Pouring Water

Recently Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Myanmar. There was a picture of her in a large pagoda pouring water over a statue of Buddha. What is the significance of this?
Iris

From a Google search...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ves%C4%81kha
"Some temples also display a small image of the baby Buddha in front of the altar in a small basin filled with water and decorated with flowers, allowing devotees to pour water over the statue; it is symbolic of the cleansing of a practitioners bad karma, and to reenact the events following the Buddha's birth, when devas and spirits made heavenly offerings to him."

http://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/india/buddha-purnima
"Some temples display a small statue of Buddha as a baby. The statue is placed in a basin filled with water and decorated with flowers. Visitors to the temple pour water over the statue. This symbolizes a pure and new beginning."

John Quinn wrote:the events following the Buddha's birth, when devas and spirits made heavenly offerings to him."

Thank you. That sounds familiar, doesn't it?
Iris

She's gonna need a bigger Buddha and a lot more water!