PB #15 Pagodas, a Prison, and Pa'o National Day

In February and March 2007, I visited Burma. It was my first visit (with the exception of occasional , ½-day forays across the border) since 1998.















This is downtown Rangoon, with Sule Pagoda in the background. Shwedagon Pagoda (below) is the most famous pagoda in Rangoon, but I really love Sule because of the way it just juts up from a traffic circle, as if the rest of it is buried beneath the street. This is where I want to find the calm of Buddhism, amid the bustle.















Once banned, the photos of independence hero Aung San are popping up again in public. I spotted this one in a used book stall. Aung San, the father of democracy movement leader Aung San Suu Kyi, was assassinated in 1947 on the eve of Burma’s independence from Britain. Public display of Suu Kyi’s photos would surely draw the wrath of the authorities, but her image is still popular and common in private spaces. She has been under house arrest since May 2003.



















Shwedagon Pagoda: This is a view from the rooftop of my hotel at night.















After Rangoon, I went north to Mandalay. Unlike in the U.S., same-sex affection does not imply homosexuality.




















I spent most of my two days in Mandalay in bed with a cold, but I did venture out to visit some pagodas. At Mahamyatmuni Pagoda, I saw the side of Buddhism, and of all religion for that matter, that most frustrates me: a desperately poor woman prostrating herself before the gold-leaf-covered Buddha image then donating her money to the temple.















The view from Mandalay Hill, on the edge of the city in an otherwise flat landscape, is amazing. This shot shows Mandalay prison, built in 1993. Along with convicted criminals, it holds over 100 of the approximately 1,200 political prisoners in Burma.














Before heading back to bed for a 12-hour sleep, I visited the docks on the Irrawaddy River. The river itself is beautiful, and contrasts starkly with the poverty along its banks.














The Irrawaddy River at sunset.

Half-recovered from my cold, I went east from Mandalay to Taunggyi, the capital of Shan State. The Pa’o are a minority ethnic nationality in Shan State, and I timed my trip to be there for Pa’o National Day. The analogy is a bit of a stretch, but think of St. Patrick’s Day for the Irish.

The ruling military in Burma has signed a series of ceasefires with various armed opposition group. The Pa’o National Organization (PNO) signed a ceasefire agreement in 1991 and they now control much of the area around Taunggyi and to the south of the town. They have logging and jade and ruby mining concessions as well as a corner on the tourism market in the area. With an end to fighting, the site of a truck-full of soldiers does not raise alarm bells for others traveling on the road.














The celebrations for Pa’o National Day were held in various sites around Taunggyi. At Kakku, young boys are initiated into religious life, usually for a few days or weeks, as novice monks. During the initiation ceremony, they are treated as celestial princes by being paraded through the fairgrounds on ponies, then later given religious instruction by senior monks.














Pa’o and members of other ethnic groups, most of them poor farmers, traveled to the celebrations. National Day organizers arranged a “mess hall” where rice and curry was available for free to any of the visitors, many of whom could not afford to pay for a meal at one of the various food stalls.














Monks paraded into the temple area for some Buddhist ceremonies.














Kakku is a famous religious site, containing 500 stupas – mostly ruins, some of which have been restored.














After the Pa’o National Day celebrations, I went to Inle Lake for a day. It’s one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. The Intha people, who live around the lake, have a unique approach to fishing – standing on the bow of their boats and rowing with one leg wrapped around the oar in order to better spot the fish.












This Intha kid already has skills.











This is a fishing method not highlighted in my guidebook: SMACK ‘EM!




















And to end the blog, another sunset, this one at Inle Lake.