Where did Zawgyis come from.

[Benyamin Sheppard]

[editor's note: This was copied from Kyaw Myaing's original Post on the original weizzar.com discussion forum.  It is a poll, so if you reply please let us know if you like the article.]

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Dear Wisdom Seekers,

I want to share one article that I came across in "Nay La Journal" of 23 September 2005 (No.128, page 6).

The name of the article translated from Burmese means "About Zawgis known as Zawgyis" and it is written by Saya Khin (M.A.).

The following is a brief summary of this article for the benefit of my colleagues who are interested in esoteric subjects.

" A Zawgyi means some one who knows the arts of healing, mantras and has the ability to fly in the air and dive into the earth, according to the Myanmar Encyclopaedia. The word Zawgyi has been written as Zawgi in ancient Burmese texts. I think that this word has come down to us from the Hidi language which is related to Pali and Sanskrit. It might have originally been Yogi which later changed to Zawgi. I have done some research in ancient Burmese texts and have found these interesting points: In the Dhamma Pala it was written thus "Zawgi are descendants from the Brahmana class"; in the Thanwara Pyo is was written thus "Ponnas and Zawgis come from the eight directions to take shelter"; in the Shwe Hintha Min Pyo it was written thus " of Ponnas and Zawgis". It may thus be assumed that the Zawgis were from the Brahmana class.

In addition it has been found in the old Pyos written by Shin Thilawuntha, Shin Maharathta Thara and Shin Tezawthara that these Zawgis are included in the 24 types of homeless wanderers who live on charity and alms and that they live in cities and places where there large populaces.

Some of the things that the Zawgis do are similar to what the Ponnas do. They tell fortunes and read palms. They have knowledge of the use and value of lands. They know how to read omens and signs based on the movements of planets, and the sun and moon. They can also interpret words uttered by children and certain madmen. They can also make dead people walk by use of certain magical procedures.

In some writings, there have been instances where the writers have mistakenly mixed Zawgis and Weizzars. In fact Weizzars are higher in terms of the knowledge they possess.

For a Zawgi to become a Weizzar he has to know the following:
- the knowledge of the Gawra Mantra
- knowlege of the Gandari Mantra
- knowlege of the Kutika medicine

When a person becomes a Weizzar he has the following powers:
- the ability to create mutiple bodies (from one to many)
- from many bodies to one
- the ability to appear from no where
- the ability to vanish into thin air
- go through walls, mountains and buildings
- walk in the air as though on the earth
- walk on water as though on the earth
- dive into the earth as if it were water
- fly in the air in the lotus meditation position just like a bird
- touch the sun and the moon
- even travel to the Brahma realms

(all these are written in the Thamanda Setku Dipani Kyan).

This is just a gist of what you can read in the above-mentioned article.

In essence, what I can gather from this article is that the Burmese word Zawgyi came from the word Yogi. This type of yogi must be an advanced yogi with the knowledge of many yogic practices and supernatural powers.

Metta,

Kyaw Myaing
Founder - Weizzar.com
http://www.weizzar.com