Anyone who has lived in Burma/Myanmar for some time will notice sooner or later that numerology is rather important for the Burmese (regardless of ethnic group). Whether it is the number nine, or the banknotes with strange denominations such as 35, 45, 75 or 90 Kyat. To name just a few. A few days ago I visited my friend Yang Lama, the abbot of the Tibetan monastery here in Maymyo/Pyin Oo Lwin. He was busy preparing oil lamps for a ceremony and told me that he needed 108 of them. Since I always have an open ear for matters relating to numerology, I asked him, “Why 108?” He explained to me that the number is composed as follows: 52 higher chakras (from head to navel) and 48 lower chakras (from navel to feet). Then there are the five Buddhas Vairocana, Amoghasiddhi, Amitabha, Ratnasambhava and Aksobhya. Also called Adibuddhas or Tathagatas. The three jewels (Buddha, Dharma and Sangha) round up the number. Interesting to me insofar as I consider 108 to be a purely astrological number. However, this refers to Theravada Buddhism, which is predominant in Myanmar, while Tibetan Buddhism belongs to the Mahayana school.

So what is this number 108 all about? First of all, it naturally occurs to everyone in this country that this is the number of pearls on the Buddhist rosary (badi:). The Buddha’s footprint contains 108 auspicious signs. And the cross sum of 108 is – 9! On the platform of the Shwedagon pagoda, directly in front of the temple with the Singu bell (between the western and northern staircase), there is an inconspicuous stupa called the Planetary Stupa. If you go closer, you will see sixteen niches. Half of it houses statues of gods who sit on their resp. mounts (see below). They symbolize the days of the week. Eight Buddha statues sit in the niches in between, because one of them is assigned to each day. However they have nothing in common with the above mentioned Tathagatas but come from the ranks of the 28 Buddhas worshiped in Burma.

The statues of the gods symbolize the eight days of the week. You might ask yourself: Why eight? Well, the Burmese week consists of eight days! Why’s that? Simply because the number of days has to correspond with those of the cardinal points and the ‘planets’! However, the week only has seven days. What to do? Very simple: You divide Wednesday and make two days out of it: One of them dedicated to the planet Mercury, the other one to the fictional ‘planet’ Rahu, which can only be seen during solar and lunar eclipses. If you take a closer look, you can see the name of the ‘planet’ on the base of the gods and a number underneath (both in Burmese). Please not that old Indian astrologers considered sun and moon as planets, too (geocentric view of the world).