Foot and Fire

The Oldest Teakwood Monastery found at the foot of Mandalay Hill.  *** Monks line up the street while they head back to the School-Monastery ahead. There are many monastery in Mandalay as this was the capital city  when the education flourished in Myanmar. *** A huge Monastery-School just a walk from the Oldest Teakwood Monastery. *** The Biggest Book in the World is actually a collection of marble tablets  where the holy scriptures were written by scholar-monks in Pali page by page  in a huge effort by the king to preserve Buddhism.  *** I admire this huge door with engravings. Must be teakwood too. ***  Each page consisting of one marble tablet is housed in this small temple/altar. *** A photograph of a marble tablet. The scripture is written in Pali,  an ancient Myanmarese language. *** MANDALAY, MYANMAR. The world's largest book stands upright, set in stone, in the...

The Nuns of Mandalay passed by the oldest and longest teakwood bridge  called U Bein bridge at 1.2km. *** The famous U Bein Bridge. *** Monks passed by the bridge too. *** One of the nearest temples from the bridge. *** The serene Taungthaman Lake. U Bein Bridge is a crossing that spans the Taungthaman Lake near Amarapura in Myanmar. The 1.2-kilometre (0.75 mi) bridge was built around 1850 and is believed to be the oldest and longest teakwood bridge in the world. Construction began when the capital of Ava Kingdom moved to Amarapura, and the bridge is named after the mayor who had it built.[5] It is used as an important passageway for the local people and has also become a tourist attraction and therefore a significant source of income for souvenir sellers. It is particularly busy during July and August when the lake is at its highest. The bridge was built from wood reclaimed from the former royal palace in Inwa. It feature...

Photos of people from my travels remind me of how different  and how similar we are at the same time.  We are separated by our differences in culture but bound by our similarities as human beings. --Gerlie M. Uy *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***

A vacation to Myanmar is not about food or shopping or art. It is about religion, observing Myanmarese culture and way of life, it is about walking barefoot (and eventually accepting it!) in each house of Buddha. Arriving in Yangon, one is welcomed by buildings, old and new, big and small. But being in Yangon means one can visit Mayanmar's oldest pagoda (and the world's!) called Shwedagon Pagoda.  *** English writer Rudyard Kipling who is best-known for his "Jungle Book" is said to have had set foot in this Pagoda in 1889 and exclaimed that, "Up till that sight my uninstructed eyes could not see that the land differed much in appearance from the sunderbuns, but the golden dome said: 'This is Burma, and it will be quite unlike any land you know about.'" (Wikipedia) No wonder about that, because the Shwedagon's crown or umbrella is tipped with 5,448 diamonds and 2,317 rubies. Immediately before the diamond bud is a flag-shape...