Naung Tung Lake – Landmark of Kengtung Town

By Maung Maung Naing (Kengtung)

Historical places of Kengtung

            Ethnic Shan tribes settled and lived together in Shan State (East) Kengtung region. From Kengtun Haw (Palace) 44 reigns of Saophas (Sawbwa in Myanmar) ruled the region from AD 1243 to 1962. Kengtung is located at an elevation of 2,700 ft. and is a gateway to border regions of China, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia.

            In Kengtung the three hills of Swam Tong, Swam Mon and Swam Sat are situated at an imaginary vertexes of a triangle and the wards of the town are on or at the foot of the hills. Between the two hills of Swam Tong and Swam Sat is Naung Tung Lake about 33 acres wide lying on a north to south axis. Kengtung town was first established on the east of the lake and had many historical places like Swam Tong (also called Swam Kham or Zom Kham) Pagoda, Haw ground on which Kengtung Haw was built, Maha Myat Muni Pagoda, Aung Myay Nat Abode, old market, tomb of Saopha and Pa Leng Gate.

Swam Tong Pagoda, Kanyin Phyu tree and Standing Buddha

            On top of Swam Tong hill on the east of Naung Tung Lake is Swam Tong Pagoda built hundreds of years ago. Due to repeated renovations it is now 226 ft. tall. The uniqueness of this pagoda is not having pagoda umbrella like other pagodas in the country. On top of Swam Mon hill is a several hundred years old Kanyin Phyu tree. The tree rises up to a height of 218 ft. and had a girth of 39 ft. 10 inch at the bottom of the tree. Even though the name of the hill was Swam Mon, it was also called One Tree Hill (Thit Ta Bin Taung) due to this lone tree rising high above it.

            Southwest of the lake is Swam Sat hill and according to early Shan history there was once a pagoda on top of it. Digging on top of the hill in 1995 unearthed old Buddha images and based on research conducted, the ground was considered as a religious ground. In 1998 a Standing Buddha image 74 ft. 6 inch high was built on the hill. This huge Standing Buddha image is visible from all parts of Kengtung town.

History of Naung Tung Lake

            According to a book written in 1930 that was a copy made from early Gon Shan writings, Kengtung was once a flooded area. Four hermits who came down from the north drained the water from the flooded area and after 7 years and 7 months, only a small lake remains. As the water recedes Hermit Tonga built a pagoda on top of Swam Tong hill. The small lake and the town took up the name of the Hermit Tonga and became Naung Tung Lake and Kengtung town.

Saopha administration and tradition

            Earlier, Kengtung region was a vast canyon, gorge or ravine submerged in water surrounded by three hills. The town was established after the hermit built the pagoda. When the hermits drained the water, the submerged land became a fertile land where people came to settle. Later it became a town administered by Saophas. As the region had good climate and fertile land the town was barricaded in a 4 miles 1 furlong long wall with 12 gates and a moat to protect it from invaders. It becomes a tradition for a new Saopha to hold a coronation ceremony in the town. The town was owned by the hermit but it becomes a tradition to transfer administrative matters of the town from the hermit/monk to the Saophas and successive Saophas continued this tradition.

Today’s Naung Tung Lake

            Naung Tung Lake had become a well known place in Kengtung. As it existed since the town was founded it became a landmark of the town. Not only was it a well known landmark locally but it was also known by neighbouring countries and had become a landmark for international tourists as well.

            Nowaday, Naung Tung Lake had water inlet and outlet systems and the bank of the lake had iron fencing. There were two circuit roads around the lake, one for vehicles and one for pedestrians and trees and flowers were planted between the two roads. Benches were also placed for pedestrians to rest. Around the circuit road for vehicles are food stalls selling local delicacies, restaurants, hotels and houses. There’s also a physical exercise area with fitness and exercise equipments installed.

            Western part of the lake is considered as a best view point. From there the Standing Buddha image can be seen to the southwest of the lake. Looking toward the south of the lake, the Swam Mon hill can be seen with the tall imposing Kanyin Phyu tree on top. In the evening the water fountain in the middle of the lake was brightly lit up with multi colour lights.

Loved and cherished place

            Naung Tung Lake is a place loved and cherished by the locals. It was also a place that remains in the memories of visitors. Locals say visitors who went around the lake once will become so attracted or attached to it that they’ll come back again.

            Naung Tung Lake flocks with walkers, joggers, families, children, picnickers and visitors in the morning and afternoon. During sunsets and evenings, Naung Tung Lake became a painting where artistes visualize images from their minds. – Translated by Handytips

 Garden of Buddha also known curiously 

as Poem Graveyard

Thiha the Traveller

            When I was in Shan State (East) Kengtung town, locals directed me to visit Poem Graveyard. Even without knowing exactly what it was, the name attracted me and I hastily made arrangements to visit it. Once there, I found that it was quite a pleasant place where I felt longing for something or someone without being able to specify exactly what or who. I wrote about this place briefly in my travelogue to Kengtung and now I’ll write more in detail about it.

How to reach it

            From Kengtung along the Kengtung-Tachilek Road an hour by motorcycle or 45 minutes by car would bring you to Pan Kwe Village, a rest area with shops and stalls for cars, buses and trucks. Among the shops and stalls, you’ll see an entrance gate to Abaya Raza Muni Buddha image. After passing through the entrance gate, a small road going uphill will take you to the Buddha image. The uphill road was rather steep but the views along the way were pleasant with farm land, plantations and natural sceneries making the walk up the path less tiring.

Paying homage to Buddha image before going on to Poem Graveyard

            Before reaching the Poem Graveyard, I first arrived at the Buddha image. As the Buddha image was on top of a small hill, it looks more imposingly higher than it actually was. There were two doors or rather an entry and exit at the side of the Buddha image allowing devotees and visitors to enter the interior of the Buddha image just like the Daibutsu (Great Buddha) in the city of Kamakura in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. I don’t know what was inside the Daibutsu but the interior of this Buddha image had the life story of Gautama Buddha sculptured on marble slabs.

            From there, continuing along the tree shaded mountain path will take you to the Poem Graveyard.

