Glimpse of temple from another temple, there will be lots of temples to view…
The best temples are the ones you can climp up in….here is Steve enjoying the view from the upper level.
These are temples, and as such, each has between 1 and probably thousands of statues of the Buddha. A common array is to have 4 large buddha statues in the inner area, each facing a different direction and separate from the others. There are so many amazing statues, I have shared several with you, this one was interesting because someone was doing a candle lit ceremony just before we arrived. This Buddha was proabably 20-ft high.
Enjoyed this view of some monks perusing the upper level of a temple near the one that we were enjoying
New Bagan, where we stayed, was on the Irrawaddy….beautiful at sunset.
The two most prominent colors are Red (the color of the Buddha’s garments) and gold, the color of all things sacred, this was a beautiful red and gold temple.
Same temple, close up of the little stupas that run up the side of the entryway, it is the details that are hard to share in the pictures, but abounding everywhere.
I liked this Buddha because he looked so happy.
I like him because he was peaceful, and had black robes, which is a bit different….
This was our special little temple that we found out in the middle of everything with nobody around…it is the snake temple because of the next photo.
When we came down off of the temple walls, we found this guy and his gecko lunch waiting for us….later determined that this is a fairly harmless tree snake.
Most, if not all of these temples had elaborate frescos lining all of the walls, but especially ornate behind the Buddhas, this one is a little better preserved, or more recent, than some of the others.
Not the actual name, but a beautiful favorite and you can see why we called it this.
Why do you like this one?
Another beautiful temple.
It is hard to show in pictures what the landscape is like, but it is basically 5 square miles of temple upon temple.
Again, temples as far as the can see…
Three Buddhas together
All of the larger temples have oodles of folks selling their trinkets outside, I bought a hat from this cheerful woman.
This was supposedly the only Buddha within a Buddha in all of Bagan.
Beautiful decorative umbrellas sold everywhere…..
We went back to our favorite temple to watch the sun set over Bagan.
The end of a lovely visit to an amazing place.
Bagan, Myanmar – Feb 6-9, 2016
Here we are in lovely Bagan. The thing to do here, really the ONLY thing we really did, was wander around in the 26 square mile forest of Temples and stupas. They have been building temples here since the 11th century, and sometimes at the astounding rate of a new temple being started every two weeks. It is impossible to describe in words what this landscape is like. It is difficult to get a sense of it on the ground, but fairly soon after you start exploring, you are bound to find one of the many, many temples that has access to the rooftop, and when you climb up a couple of stories, the view is astounding. Sometimes, we just sit on the shady side of the dome and stare out for 10 or 15 minutes, taking it all in.
The town of New Bagan, where we stayed, didn’t have a lot going on. It is basically a feeder town for stupa land, but no matter, no one can leave Bagan without feeling a sense of having experienced something singular and wonderful.
We spent the first afternoon walking to some of the bigger sites in Old Bagan, rented bicycles the next day and cycled around a completely different area, and decided to opt for the very popular electric mopad the third day. We are taking a break at the moment but planning to head back to one of our favorite out-of-the way temples to watch the sunset.
We did manage to find a lovely restaurant on the Irrawady river to watch the sunset at last night, but we are looking forward to beautiful views from the “snake temple,” as we named it, since we saw a rather frightening looking snake devouring a gecko there yesterday. Don’t worry, we have our flashligh aps to make sure we don’t step on any when ascending the narrow, dark stairs!!
Kathleen
