Bagan: Forced Pilgrimage

Bagan. The most pagodas you will ever see in your life. Once the capital of the Burmese empire, Bagan's rulers were fanatic temple builders. It is probably the most visited tourist site in all of the country, and for a good reason. It rivals Angkor in its scale and architectural grandeur. Although the golden era of the Burmese kings was short lived, these monuments have stood the test of time. In stark ideological contrast to Angkor, the temples of Bagan are constantly being repaired and rebuilt. This has its advantages and disadvantages. On the one hand, these temples are active places of worship and the repairs allow them to remain so. Also, the visitor gets to see the temples in how they were "meant to be seen." Conversely, it takes away from the mystique and romance of falling apart, unmaintained buildings. We loved it both ways. Welcome to Bagan, where all you can do is see temples.

Getting to Bagan from Yangon is a pretty straightforward route. It was the nicest road in the country for the first 12 hours. The brand new highway has been routed to restrict tourist interaction with locals to the bare minimum required. We saw no villages, a few people for the majority of the drive. The last 3 hours was perhaps the bumpiest of our tour in Myanmar. We guess the government hasn't gotten to the last section yet.

On the way our bus broke down, naturally. An hour into our two hour delay, we learned that it was the A.C. unit that was causing the trouble. The foreigners were more than happy to open the windows and get on the road, but the locals who had paid extra for the A.C. were willing to wait for it to get fixed. Needless to say, we ended up with windows after the third break down. Along the way we saw this snake farm. Thousands of snakes are packaged in tarp lined wooden crates and sent to China for god knows what purpose. Here the proprietor sorts the larger ones from an open crate.

Soda! In a bag! Soda in a bag. That's right, why buy a bottle when a bag is twice as fun and almost free.

We arrived in Bagan at like 4:30 am. At the bus station there was a group of horse and buggies waiting to take people to their next destinations. Kara didn't want to take the horse because she's Kara and doesn't like to see animals working. After realizing we would have to walk very far with our packs to our hotel, we got in the buggy. Here is the town around 5am. Burmese wake up early.

We slept the whole day and did some other sightseeing with obnoxious Euro centric Canadians and Germans who don't deserve to be on the blog. However, we did end up seeing these people throughout the rest of our journey in Myanmar. Oh well. What we did with them, if you are curious, is ride up a mountain to go see a large Buddha. The next day, we woke up and rented bikes, prepared to ride around the Bagan Archaeological Heritage Site. Here is Kara in front of the first temple that we saw on our ride out. We can't remember the name but it is one of the oldest in Bagan and the archetype for the majority of the pagodas in Myanmar including Shwedagon in Yangon. (see last post)

The landscape for as many kilometers as the eye can see is dotted with temples. It is estimated that there are over 4,000 temples, pagodas, stupas and monasteries in the Bagan area dating back to the 9th century, though the majority of the temples were built during 1000-1200 AD. Knowing our tendency to linger at historic sites and religious monuments, we tried to be timely so we could see as much as possible. We only probably made it to about 10 or 15 monuments the first day.

Kara riding away from Dhammayangi Temple, the most massive temple in Bagan, built in 1165. By the way, its SO hot. You can't really imagine how hot it is, but maybe go sit in a sauna for a while. A dry one.

Max and Kara couldn't find each other at this stupa. In a notable architectural quirk, the base of the stupa is shaped like a pentagon instead of a traditional square or octagon. Maybe this contributed to the confusion.

Max looking out.

Inside Htilominlo. Outside all significant monuments you will find a group of children selling either George Orwell's "Burmese Days" or asking you for foreign currency to trade. The most popular temples are surrounded by small market places with sand paintings, crafts, and cold drinks. It was at Htilominlo that we struck up a conversation with one of the painters there. We were initially concerned that he would eventually end our chat with asking us to buy some of his paintings, but it turns out he just wanted to talk. After touring around the temple that he works at together, he asked if it would be ok to follow us to some other temples on his bike. After some hesitation about his intentions, we agreed. On this trip many people pretend to be our friends and then end up asking us to buy something or give them money. Our friend, who we will call John for his protection, was not like this at all. He was stellar, sweet, and also knew the best temples to check out. We later learned after hanging with him for some days that we were the first tourists that he had ever approached as friends.

John and Max at Ananada temple, which is considered to be the most beautiful in Bagan. The design of the larger temples was clearly intended to make the best use of the natural light, creating serenely lit passages and prayer spaces with surprising skill and subtlety.

Sitting in the corridors of one temple, John sheepishly approached the subject of politics by pulling out some discontinued currency, pictured above. The old Kyat used to feature portraits of Boygoye Aung Sun, the father of Aung Sung Suu Kyi and leader of the revolutionary independence movement. Although he is still officially considered a hero by the SPDC and democracy activists alike, the current regime apparently felt it unwise to keep his face on the national currency.

The day continued on like that: lots of temples and pagodas and a little hushed politics in between. Here is outside Ananada Temple. To walk in any Buddhist temple, you must remove your shoes. This was no surprise to us, but the Burmese are particularly gung-ho on shoe removal way before entering the temple complex. Thus, at Ananada in the scorching heat, we felt our feet might burn off.

