Beliefs

I took this picture after I'd climbed and come down the alleged 777 steps of Mt Popa, an extinct volcano sacred to Myanmar's 37 pre-Buddhist nats. Nats are the spirits of people who have died violently and unjustly. Treated properly, they protect people or help them achieve difficult tasks. When the 11th century King Anawrahta converted to Buddhism and wanted his subjects to do likewise, he recognised 36 of the many nats as a compromise to people reluctant to give up their beliefs. He added a 37th, Thagyamin, to be the nat king. Astute move - Thagyamin is based on Indra, who paid homage to Buddha.

A millennium on and nats are still worshipped despite Buddhism being ubiquitous in the areas where I am travelling. I visited their shrines, illuminated with festive lights, light sabres and LED advertising lights and offered a (sceptical) flower to a nat mother who killed herself after her two children were murdered. I donated some money to the guardian of my birth day (I realised afterwards I'd misremembered it but perhaps my son will get the luck instead. )

The first 200 or so steps are, of course, lined with stalls which, like the climbers, are plagued by lightning-fast monkeys leaping to steal flower offerings or any bag that might contain food. I was upset just to miss a photo of a woman catapulting missiles at them. Distinctly un-Buddhist, I thought.

But who has only one pure belief system? Plenty of Christians touch wood or wish on birthday candles. Animism exists comfortably alongside either Christianity or Islam in large parts of Africa. Hinduism is hugely eclectic. Astrology is everywhere. Most of us humans will adopt anything that makes us feel we have some control in our life or which appears to give it some meaning.

And sceptical me? Oh, I believe in patterns. Controlled, meaningful...