Poem Graveyard

            The place was called Garden of Buddha and was also known as Poem Graveyard. Both names seem to be a bit contradictory or unrelated but were enough of an attraction for anyone like me who first heard it. The place was said to be constructed by devotees of a well known Sayadaw according to an imaginary vision of the Sayadaw. Looking down at the “garden” or “graveyard” as I approach it, the enclosed building and small structures inside the compound seems like an ideal place to meditate. The compound surrounded by a rock wall had roses planted outside. The walled compound can be entered through a small archway gate. All along the inside wall and on the small tomb-like ledges hung or stuck were poems. The fact that the poems were hung or stuck on the small tomb-like ledges may be the reason why the place was called Poem Graveyard. But my mind came up with a name like “Garden where poems bloom” that I thought would be more appropriate. The poems were of diverse subjects covering religion, philosophy, patriotism, life etc. Poems were written in Myanmar and Shan languages. It was a serene peaceful place with natural surrounding that was outstandingly beautiful. It was one of my most favorite places in and near Kengtung.

Returning from Poem Graveyard

            The road back to Kengtung took me through the same scenic places as well as Panlot Village where local rice wine or liquor was being fermented and distilled. Upon passing through it on the way to Garden of Buddha or Poem Graveyard, I knew from the smell that rice wine or liquor was being fermented and distilled there. So, on the way back to Kengtung I stopped by to taste it and ended up buying some. Many visitors were also said to like this rice wine or liquor and bought it on their way back home.

            Whenever you are in Kengtung, give some time to visit this curiously named Garden of Buddha or Poem Graveyard. – Translated by Handytips

Votive tablets in Sri Kestra

 

 Sri Ksetra World Heritage Zone. Photo: Ye Htut Tin (NLM)

Sri Ksetra Museum. Photo: Ye Htut Tin (NLM)

Sri Ksetra Museum. Photo: Ye Htut Tin (NLM)

Terracota votive tabets

By Maung Tha (Archaeology)

Buddha images can be seen at religious edifices such as pagodas and monasteries where members of the Sangha stay in Myanmar where the majority of the people follow the Theravada Buddhism.

Although people in successive eras have been passing the oral history on to new generations that Theravada Buddhism reached Bagan in the reign of King Anawrahta, some evidences have been found that the Theravada Buddhism arrived in Myanmar in Pyu era which was earlier than Bagan era. Palm leaves made of gold bearing excerpts of Buddha Pitakat literature excavated from Khinba mound in ancient Pyu city state Sri Kestra as well as pagodas and Buddha images built in Pyu era can be seen till today.

Earthen-baked votive tablets

People in Myanmar have carved Buddha images made of stone, timber, brick, concrete, gold, silver and bronze in successive eras, including earthen-baked votive tablets.

Votive tablets are found at the confluence of Ayeyawady and Shweli rivers in northern Myanmar, in Myeik region in southern Myanmar, and in Rakhine State in western Myanmar. As anybody may make votive tablets easily, the votive tablets made in success eras can be found in various parts of the nation.

Votive tablets are shaped with Buddha images made of earth or clay which were moulded and then baked. As such, it can be called the earthen-moulded Buddha image. Votive tablets can be found in excavation with research purposes, in repairing of old pagodas and in unearthing the caves. Sometimes, a large number of votive tablets may be found in a single place. For example, votive tablets in good conditions and broken ones with the measurement of five bullock carts were discovered at Shwezigon Pagoda in ancient Tagaung city.

Some persons travelling between India and Myanmar brought votive tablets to their regions. Then, they made the tablets themselves and production process gradually spread out other regions. As people can make votive tablets to be donated to pagodas and stupas, the tablets can be seen in various parts of the nation in successive eras. Of them, some votive tablets were brought from India. Earliest votive tablets were found in Pyu era and a large number of votive tablets were made in Bagan era. Among the tablets, the votive tablets with inscriptions that these tablets were made by Anirudda Deva (King Anawrahta) were the most popular and these became invaluable heritages in literature, culture and archaeology.

New structures of votive tablet

Various types of votive tablets were made in Myanmar during the period from 5^th century to 15^th century. The majority of votive tablets in Pyu era was made in shapes of banyan leave and of arch types but the tablets in Bagan era were in 17 types of designs. An eight inches high and six inches wide motive tablet unearthed from Bagan mound No 1526 was significantly found with bearing 125 shapes of pagodas. Likewise, a motive tablet found from the field, east of Ananda Pagoda in Bagan, was expressed with 65 names of crops, flowers and plants, without concerning the religion.

Generally, the motive tablets were expressed with inscriptions on names of donors and letters of prayer on the reverse and the Buddha image surrounded with His followers on the converse. Mostly, these tablets were five inches long, seven inches high and two inches thick. Inscriptions in Sanskrit and Pali languages were mentioned under the Buddha image in ancient Pyu, Mon and Myanmar alphabets. Embossed Sylheti Nagari alphabets were expressed on the conserve of the votive tablets with inscriptions on both frames of converse side.

As votive tablets were kept at pagodas and stupas, bricks at some pagodas were paralleled with votive tablets in a row and some tablets are kept in the caves as well as enshrined at the pagodas. Sometimes, already baked votive tablets were found in good conditions because these objects did not suffer impacts of bad weather.

With regard to works of fine arts, votive tablets in Bagan era were shaped with eight episodes of Buddhology on giving birth of embryo Buddha, enlightenment of Lord Buddha, preaching of the Lord Buddha on Dhammacakka, descending of Lord Buddha from the Tavatimsa celestial abode to human abode, staying of Lord Buddha at Palileyaka forest, demonstration on supernatural powers, victory over Nalagiri elephant and final rites as Parinibbana. The tablets in Pyu era described nine episodes including the scene of offering Ghana milk meal by lady Sujata to the Lord Buddha.

Although various types of hand postures (Mudra) and foot postures (Asana) of Lord Buddha were made on the tablets, the Buddha images in majority of votive tablets were expressed with the shape of touching the ground with fingers called Bhumiphassa Mudra and the shape of taking intense concentration mind called Jhanasana. Likewise, the tablets in Pyu and Bagan eras were made with Buddha images in Bhumiphassa Mudra and Jhanasana placed on the lotus flower thrones. It can be seen that votive tablets were carved with the Lord Buddha or the Buddha-to-be rounded by disciples, wife and congregations. Mostly, the tablets in Bagan era were found with Buddha images flanked by disciples or Buddha-to-be.

