Na Win Myint - Urban Pests

You're not that old yet, are you? 

( Pathein Gyi Shwe Saran Pagoda Festival) 

As soon as he got on the Aung Myint Lake embankment, the fresh air was blowing around him. On the left side of the embankment, the Aung Myint Lake was green. The fresh green colors shone as far as the eye could see. At the edge, the blue sky and white clouds rolled in. The beautiful Aung Myint Lake. The Aung Myint Lake in front of the palace. He didn't know what to miss. He missed it so much.

On the lower right is the new city. Although it is a new city, there is no sign of an urban area. There are small houses and hotels in one place. Once he had been to the new city. At that time, it was raining and the whole new city was dark. The cool air was different from Mandalay. It was like the air from Kalaw Aung Pan.

"Let's make some tofu and tnaung pai, it's my own warmth."

My friend, the poet Ko Nyein, wanted to entertain guests less, but he wanted to drink more. Anyway, they recited poems and sang songs. At the beginning of the new city of Aung Sang, I came across the Myat Bek Kyaw Pagoda.

"Saw Mon Hla was running and running, and when he got there, he fell on one side. My earrings fell on the other side."

The other passenger next to him was talking. The driver didn’t seem to like being talked to on the road. He kept asking people on the side of the road if they wanted to follow him. The conductor behind him was shouting “Shwe Saranko . .Shwe Saranko” from Mandalay. It cost 30 baht to get in the car. The fare from the cab was 50 baht. When he first arrived in Mandalay, he didn’t know that there was a Shwe Saran Pagoda Festival. The festival is said to start on the 3rd day of the full moon of Tabaung every year and end on the 8th day of the full moon of Tabaung. He didn’t know much about Myanmar dates either. He had noticed the festival posters on the side of passing buses.

 

The Shwe Saran Pagoda Festival, he remembered a play by Maung Yin Aung that he had seen when he was young. The oxen were pulling the cart, and the ground was shaking, and the wheels were spinning. "You are not old, you are young, and you will go to Shwe Saran by pulling the palm leaf beads." A song that was in the middle of the song. He was sitting on a bench in front of the guesthouse where he was staying and decided to go to Shwe Saran. But he did not know how to get there. When he asked, he said, "Go east on 35th Street, and at the corner of 76th Street, there are many Shwe Saran Pagoda Festival vehicles." "There are Shwe Saran vehicles at the north gate of the Sakya Thiha Pagoda."

"Yes. The number 11 bus has arrived," he said. So he took a rickshaw to Thakyathiha Pagoda. On the way, I asked the rickshaw driver about the history of Shwe Saran Pagoda, and he laughed.

“Hey, Sister Saw Mon Hla, is there even a name like Shin Mon Hla? I forgot.”

“Aren’t Saw Mon Hla and Shin Mon Hla the same person?” “I don’t think so, sir.”

The rickshaw driver is not very good and there are many people who forget. There are actually many golden Buddha statues at the entrance to the Thiha Pagoda.

There was a bus, and there was a coach. He entered the coach's cabin.

"Gold coin... Gold coin..." The conductor shouted loudly, but people still boarded the bus, which was already packed with passengers. On the bus, women, children, and men stood at the back. They couldn't help but be carried away by the rice and the tow. .

"Is it because buses are cheaper?"

"The price is cheap. But if you stop here and there on the road, the teacher won't be patient."

The driver looked at the bus in disappointment as he spoke. After a while, the bus was full. A moment later, the bus reached the Pyin Oo Lwin road. After passing the pagoda on the other side of the road, we arrived in Pathein Gyi Township. Pathein Gyi was as green as it was peaceful. Had he ever been to Pathein Gyi? He didn't know why he loved that town.

“In our township, there is a mountain called Abayagiri. There is a waterfall. There is a mountain called Ma Maw Taung. There is also a golden pagoda. There is also the Aung Bay and Nanda Lake.”

His friend, the poet Maung Phulon of Pathein, once said. While Mandalay is dry, Pathein is green and lush. In the past, people from nearby villages used to go to Shwe Saran Pagoda in carts. Is it a festival of drums and drums in the cart? In a song, he said, “I am planning to go to Shwe Saran, will you send me with your great husband?”

“When we were young, we used to go to the Golden Temple in carts. It was so much fun. The surrounding villages also used to go to the temple in large carts. Carts are rare in the temple grounds.”

The village pagoda festival and the cart parade. There were scenes like this in his childhood. When they came to the pagoda festival, they would buy everything they needed for a year, and they would stock up. They would buy gifts for the people who were left behind in the village. They would watch the festival, visit the pagoda, and buy from the market. In this way, the pagoda festival market was the village's Super Marlet, the village's Shopping Centre. .

“From Ye Raman village in Kyaukse Township, they produce palm leaf beads, and they also make large palm leaf fish figurines. They come and sell them at the pagoda festival. The palm leaf beads are the symbol of the Shwe Saran Pagoda Festival. There are so many things to buy at the festival that it can even be called a rural bag (expo) trade fair.”

“Why did the carts disappear?” “It was the saying that you can’t drive ox carts on the stone road. When those signs came along the road, it became difficult for the carts to go. They left their carts at the Oon Chao area and went to the pagoda festival on foot. Then, as people changed their carts, the carts disappeared.”

Now, the number of bullock carts coming for the festival has decreased. The pilgrims' cars can park in the large area next to the pagoda gate. Some buses are in the shade of the trees in the pagoda courtyard. Now, my friends can enjoy themselves in their cars. The car he was riding in stopped in front of the pagoda. All kinds of cars are packed everywhere. On one side of the road leading to the pagoda gate, there are rows of shops. The sound of cassettes is loud and people are shouting on the street.

He got out of the car and entered the pagoda. He saw the golden pagoda. It was not like the usual pagodas, with its round and smooth arches, but rather a tall and solid structure. It stood as a symbol of the past history that had been spreading melancholy for 1,000 years. The pagoda was a symbol of the competition between love and anger. He entered the Gandhakutiya temple, not far from the pagoda, and paid homage to the Buddha. The brick walls were shining. He leaned against the large pillars and rested for a while. The pagoda market was filled with the sounds of people, cassettes, and loudspeakers. At the pier a short distance away, many girls seemed to be taking pictures. The flash gun lights were splashing the water of the Duthawaddy River. He entered a nearby tea shop and had a cup of tea. The roof of the tea shop on the market was swaying due to the wind from the river. He read the signs in front of the tea shop. Magha Samon Net Lay Se, Yangon Moen Ti Noodles, Moe Oo Pink Photo, and a hat shop without a sign. Behind the shop line is Duthawaddy, or Myit Nge Myit.

The tea that came before him was dark and murky. He drank a sip and it was glassy.

"Early morning...early morning..."

"The dragon... the dragon's lair..."