Bagan is not what you might call a tropical paradise. Its located on the Ayawaddy, although that could be a lie, I haven't actually seen the river here yet. Bagan is on Myanmar's central plain. Its flat, its hot, its dry and its very dusty. The closest thing to tropical is the numerous palm trees, not sensuous and evocative coconut palms, but nasty looking cabbage palms. You know, these ones with the big spiky leaves.
The plain is covered in scrubby, dry and thorny acacia trees. In summer the temperature hovers around 45 deg C, and it ain't exactly cold here right now. In short, it sucks. So what the hell am I doing here? Because on this vast plain are constructed about 4,000 temples and stupas. That's right, 4,000! Apparently about 1,000 have been lost to the ravages of time, but that still leaves ...well, you do the maths. Most were built in the 12th century, which makes most of them around 900 years old. That's roughly 7-800 years before Europeans discovered Australia. Why are they here? Something to do with a power struggle between various rulers, so in other words, big egos. Some things never change.
Today I had a full day tour of....guess what? Hey, I like to make the blog interactive, so get involved! My new guide is a middle aged ball breaker named Moo Moo. She has a bit of a take it or leave it attitude. My driver is a nice young guy called Ong. Colorful names here in Myanmar. So far, I have noticed my drivers all chew betel nut to keep their mind on the job. Betel is a mild stimulant that has the side effect of producing a diabolical red juice which stains the mouth, lips and teeth of the chewer. And every so often the chewer is required to expectorate (that's spit, folks), and it comes out in a long jet of red liquid, which splatters on the ground, and the stain appears to be permanent. Chris and I learned not to follow too closely behind public buses in India for this very reason.
Anyway, with so many temples to choose from, I let Moo Moo set the agenda. So of course we started by seeing all the big ones. The ones with all the tour buses full of mostly French people parked out side. I did enjoy getting into my private car, with Ong holding the door open for me, in front of all the Frogs. Giving them the metaphorical finger. After about three temples, I had the general idea. They are usually set on a plinth, and built from clay brick, and rendered with cement mortar, and follow a similar design, of four entrances facing the cardinal points, usually with a statue of the Buddah standing, seated or giving the Frogs the finger. Sometimes there is an inner and an outer walkway. Many of the surfaces are painted with pictures and inscriptions, although this is mostly faded or otherwise damaged. There were two particularly severe earthquakes recently, and a lot of structural damage has resulted in much of the sites being declared unsafe, and undergoing repair. But there is also a lot of deterioration from the weather and just a lack of attention. Photo time.
But wait, there's more! This one was the cleanest, courtesy of a major overhaul recently paid for by the Indian Government. Well, that's where the Buddah was born and started preaching. A person of great influence, as it turned out.
And so it went on. And on. And on. I got to the point where I was taking photos just to keep Moo Moo happy, in case she didn't think I was appreciating her work, in particular her oral history of every nut and bolt. and legend. So I guess I ticked all the main boxes. All except one. The other big industry here is balooning. Well, apart from the rather aggressive souvenir vendors. For you, special price, very cheap, I make myself. Yeah, sure, maybe later! For a lazy $400US, you can take an early morning ride in a hot air balloon, and float majestically over the plains, all the while taking photos of....you know what. Well, sorry, not this little black duck. At that price they can stick it. But I imagine for many people it would be an opportunity for the shot of a lifetime, or at least for an unforgettable memory, and that's fine. But not to put too fine a point on it though, in the last ten years I've had so many unforgettable moments, I've forgotten heaps of them already.
Being the contrarian that I am, what I really found fascinating, and I haven't yet had the opportunity to follow up, was the hundreds of small pagodas and stupas scattered randomly over the plains. You know, the ones nobody was stopped at, and probably never would. The overgrown ones in the middle of the fields. The damaged ones. What was their story? For surely each and every one of these was built for a reason. Who built them and why? Were they just built by ordinary people, for the average Joe? Who will ever know? And would they not gain the same eternal merit for the builder and the user? I will savour contemplating these questions for some time to come. Over an icy cold Andaman Gold, thus far my beverage of choice in this land of temples and contradictions.
OK, here's a photo that I couldn't help but take.
If you're going to build a stupa, you have to start small, at least till you get the hang of it. Here's a couple of budding engineers of the future being inspired.
And a couple of ankle biters learning how to sell crap to the tourists under the watchful eye of their mum. They'll be experts by the time they turn 12.
And finally, the grand panorama taken from a purpose built mound just for the tourists to watch the sunset and get that unforgettable photo.
