I read with interest U Maung Maung Aye’s article on 16 December 2024 of The Global New Light of Myanmar. I think it was sometime in 2017 or perhaps 2018 that I most recently visited the Shwedagon Pagoda. It was a rushed visit since those who attended the 8th batch BA (Law), LLB reunion gathering after the luncheon gave a brief visit and pilgrimage to the pagoda. U Maung Maung Aye in the three hours or so during his visit was able to cover more places than I did about six to seven years ago.
Thakin Soe’s (alleged) escape from detention at the Shwedagon Pagoda in 1947
It reminds me of three events which I have read concerning visits to and ‘escape’ from Shwedagon Pagoda. The first event occurred sometime in late 1946 or early 1947. I searched the archives of Time Magazine (established 1923) and under the title ‘Open the door, Jailer’ dated 17 February 1947, the following excerpts appeared.
“There were many Communists in Burma’s jails, but Rangoon’s police itched to get their fingers on one more. Hefty Thakin Soe had cost them face. Arrested, he slipped out of their grip and fled into Rangoon’s famed Shwedagon Pagoda. Police right behind him had to stop and remove their boots before entering the Buddhist temple. For most of a day, bootless police combed its labyrinth of passages and rest houses and guarded every exit. They paid little heed to a bent and evidently blind nun who made her way down the main steps. Not until much later did the police learn that the blind Buddhist nun was Communist Thakin Soe.”
Yours truly does not know whether the story depicted in Time reproduced above actually occurred or not. I searched the world wide web and for the record, I reproduced the Time news item from February 1947 – over 77 years ago.
The ‘Red Flag’ Communist Party leader Thakin Soe (1906-6 May 1989) went underground even before the country’s independence. In June 1963 from the jungles, he came to Rangoon to participate in the ‘peace parley’ offered by the Revolutionary Council. I recall seeing on the front page of the newspaper a photo of Thakin Soe holding the photo of Soviet leader Stalin (18 December 1878-5 March 1953). During the peace talks, he was in Rangoon, for perhaps a few months between June to November 1963. I am pretty sure during that time Thakin Soe visited the Shwedagon Pagoda. If what Time magazine reported in February 1947 that Soe escaped from the Shwedagon Pagoda disguised as an old blind nun was true then Thakin Soe could very well visit the pagoda again to commemorate his escape (or escapades)!
General Ne Win’s visit to Shwe dagon Pagoda in October 1970
U/General Ne Win, in October 1970 about 3 ½ years before he became the first president of the Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma, then Chairman of the Revolutionary Council and Prime Minister of the Revolutionary government of the Union of Burma General Ne Win visited the Shwedagon Pagoda. Though this writer does not recall the exact date of General Ne Win’s visit I recall that it was sometime in October 1970 and it was in the front pages of all the Burmese and English language newspapers.
A hearsay and therefore may or may not be an apocryphal story that I have heard is that during his visit to Shwedagon in 1970 General Ne Win apparently commented to the effect that his most recent visit to the Shwedagon Pagoda was in 1946, twenty-four years earlier! IF that story is true then General Ne Win must have been at the precincts of the pagoda a few months before (though of course not the same day!) as Thakin Soe’s escape from detention from the precincts of Shwedagon in early 1947!
Sayagyi Tekkatho Maung Maung Gyi’s article Naing Ngan Daw Myet Hnar (The Face of the State)
From the mid-1960s to perhaps the mid-1970s the Myanmar Sar textbook for all first year University students are a collection of essays with the title Tekkatho Myanmar Sagapyay Kauk Hnoke Chet (Selected Prose for University students). One of the essays written by the late Professor of Myanmar Sar Tekkatho Maung Maung Gyi was titled ‘The Face of the State’. One of the successors to the chair of Myanmar Sar which Professor U Maung Maung Gyi held at University of Yangon is Maung Khin (Danubyu) (born 2 January 1942). In a paper written in English under the title ‘Post-colonial literature in Myanmar’ by Maung Khin Min which I found on the world wide web a one sentence reference was made to Tekkatho Maung Maung Gyi’s essay. It says: ‘Tekkatho Maung Maung Gyi glorifies the Shwedagon Pagoda as the face of the State’. (Perhaps a better expression would be ‘Tekkatho Maung Maung Gyi wrote about the glories and splendours of the Shwedagon Pagoda’).
I cannot retrieve Tekkatho Maung Maung Gyi’s essay probably written in the early 1960s so I can only partially recall what Sayagyi wrote.
Tekkatho Maung Maung Gyi wrote how during one of his evening walks he saw the resplendent Shwedagon Pagoda and wrote about his sense of piety and devotion and about the glory of the golden Shwedagon. One wonders whether or not there is a full translation into English of Naing Ngan Daw Myet Hnar essay.
Apollo 12 astronauts visit to the Shwedagon Pagoda
On 17 March 1970 the Apollo 12 astronauts (the second successful mission to the moon) Pete Conrad (2 June 1930-8 July 1999), Alan L Bean (15 March 1932-26 May 2018) Richard F Gordon (5 October 1929-6 November 2017), visited Rangoon for a day. They visited the Shwedagon Pagoda and the Martyr’s mausoleum during their brief visit. A you tube video on line stated that the astronauts gave an impromptu talk at the foot of the Shwedagon Pagoda for about 45 minutes. Again, an apocryphal (but may be also true) story goes that one of the astronauts spoke about the feeling of awe he felt walking on the precincts of Shwedagon was akin to the feeling of awe of walking on the Moon four months earlier in November 1969!
U Maung Maung Aye wrote in his article that during his visit to the Shwedagon he obtained ‘historical and archaeological knowledge’. This brief piece fills in historical titbits about visits to the Shwedagon pagoda by fairly important Myanmar and foreign personages.
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