Bo Bo Gyi ( my, ဘိုးဘိုးကြီး, ; ) traditionally refers to the name of a guardian deity (called ''

nat Nat or NAT may refer to: Computing * Network address translation (NAT), in computer networking Organizations * National Actors Theatre, New York City, U.S. * National AIDS trust, a British charity * National Archives of Thailand * National ...

'') unique to each Burmese Buddhist

temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called church (building), churches), Hindui ...

pagoda A pagoda is an Asian tiered tower with multiple eaves common to Nepal, India, China, Japan, Korea, Myanmar, Vietnam, and other parts of Asia. Most pagodas were built to have a religious function, most often Buddhist but sometimes Taoi ...

. Bo Bo Gyi is typically depicted as a nearly life-sized elderly man, dressed in a curved cap and sometimes carrying a cane, to signify old age. Offerings of scarves and paso are common by worshipers. There are many Bo Bo Gyi shrines throughout the country, and some are more widely respected than others. The

Shwenyaungbin Shwenyaungbin, also Shwe-nyaung-bin or Schwenyaungbiri, is a large village in Mogok Township, Pyin Oo Lwin District, in the Mandalay Region of central Burma. It is located west of Mogok. It lies at a meander on the Kin River and the National ...

(Golden Banyan Tree) Bo Bo Gyi shrine between

Yangon Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government ...

and Bago is often visited by new car owners hoping have their cars blessed by the Bo Bo Gyi spirit at that site. According to a legend of

Shwedagon Pagoda The Shwedagon Pagoda (, ); mnw, ကျာ်ဒဂုၚ်; officially named ''Shwedagon Zedi Daw'' ( my, ရွှေတိဂုံစေတီတော်, , ) and also known as the Great Dagon Pagoda and the Golden Pagoda is a gilded stupa ...

, the

Gautama Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist tradition, he was born in ...

's hair relics were given to two

Mon Mon, MON or Mon. may refer to: Places * Mon State, a subdivision of Myanmar * Mon, India, a town in Nagaland * Mon district, Nagaland * Mon, Raebareli, a village in Uttar Pradesh, India * Mon, Switzerland, a village in the Canton of Grisons * An ...

merchants who later gave them to the King of Yangon, wanting the relics to be properly enshrined in a pagoda. Bo Bo Gyi, as an avatar of Indra, came down to earth and pointed his finger to the proper location where that pagoda should be built, which is where the Shwedagon Pagoda is. Hence, he is popularly depicted as a figure pointing his finger as a reference to this legend. Bo Bo Gyi is highly respected amongst

Thai people Thai people ( th, ชาวไทย; '' endonym''), Central Thai people ( th, คนภาคกลาง, sou, คนใต้, ตามโพร; ''exonym and also domestically'') or Siamese ( th, ชาวสยาม; ''historical exonym an ...

as ''thep than chai'' ( th, เทพทันใจ; the deity ho may grant your wishimmediately). Many believe that praying to, wishing to, and having their forehead touched by the deity's pointing finger of the ''thep than chai'', especially at

Botataung Pagoda The Botataung Kyaik De Att Pagoda ( my, ဗိုလ်တထောင်ကျိုက်ဒေးအပ်ဆံတော်ရှင်စေတီတော် ; also spelled Botahtaung; literally "1000 military officers") is a famous pagod ...

, will bring them luck.

Images

File:Bo Bo Gyi, Kyauktan Yay-Le Pagoda.JPG, Bo Bo Gyi shrine at the Yay-Le Pagoda in Kyauktan File:Bo Bo Gyi, Sule Pagoda, Yangon.JPG, Bo Bo Gyi shrine at

Sule Pagoda The Sule Pagoda ( my, ဆူးလေဘုရား; ) is a Burmese Buddhist stupa located in the heart of downtown Yangon, occupying the centre of the city and an important space in contemporary Burmese politics, ideology and geography. Acco ...

in Yangon File:Bo Bo Gyi, Bago.JPG, Bo Bo Gyi shrine in Bago

References

{{Burmese nats Burmese nats Burmese culture