Which in my case, turned out to be fairly forgettable, I'm afraid to say. Maybe I should have gotten the balloon ride. Or a decent camera.
The plain is covered in scrubby, dry and thorny acacia trees. In summer the temperature hovers around 45 deg C, and it ain't exactly cold here right now. In short, it sucks. So what the hell am I doing here? Because on this vast plain are constructed about 4,000 temples and stupas. That's right, 4,000! Apparently about 1,000 have been lost to the ravages of time, but that still leaves ...well, you do the maths. Most were built in the 12th century, which makes most of them around 900 years old. That's roughly 7-800 years before Europeans discovered Australia. Why are they here? Something to do with a power struggle between various rulers, so in other words, big egos. Some things never change.
Today I had a full day tour of....guess what? Hey, I like to make the blog interactive, so get involved! My new guide is a middle aged ball breaker named Moo Moo. She has a bit of a take it or leave it attitude. My driver is a nice young guy called Ong. Colorful names here in Myanmar. So far, I have noticed my drivers all chew betel nut to keep their mind on the job. Betel is a mild stimulant that has the side effect of producing a diabolical red juice which stains the mouth, lips and teeth of the chewer. And every so often the chewer is required to expectorate (that's spit, folks), and it comes out in a long jet of red liquid, which splatters on the ground, and the stain appears to be permanent. Chris and I learned not to follow too closely behind public buses in India for this very reason.
Anyway, with so many temples to choose from, I let Moo Moo set the agenda. So of course we started by seeing all the big ones. The ones with all the tour buses full of mostly French people parked out side. I did enjoy getting into my private car, with Ong holding the door open for me, in front of all the Frogs. Giving them the metaphorical finger. After about three temples, I had the general idea. They are usually set on a plinth, and built from clay brick, and rendered with cement mortar, and follow a similar design, of four entrances facing the cardinal points, usually with a statue of the Buddah standing, seated or giving the Frogs the finger. Sometimes there is an inner and an outer walkway. Many of the surfaces are painted with pictures and inscriptions, although this is mostly faded or otherwise damaged. There were two particularly severe earthquakes recently, and a lot of structural damage has resulted in much of the sites being declared unsafe, and undergoing repair. But there is also a lot of deterioration from the weather and just a lack of attention. Photo time.
But wait, there's more! This one was the cleanest, courtesy of a major overhaul recently paid for by the Indian Government. Well, that's where the Buddah was born and started preaching. A person of great influence, as it turned out.
And so it went on. And on. And on. I got to the point where I was taking photos just to keep Moo Moo happy, in case she didn't think I was appreciating her work, in particular her oral history of every nut and bolt. and legend. So I guess I ticked all the main boxes. All except one. The other big industry here is balooning. Well, apart from the rather aggressive souvenir vendors. For you, special price, very cheap, I make myself. Yeah, sure, maybe later! For a lazy $400US, you can take an early morning ride in a hot air balloon, and float majestically over the plains, all the while taking photos of....you know what. Well, sorry, not this little black duck. At that price they can stick it. But I imagine for many people it would be an opportunity for the shot of a lifetime, or at least for an unforgettable memory, and that's fine. But not to put too fine a point on it though, in the last ten years I've had so many unforgettable moments, I've forgotten heaps of them already.
Being the contrarian that I am, what I really found fascinating, and I haven't yet had the opportunity to follow up, was the hundreds of small pagodas and stupas scattered randomly over the plains. You know, the ones nobody was stopped at, and probably never would. The overgrown ones in the middle of the fields. The damaged ones. What was their story? For surely each and every one of these was built for a reason. Who built them and why? Were they just built by ordinary people, for the average Joe? Who will ever know? And would they not gain the same eternal merit for the builder and the user? I will savour contemplating these questions for some time to come. Over an icy cold Andaman Gold, thus far my beverage of choice in this land of temples and contradictions.
OK, here's a photo that I couldn't help but take.
If you're going to build a stupa, you have to start small, at least till you get the hang of it. Here's a couple of budding engineers of the future being inspired.
And a couple of ankle biters learning how to sell crap to the tourists under the watchful eye of their mum. They'll be experts by the time they turn 12.
And finally, the grand panorama taken from a purpose built mound just for the tourists to watch the sunset and get that unforgettable photo.
Which in my case, turned out to be fairly forgettable, I'm afraid to say. Maybe I should have gotten the balloon ride. Or a decent camera.
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