Yangon to Mandalay

May 3, 2012
Happy birthday to my sister, Susie, back in the US!

I had an early morning flight today to Mandalay, a city of 2 million people. Upon arrival, my local guide, Aung, met me, and we headed to Amarapura and the U Bein Bridge. This bridge was constructed in the mid 19th century completely out of teak wood salvaged from the palace that was at that time moved from Ava to Amarapura The bridge was named after the mayor, its builder. My guide told me the direct meaning of U Bein, in English, is Mr. Skinny Man. They were filming on the bridge…a movie…a commercial…not sure what (where the umbrellas are in this photo).


The bridge is a total,of 1.3km, allowing the village people to get across during rainy season, when the water comes up about 2/3 of the height of the bridge.


Then we headed to the Mahagandayon Monastery where more than 1,000 monks live and study Buddhism. 65% of Myanmar’s one million monks live in or around Mandalay. This young monk was waiting patiently for lunch, which is served here at 10:15am. It is their only meal of the day.


The noviate (in training) monks wear white…


And then they all line up for lunch…


On the way into town, we stopped at a weaving factory…


…and drove by an area of town where they carve marble statues of all shapes and sizes…mostly Buddhas…


…but also some “nats” or spirits. Many times, as you can see on the one on the far left, they do not complete the faces, as someone may come and want one carved to look like someone specific.


Many of the Buddhas and stupas are covered in gold leaf. People apply the gold leaf as of a kind of offering….with the hope that it will bring them a good future life…


So we stopped by a factory to see how they make gold leaf. This woman was applying the final touches, cutting them into one inch squares and placing in stacks of 100. From one ounce of gold, i thought my guide said they can make 13,000 squares of gold leaf (but I couldn’t confirm that anywhere. They are then sold at the temples and stupas for people to purchase and apply to Buddhas (as above) or the outside of stupas.


As we left, we encountered this group of nuns who come to town twice a week to receive donations for their food pantry…


We stopped by the Shwenandaw Kyaung Monastery…


…the entire teak building was covered in carvings such as this one…


And also stopped by the Kuthodaw Pagoda. This consists of 729 pagodas…


..each housing a tablet with a portion of Buddhist scripture in the original religious language, all together containing the entire Buddhist scriptures. This is thus known as the world’s largest book…


Then on to this Buddha which is carved out of one block of marble….


…before taking in the sunset from Mandalay Hill…


More of Mandalay tomorrow.

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Location:Ayawaddy River View Hotel

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