Buddha and the bird

A big day on shore and dear Robin, our ever enthusiastic and incredibly knowledgeable guide, is very anxious we don’t get ‘templed out’ during the two days we will be at Bagan. He selects ‘six of the best’ which define the various styles, qualities and beauty.

Dotted over the plains covering an area of 50 sq km are a staggering 2,200 pagodas, stupas, nunneries and monasteries, the remnants of an estimated 13,000 erected between the 11th and 13th centuries before Kublai Khan’s hordes descended and the city and surroundings were abandoned.
Old Bagan is right up there with the other great Buddhist Centres of SE Asia as Cambodia’s Angkor Wat and Java’s Borobadur, and four pagodas mark the cardinal points of the site.
The full moon is on the wane and the river is a highway of small boats flying the multicoloured Buddhist flag and bunches of Eugenia plant on the bow as pilgrims return from Bagan having visited the four pagodas, all before noon.

Not only is Robin concerned we will be templed out but possibly ‘buddhad out’ which would be impossible surely as the pagodas are home to every conceivable size of Buddha and a jaw dropping discovery..and the gold!!! Goodness the gold.
Lit by an architecturally clever device of small arched doors and corridors opening up through ever increasing sizes of doors to the centre, sunlight filters through passages blooming into a vision of serenity and light. This Buddha figure is from the 11th century as ‘decoded’ by R as he has ‘spiky hair and his earlobes don’t touch his shoulders.’