In respect of the votive tablets, King Bodaw supplicated to first Maunghtaung abbot, asking what languages and meanings were expressed in inscriptions at the foot of votive tablets. The abbot replied that they were in Sanskrit and Pali languages, but Yun language and that generally, the inscriptions mentioned Yedhamma Hetuppabhava in Sylheti Nagari alphabets.

As votive tablets were found from the Pyu to Konbaung eras, the works in Pyu era were better than those of Bagan era. The tablets in late Bagan era were better than those of early Bagan era but did not meet the works in Pyu era.

Nonetheless, votive tablets depending on initiatives of donors express many works of Buddhist culture. Names of donor were described at the foot of throne of the Buddha on the conserve and on the reverse. Well-wishers consist of kings, queens, counsellors of court and members of the Sangha as well as ordinary people. Thanks to donor lists, the tablets expressed titles of kings, princes and princesses in Bagan era.

Large votive tablets similar to King Anawrahta’s votive tablets found from Maungtee Pagoda in Twantay Township were excavated from the prayer hall of Kyauksagagyi Pagoda, south of Thiripissaya Village in 1993. These works were 15.75 inches long, 10.5 inches high and 3.75 inches thick. In 2017, a large votive tablet, 16 inches long, 21 inches high and four inches thick, was unearthed from the west of Kyauksagagyi Pagoda together with large votive tablets with the title of King Sawlu and broken ones with images of 28 Buddhas.

Experts can identify the works of Buddha images on the tablets to estimate who made them and when they were made. Although votive tablets are not in similar among them, all the works dedicate religious heritages. Likewise, the tablets expressing eight episodes of Buddhology are evidences of Myanmar’s cultural heritages. As such, it needs to systematically preserve the works of votive tablets in order to uplift cultural prestige of Myanmar.

Votive tablets in ancient Sri Kestra city

The earliest votive tablets of Myanmar were found from ancient Sri Kestra city. However, no votive tablet was found in ancient Pyu city states such as Beikthanoe, Hanlin and Mongmaw. The tablets were found from Sri Kestra bear Buddha images of Theravada Buddhism as well as Mahayana Buddhsim.

The votive tablets found in Sri Kestra were in oval shape at the base and sharpening to the tip. Moreover, the tablets were in shapes of square, circle and rectangular, and the shape with rectangular at the base and circular at the top. Among them, the tablets in oval shape and oval shape at the base and tip at the top were found in large number. The smallest votive tablet was 1.5 inches wife. Generally, the tablets were in sizes of 2.25 inches to five inches wide and three to four inches high. Some votive tablets in Sri Kestra were framed and some were not framed. Many earthen-baked votive tablets found from Muhtaw Village in ancient Sri Kestra city were discovered in 1927 and 1928, and these works were five inches high and three inches in radian.

Hand posture of the Buddha image on the votive tablet of Sri Kestra mentioned Bhumiphassa Mudra. The Buddha image was flanked by a pagoda each on either side. The throne was seen with a head of lion with a vase each on both sides. The base of the throne was scripted with Gatha which started Yedhamma. The reverse of the tablet was scripted with Bamcake in Pyu alphabets assumed as name of donor. Experts estimated the tablet was made between 8^th centuries AD and 9^th centuries AD.

The Buddha image was carved with the posture of staying on the lotus throne in the centre of the votive tablets, found in Sri Kestra, in shape of rectangular at the base and sharpening to the tip. Hand posture showed Abhaya Mudra expressing that two hands kept on the chest. The base of the throne was scripted with the properties of Lord Buddha which were excerpts from Mahavagga Pali, Dhighanikaya, Suttanta Pitakat Treatise. An archaeologist professor made analysis that inscription style on the tablet was similar to Telagu writing style used in Southern India from 5^th to 7^th centuries AD.

The earthen-baked votive tablets found from Sri Kestra concerning Mahayana Buddhism were expressed with pictures of Bodhisattha, Avalokitesara, Adibhuta Buddha and Lokanatha. Some Avalokitesara images could be seen with crowns on the heads and some without crowns. Bodhisattha images on the earthen-baked votive tablets excavated from Hmawza were depicted with a sitting posture on the lotus throne in dangling positions of legs.

The votive tablet unearthed from Taunglonnyo Village was 4.5 inches high with carving of three Buddha images. The middle image among the three was carved with sitting on the lotus throne and a headdress on the head. The remaining two were carved with sitting positions facing the middle one.

The votive tablets found from Sri Kestra can be classified as that of Theravada Buddhism, that of Mahayana Buddhism, and the mixed ism between Theravada and Mahayana. As votive tablets expressing Buddha images and Bodhisattha images as well as Buddha images flanked by god images of Mahayana Buddhism were found, it can be assumed that Pyu people in Sri Kestra had religious faith not only of Theravada Buddhism but of Mahayana Buddhism. Likewise, three types of earthen-baked votive tablets were discovered from Sri Kestra. The first one was scripted with Itipiso Bhagava Gatha, the second with Yedhamma Gatha and the third with Yedhamma Gatha together with Bodhisattha or Avalokitesara or Lokanatha image.

In BC 200, the Buddhism split into Mahayana and Theravada isms. Mahayana Sect used Sanskrit language while Hinayana called Theravada Buddhism used Pali language, according to the Indian researchers. Some votive tablets found in Sri Kestra were related to Theravada Buddhism because they were carved with Yedhamma Gatha in Pali language. The votive tablets made in 5^th to 7^th centuries AD scripted with Itipiso Bhagava Gatha were also related to Theravada Buddhism.

Experts assumed that the votive tablets bearing Bodhisattha image scripted with Yedhamma Gatha in Sanskrit language might be made in 8^th or 9^th centuries AD. As such, it was possible that Theravada Buddhism might arrive in Sri Kestra before 7^th century AD but Mahayana Buddhism after 7^th century AD.

That is why earthen-baked votive tablets found in Sri Kestra dedicate faiths of Pyu people residing in Sri Kestra. As earthen-baked votive tablets were found in Hmawza, Mahtaw Village, Ngashint mound, Myinbahu Pagoda, Kanthonhsint Hill, Tavatimsa Kywekyaungkon Pagoda and Pyokhingyi, not far from Sri Kestra, these tablets can be observed in the book with title of Buddha images on ancient votive tablets in second volume compiled by stone inscription director U Mya.

