoda", by showing or telling us a phenomenon or a philosophy of Constant Flux. I feel it is like telling us, "We were very new and beautiful one time but now all the people who built us, had gone and we ourselves are sadly old. See us!" Yes, it is true. In this way, I usually think about the past A Myint City of Innwa Era whenever I cross that moat and pass that pagoda. I see the Change of Everything by Time in A Myint. It was one time a big city where the Princes, Princesses and Dukes governed and lived. It was a big city where ancient kings relied on for their army when there was a war, but now it is just a big village where the township's administration offices are not stationed. King Swar Saw Ke had already disappeared, so had Duke Min Latwar. Although they and their people disappeared, today A Myint is still standing as a milestone of Myanmar's history and majestic days of ancient A Myint city. It is showing us the proofs of ancient Burmese people's outstanding architectural constructions, designs, arts of paintings and golden generosity. Today A Myint is still telling us some important points of history of our country. It is like telling us the Tides of History and Human Beings over River Chindwin's basin areas around Sanlahvati Kingdom, the original another name of Ot-jay-ni Kingdom. (Ot-jay-ni Kingdom and Sanlahvati Kingdom are the same capital citiy of a kingdom early before Bagan dynasties and at the same time as early Bagan dynasties; these names refer to A Myint.)

First of all in A Myint, we went in Pya-that monastery where Bagan Era's resin Buddha statue is. The Buddha statue is believed to be the one that King Alaung Sithu worshiped at the palace in Bagan. Although it was found in its own big pagoda in the south of the village, people brought it here to this Pya-that monastery so to be safe from the thieves of ancient statues. Some proofs have also been found to show that this resin Buddha statue was worshiped by King Alaung Sithu. The Chief Monk of that monastery gave all of us small booklets about the history of the Resin Buddha Statue (မံဘုရား, in Burmese). After paying worships to this Buddha, we went to Min Ye monastery and Min Ye Su Pagodas (meaning a cluster of pagodas in Min Ye monastery). We parked the car in the monastery next to the area of pagodas. U Thein Naing and U Thet Naing, the guests, took photographs of the old leaning wooden monastics. We walked up stairs of a few wide deep steps in the area of pagodas through a narrow gate. We walked on the walkways between the pagodas and the guests took a lot of time to take photos of different styles of old temples and an old lying Buddha statue with a slightly big flat smiling face as showing the style of Bagan Era's statues and as that can be seen in mural paintings. To show my guests the mural paintings of Thu-yaung trees and Jatakas pictures, I led the group to a temple numbered by the Ancient Research Department under the Ministry of Culture. This temple is one of the most famous temples in A Myint because it has mural paintings of the afore-mentioned Thu-yaung trees. It's famous for them. After about half an hour, we left Min Ye Su pagodas and led to the market for lunch of the monk, so it cannot be late. After lunch in a restaurant of Burmese cuisine, we left A Myint for another part of Second Bagan, Thone-pan-hla village (previously called A Naint village) where U Wisara, the national hero for Burmese in the days of colonial British Burma, was born. In this area around A Myint, a lot of famous people and monks were born. U Nyo Mya, who wrote the article "Hell Hounds at Large" to criticize at the British Headmaster of Yangon University, and wrote a lot of books, was born in A Myint. Duke Min Lat War was very famous for his governance that thieves or robbers were killed by a strike of his very wide palm, in King Mindom's times. (He was known as Min Lat War, meaning Duke Palm, for the above reason.) Ledi Pandita U Maung Gyi, a great writer and disciple of Ledi Sayadaw, was born in Nyaung Phyu Pin village where formerly was in the township of Chaung Oo, in the north of A Myint.

After our lunch, we went to Min O Chan Thar Pagoda that was built by King Alaung Sithu. Althogh this is a famous ancient pagoda, just a few ancient works are remained because today people renewed it again and again. It's a kind of stupa with four main sets of stairs, so we can go up the stairs to look over around but it is not too high.

