Monte Clinton's Travel Journals

Burma: page 8

Buddha stands silently, accepting offerings and giving hope for a better next life.

The architectural quality of the buildings is truly remarkable.

One of the must see events in Bagan is to view the temples as the sun sets. This was about the only time when crowds gathered to climb the steep stairs to the best viewing spots.

Sunset over the temples at Bagan.

This photo is of a Buddha statue covered in gold leaf -- so much gold leaf that all the features are hidden except for the face.  To honor Buddha and hopefully earn extra rewards for the next life, many devout Buddhists buy gold leaf to place on the Buddha. Only men are permitted to place the gold leaf - women are praying about 20ft away from the statue as shown below.  This Buddha is reputed to have over two tons of gold covering it.  This is just one of thousands of gold covered Buddha statues in Burma.

A side trip during the Bagan portion of our trip was a trip to Mt. Popa – a tourist hot spot and didn’t impress either of us.  The mountain is inhabited by hundreds of monkeys – each scratching and itching whatever bugs were crawling on them.  Some of the monkeys were pretty aggressive – budding pickpockets on the lookout for any bits of food or whatever caught their eye.

Following our tour of Bagan, we were on our way to Mandalay.  Our first stop in Mandalay was to a “library” where 728 temples were lined up – each holding a marble tablet or page with writings of Buddha.

One highlight of the Mandalay visit was a trip to a Buddhist monastery.  The monastery visit took place at lunch time – when over a thousand monks are fed in about 30 minutes.  The lunch is hosted each day by a family who pays for the lunch and serves the monks – this is believe to be a very auspicious action that is sure to be viewed as a plus in the next life.

Monks eat once each day around noon – they all eat together, they all eat the same thing and the same amount. Eating is done is silence.