Translated by Than Tun Aung 

 

သ ေရ ေခတၱရာအုတ္ခ ြက္ဘုရားမ်ား

ေမာင်သာ(ေရှဵေဟာင်ဵသုေေသန)
အဂင်္ါ၊ ဧြပီ ၂၃၊ ၂၀၁၉ေေရဝါဒဗုဒ ဘာသာက ို ြပည်သူအမျာဵစုကိုဵကွယ်သည ်ဴ ြမန်မာနငို ်ငဳေွင် သာသနိက
အေဆာကအ် အမုဳ ျာဵြဖစ်သည ်ဴ ေစေီပုေဵို မျာဵ၊ သဳဃာေော်မျာဵ သီေင်ဵသုဳဵသည ်ဴ ဘုနဵ် ေော်ြကီဵေကျာင်ဵမျာဵ၊
ယုဳြကည်ကိုဵကွယ်ြကသည ်ဴ ဗုဒ ဆင်ဵေုေော်မျာဵက ို ေနရာအနှ့ဳ၌ ြမင်ေေွ့ ြကရသည်။
ေေရဝါဒဗုဒ သာသနာသည် ပုဂဳဘုရင် အေနာ်ရောမင်ဵြကီဵလက်ေက်ေွင် ပုဂဳသ့ို ေရာက်ရခှိ ဲသဴ ည်ဟု
အစဲ်အဆက် ေြပာဆခို ဲဴြကေသာ်လည်ဵ ပုဂဳေက်မျာဵစွာ ေစာသည ်ဴ ပျူေခေ်ေွင် ဗုဒ ဘာသာရိေှ နခဲေဴ ြကာင်ဵ
အေောက်အောဵမျာဵက ို ေေွ့ရိခှ ဴဲြကရသည်။ ေ့ိုေြကာင်ဴ ပျူြမို့ေဟာင်ဵသေရေခေ္တရာ ခင်ဘကုနဵ် မှ ေူဵေဖာ်
ရရခှိ ဲသဴ ည ်ဴ ဗုဒ
ရုပပ် ွာဵဆင်ဵေုေော် မျာဵက ို ယေန့ေိုင် ြမင်ေေွ့
ကြ ရေပသည်။
ေ မြ မီဵဖုေ် အုေ်ခွက်ဘုရာဵ
ေခေ်အဆက်ဆက်ေွင် ြမန်မာနငို ်ငဳ၌ ဗုဒ ရုပပ် ွာဵဆင်ဵေုေော်မျာဵက ို ေကျာက်၊ သစ်၊ အုေ်၊ အဂေင်၊္တ ေရှေ၊ ေငွ၊
ေြကဵ စသည်ြဖင ်ဴ ေုလုပ၊် သွနဵ် လုပ၍် ရသည ်ဴ ဝေ္ထု ပစ္စည်ဵမျာဵြဖင ်ဴ ြပုလုပခ် ဲဴြကရာေွင် ေြမမီဵဖုေ်
အုေ်ခွက်ဘုရာဵမျာဵလည်ဵ ပါဝင်ခဴသဲ ည။်
အုေ်ခွက်ဘုရာဵမျာဵကို ြမန်မာနငို ်ငဳေြမာက်ပုိင်ဵ၊ ဧရာဝေီြမစ်နှငေ်ဴ ရှေလီြမစ်ဆဳ ု ေဒသမှ
ြမန်မာနိငု ်ငဳေောင်ပုိင်ဵြမိေ်ေဒသနှင ်ဴ ြမန်မာနငို
ေဒဝ (အေနာ်ရော မင်ဵကြီဵ) ပြုလုပ်ခဲဴေကြာင်ဵ ကမ္ပည်ဵစာမျာဵပါေသာ အုေ်ခွက်မျာဵသည် အေူဵ ေင်ရှာဵကာ စာေပ၊ယဲ်ေကျဵမှုနှင်ဴေရှဵေဟာင်ဵသုေေသနေန်ဖိုဵ ကြီဵမြင်ဴသည်ဴ အေမွအနှစ်မျာဵဖြစ်လာခဲဴသည်။
အုေ်ခွက် ပုဳစဳမျာဵ
မြန်မာနိုင်ငဳေွင် ငါဵရာစုမှ ၁၅ ရာစုအေိ အုေ်ခွက်ဘုရာဵမျာဵကို ပုဳစဳမျိုဵစုဳ ပြုလုပ်ခဲဴသည်ဴအနက် ပျူေခေ်လက်ရာ အုေ်ခွက်ဘုရာဵအမျာဵစုသည် ေညာင်ရွက် ပုဳနှင်ဴ ခုဳဵေပါက်ပုဳမျာဵဖြစ်ကြပြီဵ ပုဂဳေခေ် အုေ်ခွက်ဘုရာဵမျာဵေွင် ပုဳစဳ ၁၇ မျိုဵ ရှိခဲဴသည်။ ပုဂဳ ကုန်ဵအမှေ် ၁၅၂၆ မှရရှိခဲဴပြီဵ အမြင်ဴ ရှစ်လက်မနှင်ဴ အကျယ် ေခြာက် လက်မရှိသည်ဴ အုေ်ခွက်ေွင် ေစေီပုဳ ၁၂၅ ဆူ ေည်ဴသွင်ဵ ပြုလုပ်ောဵပုဳကို ေူဵခြာဵ စွာ မြင်ေေွ့ ကြရသည်။ ေို့အေူ အာနန
အုေ်ခွက်ဘုရာဵမျာဵသည် အမျာဵအာဵဖြင်ဴ ေရှ့မျက်နှာေွင် ဗုဒ ရုပ်ပွာဵေော်ကို မဏ္ဍိုင်ပြုလျက် အခြဳအရဳမျာဵ ေုလုပ်ကာ ေကျာဘက်ေွင် အလှူရှင်အမည်နှင်ဴ ဆုေောင်ဵစာကိုေရဵသာဵောဵေလဴရှိခဲဴသည်။ ယင်ဵေို့သည် ေယဘုယျအာဵဖြင်ဴ အလျာဵ ငါဵ လက်မ၊ အမြင်ဴ ခုနစ် လက်မ၊ ေု နှစ်လက်မရှိကာ ဗုဒ ရုပ်ပွာဵေော်၏ေအာက်ေခြေွင် သက္ကေ၊ ပါဠိဘာသာ စာသာဵမျာဵကို ေရှဵေဟာင်ဵပျူ၊ မွန်၊ မြန်မာ အက္ခရာမျာဵဖြင်ဴေရဵသာဵခဲဴကြသည်။အုေ်ခွက်ဘုရာဵမျာဵ၏ေရှ့မျက်နှာေွင် နဂရီ အက္ခရာမျာဵကို ေဖာင်ဵြွက ေရဵသာဵ၍ အုေ်ခွက်ေရှ့ ေဘဵနှစ်ဖက်ေဘာင်ေပါ်ေွင် ကမ္ပည်ဵစာမျာဵေရဵေိုဵခဲဴကြသည်။
