Dungka "Dungka" is an Ilonggo term for "to land".

The Shwedagon Pagoda, an enormous mass of gold with a gleaming spire, bathed in splendor under the full moon. It was a scene to behold and a perfect gift for my first night in Myanmar. But I wasn’t well. The travel flu has caught up with me.

Exhausted, I made my way towards one of the exits, passing by a number of devotees that crowded the marbled platform surrounding the Pagoda. They all knelt in front of the shrines with their hands placed together in prayer: women in flower-plated dresses, men in dark colored longyis, children whose faces glowed with thanaka cream, monks in maroon robes and the new generation of young Burmese in jeans and white buttoned down shirts.

Though a part of me wanted to stay, I also felt that I needed to heal.

As I was about to exit, a young Burmese girl came running from one of the entrance steps and knelt down hastily in front of the pagoda. Her thin and dark body wrapped in a silver htamein glared in the yellow light. I noticed her thanaka cream, smeared all over her cheeks. She held a peach colored flower ring, her dana, and clasped it with her hands.

She closed her eyes and bowed twice. Then she gazed up, opened her eyes, moved her lips and shook her praying hands. In a snap, her seraphic image turned into a look of anxiousness. She shook her praying hands again, as if begging for mercy or a miracle that only the large golden structure in front of her could give.

I turned around, walked back towards the stupa, bowed my head in reverence and said a little prayer for her.

It was all I needed.