Dasacetiya (The Slave in Pagoda): The Symbolic of Religious State at Pagan, Myanmar

Abstract

The three purposes of this academic article were: (1) to study the concept of slaves and slaves in the Buddhist pagodas (2) to study Pagan city, history, and importance and (3) to study the role of Buddhist pagoda slaves in Pagan. In this paper is used the documentary presentations from the Tipitaka and from academic works, for supporting the data analysis by using the method of data analysis.

The results found that the former Pagan capital city that flourished with the Buddhist civilization of Myanmar. In the past, Pagan has a governance structure that consists of (1) king (2) the ruler (myutugyi) and (3) slaves (kyun) and slaves which the owner dedicated to Buddhism called paya kyun. The slave is a working class, has the lowest social status. The group of slaves is divided into 2 groups: groups that occur in normal conditions, including the group of inherited slaves, slaves, fines, slaves in the prison etc. and the slave groups that occurred at war, who was arrested as a prisoner of war. Among those slaves, the slaves that the owner devoted to Buddhism was responsible for creating and preserving religious places called "Dasacetiya (the slave in pagoda)" in the state of the Pagan kingdom. With a unique state of religion which has Dasacetiya (the slave in pagoda)" as a mechanism of the creation of the state that has 5 elements, namely (1) creating a state identity with Buddhism, (2) eliminating heresy, (3) adhering to the triple gem, (4) create a feudalist system for contributing to the stability of the state and (5) decentralizing power in feudalism. Therefore, the Dasacetiya (the slave in pagoda) is the people who stand in behind of the golden pagoda in all over the Pagan field. These people, even though they have a low social status but they are still valuable for the creation of the Buddhist arts for the new generations to appreciate and deposited as a heritage for the civilization of Myanmar up until today.