Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Standard Cruise 5 days 4 nights
Day 1: Embarkation in Mandalay
Transfer from airport to ship for lunch and afternoon excursion to central Mandalay visiting the palace and hill areas, crafts workshops and shopping. Overnight on RV Shin Arahan.
Day 2: The First Defile
Cross to Mingun for a morning walk and sail up river to the First Defile. Overnight on RV Shin Arahan.
Day 3: Ava
Morning walk in the picturesque Sagaing Hills with its many hermitages and nunneries; evening visit to the lost capitals of Ava and Amarapura. Overnight onRV Shin Arahan.
Day 4: Pakokku
Sail all day with a morning village stop and evening tour of Pakokku a lively riverine town with many collegiate monasteries. Overnight on RV Shin Arahan.
Day 5: Disembarkation in Bagan
By 0900 disembarkation and transfers to the airport.
Cruise Price Includes: Transfer, Excursions, Entrance fees, guide services (English language), port dues, main meals, locally made soft and alcoholic beverages, jugged coffee and selection of teas and tisanes minerals.
Cruise Price Excludes: International flights, no flights included out of Mandalay for cruise ending in Monywa/Mandalay, port dues (if levied), laundry, all visa costs, fuels surcharges (see terms and conditions), imported beverages such as wines, premium spirits and liqueurs, fancy soft drinks.
More details at http://www.shinarahancruises.com/itinerary/standard-cruise-5-days-4-nights
Upper Irrawaddy 10 days 9 nights
Cruise between Bagan and Mandalay with extension totally 10 days 9 nights on RV Shin Arahan
DAY 1: BAGAN AIRPORT- EMBARKATION
Transfer from airport to ship for lunch followed by exploration of a selection of the 3000 plus BAGAN monuments by bicycle or coach. Overnight on RV Shin Arahan.
DAY 2: BAGAN
Further explorations of BAGAN and visits to a lacquer workshop. Overnight on RV Shin Arahan.
Day 3: BAGAN MONUMENTS - OHN NE KYAUNG MONASTERY
Further exploration by coach of the monuments follow by a lacquerware workshop and visit to the local markets. Sail in the noon to upstream. Evening walk at Oh Ne Kyaung village to see the local life in this typical river side community. Overnight on RV Shin Arahan.
Day 4: YANDABO
This small rural village is specialized in pot making. We visit the Pandaw School, built with past donations from Pandaw passengers. Overnight on RV Shin Arahan.
Day 5: MANDALAY, AVA AND AMARAPURA
Passenger will take a tour of central Mandalay visiting the Mahamuni Pagoda and Shwe Nan Daw Kyaung teak carved monastery. Next we explore the ancient capital of Amarapura by coach and sampan and crossing the U Bein Bridge to see paintings in a temple. Overnight on RV Shin Arahan.
Day 6: KYAUNG-MYOUNG POTTERIES
Sail upstream and visit the spectacular potteries near Kyauk-myoung where the famous 50 gallon water pots are handmade. We see all stages of manufacture from the throwing of the pots to the week-long firing in huge kilns. Overnight on RV Shin Arahan.
Day 7: THIRD DEFILE
We enter the Third Defile at its end point and sail upstream all day until Ma Le village, the starting point of the 3rd Defile of the Irrawaddy. We visit the village and cruise downstream again.
Day 8: MINGUN PAGODA AND BELL
We stop at Mingun to see the largest working bell in the world and the unfinished pagoda which is the largest single mass of brick building in the world. We also visit the Mingun Old Peoples Home originally established with the assistance of the Irrawaddy Flotilla Company in the 1930s. Overnight on RV Shin Arahan.
Day 9: SAGAING HILLS
The true delight of Sagaing lies in its 1.000 hermitages and sanctuaries, rich in woodcarving and religious art. Overnight on RV Shin Arahan.
Day 10: DISEMBARK MANDALAY
Disembark at Mandalay Shwe Kyet Yet Jetty in mid morning.
(Disembark the ship between 8.00 am - 9.00 am at Shwe Kyet Yet Jetty, Mandalay.)
Cruise Price Includes: Transfer, Excursions, Entrance fees, guide services (English language), port dues, main meals, locally made soft and alcoholic beverages, jugged coffee and selection of teas and sanitizes minerals.
Cruise Price Excludes: International flights, no flights included out of Mandalay for cruise ending in Monywa/Mandalay, port dues (if levied), laundry, all visa costs, fuels surcharges (see terms and conditions), imported beverages such as wines, premium spirits and liqueurs, fancy soft drinks
More information at our official website http://www.shinarahancruises.com/itinerary/upper-irrawaddy-10-days
More information at our official website http://www.shinarahancruises.com/itinerary/upper-irrawaddy-10-days
Buddhism of Shin Arahan
Indeed, evidence for the reform attested to him cannot be found at Pagan. The evidence, if anything, points in the opposite direction. The monk advocated for a stronger link between Burmese Buddhism and the Hindu god Vishnu. The frescoes in of Nandaminnya Temple, which Shin Arahan dedicated, in Pagan are "patently Ari". The full range of stories in Burmese cultural memory demonstrates that his reform was not so neat and tidy as the post-medieval narrative suggests. Burmese historian Than Tun writes: “Buddhism during the Buddha’s lifetime was in a sense pure, but as time went by it was modified to suit the time and place. Burma is no exception.”
