A zayat (; ; from Mon ) is a Burmese building found in almost every village. It serves primarily as a shelter for travelers, at the same time, is also an assembly place for religious occasions as well as meeting for the villagers to discuss the needs and plans of the village.

Theravada ''Theravāda'' () ( si, ථේරවාදය, my, ထေရဝါဒ, th, เถรวาท, km, ថេរវាទ, lo, ເຖຣະວາດ, pi, , ) is the most commonly accepted name of Buddhism's oldest existing school. The school' ...

Buddhist monks A ''bhikkhu'' (Pali: भिक्खु, Sanskrit: भिक्षु, ''bhikṣu'') is an ordained male in Buddhist monasticism. Male and female monastics ("nun", ''bhikkhunī'', Sanskrit ''bhikṣuṇī'') are members of the Sangha (Buddhist ...

use zayats as their dwelling place while they are exercising precepts on Uposatha days.

Buddhist monasteries Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

may have one or more zayats nearby. Donors mostly build Zayats along main roads aiming to provide the exhausted travelers with water and shelter. Beginning with Adoniram Judson's construction of one in 1818 Christian missionaries have also adopted their use. Thudhamma Zayat

Contributions, in money or labor, towards the construction, running or elaboration of a zayat are seen as

dāna Dāna (Devanagari: दान, IAST: Dānam) is a Sanskrit and Pali word that connotes the virtue of generosity, charity or giving of alms in Indian philosophies. In Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism, dāna is the practice of cultivati ...

(meritorious charity). Thus zayats are generally built in a more durable and costly manner than most private houses. The labor is normally provided by locals, while the financing may be local or remote. Some zayats have evolved other functions over time. For example, the Jivitadana Sangha Hospital for Buddhist monks and nuns began as a clinic at a zayat.

Literature in English

Because of the importance of ''zayat'' based evangelism to Adoniram Judson's mission, and the prominence that his first wife Ann Hasseltine's letters gave his work, many Christian missionaries in Burma constructed and used one or more zayats, and their letters and journals were widely published by missionary boards and societies in the United States. The first

Fu Manchu Dr. Fu Manchu () is a supervillain who was introduced in a series of novels by the English author Sax Rohmer beginning shortly before World War I and continuing for another forty years. The character featured in cinema, television, radio, com ...

story entitled ''The Zayat Kiss'' was published as a stand-alone magazine story in 1912. This and the next nine stories were combined into the novel ''The Mystery of Dr. Fu Manchu'' in 1913, which was titled ''The Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu'' when published four months later in the United States.

Gallery

File:Zayat at Kuthodaw Pagoda.jpg, A Zayat (pavilion) at Kuthodaw Pagoda, Mandalay,

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

File:Amarapura zayat.JPG, A roadside Zayat (rest house) at Amarapura, Burma File:Sagaing zayat.JPG, A Zayat at

Sagaing Sagaing (, ) is the former capital of the Sagaing Region of Myanmar. It is located in the Irrawaddy River, to the south-west of Mandalay on the opposite bank of the river. Sagaing with numerous Buddhist monasteries is an important religious and m ...

, Burma

References

{{coord missing, Myanmar Religious buildings and structures in Myanmar Buddhism in Myanmar Burmese culture

Literature in English

Gallery

See also

References