I don’t know why it took us 7 months before visiting the
most famous tourist attraction in our entire country. But we finally made it to Shwedagon Pagoda. This is the biggest/tallest pagoda
around, and at night you can see the gold light up from many places in the
city.
But, since I have no desire to walk around a pagoda at bedtime
with my 2- and 3-year-old girls, we went in the afternoon. It was still impressive.
I am not sure how many stairs we had to walk up, but it was
a lot!
It rained.
I have not yet mastered the art of walking barefoot on wet marble, so I
(almost) fell numerous times.
Later that night, my feet were sore in places I didn’t even know
existed.
Lots of people were doing this cleansing ritual where they
were pouring water over the statue’s head. There was lots of meaning behind everything people were
doing, and there is even meaning behind each statue/place within the pagoda.
Have you ever seen a giant Buddha?
Mayah is slightly more tolerant of people crowding around
her than Abigail is. Although, I’m
pretty sure she is asking them not to touch her in this picture! These kids were working outside of the
pagoda, trying to sell plastic bags for you to put your shoes in (you can’t
wear shoes in the pagoda).
I can’t even explain the emotions that go through a believer
when walking through this pagoda.
The enemy has such a stronghold here, but we know the One whose is
all-powerful. Pray with us that
many will realize the emptiness that is to be found in these meaningless
rituals.
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