Looking Back: Burma/Myanmar

The gilded pinnacles of stupas surrounding the main stupa at Bago, Myanmar. A stupa is a Buddhist shrine, often domed or bell-shaped, that holds within it a sacred relic associated with Buddhism. The gold leaf honours the relic and the Buddha, as do the symbolic ‘umbrellas’ over the spires. The main stupa is the 114 meter high Shwemawdaw Pagoda (stupas are often called pagodas in Burma). Buddhists claim that the original stupa here was very ancient, but this is a common claim. The original stupa houses two hairs from the Buddha’s head, and in the middle ages one of his teeth was added to the mix. Apparently the Buddha had hundreds of them. Teeth, not hairs.

Looking Back: Burma/Myanmar

This picture needs no explanation. A small group of Buddhist monks are walking along the street, with their begging bowls in hand. The colours of the robes were so vibrant, the types of saturations that seem to exist naturally only in Asia. The leader demurely put his fan up to protect himself against the presumptuousness of my lens.

Looking Back: Yangon, Burma

I took this picture from the decks of the wonderful ship Nautica, which belongs to the Oceania fleet. I was working as a lecturer on a 35-day cruise from Bangkok to Rome. Needless to say, a spectacular trip. We stayed a couple of days in Burma/Myanmar, and the several of the posts above are from there. This woman was rushing to work along the docks, with her umbrella shading her from a sun that was already becoming intense in the morning. The colours and the lines of the railway tracks made a nice composition.