Category Archives: Photographs

Mandalay – On the trail of King Mindon Min

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King Mindon Min (1808 – 1878), the penultimate ruler of an independent Myanmar kingdom, was a popular ruler who, together with his capable younger brother, managed to successfully defend his territory against British encroachment. They also modernized much of the kingdom and were feared–or at least respected–by the British, who did their best to be rid of both of them.

But King Mindon’s heart was with the Buddha.

Instead of living in the royal palace with his many wives and children, King Mindon lived in a monastery he constructed nearby. It was built entirely of teak, beautifully carved inside and out, and covered in gold leaf. Although much of the exterior carvings have weathered, the beauty of the structure is still evident today.

Have I said that the wood-carving is exquisite? Take a look at a few close-ups.

    

Inside, the ornate carving is better preserved, and the gold leaf that gave the monastery its name (Shwenadaw = Golden Palace) is still evident. Slender teak columns support a stunningly high ceiling.

  

 

King Mindon is also famous for convening a council of Buddhist leaders from all over the world to review and agree upon the Buddhist canon of laws (the Tripitaka). To commemorate this accomplishment, the King built a temple–the Kuthodaw Pagoda–where each of the 729 pages of the final version of the book is inscribed in marble and enshrined separately, each in its own small stupa surrounding a central pagoda. (I don’t think the electric halo was an original from King Mindon’s time.)

 

Alas, the ending of this story is a sad one. Although King Mindon survived a coup attempt by the British, his younger brother and heir Kanaung did not. Two of his own sons conspired against him in this attempt, resenting that Kanaung had been named heir and not them. And so the King was reluctant to name another heir after Kanaung’s death.

When he was old, his principal wife had designs on the throne for herself and her daughter, but alas, a woman could not inherit. And so she (the Queen) married her daughter to one of the King’s sons by another wife and systematically set about to murder all of his other sons who might be possible heirs. King Mindon survived all of his sons but the one.

And so the son/son-in-law did inherit the throne, becoming the last king of independent Burma, King Thibaw Min. He was a weak king, much dominated by his wife and mother-in-law. It wasn’t long before the British defeated him (in the third Anglo-Burmese war, 1885), ending Burma’s independence.

Mandalay – Maha Muni Paya

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Maha Muni Paya (Great Sage Temple) is a particularly holy site among Myanmar Buddhists and others. It contains an ancient Buddha statue (the Maha Muni Buddha), which was transported to Mandalay from Mrauk U in the kingdom of Rakhine (which borders modern Bangladesh), when that kingdom was defeated by the Burmese in 1784. But the statue is much, much older. Some believe that the statue was cast in 554BC, one of only five statues of the Buddha made during his lifetime; that it was breathed upon by him; and that it therefore became an exact likeness.

But the statue has been much altered . More about this later.

The temple itself, reconstructed in the late 1800s after the original temple burned, is ornate and filled with worshippers. Women are not allowed to approach the Buddha beyond a certain point. (This does not sit well with me, but there you have it.)

 

 

Now, here’s the weird part. Men, who are allowed to touch the Buddha image, constantly apply gold leaf to it. This is considered an act of virtue. (They also brush the Buddha’s teeth in the morning, an interesting deed considering that Buddha’s mouth is closed.)

  

 

A pictorial chronography shows the changes to the Buddha over the years as men have continued to apply gold leaf to him.

Let’s look at these changes in a little more detail.

1901

1935

1984

2010

 

Mandalay – Making Buddhas of Bronze and Marble

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It’s time to talk about how they make the bronze and marble Buddhas that we find in all those temples and holy places and who knows where-all else. Because make them, the people of Myanmar certainly do. And in abundance.

Bronze Buddhas are still made (as they have been made here for millennia) using the lost-wax method. In this method, the finished statue is first carved in wax on top of a clay base mold. A second clay frame is then molded around the wax statue. Molten bronze is poured in between the two molds, melting the wax (which is therefore indeed lost) and filling the space that the wax had occupied. When the mold is cooled and broken open, the bronze statue inside is a perfect replica of the original wax statue. And every wax statue is indeed a unique original; each is hand-carved and then destroyed in the bronze casting process.

The workshop yard, filled with works in process

 

A finished wax image; behind to the left, a clay base on which a wax image will be carved

Behind the wax statue (upper right) is a finished mold ready for bronze pouring

And voila! A finished bronze statue!

You too can buy a bronze statue, either custom ordered or a standard design.