အုေ်ခွက်ဘုရာဵမျာဵကို ေစေီပုေိုဵမျာဵေွင် ပူေဇာ်ောဵေလဴရှိရာေွင် အချို့ေစေီ မျာဵေွင် အုေ်ချပ်မျာဵနှင်ဴ အုေ်ခွက် ဘုရာဵမျာဵကို ေစ်ခုစီယှဲ်ေွဲလျက် အေန်ဵ လိုက် ောဵရှိေေ်သကဲဴသို့ အချို့ကိုလည်ဵ လိုဏ်မျာဵေွင် ေည်ဴသွင်ဵောဵခဲဴကြသည်ဴ အပြင် ဘုရာဵေွင် ဌာပနာောဵသည်ကိုလည်ဵေေွ့ရှိနိုင်သည်။ ေစ်ခါေစ်ရဳေွင် ရာသီဥေုဒဏ်မခဳရသဖြင်ဴ အေကာင်ဵအေိုင်ဵ ကျန်ရှိေနသည်ဴ မီဵဖုေ် ပြီဵစ အုေ်ခွက် ဘုရာဵမျာဵကို ေေွ့ရှိရသည်။
အနုပညာ လက်ရာမျာဵဖြစ်သည်ဴ အုေ်ခွက်ရုပ်ပွာဵဆင်ဵေုမျာဵအနက် ပုဂဳေခေ်အုေ်ခွက်ဘုရာဵမျာဵေွင် ဘုရာဵရှင်ဖွာဵေော်မူခန်ဵ၊ပွင်ဴေော်မူခန်ဵ၊ ဓမ္မ စကြာေရာဵဦဵေဟာေော်မူခန်ဵ၊ ောဝေိံသာနေ်ပြည်မှ လူ့ ပြည်သို့ဆင်ဵေော် မူခန်ဵ၊ ပါလိေလယျကေော၌ သီေင်ဵသုဳဵေော်မူခန်ဵ၊ ေန်ခိုဵပြာဋိဟာပြခန်ဵ၊ နာဠာ ဂီရိဆင်ကို ေအာင်ေော်မူခန်ဵနှင်ဴ ပရိနိဗ္ဗာန်စဳေော်မူခန်ဵ ဟူသည်ဴ ဗုဒ ဝင်ရှစ်ခန်ဵကို ေုလုပ်ေလဴရှိသည်။ပျူအုေ်ခွက်မျာဵေွင် သုဇာောသေို့သမီဵ ဃနာနို့ဆွမ်ဵကပ် သည်ဴပုဳကိုပါ ေည်ဴသွင်ဵ၍ ဗုဒ ဝင်ကိုဵခန်ဵ ပြုလုပ်သည်။
ဘုရာဵရှင်၏ ရုပ်ပွာဵဆင်ဵေုေော်မျာဵ၏ လက်ေော်ဟန် (မုဒြာ)နှင်ဴေခြေော်ဟန် (အာသန) ေို့ကို ပုဳစဳမျာဵစွာ ပြုလုပ်ေလဴရှိေသာ်လည်ဵ ဘူမိဖဿမုဒြာဟု ေခါ်သည်ဴ လက်ေချာင်ဵေမြေိပုဳစဳနှင်ဴ ဈာနာသနဟုေခါ်ဟည်ဴ ဈာန်သမာပေ်ဝင်စာဵေနသည်ဴ ပုဳကို အမျာဵဆုဳဵ ေေွ့ရှိရသည်။ ေို့အေူပင် ပျူနှင်ဴပုဂဳ အုေ်ခွက်မျာဵေွင် ဗုဒ ရုပ်ပွာဵ ေော်မျာဵကို ဘူမိဖဿမုဒြာ၊ ဈာနာသန ဟန်မျာဵဖြင်ဴ ကြာပလ္လင်ခဳကာ ပြုလုပ်ကြ သည်။ အုေ်ခွက်ဘုရာဵမျာဵေွင် ဘုရာဵရှင်သို့မဟုေ် ေဗာဓိသေ္တဘုရာဵေလာင်ဵကို သာဝက၊ ကြင်ယာေော်၊ ပရိသေ်မျာဵခြဳရဳ ေုလုပ်ေလဴရှိေကြာင်ဵလည်ဵ ေေွ့ရှိနိုင်သည်။ ပုဂဳေခေ် အုေ်ခွက်ဘုရာဵမျာဵေွင် သာဝကမျာဵ ခြဳရဳေနပုဳနှင်ဴ ေဗာဓိသေ္တ ဘုရာဵေလာင်ဵခြဳရဳေနပုဳကို အမျာဵဆုဳဵ ေေွ့ရှိကြရသည်။
အုေ်ခွက်ဘုရာဵမျာဵနှင်ဴစပ်လျဲ်ဵ၍ ဘိုဵေော်ဘုရာဵက ပေမ ေမာင်ဵေောင်ဆရာ ေော်အာဵ အုေ်ခွက်ဘုရာဵမျာဵေအာက်ေခြေွင်ေရဵသာဵောဵေသာ စာမျာဵသည် မည်သည်ဴ ဘာသာစကာဵနှင်ဴ မည်သည်ဴ အဓိပ္ပာယ်ရှိေကြာင်ဵေမဵေလှောက်ခဲဴသည်။ ယင်ဵေို့သည် ယွန်ဵဘာသာစကာဵမျာဵမဟုေ်ဘဲ သက္ကေနှင်ဴ ပါဠိဘာသာမျာဵဖြစ်ပြီဵ အမျာဵအာဵဖြင်ဴ နဂရီဘာသာဖြင်ဴ ေယဓမ္မာ ေဟေုပ္ပ ဘဝါ ဟုေရဵသာဵေလဴရှိေကြာင်ဵ ေဖြဆိုခဲဴသည်။
