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July 15, 1978 - Image 11

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
Michigan Daily, 1978-07-15

Disclaimer: Computer generated plain text may have errors. Read more about this.

On the road to

(Continued fromPageM)
On the grounds sordid beggars played
out their roles like rehearsed actors.
Some were maimed or blind, others:
looked perfectly healthy and quite suc-
cessful at their dubious profession.
Vendors hawked typical trappings of
any festival - junk toys, food, and
sweets - but more practical goods like
hardware, kitchenware and handicraf-
ts were also sold.
The base of the Ananda, a huge
square broken on each side by gabled
vestibules, resembled a Greek cross.
Above this rose successively
diminishing terraces, the last capped
by a large golden spire. Two gigantic
crested lions stand vigil at the entrance
and in the dim corridor, soft bells
tinkled in unseen hands and sing-song
voices faintly echoed prayer. The color-
fully painted guardians protect the
temple from nats and demons
(creatures said to inhabit the woods
and temples), which continually tor-
ment the animistic Burmese.
At the temple's coreI discovered four
31-foot buddhas nestled in high and
deep niches. My guidebook identified
these as the teaching, departing,
blessing, and preaching buddhas of the
present world who have appeared
before and entered nirvana; their
gestures and facial expressions told the
story. Outside, along its base and high
above on its terraces, terra-cotta tiles.
depict scenes from Buddha's previous
existence (the Jataka Tales).
The next three days I visited the Sh-
wezigon temple, the prototype of the
Shwe Gagon alledegly containing the

The Michigan Daily-Saturday, July 15, 1978---Page 11
Mandalay
subtle, in solid shades and checks, the
men dressed in collarless shirts, short
waist-length jackets, and sarongs.
Narrow moonlit paths led me past
Burmans who dwell in similar woven
bamboo and thatch huts, fish from the
same dugout boats, and dance in the
style of their ancestors. If not for its
archaelogical significance today, this
drowsy village might have slept soun-
dly through the 20th century.
U Po suggested I spend my final
morning watching the sun rise atop the
tallest temple, and I had no reason to
doubt him. Separated by a mere half
mile, the 201 foot Thatbyinnyu com-
plements the Ananda. While the Anan-
da symbolizes Buddha's wisdom, the
Thatbyinnyu signifies his omniscence.
Not unlike its alter ego in general
r , design, the Thatbyinnyu does not form
a symmetrical cross, and its Buddha
image rests on the upper floor.
I raced up narrow stairways to the
top of the pagoda and was intoxicated
hair and bamboo. They ap- by the panorama landscape. The tour
i layers of lacquer, then books don't exaggerate - literally
m brightly in gold and thousands of structures littered the
nbow colors. Allowed to dry countryside. There were tall, tapering
owly in the earth, some pagodas like the Ananda, quadrangular
re a full year to mature. quarters for monks, bell-shaped
oon I relaxed drinking the Ceylonese style shrines, and perfectly
r, "Mandalay Beer", at the square buildings.
U Po proudly offered his As the sun rose it exposed the
tion of Playboy magazines diminuative Burmese moving from
sal. Time, Newsweek, and temple to temple in the distance. Ac-
controversial publications cording to U Po, it is unusual when a
d but Playboy is strictly off Burman neglects to visit a temple at
de a pact with my slender least once a week, often making the trip
him some recent issues on four or five times. Turning north, I
p. His end of the deal was could see a steamer churning languidly
down the Irrawaddy from Mandalay
almost impossible to find a and the marketplace come to life.
serving the native cuisine, Once again I waited over two hours
d Indian are the standard for the Dutch Faulker aircraft to ap-
I had struck a good bargain. pear, conjecturing that the nats had it
brought hingyo, or soup, in for me from the beginning. As I
'getables to dip in a sharp fastened my seatbelt I wondered if
Burmese cook with onions, flying was the best choice after all. The
s, and ginger, but never only alternative, however, was an
he main course consisted of overland route involving almost 24
cken curries with fish sauce hours on a bus that should have been
o enhance the flavor, white scrapped 20 years ago. Since my visa
ied vegetables. I quenched expired in two days, this was the only
th a delicious tea. road to Mandalay.

