SEAMS WORLD CULTURE TAROT
Death and rebirth : a story from Myanmar of the 37 NATS
Card: Death
Artist Maitreya Lim
Country: Myanmar
The story of Maha Giri Nat and Sister Saw Meiyar Nat.
In Myanmar Nats are deities who are venerated in conjunction with Buddhism. There are 37 Great Nats as well many minor deities which may be spirits of trees, elements, or animals. Of the 37 Great Nats, they were mostly human beings who met with violent deaths and may also be call Nat Sein (“green Deities”).
Nat Deities are termed like saints and may inhabit the six heavens of Buddhism.
King Anawrahta of Bagan designated an official pantheon of 37 Nats after he had failed to enforce a ban on Nat worship. His strategy succeeded to combine Na worship with Buddism as the 37 Nats were shown worshipping Gautama Buddha and the head of the Nat, Thagyamin is a Buddhist protective deity.
For the Death card and the nature of death, we would portray the ending of one life and the beginning of another life which is the nature of Nats. The story centres on Maha Giri Nat and his sister Saw Meiyat Nat.
In his previous live, Maha Giri Nat was the son of the great U Tint Dor of Tagaung, a Master Blacksmith. He was known as Maung Tint Dei. He had great strength and was able to break the tusk of an elephant with his bare hands. He aided the villages in their work and was well liked and popular among the common folk.
On hearing about his fame, the king was afraid of the strong man and afraid that one day Maung Tint Dei would attack him and seize the throne. He tried to capture the strong man; however, due to his popularity among the common folk, he always was able to escape.
Hence the King tried another strategy. He picked Maung Tint Dei’s sister Saw Meiyar as the queen. While Saw Meiyar was in the palace, the king coxed her and told her that he wanted to give her brother a position in the palace. Believing the King’s words, Saw Meiyar invited her brother to the palace. Trusting that since his sister is the queen, he would be safe, Maung Tint Dei came to the palace. However, upon arrival at the court, the king tricked Maung Tint Dei into drinking a potion of deep sleep and had him arrested.
The king tried using various weapons and means of torture to kill Maung Tint Dei. Yet none of the weapons were able to harm him. In desperation, the king tied Maung Tint dei to a Sagawa tree and set him on fire.
The queen was kept in the dark while all this was happening until the day she saw her brother being tied to the tree and set on fire. She abruptly jumped into the fire and died together with her beloved brother.
In that instance both sister and brother became Nats and their abode was the Sagawa tree. Thereafter, any creature which came under the tree would die in a bad way. Thinking the tree to be cursed, the king dug up the tree by the roots and floated it down the river Ayarwaddy.
The Tree came to rest at the kingdom of Bagan. The two Nat spirits of Maha Giri Nat and Saw Meiyar Nat appeared in a dream to the king of Bagan. They promised to watch over the king and fulfill his wishes and bring prosperity to his kingdom if he would provide a shrine for them.
The King agreed and picked up the Sagawa tree from the water and requested a master sculptor to use the wood from the tree and make statutes of the brother and sister. Thereafter he held a grand gala celebration of Nat worship at Mount Poppa every year.
In addition, the King of Bagan led an army and defeated the king who murdered Maha Giri and Saw meiyar Nat. in the battle both brother and sister Nat aided the king of Bagan and his troops.
Mount Poppa being a holy mountain called Maha Giri.
Maha Giri is the Domestic lord of house hold issues and Nat Saw meiyar was the lord of the great mountain
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