Just in the south of A Myint, we saw Man Pagoda where the Resin Buddha Statue was previously put. In Tazaung village on the way to Thone Pan Hla, Monastic Donors Nga Yauk Thin Couple's stone inscription is famous and the village is situated just beside the dirt road to Thone Pan Hla. It was dated ME-658 (AD-1296) and the scholars recommend that it is a stone isncription of "mula-htoe (in Burmese, မူလထိုး)" meaning "original inscription". In that village, there is another mula-htoe stone inscription called "Monastic Donors Nga Pyae Nyi Couple's stone inscription", dated ME-677 (AD-1315), too. Since we did not have much time, we did not go in the village to see them. For the historians, Sanae Nan Gone in Tazaung village is a good site to study and make a History research from the above stone inscriptions.
(For more information about the historic stone inscriptions around A Myint Old City and A Neint Old City to make a study in history, please see in my own blog page: www.bloggerzawwinhtet.blogspot.com.)

Old trees are beside the dirt road along the way we went. It must have been an old avenue that connects A Myint City and A Neint City since the past times. After we crossed some villages and a 30-minute drive, we started to see a cluster of very old dun temples and pagodas cloaked by shrubs here and there. The temples are spreading over the areas and between clusters of palm trees or in the fields. In a place beside the road, we saw a sign and a side road to a cluster of some temples named "Thone Pan Hla Pagodas Compound". We took a right turn to the side road to visit and see them. Near a brickwork lion in front of the archway of the compound, we took photos together. At the eastern gate, only one lion statue was left as original and the rest can be only seen as a heap of bricks. We took a careful look at the remained one which was built by bricks. Its legs are wonderfully firming without any help of reinforced concrete-work and its brickwork is amazing. We can see amazing brickwork in its legs in deep strength though they are not thick enough. (Please, see the photo.)

