Bagan is a place like no other. Where else could you casually cycle in a rickety old bike, through sandy roadways and appreciate ruins of all shapes and sizes, in spectacular condition considering their age might I add, at your leisure and with no crowds.
Going back to Myanmar’s history and why were they there, what do they mean etc; Bagan was the capital of the Kingdom of Pagan from the 9th to the 13th centuries. The fallout of the pagan empire left the country with many divisions, in people and state and to be honest it arguably is the foundation to the differences that exist today in the country. Ava Kingdom was a smaller subset nation/kingdom of the country formed to replace the Pagan kingdom. The Ava Kingdom included three smaller subset kingdoms, one of which was Sagaaing (which we visited just outside Mandalay).
Shan States rose to power until the 1560s (the topical state people will have heard of when they think of Burma today) and then there were a series of dynasties who fought off wars with Thailand and China and of course had its spell of British rule also. So its all connected and you get the gist!
So back to Bagan – one of Myanmar’s oldest historical settings. They clearly spent all the money on temples – there are literally thousands of them!
And mystical is the only way to really describe it given you look out on to a sea of sun burnt temples and lands from every height of Bagan; one of the most popular things to do in Bagan is to see the temples overland by Hot Air Balloon!
Ananda Temple is probably the most well preserved -built in the 12th century, supposedly named after Buddha’s first cousin (Ananda). The sunshine catching the temple makes for fantastic photos!
Especially ones when the monks are taking selfies!!
It is a huge complex in itself – see it below from another angle.
The other temples are literally dotted along cycle paths made of sand, that veer off a slightly more main road where there is little to no cars passing at all times in the day. It really is totally undiscovered..
Eoghan feat plastic bag feat temple backdrop :D:D
I couldn’t resist the below photo then – Myanmar of course relies heavily on agriculture for its economic welfare. About 65% of the population are employed in agriculture related activities and whilst Burma produces more than enough food to feed its population, many go hungry as they are so poor. The locals below were harvesting the corn leftoevers by hand.
Back to the temples and the cycling – we could have been there for days!
We had a lovely time and of course it was nice to tie all the history together (the significance of Bagan within the greater history of Myanmar, and its ties with the neighbouring Thailand, many of the places we had visited as important sites to when their kingdoms were in power etc etc).
It’s at times like this you really see the benefit to the EU formation. The countries are all trading with each other – Thailand is Myanmar’s biggest export destination, just over the border. The countries have been at several wars together. Laos and Cambodia the same. And even the size of Vietnam resulted in its war spilling into border areas which actually were Laos and Cambodia – they are all so close but yet so far away, keeping their peoples poor for too long now considering the extent of the historical glory which once existed in these countries; Bagan being a prime testament to this fact. It left a lot to think about as we took our selfies and did our tourist cycle trail visit.
How do you pronounce your name? 