Pagodas, Buddhas and bling

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I doubt there is a country in the world where daily life is as imbued with Buddhism as Burma. Possibly because Burma was closed off for so many years, Buddhist culture is still very pure.

It is sometimes hard for jaded westerners to appreciate and understand the depth of belief and devotion encountered in the temples of Burma.  But their faith is sincerely held and the philosophy of kindness and support for others has much to commend.

While the devotion is striking, so is the bling.  Burma isn’t known as the Golden Land for nothing. Golden pagodas gleam down from hills.  Golden Buddha images are housed in pagodas, monasteries and caves – at one monastery devotees constantly apply more gold leaf to five special Buddha images rendering them little more than golden blobs. And neon and led lighting is utilised to the full to create flashing halos around many. You are even led to the pagodas via ornate covered walkways, with glittering roof decoration and walls covered in mirror mosaic. 

Every day it seems the bling quota grows.

I spotted the first flashing halo in a small monastery near out hotel by Inle Lake, followed swiftly by the gold leaf Buddhas at a pagoda on the lake. In Kalaw, we visited our first Buddha cave, which was quickly overtaken by a much larger Golden Cave in Pindaya.....               

The Shwe Oo Min Natural Cave Pagoda – complete with Harry Potteresque giant spider guarding the entrance – is a series of natural limestone caves containing almost 9,000 mostly golden Buddha images some placed there hundreds of years ago, others far more recently and judging by the labels a good number donated by local businesses as well as overseas families.  Does placing an image here buy blessings?  I guess it must be a meritorious act. Whatever, the sheer scale of the golden images on display is pretty overwhelming.  Can that be topped?  Of course it can.

Mandalay Hill kept the bling quota warm, as did the views of pagodas over the Sagaing hills until we stopped in Monywa to see two of the biggest Buddhas in the world. The reclining Buddha at 300ft is officially the longest in the world.  I only found out afterwards that the inside is hollow and you can walk from head to toe. Despite arriving just as everything was closing for the day, we did get to go inside the standing Buddha which, at over 400ft, was also billed as the tallest in the world.  Sadly, we couldn’t find a lift to take us to the top – but it lends itself to a hotel conversion, with windows all the way up Buddha’s golden cloak!    But we ain’t seen nothing yet -Yangon and the Shwedagon Pagoda is still to come.