Portfolio River

The Shwe Dagon Pagoda

Apr 30, 2012

According to tradition, the Shwedagon Pagoda has existed for more than 2,500 years, making it the oldest historical pagoda in Burma and the world. According to tradition, two merchant brothers, Taphussa and Bhallika, from the land of Ramanya, met the Lord Gautama Buddha during his lifetime and received eight of the Buddha's hairs. The brothers traveled back to their homeland in Burma and, with the help of the local king, King Okkalapa of Burma, found Singuttara Hill, where relics of other Buddhas preceding Gautama Buddha had been enshrined. Ref:wiki

Bagan

May 1, 2012

According to the Burmese chronicles, Bagan was founded in the second century CE, and fortified in 849 CE. Mainstream scholarship however holds that Bagan was founded in the mid-to-late 9th century by the Mranma (Burmans), who had recently entered the Irrawaddy valley from the Nanzhao Kingdom. It was among several competing Pyu city-states until the late 10th century when the Burman settlement grew in authority and grandeur. Ref:wiki

Mrauk U

May 2, 2012

In 1433, King Min Saw Mon established Mrauk U as the capital of the last unified Arakanese Kingdom. The city eventually reached a size of 160,000 in the early seventeenth century. Mrauk U served as the capital of the Mrauk U kingdom and its 49 kings till the conquest of the kingdom by the Burmese Konbaung Dynasty in 1784. Ref:wiki

Three Baskets

May 3, 2012

The Pāli Canon falls into three general categories, called pitaka (from Pali piṭaka, meaning "basket"). Because of this, the canon is traditionally known as the Tipiṭaka (Sanskrit: Tripiṭaka; "three baskets"). The three pitakas are as follows: (1) Vinaya Pitaka ("Discipline Basket"), dealing with rules for monks and nuns (2) Sutta Pitaka (Sutra/Sayings Basket), discourses, mostly ascribed to the Buddha, but some to disciples (3) Abhidhamma Pitaka, variously described as philosophy, psychology, metaphysics, etc. Ref:wiki