I have a fascination for Buddhist Monks. I have watched, interacted, admired and photographed practicing monks for many years during my travels in Ladakh, Himachal, Sikkim, Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh. They have a genial smile that quickly puts me at ease, and their photogenic faces and ochre-robes seem to attract my camera. My last encounter with monks happened at a remote village in Central Myanmar, where curiosity led me to a Buddhist monastery.
This was at Ywama Village in Inle Lake region, where I was with my guide-cum-boatman to visit a market. The monastery was at the entrance to the market and I wasn’t going to miss a chance to exchange smiles with monks.
Perhaps these young monks understand, and effortlessly practice Buddha’s teachings the best: ‘live in the moment’.
At Chimi Lhakhang, Bhutan
Also see: Our photography tour to Myanmar
I made a two-week visit to Myanmar in 2013 and totally loved travelling through its cities and countrysides. Before I begin the detailed travelogues, here is a quick look at things that I loved about the country.
1. Pagodas, pagodas and pagodas.
Shwedagon Pagoda is perhaps the most well-known of all the pagodas in Myanmar, if not in the entire world. The 99 meter high tower is one of the holiest sites in the country. It is coated with several tonnes of gold on its surface and studded with thousands of precious stones. After the sun goes down, it glitters in so much of light that even the clouds hovering high above reflect its lights in an otherwise dark sky. Yet, Shwedagon is just one of many many charming pagodas littering the country’s landscapes.
The day after I visited Shwedagon, I was in the small town of Bago to see an even taller and equally majestic Shwemadaw Pagoda, rising over hundred meters and surrounded by rich-green, dense tropical vegetation. A week after that, I was in Inle Lake Region, keenly exploring small but beautiful cluster of Pagodas. Some of them were old and worn out and yet retained a charm not very different from the brilliant oldness of Camboadian Temples. There were new ones too, glittering in a golden paint and dwarfing the surroundings in their shine.