So far on The Journey there has been a fair share of temples. From Myanmar to Cambodia, to Java and Malaysia and all the countries in that area you have no shortage of grand architectural endeavors undertaken by rulers or cultures of the past. When I first flew into the region I had read that in SEA there are three great religious sites one must see while there. Those would be Borobodur, Angkor Wat, and Bagan. Having knocked two of those off my list in previous adventures the only one of the three areas left was Bagan. And so from Yangon (me and Kyle stopped for a day to get our bearings) on a night bus we headed up to the area.
Though I hadn’t done much research prior to going. Borobodur was the first of the three I had the privilege to see, but it created a false idea of what these religious sites would look like. It was a single mega-structure and I assumed the others would be like that too. When I got to Angkor Wat I was stunned to discover it was actually 9 mega-structure temples amid some 42 other minor temples. Realizing this I resolved not to do the research and see the difference for myself once I got to Bagan. It was even further from Borobodur than I was expecting.
In an area of 104 km2 there are currently 3822 temples. In the past it is said that more than 10,000 temples had been constructed in that same area from the 8th to the 20th century. There are massive and huge temples to visit, many of which are famously known like the above Ananda Temple. But by far, most of the area is taken up by smaller temples strewn in a seemingly random manner.
The reason for so many temples? It goes back to Buddhist ideas of kingship and karma generation. See, in ancient Myanmar (conveniently named kingdom of Pagan) Buddhist doctrine there had so far been four buddhas in the current iteration of reality with a fifth prophesied to emerge some day. It was believed that the king of Pagan would of course be that fifth buddha. This, in turn, tied religion to the monarchy. Well, a big aspect of Buddhism that people need to live by is the creation of merit through good actions or good works, which generate good karma, which brings one closer to enlightenment. The worshiping at or construction of shrines, particularly to Gautama Buddha, is a merit of respect – he taught humans how we might reach enlightenment, and so he, therefore, deserves respect. So every time you pray at a temple that’s good karma. Every time you construct a temple that’s also good karma; more temples means more chances to pay respect!
So this means, then, that if the king of Pagan willingly spends his endless wealth to create a temple he is creating good karma for himself by:
- Selflessly spending his gold
- Paying respect to Buddha
- Giving his subjects more possibility to pray to Buddha
- Providing a place for Monks to live
There’s a point, trust me. The karma buff from building a temple stacks each time you do it, and there is an element of reincarnation to the monarchy of Pagan, so all together building so many temples enough times will inevitably lead the king to having enough karma and understanding of things to reach enlightenment, become that fifth buddha, and save the world (or something, it’s not clear to me). Foolproof recipe for cosmic success, right? Well the kings went a little crazy and the result is the construction of these 10,000+ temples, sometimes hundreds during the lifetime of a single king.
Now let me say that I did indeed find the temples impressive. Some of them are absolutely massive structures that rival modern apartment buildings in size. The small temples also have their own charm, being cute little porta-potty-sized shelters for anyone who might come by seeking it.
Some of them even have truly spectacular works of art, mostly in what seems to be a fresco technique. For some reason I wasn’t allowed to take photos of many of them? I assume for saturation damage potentially caused by flashes in the dimly lit interiors. Even without photos, many of them I still recall clearly in my mind, with depictions of war, the life of Buddha, or just regional parables.
I need to come clean, though. Of the four days I spent in Bagan, only the first day was spent exploring the 3,800 temples. I just couldn’t be asked to do so for more than that. For one they removed the ability to climb the temples a few years (months?) back. As a fan of historical preservation, I agree. As someone who likes to get nice views of sunset I disagree. Another reason for that decision is the fact that in Buddhism you must remove your shoes to enter a temple. I get it, I really do! But imagine removing your shoes 3,800 times to view a temple which is much the same as the others. Not only do you need to remove them you also need to put them back on once you leave, even if the other temple is within sight, lest you step in some strange smelling liquid. Flip-flops are an alternative but, my god, did I mention Bagan is practically a desert where orange sand is deep enough to cover your entire foot? Oh yeah and there’s also grass that stabs as painfully as a cactus needle. Everywhere. I enjoyed my time biking from temple to temple that first day, I just wasn’t really interested any of the other ones.