When walked on the pavement in the compound, we were seen and directed by an old man named Bagyi Gyan (bagyi means old grandpa), a trustee member, to the temples in which the mural paintings are there. Inside the temples in the southernmost of the compound, we could have a great chance to see priceless mural paintings. In the paintings, we saw some ancient writing styles that are quite different from today's. For example, we once read and learned that the Pali term "Thera (meaning elder bhikkhu or elder monk)" is written as either "မေထရ္(ma-te)" or "ေထရ္(te)" today. But, in the ancient writing that is found in mural paintings of Bagan Era, it was written "မထည္(ma-hti)" or sometimes "မထည္း(ma-htee)". Myanmar linguists said in the books that later people and today people read and write it "မထီး" and they think this is another term and a term for those monks who are not Theravada Buddhist monks. We also found the writing "အရည္း" in the mural paintings on the walls and concave roofs of the cave inside the pagodas. The terminologists and Myanmar linguists said that this word was derived from a Pali word "အရည (Aranna)" and adopted as a Burmese word "အရည္း" by putting ( - ္) and ( - း). The words "အရည္း" that we found in the mural paintings, used to mean Theravada Buddhist monks who used to live at a monastery in the rural areas. However, we do not write and call those as "အရည္း" today. If someone sees a word "အရည္း" or sometimes "အရည္းၾကီး" today, he misinterprets that this means the ones who told themselves as monks, practiced non-Buddhist practices without perceiving any Buddhist percepts and principles, and who founded a religion-alike in early Bagan Era before King Anawratha's times when Buddhism started to flourish in upper and other parts of Myanmar, except around Mon State, the initial start point of Theravada Buddhism in the entire Myanmar in history. Therefore, what I get a message from the mural paintings that we saw, from the scope of Myanmar linguistic and history, is that we can elicit these pagodas were built in the Era of Bagan. Another supportive strong reason to elicit this point or statement is that some scholars say the pictures of people, Buddha, monks or Arhats, look those of mural paintings in Bagan temples. To clarify, this means that faces in the paintings are pear-shaped. Anyway, it was very good and knowledgable to see or observe the paintings and learn the way that scholars made historical elicitations by observing the writings and pictures in the paintings.
Lovely, the name of one of the pagodas where there mural paintings are well reseved, is "Ma-shi-ka-na (မရွိခဏ)" Temple that means the temple of "No Lack". (PS: There are many other so-called "Ma-shi-ka-na" pagodas in Sagaing and in some other parts of the country.) In our group, the two guests from Yangon, also have the same interest in interior mural paintings and exterior decorative arabseques in the pagodas as me. According to U Panna, they are makers of the documentary of Maha Bodhi Ta Htaung Sayadawgyi and they seemed to make a documentary about A Myint and Thone Pan Hla, the areas of Second Bagan. They were taking a lot of photographs outside the temples and then we all were brought by Bagyi Gyan to another important site of the compount which is Aung Myay of Queen Sambula. In Myanmar Theravada Buddhist's beliefs, people like to visit Aung Myay where a famous person or a famous monk once succeeded in his resolution and wish in the past. We went up the stairs of the throne or platform of Aung Myay and stood on the slab to wish and make a resolution. The story about this Aung Myay is that Sambula once made a resolution here to renovate old stupas and temples in Thone Pan Hla before she became a queen. When she became the Queen of King Kyan Sit and her wishes were fulfilled, she built Thone Pan Hla Stupa surrounded by seven smaller stupas. At the other side of these red stupas and near western gate, the Aung Myay is there and there is another famous temple outside the brick walls of the compound. That temple is called Pitakat Wahso Teik and the mural paintings of Arhat monks who are paying homage to Buddha, on the concave ceiling of the temple. We walked on the walls to that temple and almost the whole of its exterior was recently renovated, so it seemed to lose some parts of ancient exterior decorations and even some lower parts of mural paintings inside the temple were already lost because of the later paintings of lime. Not only in that temple but also in the other temples, the lower parts were limed by the later people. U Thein Tan, one of my guests, said that they might have been lost perhaps because the later people who came here and stayed in the temples while perceiving eight percepts on Sabbath Days, might probably be leaning against the walls and thus they were faded. He continued to elicit that the paintings were probably made of watery fruits or vegetables and it might be a certain reason why their colour were easily faded years after years. Anyway, it just took a short time to fade them because the later people were less-educated in preserving ancient temples and antiques. Aother reason is that Buddhist people do renovating and rebuilding old stupas or temples as great merits. Thus, they were careless to preserve or renovate them without losing any ancient works that can become a national proof of the ancient times' standards in architecture and of the history.

We were shown the enshrined stuff which were found in renovating, such as broken ornamented smoking pipes in a big tent of trustees. In that tent, the picture of King Kyan Sit and Queen Sambula, a big map of spreading stupas and temples around Thone Pan Hla village and some pictures are hung on. Buddha statues and a red statue of U Wi Sara, the sign of this village and national hero who made a hunger strike over 160 days against British Colonial Government in British Rule and then passed away, were put on a table in the tent. After taking some photos and listening to Bagyi Gyan who was explaining to us about the temples without feeling tired, we walked back to our car. Bagyi Gyan walked along with us and waved his hands to us until our car had already left.

We passed through Tone Pan Hla village and saw other ancient stupas in different sizes and shapes. We passed a pond under big trees and people playing caneball nearby. In the center of the village, we passed a library named after U Wisara. Since we hadn't got much time and were going on to Pareinma Village, the native village of King Kyan Sit, in Myaung Township, we didn't go to any other temples. About at 1.00 pm in the afternoon, we said goodbye to Second Bagan where is rich of spreading historic temples and stupas covered by bushes. We learned that there are 132 stupas and temples, so I made a decision to visit Thone Pan Hla again very soon to look at more stupas and temples and study more about history of Second Bagan, our township's pride.

Anyway, I felt I was told a message by Thone Pan Hla that everything is Anicca (meaning 'impermanent' or 'not stable') according to Buddha's Dhamma. Thone Pan Hla was telling me that we have faced a lot of changes by time and reminding me not to forget this phenomenon. It had been a big city which its people commercially communicated with the people of the great Bagan Kingdom. It had been a city where dukes governed. Today, it becomes just a village but it still owns a great dignity in history.

