2 out of 4 stars
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This is a review of the book Rakhine Touristy Stupas by Htay Win. This book attempts to serve as a comprehensive guide about the Buddhist temples called ‘Pagodas’ and ‘Stupas’ located in the Rakhine State of Myanmar.
The book is intended for travelers and spiritual seekers looking for information about the Buddhist temples in the Rakhine area. The introduction provides a very good summary of what's inside the book. The difference between a pagoda and a stupa is dealt with in detail. The origin of the word ‘Stupa’ has been established with instances of evidence from the temple inscriptions. There are detailed descriptions of the Buddhist temples covering their architecture, dimensions, background stories, and the naming reasons. I liked the writing about the Sandamuni Buddha statue and the Pasinkata Mudra. Some good photos of the pagodas have been shared, e.g., Ratanamankin, Tayzarama, Chitthaung. The photos show the dire state of some pagodas that need maintenance. Detailed information about Rakhine area and its culture have been provided, e.g., wrestling competitions that happen in the area, the Thingyan festival, details about the Vesali oil lamp, ‘Ngapali’ and ‘Mrauk U’ towns, information about the mythical animals depicted in the temples. The historical happenings like the occupation of the Rakhine area by the British after the first Anglo-Burmese war, the British stealing the bronze statues in Myanmar, a Rakhine king recapturing 12 cities from the Muslims are highlighted well.
The book falls short of the standards of a comprehensive guidebook because of the writing style, narration, and the formatting. I felt that the author should have sought help from someone well-versed in English to write this book. The wordy narration makes the reader lose interest in the book after a while. Every pagoda’s description sounds almost similar. By organizing data about the pagodas as tables and adding more pictures of the pagodas, the book would have elicited more interest. The spiritual significance of the pagodas is not forthcoming in the narration. While the author mentions that Buddha’s hair, rib, and bone relics are being maintained in some pagodas, he does not elaborate on how a relic is significant for a spiritual seeker. While writing about a temple that has 108 stupas, the author does not mention why the number 108 is significant. The design reasons behind the architectures of the temples are not specified. Most of the pagoda pictures are from a distance and do not create the visual appeal that would make a traveler visit these places. The number of pictures is also very less, especially of the Ngapali beach, its seashore, and the nearby mountains. There is no consistency in the book in the usage of distance units; both miles and kilometers are being used.
The book has not been professionally edited. There are several formatting, grammatical and mechanical errors. There are spelling, punctuation, and capitalization errors, usages of wrong words, wrong propositions, and wrong articles. The table of contents section at the beginning is just empty. The note accompanying a picture often appears on the next page rather than below the picture. The same contents are sometimes repeated multiple times, e.g., the details about the Ngapali beach.
Overall, I found that this book falls short of its objective to be a comprehensive guide for the Rakhine area Buddhist temples. The narration is long-winding and the organization of information is not appealing to the reader. The book does not satisfy a traveler’s quest to find out about the place for sight-seeing and tourist activities, as there are not enough attractive pictures. There is no depth in the information provided through the stories to be motivated to visit the temples. I wanted to give this book 3 out of 4 stars owing to the extensive information shared about the temples. Because of the bad narration, ineffective information organisation, and the book not being of great use to the travelers and the spiritual seekers, I rate this book 2 out of 4 stars.
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Rakhine Touristy Stupas
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