Seeking shade under this tree, we found various Buddhas dedicated to days of the week.

Picture removed for subject's security

John said he knew a great temple to watch the sun set, so we followed him to one nameless temple. We decided we all liked each other a lot and would meet the next day for dinner. Or sunset. There was a little bit of a language problem, more on this confusion later....

After schlepping around on our bikes the whole first day in 100+ heat, Max decided that a horse and carriage was in order. The night before we had eaten at a vegetarian restaurant outside of Anananda temple. The owner of the restaurant was a kind hearted and outspoken vegetarian who we felt would treat his horse well. The next day we arranged for him to take us to the far away temples of Bagan.

That horse ride was shaky and so are many of Kara's photos. The large temple in the middle is Htilominlo (where we met John.)

Bagan is some flat land. In between temples you can find fields still being cultivated by the local population. The major crop here is peanuts, which we loved. Above, a farmer herds his cows through the dry heat to his farmland. Unlike Yangon, the rains hadn't hit Bagan yet. We were there just before the monsoon, when the farmers were preparing the harsh, clay-like terrain for the coming shower.

Walking up through a passage to the top of a temple. Many of the temples came with full rooftop access, allowing for beautiful views. Max loved walking through these passages, feeling a sense of excitement as they seem to be secret tunnels from a time forgotten.

Demon like creature protecting the inner sanctum.

We really liked this rooftop and did some "hot" yoga here. Take that, Bikram.

Along the way we stopped in a small village community who sells most of their handwoven clothes to various parts of the country. Here Kara learned how to spin cotton into thread. Later this old lady pulled out the largest cigar we have ever seen and smoked it. She gave one to Kara. We later learned that old women traditionally smoke these "cigars." These huge cornhusked wrapped things are said to be very mild, but we aren't sure what that's in comparison to.

Big Buddha Hand.

So, the day before we had arranged to meet John for dinner or temple sunset-watching. We missed the part about the sunset and he had been waiting for us at his temple for a long time before giving up and going home. Finally we learned that he had left after speaking with some people at the temple and we rode the 1.5 hr bike ride to his house, nervous that we had committed a serious faux-pas. To our delight, John and his lovely family were understanding of the communication issue and welcomed us into their house with open arms. John's wife prepared the best meal we had in Myanmar, completely vegetarian and delicious. Though it was painfully obvious that they have hardly any money to live, the helpings were extremely generous and they treated us like family. Though the majority of the conversation was in strained English/Burmese, we understood each other perfectly well. John's brother caught word, along with the rest of the village, that we had arrived. He came over after dinner and drilled us for information about the outside world. He spoke very good English and seemed to be very informed about his own government and its doings. Many people listen to BBC Radio at nighttime and are very proud to tell us about it, including John and his family. The BBC Radio is broadcast in Burmese and has a basic English teaching program as well. Obviously this activity is illegal but surprisingly wide spread.

After dinner, John's wife noticed that Kara was still sweating, even though it had been hours since the sun had set. Here she is, applying Kara's first Tanaka. Tanaka is a mix between facepaint (makeup) and sunscreen. It serves to keep you cool in the daytime, keeping your skin free from prickly heat and zits. It also absorbs your sweat and makes your skin so smooth. In addition, tanaka is applied as temporary body art/makeup. The designs can get quite intricate, however a standard tanaka look is two circles or squares on the cheeks. Tanaka is made from the bark of a special tree. Some women choose to use the bark itself, which must be ground on a special stone with water. Others use a "ready made" tanaka/sandlewood mix which requires less effort and is available in a soap-like block. Kara and Max are convinced this is the best makeup ever. Kara bought dozens to bring home and is setting up a Tanaka camp for Burning Man next year.

Picture removed for subject's security

The entire family, consisting of 5 people eat, sleep and relax in the small space on which we are seated. A quarter of their very humble house is dedicated to a shrine honoring their ancestors and the Buddha. While we would use this space to put someone else for sleeping, they hold it sacred to the gods. We left that night very late from their house, tummies full and hearts happy. Later on the trip we met some cool Brooklynites who we sent to meet John's family. We were delighted to learn that their meeting was also a successful one. We hope to meet them again when we return to Myanmar one day. We have the telephone number of Htilominlo temple...all we are supposed to do is ask for "John." If anyone is heading that way, please contact us. Apparently this system works.

After three days of temple-ling, we were ready to move on. It is perfectly possible to fly into Bagan, stay in a 5-star hotel, and tour the temples by taxi learning much about Myanmar's past and nothing about its present. But as we learned, Bagan is more than just an ancient capital; it is a thriving community with people who are very concerned with Myanmar's future.

P.S. a note on the title: Forced Pilgrimage. We didn't realize it at this point in our trip, but in order to go anywhere or see virtually anything in Myanmar, we must visit a temple, pagoda, shrine, or stupa. This is because every natural phenomenon, beautiful place, or city has at least one, if not 10,000 Buddhist shrines. Hence, even though we did not intend to, we ended up on a serious Buddhist Pilgrimage for about 6 weeks. We guess we must have made a lot of merit.

Signing off for now,
Max and Kara