10 JULY 2018 City Employees Club of Los Angeles • Alive!
AROUND THE WORLD
10
Ireland Cabo San Lucas Take Alive! with Here’s John Burnes, Alive! editor, in Kingscourt, County Cavan, Ireland, near the family ancestral homeland of Enniskeen, County Meath. you, wherever James Case, DWP, and his wife, Renu, visited the Arch of you go! Cabo San Lucas Sea of Cortez – “beautiful sunset scenes and • Bring your recent copy of gorgeous beaches. We are build- ing more wonderful memories. Alive! with you when you We are blessed; thank you, good travel. Lord Jesus.” • Snap a high resolution photo of you holding Alive!. • Attach your picture to an email, and send it to us, and we’ll publish it. Send to: [email protected]
Intrepid traveler, Director of the Griffith Observatory and Club Member Dr. Ed Krupp visited Myanmar, Myanmar which provided numerous opportunities to examine little-known Burmese Buddhist astronomical traditions.
Dr. Ed Krupp Director, Griffith Observatory
“You can also get a lift at Bagan by ascending the observation tower more-or-less in the middle of the vast field of monuments.”
“Mandalay was the last royal capital of Myanmar, and Mandalay Palace is oriented with the cardinal directions at the base of Mandalay Hill, directly to the north. Beyond the tower in the background, the king, in the Great Audience Hall, sat facing due east in his throne.”
Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon, Myanmar, is an extravagantly gold stupa and temple complex. Like all Buddhist stupas, it miniatur- izes a traditional concept of the cosmos into its architecture. Unlike other Buddhist stupas, however, it includes eight shrines for the planets, which are associated with the days of the week. For ‘planets,’ the Burmese count the sun, moon, Mercury, Venus, “The distinctive mountain in the background is Popa Taung Kalat, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and a node of the moon’s orbit, a point where a crowd of animist spirits adds complexity to Burmese associated with eclipses. They get eight ‘days’ in the ‘week’ by Buddhist tradition.” splitting Wednesday in half, and each ‘day’ is associated with a ‘planet’ is Burmese astrology.”
“More than 2,000 ancient pagodas and temples, built between the ninth and 13th centuries, survive at Bagan and make it a world wonder. The grandeur of the site is best seen aloft, from a hot-air balloon launched before sunrise.”
“Mandalay was the last royal capital of Myanmar, and Mandalay “The gargantuan stupa at Mingun, about seven miles up the Ayeyarwady Palace is oriented with the cardinal directions at the base of River from Mandalay, was commissioned by King Bodawpaya in 1790 but Mandalay Hill, directly to the north. Beyond the tower in the back- “The Nyaung Ohak Shan stupas offer an Indiana Jones moment at was never completed. The huge cracks that split it were produced by the ground, the king, in the Great Audience Hall, sat facing due east in Indein, a village upstream from Inle Lake.” 1839 earthquake.” his throne.”