That’s not to say there weren’t things to enjoy in Bagan for the other 3 days. There’s always salad! Yes salad. I told you it would show up nearly every article! We checked into a rather nice hostel on the second night there (first was too expensive) and when we asked about a meal the owner pointed us to a small little local shop that called itself “Vegetarian Restaurant” in English, but that none-the-less served chicken and other meat. Here you have Kyle enjoying a Tea-leaf Salad and some, I think, special curry. We don’t know what made it a curry but it wasn’t half bad. The tea-leaf salad was good too! Like always. The best part about it? A cost of 1000MMK ($0.68). They also had 8 other salads available at that price. We ate there every night. Sometimes twice a day. Cheap and good, it was the greatest deal on salad I found in the entire country. My favorite? The ginger salad.
We also had the lucky opportunity to check out a very local farm around 20 minutes away from the temple area. Here you see an adorable cow just doing its cow-job of turning some kind of mill-stone. What’s inside that grinder?
Why it’s palm “fruit” of course, for its versatile oil and tasty sugar. Something also tells me peanuts but I’m not sure if that’s accurate. Anyway I know many of you must be seething at the mention of palm fruit and the oil, and I can understand why given the massive ecologically-damaging plantations found in this part of the world, but of all the countries I visited Myanmar handles the product in the most sustainable way; at least from my limited exposure. Malaysia and Indonesia had endless expanses of the trees. Not the case in Myanmar.
And they make the most delicious products in their small family operation. Really, this was just on their family estate on the side of the highway. They made four kinds of candy (peanut/palm sugar, ginger/palm sugar, sesame/palm sugar, and another I can’t recall), and the ginger candy they made was by far the most gingery thing I have ever tasted in my life, and I’ve chewed on raw ginger before! I bought myself peanut/palm sugar and sesame/palm sugar candy bags and they were cloyingly sweet. Delicious, but the only candy I have ever needed to put down after one or two nibbles. They also made some rather potent palm sugar alcohol! Kyle got himself two bottles of that and we were on our way.
To the primary target of the day: Mt. Popa. This is a cool little attraction close by to Bagan. Part of a volcano, this spire of basalt rock rises high into the air and is supposedly visible from the Irrawaddy River some 60kms away. Monkeys make this place their home, the dreaded Macaques! With which I hadn’t had any encounters with since Bukittinggi. For Kyle it was his first exposure and we had this amazing idea of dressing him in a fruit hat to see how aggressive they would be – everyone in the area said they were fearless.
The hat lasted all of perhaps two minutes. As soon as we got out of the car there were roughly 20 monkeys just chilling out. One fruit fell off, a monkey grabbed it and then all the other ones realized what was going on: Kyle was a buffet. Totally surrounded, and afraid they’d begin climbing him, the hat was thrown and the horde pounced. Once the food was eaten they got a lot more pathetic, but also more polite. What I most remember was a mother monkey realizing all the food had been taken, looking up at Kyle, reaching out its paw and saying “mwaaaw” in a sad begging sort of tone.
OSHA would have an aneurysm seeing these guys. Mt. Popa is 1518 meters (4981 feet) above sea level. You gotta walk up there on some stone steps in a cage constantly rattled by the climbing of macaques. Once you get to the top it is a sight to behold.
While the classic winter haze that is common in this part of the world sat on the horizon, I easily understood why the Irrawaddy could be seen from here and vice-a-versa, given the right conditions.
The temple itself is nice, but its significance is nearly incomprehensible to a foreigner. You could think of it as the Burmese Mt. Olympus but that isn’t exactly a correct interpretation. Burmese tradition has this concept called Nats, which might best be explained as important ancestors that represent something that modern people should remember them for. It’s a complicated blend of ancestor worship and animism that predates Buddhism in the country. Here at Mt. Popa you have a shrine for all 37 of the major Burmese Nats, including Gautama Buddha. It’s nice and pretty but very difficult for a non-local to fully appreciate. Most people tell me the site was most interesting from a distance and I was inclined to agree. The cultural significance is something I’d love to have explained, but until then the view was my favorite part.
Bagan was a nice area to visit. I got temples and crossed the third of the three great temple sites off my list. I got salad and ate it every day at a ridiculously good price. And the macaques attacked someone else for once. Overall it was a fantastic trip. Officially, in order, I would rate the three great temples sites in this order:
- Borobodur
- Bagan
- Angkor Wat
It isn’t high on my list of places to visit again – unless I were broke and in need of salad – but the low-lying ancient capital was a wonder to experience before I ran off to the mountains.