A Myanmar temple is fascinating. It’s ancient (yet very well preserved), spiritual, and constructed in such size and with such detail that it leaves you wondering how it possibly could have been built centuries ago without the help of a battalion of bulldozers. And that’s just for one temple.Bagan has four thousand.
There’s a Starbucks joke to be made somewhere, but honestly, the temples blended with the landscape so organically that they might as well have been created by nature itself. They were always in your sights but never in your face. And we’re not talking cookie-cutter structures, either. Each temple still had its own feel and style.
Speaking of style, we certainly arrived in it in Bagan. The ferry docked at the bottom of a tall cliff, where a long snaking staircase had been carved into the rock. Each step had a local well-wisher in colorful garb throwing flower petals over our heads as we passed through. There was chanting and clapping everywhere. I'm telling you, if a Hollywood cinematographer had managed to capture the whole scene on film, he'd be thanking the Academy by now.
PLACE KINDA REMINDS ME OF: I've never been to Bohol, but I imagine the Chocolate Hills sprout out of the land as effortlessly spectacular as the temples in Bagan. Just NFW moments all around.
You think the painting exaggerates the temples in Bagan? HAH!
"HAH!", I say!
I'm telling you, "HAH!"
This is actually just one of four giant buddhas within one of the larger temples in Bagan, with each buddha facing a different direction on the compass. To get to each one, you have to go through these long, dark corridors. Then, suddenly, as you turn a corner, you get jolted by this bright golden glow. The Golden Buddha! (cue Indiana Jones theme: tan ta ran tan, tan ta ran! tan ta ran taaaaan, ta ta ran tan tan!)
No comments:
Post a Comment