"Land of Stupas" Bagan by Ramonq

click: Buddhist chant

Scattered around the vast dusty plains of central Myanmar, lie thousands of these striking centuries-old stupas and pahtos that pierce the sky like some sun-drenched outdoor stalagmites. This is Bagan, Myanmar's premier tourist attraction; but despite of the difficulty in getting there by road, Bagan does attract a fair amount of intrepid tourists that befits this world-class archaeologial heritage site. Luckily, I arrived here by plane blessed with a window seat, and the pilot, kindly enough, flew us directly above the historic site, much to the delight of his passengers. Above ground, Bagan is awesome, and that's the only place to be in order to appreciate the vastness of this ancient religious complex.

Bagan is quarantined from the burgeoning towns that cater to the thousands of tourist that arrive here every year. The two main towns, Nyaung U and New Bagan, are in the outskirts of national park. The peak season for tourism is during the dry cooler months between December and February, and dies down during the monsoonal season. The two towns derive most of its income from overseas visitors who need a place to stay, eat and move around the site; ranging from shoestring backpackers to jetsetting package tourists. Both towns are also ideal places to observe the daily life of the Bamar people, the main ethnic group of Myanmar, who, like most ordinary Myanmar people, are incredibly friendly and patient.

Bagan is also an ideal place to learn more about Buddhist religious buildings called "paya", because there's just so many of them here. In Bagan, one will notice hundreds of small mounds of solid brick structures. They're called zedis in Southeast Aisa or stupas in India. The architectural style of the zedi depends on the era it was built. The ones with a bulbous top are of an earlier design dating back in the 10th or early 11th century when most of the zedis derived its style from the Sinhalese, (Sri Lanka) where the original Theravada Buddhism flourished and propagated to Southeast Asia. The style has evolved into a Burmese style, which is the more common bell-shaped monument and has a pointy tip crowned by a fanciful umbrella called hti. A zedi customarily contains a relic of Buddha, like a tooth, a strand of hair, bones or holy relics blessed by special monks, the more sacred ones are enlarged and gilded with gold. The most impressive zedi is the massive golden Shwezigon Paya near Nyaung U.

The pahto, on the other hand is a hollow large square structure with passageways that lead to a chamber room housing images of Buddha in various positions. It's more or less a shrine to pay homage to Buddha. Many of these pahtos are impressively large and they come in different styles too again, depending on the time they were erected. Some of the pahtos are austere and solid-looking while the others are flamboyant and airy. The Burmese derived pahto styles from other kingdoms in India and other parts of Myanmar when it was divided into many kingdoms. The most revered pahto is the Ananda Pahto which has a strong Indian influence.

Building stupas and pahtos seem to be a national obsession in Myanmar. Even in the most remote and inhospitable location around the country, there is a stupa standing rather forlorn in the wilderness. The building of payas however reached its feverish pitch in Bagan when at the height of this frenzied artistic inspiration, there were more that 4 thousand of them spread out in vast plain near the Ayerwaddy River. It's down to about 2200, and the numbers are still impressive. Unlike the Angkor Wat complex in Siem Reap where the temples bas reliefs are carved intricately and exquisitely, in Bagan, it's quantity and not quality, although many of them are well designed. Maybe this is the Burmese way of showing that theirs is a land of plenty.

The British colonists have found that the Burmese are very difficult to control and eventually gave up in the 1940's. Myanmar has always been divided by different tribes and ethnic groups and wars occasionally flare up between the kingdoms when Myanmar was still made up of feudal kingdoms divided along ethnic lines. Bagan is ethnically made of Bamar people which is the majority of the people of Myanmar from which the name Burma came from. The golden age of Bagan started when Anawratha succeeded in creating a centralised government around the Bagan region and he was crowned king of the Bamar kingdom in the 11th century.

He also succesfully imported Theravada Buddhism into Bagan by conquering the Mon kingdom in the south. Mon culture was integrated into the Bamar kingdom and their input has brought about a building frenzy of stupas and pahtos in Bagan. Bagan swiftly became the capital of the first Burmese kingdom which covered most of what Myanmar is today. After King Anawratha died, Bagan slowly declined and this was exacerbated when Kublai Khan conquered Myanmar in the late 1200's. The Shan and Mon kingdoms were reformed and Bagan fell into oblivion leaving the thousands of payas virtually untouched for hundreds of years.

Sunset in Bagan

Bagan is slowly being opened up to mass tourism. Its relative isolation because of poor roads that lead to it hasn't turned Bagan into a theme park yet. Sometimes I'd enter into a large pahto and I was the only visitor there yet there are other, more popular pahtos that are visited by many tourists from all over the world. In one corner of Bagan, I saw a tall crane and later found out that a 5 star hotel is being built there. There are some small stupas that have been restored quite tackily by the government. Small villages around Bagan are so dependent on tourism that the villagers, especially the children, have become persistent in selling their wares to the hapless tourists. It's not that bad, not yet.

• Pros:Stupas and pahtos
• Cons:fairly remote
• In a nutshell:A Fantasy world of Temples