Indeed, within the century of Shin Arahan's death, the Buddhism of Pagan would be realigned with the Mahavihara school of Ceylon, away from his Conjeveram-Thaton school.[13] (The Conjeveram school originated in Kanchipuram, Tamil nadu in 5th century AD, based on the writings of monk Dhammapala. By 1192, the Mahavihara school became the predominant school of Burmese Buddhism by the efforts of Shin Uttarajiva. But Shin Arahan's order did not yield easily. The schism lasted two centuries before Shin Arahan's Conjeveram Buddhism finally died out.
More at our Shin Arahan Cruise website: http://www.shinarahancruises.com/stories/buddhismofshinarahan
Legacy of Shin Arahan
More at our Shin Arahan Website http://www.shinarahancruises.com/stories/legacyofshinarahan
Reforms of Shin Arahan
From 1056 onwards, Anawrahta, under Arahan's guidance, implemented a series of religious reforms throughout his kingdom. The reforms gained steam after Pagan's conquest of Thaton, which brought much needed scriptures and clergy from the vanquished kingdom. Shin Arahan housed the scriptures in the Tripitikataik library, which is still to be seen at Pagan.
Anawrahta broke the power of the Ari monks first by declaring that his court would no longer heed if people ceased to yield their children to the priests. Those who were in bondage of the priests gained freedom. Some of the monks simply disrobed or followed the new way. But the majority of the monks who had wielded power for so long would not go down easily. Anawrahta banished them in numbers; many of them fled to Popa Hill and the Shan Hills. (However, the Aris did not die out. Their descendants, known as forest dwelling monks, remained a powerful force patronized by the royalty down to the Ava period in the 16th century. Likewise, the nat (spirit) worship continued down to the present day.)
Next, Shin Arahan, who deemed the Thaton Buddhism itself was impure, helped revitalize a more orthodox form of Theravada Buddhism by inviting Buddhist scholars from neighboring states to Pagan. Under his guidance, Anawrahta invited scholars from the Mon lands and Ceylon, as well as India where Buddhist monks were fleeing the Muslim conquerors. The scholarship helped revitalize a more orthodox form of Theravada Buddhism.
He also oversaw the training of the sangha and founding of over a thousand monasteries across the kingdom in order to spread the religion. He traveled extensively across the kingdom, as far down as Tenasserim.
When his royal patron Anawrahta died in 1077, the reforms Shin Arahan helped initiate had been in place for some two decades. He stayed on as the religious adviser for the next three kings--Sawlu, Kyansittha and Alaungsithu, and assisted in their coronation ceremonies.
Death
Shin Arahan died at age 80 (81st year) in 1115, during the reign Alaungsithu at Pagan. He was succeeded as primate by his student Shin Panthagu.
More details at http://www.shinarahancruises.com/stories/reformsofshinarahan
More details at http://www.shinarahancruises.com/stories/reformsofshinarahan
Shin Arahan
Shin Arahan
The Venerable Shin Arahan was primate of Pagan Kingdom from 1056 to 1115. The monk, a native of Thaton Kingdom, was the religious adviser to four Pagan kings from Anawrahta to Alaungsithu
Born: 1034, Thaton, Myanmar
Died: 1115, Bagan, Myanmar
Education: Theravada
Quoted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shin_Arahan
Biography
The story of Shin Arahan first appeared in the chronicle Maha Yazawin of 1724, and was repeated in the chronicle Hmannan Yazawin of 1832. Although some modern historians have vigorously questioned the accuracy of the story, most historians continue to accept the story as a genuine artifact of Burmese tradition.
Original article is on our Shin Arahan Cruise http://www.shinarahancruises.com/stories/shinarahan
Shin Arahan visit to Pagan
At 22, he left for the northern kingdom of Pagan because was dissatisfied with the decaying state of Theravada Buddhism, and an increasing influence of Hinduism at Thaton. The Mon chronicles corroborate the story, hinting that King Manuha of Thaton was reprehensible for making a compromise with Hinduism. At Pagan, the young monk met the king of Pagan, Anawrahta, and converted him to Theravada Buddhism from his native Ari Buddhism. The king had been dissatisfied with the state of Buddhism at Pagan. He considered the Ari monks, who ate evening meals, drank liquor, presided over animal sacrifices, and enjoyed a form of ius primae noctis, depraved.
It turned out to be a perfect partnership. Shin Arahan found in Anawrahta a powerful monarch that could help implement his dream of purifying the religion. Anawrahta found in Theravada Buddhism, a substitute to break the power of the clergy, and in Shin Arahan, a guide who could help him accomplish it.
More on the Shin Arahan cruise website http://www.shinarahancruises.com/stories/shinarahanvisittopagan
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