Jain Digest 2015 06

Author(s): Federation of JAINA
Publisher: USA Federation of JAINA

Page 28

JAIN DIGEST
Lost Horizon Of The Rich Jain Heritage
Introduction
After, British took over India in 1857; they sent many Indians in different countries like Burma, Aden (Yemen), Fiji, Caribbean, Africa, Zanzibar etc mainly as a labour. Few Jains migrated to some of these countries, they kept their religion tradition alive. They built the derasar and Sthanaks for the worship. Later on, due to the political conditions, many left. Following are few examples of that lost heritage.
Rangoon -Burma(Myanmar)
Yangon, formerly Rangoon, is the largest city with a population of about five million. It was the former capital of Myanmar (previously known as Burma). Jains started arriving in Rangoon in search of business opportunities in the late eighteen hundreds. Prior to World War II, it is said that there were about ten thousand Jains in Burma. Many of these people had to leave, some even went via Manipur by road, Burma during World War II, in early forties. However, many Indians returned to Burma after the end of the war. There were about one thousand Jains living in Rangoon in the early sixties. When Army General Ne Win took over the civilian government in 1962, he started nationalizing all the businesses. As such, a lot of people had to leave. There are hardly three or four Jain families residing in Yangoon at this time. However, the temple is being maintained and Jain religious festivals like Paryushan and Mahavir Jayanti are observed. Many people of other faiths also attend such celebrations.
The three-storey Jain temple is located on the 29th Street. The temple was inaugurated in or around 1914. The temple's Romanesque architecture is rather keeping in line with Rangon's colonial architecture than it is adhering to traditional Jain temple design. The temple is quite functional with dining room and kitchen on the ground floor, Sthanakvasi hall on the second floor and the gabhara on the third floor, with Mahavir Swami, as the mul nayak. Recently, the temple got totally renovated with a generous donation from a Jain businessman from Singapore, who had been a former resident of Rangoon.
မြရွှေစင်
The Yangon Heritage Trust has been lobbying to preserve this temple, along with other prominent landmarks of old Rangoon.
28 I MAR-APR 2015