frontal bone and tooth of Buddha; the
Thandawgya Image, a 19 foot seated
statue of the enlightened one; and the
Htilominlo temple's weathered but
lively mural paintings and frescoes.
No! you won't 'eed nothin'else
But them spicy garlic smells,
An' the sunshine an' the palm-trees
an' the trinkly temple-bells;
'on the road to Mandalay ...
.HEN MY TEMPLE enthusiasm
waned I toured lacquerware
shops where skilled craftsmen
fashioned baskets and dishes

from horse-h
plied severa
painted the
black, or rai
and age slt
pieces requii
One aftern
national bee:
hotel where
illegal collec
for my peru
other less
are permitte
limits. I ma
host to bring
my next tri]
food.
Since it is
restaurants
Chinese and
tourist fare,
First, U Po
with raw ve
relish. The1
garlic, chili
overdo it. TI
fish and chi
and chilis to
rice, and fr
my thirst wi

Books: Perdido
(Continued from Page8)
Her travels take her through three and a period in whcih she tries to Find
tragic, obligatory losses (posing the Herself.
question: what do you get when you
subtract from that which is nothing to Robinson's book is weak, but Susanna
start with?)-hence the title-Perdido. remains continuously affecting. At 14,
Her infant cousin Theo dies in a fire; she was half-child, half-woman, clever,
her alcoholic uncle, a victim of the but not yet intelligent. Ten years later,
blacklist, kills himself. More cruelly, she is discontent with the role she has
her cousin Val, apparently her only en- assumed, that of homemaker, and has
during friend, dies in an auto accident. begun to think.

For a corny touch, Val's death comes
at a time when Val tells Susanna she
needs to confide in her, and-natch for
seamy Hollywood-when Susanna is
busy making love with Val's boyfriend.
Lest Robinson fail to fulfill her quota
of Hollywood-life cliches, Perdido also
takes Susanna through the demise and
subsequent sale of her grandfather's
studio, the death of her stereotypically
Jewish grandmother, an unhappy
marriage to another Hollywood Child,

"I think the housewife was invented
by TV to get us used to staying home so
we would never think of going out to the
movies," Susanna decides. And what
good is life to a Hollywood child without
movies?
According to the NCAA, Penn State
faced the toughest opponents of any
college football team in 1977. Penn
State's rivals compiled a 61-36-2 record
against all other opposition for a per-
centage of .626.

The Ann Arbor Film Coopertlve presents at Ml.B 3
SATURDAY, JULY 15
SPELLBOUND (Alfred Hitchcock, 1945) 7only-MLds
In this Hitchcock mystery, an analyst (Ingrid Bergman) attempts to cure an am-
nesiac (Gregory Peck) and clear him of murder. Salvador Dali designed the
fantastic dream sequence and Miklos Rozsa's innovative use of electronic
music won an Oscar.
PSYCHO (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960) 9 only-MLB 3.
Often cited as the most frightening film ever made, PSYCHO tells of a secre-
tory (Janet Leigh) who absconds with $40,000 and comes upon a lonely motel
near a Gothic house inhabited by a strange young man (Anthony Perkins)
and his possessive mother. Need we continue? Will you ever shower again?
If you've only seen it on TV, you've never really seen it. Chilling music by
Bernard Herrman. Vera Miles, Martin Balsam.
Next week: FREE FILMS (Mon-Sat)
' M i Q llNS TESOR 5 ;, Y

After dinner I walked. The sun's lazy
demise and the ubiquitous tinkling of
htis atop the temples cast a cryptic but
warm spell over the village. In their
isolation from the world the Burmese
cling to their ancient fashions.
Everyone wears the national dress,
sarong-like lengths of fabric wrappes
about the hips and reaching to the
knees. The women, clad in bright
colored cloth of elaborate design with
sheer silk or nylon blouses, giggled and
bowed in deerence as I passed More
Martin Scorsese's 1973
MEAN STREETS
ROBERT DE NIRO and HARVEY KEI-
TEL walk the no-man's land in New
York's Little Italy. A strong Catho-
lic upbringing, a lovely lady and the
manic Johnny-boy (DeNiro) keeps
Keitel busy as he ponders joining
the Mafia.
Sun: Charie Chaplin's
A DOG'S LIFE
(Free at 7:30)
CINEMA GUILD
TONIGHTet 7:30& 1:30
OLD ARCH AUD

O the road to Mandalay,
Where the flyin'-fishes play;
An'the dawn comes up like thunder
outer China 'crost the Bay!
Main St.and
East University .
Ann Arbor. MI
July 19,20,21,1978
Wed-Fri, 10am-]Opm
A4dy22,1978
Sat, 10 am-6pm
- ARTISTS& cRAFTSMEN GUILD
EIGHTH ANNUAL
TS FESTVL

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