Coronation of the Burmese monarch
Similar to the neighboring countries Thailand, Cambodia and Laos the ceremony is largely influenced by the Indian Hindu Culture.
The Sasanalankara states that Bodawpaya, like his father, was crowned only after establishing control over the kingdom's administration and purifying the religious institutions.
After the earth had been turned up it had to be sprinkled thoroughly with milk, then cow-dung, then with grain-barley sesame, cotton, millet peas and paddy.
The timber, bamboo and canes for building the pavilions were sprinkled with consecrated water from the paritta vessels and the conch shells.
The purohita replied: "According to tradition, as in the case of his forbears, the King intends to hold an abhiseka ceremony.
When the auspicious conjunctions was achieved seven muskets were fired seven times, the ten noises were sounded, the mantras from the vedas were chanted and the water was drawn.
Then the return journey, on the arrival ashore seven muskets were again fired thrice and the processions wended its ways to the pavilions.
The Sasanapaing and twelve purohita brought the Tipitaka to the Sihasana pavilion and left in there , and proceeded to the palace where 108 sanghas were reciting the paritta.
Then he recited the verse: Buddhañca, dhammañca, saṃghañca saraṇaṃ gato upāsakattaṃ deseti sakyaputtassa sāsano sadā guṇamupehīti ဗုဒ္ဓဉ္စ၊ ဓမ္မဉ္စ၊ သံဃဉ္စ၊ သရဏံ ဂတော ဥပါသကတ္တံ ဒေသေတိ၊ သကျပုတ္တဿ သာသနော သဒါ ဂုဏမုပေဟီတိ
Always trust in the virtue of the biddings of the Sakyaputta.He then proceeded to the Sihasana pavilion and sat in state on the gold covered figwood.
Oh King your actions must be only those that bring you credit, so must your words, your thoughts and zeal.The original script in Burmese text is: Then the eight Brahmans of pure blood bearing in their joint hands clockwise conches filled with water from the fiver rivers poured water over the consecration most respectfully on the King's head in turn saying the while: In translation: Please make the Religion and its attributes shine forth.
Seven days after the ceremony, the king and members of the royal family made an inaugural procession, circling the city moat on a gilt state barge, amid festive music and spectators.
