Yangon's running dogs

Further to Myanmar people's acts of calm and compassion, so why did I take these such seemingly nonsense photos? Let me reckon my impressions of Yangon, the country's former capital.

First, one of the things that caught my attention was that in just a few blocks of buildings when I walked across the downtown after getting off the bus, I could see people from at least 4 different religions which have more or less than nothing related to each other : the Islam, the Hinduism, the Christianity, and of course, the Buddhism. (That is yet to mention of Chinatown, the special district where Chinese-Myanmar people dwell in and worship their Mahayana Buddism, not that Theravada of the locals) . This gave me the idea that Myanmar people has had somewhat a complicated social lives regarding just only this religious matter. Myanmar is specially located in a area (which is far different from Việt Nam) where it has to absorb the effects of India (and further, the East Central) in the West/North West, China in the North, and Thailand in the East. Therefore it comes as no surprise that a lot of people from different cultural bases gather in this land. However, the fact that they can live well together in such a small area makes me think of the calmness as a permanent character in this country's people's personality, which is quite cool (and that, in turn, gives the foreigners such kind of impression about this land's people I think?)

The second thing that noticed me was that in just a couple of days wandering around the city, I often the spaces occupied by a large number of animals, and they were also wandering!!, which is not easily seen in Việt Nam's cities. For sure, if you don't trust me you can come and witness, in the sky of Yangon there are a lot of birds flying around (and I don't know why but even though there were many kinds of birds, still I saw a lot among of them were the crows?? - maybe because of the big big hospital in the center?) .  Besides, on the streets, you can often see many dogs running freely around, and as having seen them, I don't think that they really do have any specific owner, yes they just run around and stick their noses to any bushes they see. People from other countries would find this strange why this can make me excited this much, but if you have already been to Việt Nam, you will see that it's very difficult to see any animal running freely around in any area of the country, and because this is such a shame, I will not speak it out clearly here. Just to know that, as one of another good aspects affected from Buddhism, most Myanmar people tend to treat the others nicely, and they even do not kill animals recklessly for their own (immediate) sake (including birds, and dogs, of course), which is very nice.

Buddhas given bath

To the fact that each and every person was born under a specific Buddha image corresponding to a weekday which they consider as a guardian god, this young man was washing his "guardian Buddha" when I was there. In fact, the majority of Myanmar people who follow Buddhism has all been taken to pagodas to read, to witness and practice their religion since they were children. No wonder why almost all of them are penetrated with the acts of calm and compassion when they grow up.

Bonus :

Again, water is somewhat regarded as the "holy liquid" by the belief in which that it can wash away the dust, the bad and prevent the evils. That's why they use it to "give bath" to the Buddha image. It is also through this act that they believe they are showing respect to their guardian god, which the God then will protect them in return in their life. This also refers to an interesting custom which I found out in my trip to Laos, reference here.

Buddhist birthdays

For Myanmar's people specifically and Theravada Buddhist people in general, a man born on a specific day in a week is considered to behold a relative set of personal characters, with a corresponding image of Buddha and holy animal. What's more oustanding is that Wednesdays' people are also classified in two different groups distinguished by day and night. For instance, I was born on Wednesday morning, therefore I am said to be "polite, artistic, emotional, and most likely working creatively".

(Reference : http://theravada.dk/?pageid=368)

P.S. : And this fact leads to an interesting consequence in which Theravada's people could likely celebrate their birthdays weekly if they would like to. Party party eh. :)))