We continued to Parein Ma, the native village of King Kyan Sit, where there also had a communication with Thone Pan Hla."

"Myanmar Pilgrimage" to Offer Dhamma Tours of the Golden Land

Myanmar Pilgrimage will begin offering Dhamma tours of the Golden Land from Winter 2017-18. As its co-founders and several of its lead guides come from the volunteer Shwe Lan Ga Lay ("The Golden Path") project, the pilgrimages will lead meditators to many off-the-beaten track monasteries, pagodas, caves, and other important Buddhist sites throughout the country, and feature comprehensive information and historical background about them. Their Facebook page can be found here.

One of the pilgrimages will explore the sites (14 different regions in total) related to the lineage of S.N. Goenka, and to increase the Dhamma atmosphere, all nights of this 17-day pilgrimage will be spent at Buddhist monasteries. The American monk Bhikkhu Obhasa will also be joining this trip as a special guest. (Another pilgrimage will follow the same schedule but stay mostly in hotels.)

Myanmar Pilgrimage warns potential travelers that a pilgrimage is not a touristy trip. In its own words:

"Prospective travelers should keep in mind that a pilgrimage is different than a tourist trip or backpacking. The intent is not merely to see exotic sites, take photographs, and buy souvenirs, but also to appreciate Burmese Buddhist culture and most importantly, to grow in the Dhamma, or the teachings of the Buddha. If more interested in a standard tourist package, we recommend going with a more conventional Myanmar tourist agency. For those wishing to grow spiritually and experience the way that Myanmar society follows the Buddha's teachings, we welcome you."

 Elsewhere, in describing its mission, Myanmar Pilgrimage writes:

"All tourists are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the tours we offer to ensure a right fit with their expectations and reasons for visiting Myanmar. Those interested in a more conventional tourist experience, with a greater focus on shopping or following the standard traveler route, may want to consider other providers."

The Death of Ledi Sayadaw

Ledi Sayadaw spent the last two years of his life at Zingyan monastery in Pyinmana. U Sarana explains that the Burmese term Zingyan (စႀကၤံ) is derived from the Pāḷi word cankamana, which means “walking up and down.” The Buddha’s doctor, Jīvaka Komārabhacca, recommended walking as a way to maintain health, and the Buddha acknowledged the value of this advice by suggesting that monks use special paths for walking meditation (from the Mahāvagga, the third book of Vinaya Piṭaka). In Burmese, the term “zingyan” often refers to a place where walking meditation is practiced, so it may indicate Ledi's dhamma practice at that time. By then, however, he had gone completely blind, the result of so many years of reading and writing in poorly lit places.

In 1923, the day before a full moon, a strong earthquake rocked the region, and the monastery trembled. Ledi lay on his bed and explained to his students that this was in fact a request from the devas that he teach them the Abhidhamma in the Celestial Realms, suggesting that the human realm had already benefited adequately from his years of guidance. After a second earthquake occurred the following day, Ledi instructed his top disciples to recite the Mahāpaṭṭhāna (Pañhāvāra Pāli) from the Abhidhamma, since it was now his time to depart the human realm entirely. The moment the recitation finished, at 2:30 p.m., Ledi passed away. He was 76 years old. Apparently his death was partly due to accidental poisoning from a laxative herb by a visiting Thai monk, who fled in terror when he realized what had happened.

The photograph shows an American meditator standing before the central Buddha image at Ledi Sayadaw's forest monastery in Monywa. 

Meditation under Ledi Sayadaw: Hiding in Plain Sight All Along!

Ledi Sayadaw was certainly endowed with enormous dynamism and intellect, and an ability to think outside the box. He saw opportunities and possibilities where others did not. Specifically, he broadened people’s understanding of what was allowable within the scripture regarding spiritual development. From our present vantage point, where there is now such open and widespread access to Buddhist meditation, it is a given that insight practice is possible even for householders with full lives; they do not need to cultivate a base of very deep absorption, or commit to taking robes and renouncing the world. While this had scarcely even been acknowledged as a theoretical possibility before Ledi, he taught that householders could cultivate bhāvanā, and that justification for this (at that time) radical perspective had actually been hiding in plain sight all along, in the scriptures and other works such, as the Visuddhimagga.