အုေ်ခွက်ဘုရာဵမျာဵကို ပျူေခေ်မှသည်ကုန်ဵေဘာင်ေခေ်အေိေေွ့ရှိခဲဴကြရာ ပျူအုေ်ခွက်မျာဵသည် ပုဂဳအုေ်ခွက်မျာဵေက် လက်ရာပိုမိုေသသပ်ေကာင်ဵမွန် ေကြာင်ဵေေွ့ရှိနိုင်သည်။ ပုဂဳေခေ်ေနှာင်ဵပိုင်ဵအုေ်ခွက်မျာဵသည် ပုဂဳေရှ့ပိုင်ဵ အုေ်ခွက်မျာဵေက် ပိုမိုေကာင်ဵမွန်သည်ဴေိုင် ပျူအုေ်ခွက်မျာဵကို မမီေချ။
မည်သို့ပင်ဆိုေစ အုေ်ခွက်ဘုရာဵမျာဵသည် အလှူရှင်မျာဵ၏ စိေ်ကူဵစိေ်သန်ဵ အေပါ်မူေည်လျက် ဗုဒ ယဲ်ေကျဵမှုလက်ရာ ပုဳစဳမျာဵစွာကိုေဖာ်ေှေန်ဵေနကြေပသည်။ အုေ်ခွက်ဘုရာဵအလှူရှင်အမည်မျာဵကို အုေ်ခွက်မျက်နှာစာရှိ ရုပ်ပွာဵေော် ပလ္လင် ေအာက်ေခြနှင်ဴ အုေ်ခွက်၏ ေကျာဘက်ေွင်ေရဵေိုဵခဲဴကြသည်။ အလှူရှင်မျာဵေွင် ဘုရင်၊ မိဖုရာဵ၊ မှူဵမေ်နှင်ဴ ရဟန်ဵသဳဃာမျာဵအပြင် သာမန်ပြည်သူမျာဵကိုလည်ဵ ေေွ့ရှိနိုင်သည်။ အုေ်ခွက်ဘုရာဵအလှူရှင်အမည်မျာဵမှ ပုဂဳဘုရင်မျာဵ၏ ဘွဲ့အမည် မျာဵ၊ သာဵေော် သမီဵေော်မျာဵ၏ ဘွဲ့မျာဵကို သိရှိကြရေပသည်။
ေွဳေေဵမြို့နယ်၊ ေမာင်ဵေီဵဘုရာဵမှ ေေွ့ရသည်ဴ အေနာ်ရောမင်ဵအုေ်ခွက်မျာဵ ကဲဴသို့ ကြီဵမာဵေသာ အုေ်ခွက်မျာဵကို သီရိပစ္စယာရွာ ေောင်ဘက်ရှိ ေကျာက် စကာဵကြီဵဘုရာဵ အာရုဳခဳအေွင်ဵမှ ၁၉၉၃ ခုနှစ်ေွင် ေူဵေဖာ်ရရှိခဲဴရာ အလျာဵ ၁၅ ဒသမ ၇၅ လက်မ၊ အမြင်ဴ ၁၀ ဒသမ ၅ လက်မနှင်ဴ ေု ၃ ဒသမ ၇၅ လက်မရှိသည်။၂၀ဝ၇ ခုနှစ်ေွင် ေကျာက်စကာဵကြီဵဘုရာဵ အေနာက်ဘက်မှ အလျာဵ ၁၆ လက်မ၊ အမြင်ဴ ၂၁ လက်မ၊ ေုေလဵလက်မရှိသည်ဴ အုေ်ခွက်ကြီဵေစ်ခုကို ေပ်မဳ ရရှိခဲဴသည်။ ယင်ဵ အုေ်ခွက်ကြီဵနှင်ဴအေူ ေစာလူဵမင်ဵဘွဲ့ပါရှိေသာ အုေ်ခွက်ကြီဵမျာဵနှင်ဴ နှစ်ကျိပ် ရှစ်ဆူပုဳပါရှိေသာ အုေ်ခွက်အကျိုဵမျာဵကို ေေွ့ရှိခဲဴရသည်။
ပညာရှင်မျာဵက အုေ်ခွက်ဘုရာဵမျာဵေွင် ပါရှိသည်ဴ ဆင်ဵေုမျာဵ၏ လက်ရာကို ကြည်ဴ၍ မည်သည်ဴေခေ်ေွင် မည်သည်ဴ ဘုရင်က ပြုလုပ်ခဲဴေကြာင်ဵခွဲခြာဵနိုင်ကြေပ သည်။ အုေ်ခွက်ဘုရာဵမျာဵသည် ေစ်ခုနှင်ဴ ေစ်ခု မေူညီကြေသာ်လည်ဵ အာဵလုဳဵ သည် ဗုဒ ယဲ်ေကျဵမှုကို ေဖာ်ေှေန်ဵသည်ဴ ဘာသာေရဵဆိုင်ရာ အေမွအနှစ်မျာဵသာ ဖြစ်ကြေပသည်။ ေို့အေူ ဗုဒ ဝင်ရှစ်ခန်ဵကို အသာဵေပဵ ေုလုပ်ောဵသည်ဴ အန
သေရေခေ္တရာ အုေ်ခွက်ဘုရာဵမျာဵ
မြန်မာနိုင်ငဳ၏ အေစာဆုဳဵ အုေ်ခွက်ဘုရာဵမျာဵကို သေရေခေ္တရာမြို့ေဟာင်ဵမှ အမျာဵဆုဳဵရရှိခဲဴသည်။ သို့ေသာ် အခြာဵ ပျူမြို့ ပြမျာဵဖြစ်သည်ဴ ဗိဿနိုဵ၊ ဟန်လင်ဵနှင်ဴ မိုင်ဵေမာေို့ေွင် အုေ်ခွက်ဘုရာဵမျာဵကို မေေွ့ရှိရေချ။ သေရေခေ္တရာမှ ရရှိခဲဴသည်ဴ အုေ်ခွက်ဘုရာဵမျာဵေွင် ေေရဝါဒဗုဒ ဘာသာဆိုင်ရာ ဗုဒ ဆင်ဵေု အုေ်ခွက်မျာဵ အပြင် မဟာယန ကိုဵကွယ်မှုဆိုင်ရာ ေဗာဓိသေ္တ အုေ်ခွက်မျာဵကိုလည်ဵ ေေွ့ရှိရသည်။
