Bagan Day 2

  Today was a rest day for me. The group is doing half day silent retreats yesterday and today, but I found myself wanting some time to myself to explore and do some photography. Laundry is done and I went to the fitness center yesterday and this morning to get some blood moving. I am finding that while it great to be here with the group and have things arranged; it just seems that we sit on the bus to someplace, walk around and then go to lunch and dinners. I have to say, some of the lunches and dinners have been really nice, but I need a different kind of nourishment in exercise and photography. That being said, we went to dinner last night with a puppet show and live music that was very nice.

   Bagan and the temples are interesting and the sheer history of the place is as well (300AD-1200AD as a religious site, 1200+ for Buddhism), but I'm finding it a bit overrun with tourists, balloon rides, temples crowded at sunrise and sunset for photo taking and the temples themselves very similar although there are many sizes. It seems like wealthier people in early times would sponsor a temple for the family and kings or rulers of the time built the largest and most grand. There are even stories about the most famous king of the era in the 1200's killing the artisans after completion so that no grander temple could be built afterwards.

 The Burmese are crazy about gold leaf and placing it on temples and Buddha images as a sign of respect and commitment. They sell incredibly thin sheets about 2" square for a few dollars for three sheets. They then place it on some Buddha images in certain temples and the bigger temples often are adorned with gold leaf on the tops by monks. In one temple we visited a few days ago, the gold leaf placed on a Buddha statue over course of 1,000yrs was estimated to be 7" thick and weight over 2 tons in total.

Carriage Ride to temple

One of the overrun temples at sunset


   Lacquerware is one of this areas special arts. I went to a small family run place this morning and while I had not appreciated the work in the past; seeing the way it is made and the artistry involved, I now think it's beautiful.

Bamboo rings that are concentrically assembled into a bowl shape

Small amounts of lacquer are applied to hold it together so they can be shaved into smooth insides and out

More lacquer is applied to make them even more stable for sanding

Color is applied and sanded

Engraving into the lacquer to add paint to the design

A lacquered and painted lid is being washed. Square shapes use teak wood as the base

Finished Lacquerware...Beautiful!