World Travel with Bob: Salay and, Bagan

I've returned to viewing and organizing my Myanmar photographs. With 3,000 to go through and linking images to towns and villages, it can be somewhat exhausting. With this post, I'm up to January 14 and 15, 2016.

Yokesonekyaung "Wooden" Monastery & Man Paya Pagoda, Salay

Salay is about 22 miles south of Bagan. It is a quiet and small village. Salay has 50 monasteries and a village population of 7,000.

The Yokesonekyuang wooden monastery was built in 1882. It is a Myanmar cultural heritage site and the wood carvings that surround the monastery are very intricate.

Man Paya Pagoda

This pagoda holds the largest lacquer constructed Buddha image in Myanmar, It was built between the 13-14 century.

Tant Kyi Taung Pagoda

After breakfast, we disembarked the AMAPura to ride in a minibus caravan to this pagoda. Along the drive, we could see blue tents under which small petroleum wells operated. The road was very dusty and winding as we traveled several miles to the pagoda.

Tant Kyi Taung pagoda is located in the hills above the western riverbank of the Ayeyarwaddy River, on the opposite side of the river from Bagan. The temple was built by King Anawrahta in 1059AD. After the pagoda visit, we stopped to watch a cultural elephant dance along the riverbank.

Bagan is on the eastern side of the Ayeyarwaddy River, less than 185 miles from Mandalay.The historic "Old" Bagan area covers 16 square miles and contains over 2,000 religious monuments. At one time, it held over 4,000 temples and/or pagodas, all built between 11-13th AD. King Anawratha found Bagan and established Therevada Buddhism. The downfall of Bagan started in the 13th century with the invasion of the Mongols.

As we disembarked for our excursions, the street vendors were especially attentive to us. Some vendors followed our tour bus by motor scooter as we traveled to different Bagan sites, offering opportunities to bargain for longyi, bracelets, necklaces and carved wooden figurines.

Htee Lo Minlo Temple, Bagan

Guni Temple at Sunset, Bagan

Jaggery, Mt. Popa and Lacquerware Factory Visit, Bagan

Our full day of touring Bagan started with a stop at a roadside jaggery production site and store. Jaggery is a refined sugar product made from the sap of the toddy palm tree. The sap is boiled down and made into candy as well as a fermented into a fiery alcohol drink.

Mt. Popa is a 5,000 foot volcano, located about 31 miles east of Bagan. Direectly southwest of Mt. Popa is Taung Kalat, a sheer-sided volcanic plug, risting 2,400 feet about sea level. A Buddhist monastery is located at the summit of Taung Kalat, a mere 777 stair steps from the plug base. It took us about 20 minutes to reach the top of Taung Kalat and enjoy the views and monastery structure.

Returning from our bus trip to Mt. Popa and Taung Kalat, we stopped at a lacquerware factory. We were able to watch the hand manufacturing of lacquerware products and were able to visit the factory showroom. We purchased a water jar but realized that it was too large to easily handle during the remainder of our trip. We ended up shipping the jar back home, with the cost of shipping about half the price of the water jar!

The Beginning of the Climb Passes Through A Vendor Area
, © 2016, R. Ono

Ananada Temple, Bagan

Ananada Temple was built in 1105AD by King Kyanzittha of the Pagan Dynasty. The temple holds four standing Buddha statues, facing north, south, east and west, representing the four Buddhas that attained nirvana. Each 31 foot tall statue is adorned with gold leaf. Only Kassapa and Kakusanda are original, the other two are replacements after fires destroyed the originals.

Ananada Temple is considered to be a masterpiece of Mon architecture as well as the largest, best preserved and most revered of the Bagan temples.

Courtesy of Burmatravel.info

World Travel with Bob

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Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Salay and, Bagan - 2016

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