သေရေခေ္တရာ အုေ်ခွက်မျာဵေွင် ဘဲဥပုဳ၊ ေအာက်ေခြ ဘဲဥပုဳရှိ၍ အေက်ေွင် ချွန်ေနပုဳ၊ ေလဵေောင်ဴပုဳ၊ အဝိုင်ဵပုဳ၊ ေောင်ဴမှန် စေုဂဳပုဳ၊ ေအာက်ေခြေောင်ဴမှန်စေုဂဳ ရှိ၍ အေက်ေွင်ချွန်ေနပုဳနှင်ဴ ေအာက်ေခြေောင်ဴမှန်စေုဂဳရှိ၍ အေက်ေွင် အဝိုင်ဵ ပုဳဟူ၍ အဓိက ပုဳစဳ ခုနစ်မျိုဵေေွ့ရှိရသည်ဴအနက် ဘဲဥပုဳ၊ ေအာက်ေခြဘဲဥပုဳနှင်ဴအေက် အချွန်ပုဳ အုေ်ခွက်မျာဵကို အမျာဵဆုဳဵ ေေွ့ရှိရသည်။ယင်ဵေို့အနက် အေသဵဆုဳဵ အုေ်ခွက်ဘုရာဵသည် အကျယ် ၁ ဒသမ ၅ လက်မ ရှိကာ အမျာဵအာဵဖြင်ဴ အကျယ်၂ ဒသမ ၂၅ လက်မမှ ၅ လက်မ၊ အမြင်ဴ ၃ လက်မ မှ ၄ လက်မအေိရှိကြသည်။ သေရေခေ္တရာ အုေ်ခွက်မျာဵေွင် အချို့ကို ေဘာင် ကွပ်ောဵ၍ အချို့ကို ေဘာင်ကွပ်ောဵခြင်ဵမရှိေချ။ သေရေခေ္တရာမြို့ေဟာင်ဵအေွင်ဵ ရှိ မုေောရွာမှ ေမြမီဵဖုေ်အုေ်ခွက်ဘုရာဵ အမျာဵအပြာဵကို ၁၉၂၇ ခုနှစ်နှင်ဴ ၁၉၂၈ ခုနှစ်မျာဵေွင် ရရှိခဲဴရာ အမြင်ဴ ၅ လက်မနှင်ဴ အချင်ဵဝက် ၃ လက်မရှိသည်။
သေရေခေ္တရာ အုေ်ခွက်ဘုရာဵေစ်ဆူေွင် ေုလုပ်ောဵသည်ဴ ဗုဒ ရုပ်ပွာဵေော်၏ လက်ေော်ဟန်(မုဒြာ)သည် ဘူမိဖဿ (လက်ေချာင်ဵမျာဵေမြေိပုဳစဳ) ဖြစ်ကာ ရုပ်ပွာဵေော် ေစ်ဖက်ေစ်ချက်ေွင် ေစေီပုဳစဳ ေစ်ခုစီ ရဳောဵသည်။ ေအာက်ေခြ ပလ္လင်ခုဳေွင်မူ ပန်ဵအိုဵေစ်လုဳဵစီ ရဳောဵသည်ဴ ခြေင်္သဴဦဵေခါင်ဵပုဳကို မြင်ေေွ့ ကြရသည်။ပလ္လင်ေအာက်ေခြေွင် ေယဓမ္မာ အစချီသည်ဴ ဂါောေော်ကို ေရဵောဵသည်။ေကျာ ဘက်ေွင် ပျူအက္ခရာမျာဵဖြင်ဴ ဗ
သေရေခေ္တရာမှ ေေွ့ရှိခဲဴရသည်ဴ ေအာက်ေခြေလဵေောင်ဴနှင်ဴ ေိပ်ချွန်ဵပုဳစဳ ေမြမီဵဖုေ် အုေ်ခွက်မျာဵေွင် ဗုဒ ရုပ်ပွာဵေော်ကို အုေ်ခွက်အလယ်၌ ကြာပလ္လင်ေပါ် ေွင်သီေင်ဵသုဳဵေနဟန် ေုလုပ်ောဵသည်။လက်ေော်ဟန်သည် လက်ေော်နှစ်ဖက် ကို ရင်ဘေ်ေပါ်သို့ ေင်ောဵသည်ဴ အဘယမုဒြာဟန်ဖြစ်သည်။ ပလ္လင်ေအာက်ေခြေွင် မဟာဝဂ္ဂပါဠိေော်၊ ဒီဃနိကာယ၊ သုေ္တန်ပိဋကေ်ေော်မှ ေကာက်နုေ်ောဵ သည်ဴဘုရာဵဂုဏ်ေော်မျာဵကို ေရဵသာဵောဵသည်။စာအေရဵအသာဵသည် ေအဒီ ငါဵရာစုမှ ခုနစ်ရာစုအေွင်ဵက အိန
သေရေခေ္တရာမှရရှိခဲဴသည်ဴ မဟာယန ဗုဒ ဘာသာနှင်ဴ စပ်လျဲ်ဵသည်ဴ ေမြမီဵဖုေ် မျာဵေွင်ေဗာဓိသေ္တ၊ အဝေလာကိေေသရ၊ အဒိဘူေဗုဒ နှင်ဴေလာကနာေပုဳမျာဵကို မြင်ေေွ့ရသည်။ အဝေလာကိေေသရ အချို့ေွင် ဦဵေခါင်ဵေော်၌သရဖူ ေဆာင်ဵ ောဵ၍ အချို့ေွင် သရဖူေဆာင်ဵောဵခြင်ဵမရှိေချ။ ေမှာ်ဇာမှ ရရှိခဲဴသည်ဴ ေဗာဓိသေ္တ ေမြမီဵဖုေ်ဘုရာဵေွင် ေခြေော်ဟန်သည် ကြာပလ္လင်ေပါ်မှ ေခြေွဲလဲချ၍ ေိုင်ေန ဟန် ဖြစ်သည်။
