Bagan
Saturday—Monday January 25—27, 2014
Bagan is northwest of Yangon, and located on the Irrawaddy River. We flew from Luang Prabang, via Bangkok and Yangon, where we spent the night. Bagan’s airport is at Nyaung–U (NYU).
At one point there were more than 10,000 religious monuments in the area. Today, there are about 2,200 remaining. Our references say the Pagan Empire (Bagan is the more current name) collapsed in 1287.
Here is a local map of the area.
We visited a large market, and then went to the Shwezigon Pagoda. Construction was finished in 1102. The color comes from rubbing gold leaf on the bricks.
Next was Wet–Kyi–Inn Gubyaukgyi Temple. Our tour company reports the interior has “exquisite mural painting from the 13th Century.”
Unhappily, there is a large red sign at the entrance informing visitors that photographs may not be taken of the interior.
The exterior has a lot of faces!
After lunch, we next went to a lacquer–ware shop, and then on to Manuha Temple, built in 1067. Its principal attraction are large wooden Buddha statues that are really squeezed into the building. There is a reclining Buddha that is 90 feet long. Photographing all of this is a big job. Here’s the face on the recliner.
By this time, the sun was getting low and we went to the Shwesandaw Pagoda, built in 1057. This is a view over the nearby Anada Temple from a terrace up on Shwesandaw. The area is packed with temples and pagodas as well as people preparing for sunset.
Looking in a different direction, here is the massive Dhamayangyi Temple.
Just before sunset, here’s the view up on Shwesandaw. Note the bare feet—we had to take our shoes off in many of the places we visited.
Here’s the scene about four minutes before sunset.
The sun has set, and the visitors are working their way down to the ground, where shoes await.
The next morning we drove over to nearby Thatbyinnyu Temple, built in the middle of the 12th century. We saw a painted sign inside that gave a year, 1144.
Then it was on to Ananda Temple.
Pressing on, we visited Dhamayangyi Temple, built about 1170. Not necessarily at the best time of day for a photograph, though.
Here’s a typical view from our car!
A half hour later, we got a better sun angle on Dhamayangyi Temple.
Next, Sulamani Pahto, built in 1183. We didn’t arrive at the right time of day to get the classical entrance photograph (see the on in the link). But we did get some good pictures of the interior.
Exterior detail at the temple.
But note—there was an earthquake here in 1975. A lot of structures were destroyed. Some have been repaired. It looks like the right half of this feature is from restoration work.
As were leaving, we got in a good spot, sun–wise, for a photograph.
Our guide took us next to Min Nan Thu village, where we were shown local practices—using a loom, rolling cigars, drying beans and making peanut oil.
The ox walks in a circle (the young woman taps it gently with a stick) and peanuts are ground into a mush. The oil ends up in the little black bucket at the base of the grinding device.
After lunch, we asked our guide to take us out on a road where the sun would be in the right spot to take some photos to show how many structures are in the area. Here are two.
Our next stop was Mahabodhi Temple, which is modeled on the famous Mahabodhi Temple in India. The Bagan version was damaged in the 1975 earthquake and has undergone repairs.
It looks as if a lot has been rebuilt.
We have read that the reason the Bagan area is not a UNESCO World Heritage Site is that the government keeps “repairing” old structures.
Our last tour was on a boat out in the Ayeyarwady River, to watch the sun go down.
Our boat (like the one in the second photo) is down there, somewhere.
Here are two of temples we’ve visited, just before sunset. The golden one is Shwezigon Pagoda, and the brick one is Htilominlo Temple.
In the morning, we’re off to Inle Lake.
We flew from Luang Prabang to Bangkok, and transferred to a flight to Yangon, where we spent the night on the shores of a lake. Early the next day, we flew up to Bagan.
Next—Inle Lake.
