SIMA (2)

Choosing an appropriate place

The difficulty and discrepancy in the initiation of sømæ is inevitable to some extent. The majority of people in Myanmar are Buddhists so that generally the majority of the villages, towns and cities in Myanmar have monasteries. Depending on villages large or small, the monasteries would be one or more in quantity. People’s concept is that a village with monasteries, sømæ and pagoda is thought to be prestigious and their social and religious activities totally centre on the monastery. Monastery, pagoda, sømæ if possible lake (kyang, kan, phayar), are regarded highly and seen as necessities; sømæ in particular.  A Buddhist trustee in Myanmar is usually organised by the abbot of a monastery for the purpose of every seasonal activity and other affairs of formal act.

If donor of sømæ is ready, the abbot convened a meeting with trustee to choose the convenient place for a sømæ. Sometimes disagreement as to the place of sømæ area occurred in the meeting. Different persons have different likings. This is a major issue which often takes protracted. The abbot, nevertheless, generally solves such kind of problem. Most abbots are well versed in the performances of monk-affairs. When all comes to an agreement the work is implemented unanimously.

The place either sandy or dangerous is not suggested. Dangerous place means that the space on slope, on the bank of river and the place which would probably be devastated by landslide and so forth. By and large the place is recommended east and south to the main monastic building, not north and west to it. When it is thought to be safe, it has reached its conclusion of choosing a place for a sømæ. Then, an approval letter issued by the authority for a place in order to establish a sømæ is essentially necessary. Therefore a proposal for a sømæ is supposed to be sent to the authority concerned in advance. When a complete permission is in hand, it is ready to be running the process of sømæ consecration.

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