ေောင်လုဳဵညိုရွာမှ ရရှိခဲဴသည်ဴ ၄ ဒသမ ၅ လက်မမြင်ဴေသာ အုေ်ခွက်ဘုရာဵေွင် ရုပ်ပွာဵသုဳဵဆူပါရှိကာ အလယ်ဆင်ဵေုေော်သည် ကြာပလ္လင်ေွင်ေိုင်၍ မကိုဋ် ေဆာင်ဵောဵပြီဵ ေဘဵနှစ်ဖက်မှ ရုပ်ပွာဵမျာဵသည် အလယ်ရှိ ရုပ်ပွာဵဘက်သို့ မျက်နှာမူလျက် ေိုင်ေနကြသည်။
သေရေခေ္တရာမှ ရရှိခဲဴသည်ဴ အုေ်ခွက်မျာဵကို ေေရဝါဒဆိုင်ရာ အုေ်ခွက်မျာဵ၊ မဟာယနဆိုင်ရာ အုေ်ခွက်မျာဵ၊ ေေရဝါဒနှင်ဴ မဟာယနကို ေရာစပ်ောဵသည်ဴ အုေ်ခွက်မျာဵဟု ပိုင်ဵခြာဵနိုင်သည်။ ဗုဒ ရုပ်ပွာဵေော် အုေ်ခွက်၊ ေဗာဓိသေ္တရုပ်ပွာဵ ေော် အုေ်ခွက်ေို့အပြင် ဗုဒ ရုပ်ပွာဵကို မဟာယန နေ်ရုပ်မျာဵရဳောဵသည်ဴ အုေ် ခွက်မျာဵကိုလည်ဵေေွ့ရှိရသဖြင်ဴ သေရေခေ္တရာေွင် ရှိခဲဴသည်ဴ ပျူလူမျိုဵမျာဵသည် ေေရဝါဒဗုဒ ဘာသာအပြင် မဟာယနဗုဒ ဘာသာကိုလည်ဵ ကိုဵကွယ်ခဲဴကြေကြာင်ဵ ယူဆနိုင်ခဲဴေပသည်။ ေို့အေူ ဢေိပိေသာဘဂဝါ အစရှိေသာ ဂါောကို ေရဵေိုဵောဵ သည်ဴအုေ်ခွက်နှင်ဴ ေယဓမ္မာဂါောကို ေရဵေိုဵောဵသည်ဴ အုေ်ခွက်၊
ေယဓမ္မာဂါော ေရဵေိုဵောဵေသာ ေဗာဓိသေ္တ (သို့မဟုေ်) အဝေလာကိေေသရ (သို့မဟုေ်) ေလာကနာေ ေမြမီဵဖုေ် အုေ်ခွက်ဘုရာဵဟူ၍ သုဳဵမျိုဵ ေေွ့ရပါသည်။
ဘီစီ၂၀ဝ ပြည်ဴခုနှစ်ေွင် ဗုဒ ဝါဒသည် မဟာယာနနှင်ဴ ေေရဝါဒဟု နှစ်ဂိုဏ်ဵကွဲခဲဴရာ မဟာယာနဂိုဏ်ဵသည် သက္ကေ ဘာသာကိုအသုဳဵပြု၍ ဟိနယာန ဗုဒ ဝါဒ (သို့ မဟုေ်) ေေရဝါဒ ဗုဒ ဝါဒသည် ပါဠိဘာသာကိုအသုဳဵပြုခဲဴသည်ဟု အိန ဝါဒနှင်ဴ သက်ဆိုင်ေသာအုေ်ခွက်ဘုရာဵမျာဵဖြစ်ကြသည်။
ေဗာဓိသေ္တပုဳပါရှိပြီဵ ေယဓမ္မာဂါောကို သက္ကေဘာသာဖြင်ဴ ေရဵေိုဵောဵေသာ အုေ်ခွက်မျာဵမှာ ေအဒီ ရှစ်ရာစုမှ ကိုဵရာစုအေွင်ဵ ပြုလုပ်ခဲဴေကြာင်ဵ ယူဆကြ သဖြင်ဴ ေေရဝါဒဗုဒ ဘာသာသည် သေရေခေ္တရာသို့ ေအဒီ ခုနစ်ရာစုမေိုင်မီ ေရာက်ရှိေနခဲဴကာ မဟာယာနဗုဒ ဘာသာသည် ေအဒီခုနစ်ရာစုေနာက်ပိုင်ဵမှ သေရ ေခေ္တရာသို့ ေရာက်ရှိလာဖွယ်ရှိေပသည်။
ေို့ေကြာင်ဴ သေရေခေ္တရာမှ ေေွ့ရှိခဲဴသည်ဴ ေမြမီဵဖုေ် အုေ်ခွက်ဘုရာဵမျာဵသည် သေရေခေ္တရာေွင် ေနေိုင်ခဲဴသည်ဴ ပျူလူမျိုဵ မျာဵ၏ ယုဳကြည်ကိုဵကွယ်မှုမျာဵကို ေဖာ်ေှေန်ဵေနခဲဴကြေပသည်။ေမြမီဵဖုေ် အုေ်ခွက်ဘုရာဵမျာဵကို သေရေခေ္တရာဝန်ဵကျင်ရှိ ေမှာ်ဇာ၊ မေော ရွာ၊ ငရှင်ဴကုန်ဵ၊ မြင်ဗာဟုဘုရာဵ၊ ကန်သုဳဵဆင်ဴေောင်၊ ောဝေိံသာ ကျွဲေကျာင်ဵကုန်ဵ ဘုရာဵ၊ ပျိုဵခင်ဵကြီဵစသည်ဴ ေနရာမျာဵမှ ရရှိခဲဴရာ ယင်ဵေို့ကို ေကျာက်စာဝန်ဦဵမြ ပြုစုခဲဴသည်ဴ ေရှဵေဟာင်ဵအုေ်ခွက် ရုပ်ပွာဵဆင်ဵေုေော်မျာဵ စာအုပ် ဒုေိယေွဲေွင် ေလဴလာနိုင်ကြေပသည်။