Pre-ordered and prepaid statues ready to ship to their purchasers

Statues offered for sale

 

Marble Buddhas are made in storefront workshops along a two- or three-block stretch of road in the outskirts of Mandalay. We chanced upon this area while driving…somewhere else…and our guide Zaw, knowing we like this sort of thing, stopped so that we could walk up and down the street and take pictures.

There was a kind of surreal weirdness seeing all these pristine white Buddhas and all manner of other beings just sitting or lying about, many without faces and yet facing in every direction. It’s the faceless ones that particularly enhance the surreal quality of the scene.

     

We particularly enjoyed watching the stone carvers at their work.

 

  

Mandalay – Lunch at the Mahagandhayan Monastery

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Lunch at the Mahagandhayan Monastery has definitely made it onto the tourist circuit. It’s tons of fun, but still, don’t you think it’s kind of odd that tourists gather every day to watch the monks eat lunch? I read that the monks do. I’m glad they find us amusing.

I think that part of the appeal for us tourists is just to watch the monks at all. There are so very many monks in Myanmar. They’re all around on the streets doing…er, whatever monks do when they’re out and about. And they’re very noticeable, with their bright garments and shaved heads. And so we learn that religious Burmese people, meaning… everyone… enters the monastery at least three times in their lives: once as a young child for a week or two; again as a young man setting out in life for a couple of weeks or a month, and a third time sometime in maturity, perhaps to stay. And women too may become nuns, though there are far fewer of them. And we tourists have little innate sense of what that life experience may be like. And so we gather to watch and learn.

Mahagandhayan Monastery is the first living monastery (that is, not in ruins) that we have seen. Since it is a popular destination, signs let us know what the monastic life is all about.

As we enter the monastery, the monks are starting to gather, and the crowd soon grows. Those wearing white are the very youngest monks, perhaps six years old. Many monks bring their towels along, and I am irreverently reminded of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

   

As if by magic, two neat lines form, and the monks enter the dining hall courtyard. Today we have benefactors, who have donated a sweet dessert.

    

The dining hall itself is large, and it appears that the monks sit, as they have entered, by rank and age. This is the last meal they will eat this day (and it’s still morning!) but they may save leftovers for later if they’re hungry.

 

 

Not everyone is as impressed with this lunchtime display as we tourists are.

 

Mandalay – the silk weaving factory

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Mandalay has been famous as a center of silk production for centuries, long clothing the kings of the various kingdoms of Myanmar. The complex tapestries they still weave there are awesome. And they still do it in the old way.

   

 

Here is the pattern one of them is following.

This lovely young woman is a master craftsman. The better they are, the more spindles of color they can take on in their pattern. Take a look at the fabric she’s weaving.

 

 

The patterns being woven are so intricate that even the job of connecting the heddles (the wires that pull up the warp threads each time a shuttle of silk is passed through to form the weft) to the shafts is a complicated affair. Here, a man is “programming” the heddles and shafts of a loom.  Below, a good view of the loom itself and of the machine that winds the shuttles used for the weaving.

  

 

 

 

Mandalay – the U Bein pedestrian bridge

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Spanning a length of 1.2 kilometers (almost a mile) across the shallow Taungthaman Lake, the U Bein bridge has the distinction of being the world’s longest bridge built entirely of teak. It was built in the mid-nineteenth century, and most of its roughly one thousand teak posts are the original ones, all that is left of the wood from a former royal palace nearby. The bridge is surprisingly heavily used, and not just by tourists.

  

 

It’s a good thing they were thoughtful enough to provide those benches. They’re a good place for a person to rest while waiting for their lagging, picture-taking wife.

The surrounding lake is also interesting, providing places for worship, fishing, and, er, other lakeside activities.

  

 

 

 

Mandalay – Motorbike City

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Welcome to Mandalay, the motorbike city! They’re everywhere! Thousands of them! And the lanes drawn on the road (even the direction the traffic is supposed to go) mean *nothing* to them! And the speed limits… Oh. What speed limits?

I have never been anywhere where I have been more terrified to cross the street than in Mandalay.

It turns out that with sufficient ingenuity you can carry almost anything on a motorbike. (Later, in Phnom Penh, it wasn’t uncommon to see four, five, or even (rarely) six people astride a single motorbike.)

 

 

And here’s another good thing about motorbikes: They’re really easy to park in a small space.

 

 

Bicycles, it turns out, are easy to park, too.

 

 

Why the parking areas seem to be segregated by bike type, I can’t say. But they are.

