Category Archives: Travel

Inle Lake – Cheroot making

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Cheroots are as typical of Myanmar as the longhyi skirt-like garments worn by men and women alike. They look like cigars. Those rolled by folk in the countryside for their own consumption are thick and fat; those rolled in factories for sale are thinner, more uniform, and more elegant.

In the place we visited, the filling of the cheroot had already been prepared. It is comprised of a mixture of tobacco and some other woody substance, perhaps along with other herbs and spices for flavoring. Each factory has its own mix of these ingredients. The Burmese people believe that cheroots are less harmful than cigars because their tobacco content is lower.

As in this factory, the tobacco mixture is then rolled in outer leaves of–not tobacco, and not paper, but–Tha-nut hpet leaves (Cordia dichotoma).

The women in this factory work quickly: rolling, tightening, and cutting the cheroots, each one handmade, perfectly but quickly. It’s a repetitive job, possibly paid as piece-work. I wonder if the occasional tourist-visitor is a welcome diversion.

  

 

 

Inle Lake – The Blacksmith

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Since I’ve gotten on the subject of traditional handicrafts on Inle Lake, I might as well cover a few more. Today: blacksmithing.

I will admit that the entrance to the shop did not bode well.

Then again, maybe it was just an indication that everyone is so busy here that no one has time just to sit around.

In any event, the shop offered for sale knives of all sizes as well as, even, swords. Now, I am a great lover of knives and swords. I am tempted by these wares. The blades are as sharp as the chiles here are hot. Which is to say, very. And the prices are reasonable. I do like a good sharp blade. But the hilts are simple, even crude. And I will have to check a suitcase for the rest of my trip if I buy one of these. I resist.

Then the men set to work. The main blacksmith draws the red-hot blade out of the fire. Yes, it’s ready to be worked. First one, and then two, and finally all three apprentices pound rhythmically on the steel blade as it cools, working against time.

   

The blade cools from almost white-hot to bright red, and finally to a dull mahogany. The work slows. A last blow is struck, and the blacksmith examines the blade. It’s not thin enough yet. He will put it back into the flame, and the process will begin again.

 

 

Inle Lake – Silk and Lotus Weaving

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Inle Lake has become famous for its silk weaving industry. They also weave cotton and an amazingly fine thread extracted from the stalks of lotus blossoms. We visited the Ko Than Hlaing factory and show room.

Silk shuttles glow against an open window.

We look out the window at the building across the street–well, okay, across the narrow canal; it turns out to be another factory, where people are also weaving silk.

 

In this factory, we watch as woman dyes the skeins of silk, her arms permanently stained from her work. A new batch of dye bubbles in a pot nearby. Traditionally, the dyes were all made from natural, local ingredients, but these result in a color that is muted and subtle. We tourists, it turns out, tend to like bright colors; and the factory owner is eager to please. And so now, some of the dyes are not all natural.

 

 

In the factory, women operate the looms.

  

 

This last young woman is weaving silk that has been tie-dyed to produce the traditional pattern that Inle Lake is known for. Here is a diagram of, well, I think it’s a diagram of how to tie the threads so that they will weave up into the right pattern. But I’m not sure.

This man is extracting thread from a lotus stem. The thread is fine, and one stem doesn’t yield very much. Shawls and garments made of lotus are breathtakingly expensive. And they feel wonderful. I regret not buying one.

Sitting on the floor, older men and women thread the dyed silk onto shuttles for weaving.

  

 

 

Inle Lake – traveling to Inpawkhon village

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Our boat met us at the landing of the temple and we headed out across the lake to see a silk-weaving factory in Inpawkhon village.

For an essentially agrarian area, the lake is surprisingly populated, with villages large and small all around. We found ourselves fascinated with the buildings, their groupings into communities, and the activities bustling all around us.

       

 

If anyone has noticed the apparent differences in the weather, practically from one picture to the next— That’s not our different cameras. That’s really how the weather was that day, ranging from clear skies to thunderstorms, from calm to wind, sometimes depending on which direction we faced, and sometimes just because the weather did change dramatically and quickly and constantly.

At last we arrived at Inpawkhon, where we visited the Ko Than Hlaing silk and lotus weaving factory.

But… more on this tomorrow!

 

 

Inle Lake – near Phaung Daw Oo Pagoda

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From the deck of the restaurant where we ate lunch, we could see the splendid temple we would tour shortly.

This pagoda houses five ancient and sacred Buddha images, which are believed to have been brought to Myanmar from the Malay peninsula sometime in the twelfth century. The images are small–only nine to eighteen inches high–and so much gold leaf has been applied to them in this century alone that you can no longer even guess they were once Buddhas. I don’t have a photo, but there is a good image here.

As you might guess, these small statues are uncommonly heavy.

Therefore, it may come as no surprise that when an unexpected storm came up while the Buddhas were being transported on their annual round of the Inle Lake villages and the ceremonial boat capsized, they sank to the bottom of the lake.

The lake is not deep, and four of the five statues were recovered. But search as they may, no one could find the fifth–and largest statue. You can imagine everyone’s surprise when they returned to the temple with the other four statues, and the fifth one was waiting for them there.

Clearly, this one statue didn’t want to travel any more. And so for the last fifty years, only four of the statues make the annual round of the villages.

*  *  *

After lunch, we took the back way and walked to the pagoda. Dan and I being the kind of tourists that we are, we found the backyards as interesting as the waterfront.