The White Scarf and Burmese Meditation

Marie Byles records that at exactly 1:00 p.m. on Christmas Eve, something curious happened at the Maha Bodhi meditation center in Mandalay. “U Thein placed a white scarf over my shoulders, saying that I was now a Yogi and should always wear the scarf when meditating.” Her description almost seems to imply that the presentation and donning of the white scarf was symbolic of a formal, spiritual transformation, not dissimilar to a monk’s taking of saffron robes during an ordination ceremony.

Looking through the lens of Buddhist history, U Sarana notes that references to white garb are found frequently throughout the Pāḷi scriptures, occurring in all five nikayas of the Sutta Pitaka (including thirty-nine times alone in the Majjhima Nikaya). In the scriptures, white is associated with purity in general, and specifically can mean that one is following eight or ten precepts. Interestingly, Saya U Than recalls how Ledi Sayadaw had instructed Saya Thet Gyi to wear a white scarf once he began teaching meditation. Sayadaw U Vajirapani, one of the most senior students of the famous Tipiṭakadhara Yaw Sayadaw, noted that Ledi was adhering to the scriptural reference of seta paribajaka, or “white recluse,” (Also written as setavattha paribbājaka. More information is available in the Khuddakavatthukkhandhakaṃ, from the Vinaya Pitaka.) as well as odata vasana gihi, meaning “person clothed in white.” U Vajirapani suggests that Ledi reduced the practice of wearing entire white garments down to a plain white scarf, asking lay yogis to wear it when they came to the forest to learn Dhamma from him, and then the custom was carried over when meditation-oriented monasteries came to be established in later years. Photos of white scarves from the early 20th century show them as being much larger than merely covering the neck or acting as a kind of sash, as it is worn today, suggesting that it has since been reduced further in size.

 Then, U Ko Lay describes that when U Ba Khin was learning under Saya Thet Gyi, Saya Thet became pleased with his student’s meditation progress, and advised him “to sit in mental culture for seven days, and to wear a white cloth around his shoulders.” Later, when Webu Sayadaw encouraged U Ba Khin to spread the Dhamma, he is reported to have said, “Give [the lay practitioners] a method. Give him the teaching as a layman after having changed to wearing a white cloth.” Later on, many yogis at the International Meditation Center took up the practice of wearing a white shawl. The practice of the white scarf is not very common in meditation centers and monasteries in Myanmar today. However, in other Buddhist countries (such as Sri Lanka and Thailand), some monasteries continue to require a fully white garb for meditation courses and other ceremonies, as do some organized pilgrimages.

The 8th Ledi Sayadaw and S.N. Goenka: A Meeting of Cousins

Just as students in the tradition of Sayagyi U Goenka come from around the world to pay respects to Ledi Sayadaw, so also have the heads of these traditions remained close over the years. Some years ago, when U Goenka was in the country, the Eighth Ledi Sayadaw invited him to visit Monywa, but he had to decline due to previous commitments. However, the 80-year-old sayadaw was so keen to meet him that he arranged for his own trip to the Sagaing Hills, where the lay meditation master was staying. Ultimately, two of the monk’s disciples carried him up a flight of stairs to the second floor, where the meeting took place. The sayadaw expressed his joy that Ledi Sayadaw’s teachings had not only reached India, but had continued to spread around the world. He gave his blessings to U Goenka to continue his good work. The Ninth Ledi Sayadaw also met with U Goenka at Shwe Taung Oo Pagoda, where he was carried up in a palanquin.

The meeting is commemorated by this two-framed photo display, depicting Goenkaji's visit to Monywa, and which hangs in the building where Ledi Sayadaw practiced walking meditation. Once a remote forest monastery, it is now in the center of an urban area of Monywa.