Atop Mandalay Hill, where the tourists go for the view in all directions, and the natives go to practice English by speaking with the tourists, I met a young man who was studying engineering at the university. From the hilltop, he showed me the building that housed his university. It seemed pretty far away, and so I asked whether, after the demonstrations a few years ago the government had moved this university out of the downtown part of the city, as they had in Yangon. He said that yes, they had. And he now had to commute fifty minutes each way entirely across Mandalay on his motorbike every day to get between his home and the university, compared to fifteen minutes before. Just keeping the city safe from troublesome students while adding to the traffic problem, the need for gasoline (which is in short supply, and expensive), and global pollution.

 

 

Bagan – Sunset from Shwesandaw Stupa

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At last, dear friends, after a week of posts about Bagan, we arrive at the evening of the journey’s second day here. I have completely omitted the eight (8) stupas and temples that we either visited or stopped to contemplate during the day, along with their corresponding Buddhas of white and gold. It feels like time to move on. Besides, we can see many of these religious structures from the top of Shwesandaw Stupa. Let’s go look.

     

 

There actually was a bit of a sunset…

Finally, as we leave Bagan for Mandalay, I give you two complete panoramic views, each comprising about half of the view from the top of the stupa. If you right-click on each image and download it, you should be able to see the panorama in a larger size.

Tomorrow–it’s on to Mandalay!

 

Bagan – Min Nan Thu Village

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The people of Min Nan Thu village work hard to support themselves, including allowing the occasional tourist like us to visit, with one young woman serving as our guide.

The buildings are modest in the traditional way of the Myanmar countryside.

 

 

But the people are open and friendly. (For the thousandth time, I wish I could speak Burmese.)

This old woman rolls a kind of cigar to sell in the market. Here, she pauses in her work to enjoy one of her products and to entertain us. She is holding the tin can under her lighted cigar so that she doesn’t inadvertently burn down her house with a stray spark. A relative (or neighbor) comes to visit and perhaps also show us a courteous welcome.

Here is what the cigar-lady’s house looks like on the inside.

 

 

The family sleeps upstairs. There is a television, but no electricity. They watch TV maybe two hours a week, running it on a battery.

The girl below is making woven bamboo picture frames, which she will sell to tourists.

This is the inside of her house:

Below are some views of the village’s general store, which is also the shopkeeper’s house. It is the most substantial house by far of any we saw in the village.

 

 

The next three pictures show the work area of the village blacksmith and wheelwright. He was not actually working there. Then again, it was daylight and growing season on the farm. We saw no men in the village. Perhaps, except for emergencies, tasks like blacksmithing wait for a less intense time out in the fields.

  

These children came to see the tourists.

 

The baby made me feel sad: In the USA there would have been the means to operate on his cleft lip. Here, probably not. But the baby was clearly loved by village women and children alike. In the USA, would all the neighbors have been so caring?

Here is an outdoor living area of a house. The platform is the type that is used indoors and out for sitting, entertaining, working, and sleeping.

More work areas: a heavy-duty foot-operated mortar and pestle and a grain mill. Spinning thread (working on a platform outdoors, like the one in the earlier photograph). A cattle shed.

   

Everything in Bagan is near a stupa. Min Nan Thu village is no exception.

 

Bagan – the lacquerware factory

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We visited a factory that made very fine lacquerware. Each piece required seventeen steps taking a period of months (so that each layer of lacquer could completely dry before adding the next layer). The base plate, bowl, vase, tray, or mug is made of bamboo and very lightweight. Layer after layer of lacquer is applied before even the first step of the design is begun. It is in the number and depth of these layers that the finely made pieces can be differentiated from the cheap souvenirs (which are still lovely but are not strong and may easily chip).

At the entrance of the factory, three young women hand-etched designs of exquisite detail into lacquerware pieces. Each color of the design is etched and lacquered as a separate layer.

 

Here is a close-up of the piece this woman is working on, showing the exquisite level of detail of her etching. She needs good eyesight for this!

To the right of these young women sit three men who are the “big picture” artists. These men lay out the overall configuration of the design on each piece of lacquerware. The women then fill in the ornate details. The “big picture” men are specialists. One lays out abstract patterns (such as the vase pictured above); the second does animals; and the third lays out historical scenes.

   

 

In the background, another man is perhaps putting an early layer of lacquer onto a giant vase.

Nearby, three men process each piece that the young women have etched. Here, one man applies a layer of paint (in this case, green), while a second man wipes it off. The paint comes off everywhere except in the newly etched lines, where it belongs. The third man polishes each layer of lacquer using petrified wood.

 

Finally, all the layers of lacquer have been applied. Many pieces are inlaid now with mother-of-pearl. And young women smooth and polish the face of the piece one last time before it is ready for sale.