Bagan – An Introduction

Bagan is an archaeological site, a 42-square kilometer plain dotted with thousands of temples and pagodas built over 8 centuries ago by Bagan kings who ruled from here. Bagan’s golden days happen to coincide with the period where Myanmar transited from Hinduism and Mahayana Buddhism to Theravada Buddhism. The Bagan kings, who became believers of the latter faith, were instrumental in building the numerous temples and pagodas that symbolized the religion. Bagan then went on to become a major center for Theravada Buddhism.

As with many great kingdoms of the past, Bagan saw its decline, after having flourished for some 200 years. That was in the late 13th century. The temple sites have been left untouched for the next few centuries. What is amazing is that many of these temples still stand tall today, despite having gone through the wear of time and a severe earthquake in 1975 (reconstruction work took place after the earthquake). On the other hand, little or nothing is left of the royal palaces from that era. The explanation given is that religious buildings were made of permanent building materials while residences, including palaces were made of wood.

Some people like to compare Bagan to the Angkor Wat in Cambodia, but I do not wish to do that. These wonders have been created by different people, in different circumstances and they went through their own course in their own history. Comparing one against the other will not do either one justice. As a visitor, I visited them at two very different times, some 7 years apart. I was bringing a different set of sentiments (and I have no control over that) on my visits and they are simply two different experiences on their own.

More on Yangon

I did not spend a great deal of time exploring Yangon. Most of my time was spent visiting the payas, wandering in the streets and checking out the local markets. Here are a few shots I took on my very short visit.

Skyline of Yangon taken from the restaurant at the top of Sakura Tower in downtown. I sat down to get a drink so that they allowed me to take pictures from the restaurant. It was raining outside and this was a good place to take shelter anyway. You can see the Shwedagon Paya far back on the left (click on the photo to see it marked out on Flickr). The Aung San Stadium is seen on the right. I suppose that is the place where the national soccer team plays its home matches.

The Strand Hotel, which stands by the road along the Yangon River. This is a high-end hotel, already well-known back in the colonial days. Architecture like this reminds you that Myanmar was once a British colony.

Food! I love sampling street food. This is a road-side stall a block from my guesthouse, selling typical Myanmese lunch fare. Pick a dish you like that the stall owner will serve it to you in a bowl.

I ordered chicken curry and some vegetables. Meals like that usually come with the side dish, rice and soup. Delicious! The soup is usually a vegetable soup. The ones that I have had all had, as a key ingredient, the same vegetable, which I used to take ever so often when I was living in Singapore. The vegetable was called cai gan in Chinese and the difference with the soup in the Myanmese meal was that it was made to taste sour, probably with some lime, tamarind or lemongrass (think of tom yum soup minus the spiciness). Oh yes, and the dish of chilli was fantastic!

This was the lady looking after the stall with her husband.

This is called mo-hin-nga Ya Khaing Mote Ti or Arakan Mo Hin Gha, a common breakfast dish in Myanmar. It is basically rice noodle eaten like porridge. It is taken warm, has a soft texture, contained some oil and tastes salty. Quite a heavy one for breakfast, by my standards.

I have not been very diligent in making entries to my travel journal everyday. My next entry is dated 5 June. What happened between the previous entry and the next one was that I left Yangon the following afternoon (1 June, Friday) on an overnight bus to see Bagan. I stayed there from Saturday to Tuesday, when I would head back to Yangon again on an overnight journey.

What I will do in my next couple of posts on Myanmar is to describe, through photographs, some of the places I visited in Yangon, and then go on to Bagan with an account of my days spent over there.

Yangon

Myanmar is a Buddhist country and pagodas are a common sight everywhere. In Yangon, I did the “tourist” thing and visited the so-called “Big 3” pagodas – Shwedagon Paya, Sule Paya and Botataung Paya.

The pagodas attribute their history to a common legend – that of two merchant brothers meeting the Buddha after He attained enlightenment and being given eight strands of the Buddha’s hair by the Buddha himself. According to these legends, the pagodas would date back to over 2000 years ago and each is said to have one of the eight strands of hair enshrined in it, or, at least, have it enshrined at some point in time in the past.

Shwedagon Paya is the most important Buddhist monument in the country. It receives many visitors, majority of them locals who are there to make offerings and prayers.

There is a particular ritual performed at the Paya, around its main stupa, worth mentioning – in Myanmese believe, the day a person is born in the week associates the person to a planetary post. There are 8 of them in all and each is represented by a Buddha image, an animal and a guardian angel on the terrace around the stupa. Devotees would walk around the stupa in a clockwise manner to arrive at the spot of their planetary post. They would then use the little cups put beside the image to pour water on the Buddha image of their planetary post. As they do this, they would also say a prayer and make a wish.

The act of pouring water on the Buddha is a gesture of “bathing” the Buddha. I learned in school that it symbolizes washing Him of the impurities of the worldly life.

The Paya remains open at night. The umbrella-like structure that tops the main stupa is called a “hti”. It is made of precious matter such as gold, silver, diamonds and other precious stones and it is ultimately topped with a 76-carat diamond.

Knowledgeable locals and guides can point out to you specific spots on the terrace where you can see light scattered from the diamond into the colors of the rainbow as you move yourself slightly forward and back.