 

 

A canal separated us from the temple. From its bank we watched some young women doing, um, something, involving tin cans and water. Then we crossed the narrow pedestrian bridge.

 

At the temple, groups of people talked or prayed, but we didn’t see anyone applying gold leaf right then.

Inle Lake – What they carried

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In retrospect, one of the really wonderful things about Inle Lake was the absence of traffic. Hey, nothing like the absence of roads to cut down on the number of cars, motorbikes, and trucks. But that’s not to say that there wasn’t traffic of sorts; it’s just that all the vehicles were boats–mostly the same kind of long, narrow, graceful boat that we rode in all that day.

And what they carried in those boats!

Goods coming back from the market. Or perhaps going to it.

    

 

Household items.

Entire large families. Or maybe the village carpool returning from school.

 

Inle Lake – Fishermen

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He is as graceful as a performer in Cirque du Soleil. He balances on one leg on the very stern of his boat and steers the boat with his other leg wrapped around his single oar. With his hands he casts and hauls his fishing net.

But he’s not performing for an audience, and there are hundreds like him out on the lake. He’s feeding his family and perhaps also harvesting enough fish to take to market in the same traditional way his father did, and his grandfather, and on back.

The fact that he is enchanting a couple of passing visitors on the lake is of no concern to him. Or to any of the other fishermen.

   

 

Sometimes, though, the fishermen do flaunt their skill. Sometimes they have races, village against village, on the lake. The fishermen use special racing boats, twenty men on port and twenty on starboard, a team of forty-plus from each village. (As you can imagine, left-handed–or left-legged–fishermen are relatively rare and therefore much in demand.) We saw one of the boats (sorry, no picture) and wish we could have watched a race, but it was the wrong time of year. But here’s a link to a video of a race; it had me laughing with delight.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Inle Lake – Nyaung Shwe, the Gateway to Inle Lake

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Even after the flight from Mandalay and a stop at the monastery, it was still only mid-morning when we arrived at Nyaung Shwe, the Gateway to Inle Lake. Last stop by land!

It has the feel of a frontier sort of town, though no doubt it is not. Something in the size and scale, the non-busy street. The Five-Day Market (more about this later!) was in Nyaung Shwe this morning, but it’s wrapping up when we get there. People have bought whatever they were going to buy and are heading home to cook or to restock small stores in more remote areas.

Some head home by land.

Others, by water.

This boat is full! Look how low she sits in the water. But still, the men keep packing their merchandise in.

 

 

At last our boat arrived. Car and driver dismissed, this boat was our transportation while we were here. Pretty, isn’t she?

We climbed aboard, and off we went! There’s no speed limit here.  🙂  The outskirts of Nyaung Shwe raced by.

 

You may be wondering why the water is so brown, and is the whole lake like this? The answer is silt, I think. And no. Nyaung Shwe sits on a narrow canal that flows into the lake. When we reach the lake the water is much clearer.

The pace of life changes when we’re out on the water. We relax. We’re happy to be here.

 

Inle Lake – Shwe Yan Pyay Monastery

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The nearest airport to Inle Lake is at Heho, about an hour’s drive distant. And in between Heho Airport and the lake lies this charming teak monastery, over 150 years old.

It’s not covered by ornate carvings like the royal monasteries and pagodas we saw in Mandalay. This is a regional monastery, and one dedicated to housing poor boys from the countryside, boys who might consider the monastery as a way of life. For them, it provides an education and a predictable meal–more than they might get at home otherwise.

We arrived during wash time. Monks were washing themselves and their clothing together.

 

 

The monks live in a dormitory, where each has his own space: a sleeping mat and a place to store his possessions, including a trunk. With a lock. Not that the monks aren’t honest. Of course they are, but a lock, perhaps, helps them stay that way. Or maybe it’s us tourists that they’re worried about.

The dormitory occupies half of the monastery building. The other half is a temple with an ornately carved ceiling, containing some of the sweeter Buddhas we’ve seen on this trip.

   

 

Nearby–perhaps part of the same monastery complex–is another pagoda with an abundance of Buddhas and beautiful glass mosaics.

The main Buddhas seem about to go out for a stroll.

All around the central sanctuary is a walkway with niches. In every niche is a Buddha (and a sign indicating the Buddha’s donor). There is much merit here.

 

 

The arched ceiling of this walkway is covered with mosaic murals of Buddhist themes. The one I like best shows how the righteous (men) get to pluck the fruit of the tree of virgins. Er… I am not making this up.

I do have to point out the sleeping righteous (men) at the right and below the tree, so perhaps this image depicts only the kind of pleasant dreams such people may have. Or perhaps the image refers to some canonical tale. I wouldn’t be surprised if the guy on the right is a person with a name that any good Myanmar Buddhist would know.

 

Inle Lake

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I’ve been in fear of this moment, and perhaps that’s why I’m a little late with this post.

The fact is that Inle Lake was so enchanting that Dan and I, wanting to capture everything, took maybe a thousand photographs in one day. And now I have to sort through this incredible flood of images–and memories–and figure out how to organize it in portions small enough for you to swallow in one session.

It’s a daunting task.

But to give you just the smallest glimpse of what’s coming, here are a few images of, well, nothing in particular. Just landscape. Just glorious, beautiful, exotic, enchanting landscape.

    

 

This last image, by the way, is the driveway to our hotel. There is no land access.

I hope I’ve whetted your appetite with this little sampler. There is so much more to see.