After a quick night in Yangon, we got up early and flew to Bagan (formerly referred to as Pagan). It is located on the banks of the wide, wide Ayeyarwady River in the central plains of Myanmar. Bagan was the capital of the first Burmese empire during the 11th-13th centuries. It's current fame is the 2000+ pagodas (or stupas) and temples that survive from that time.
The king who established the first Burmese empire became a determined and enthusiastic convert to Theravada Buddhism, which continues to be the dominant religion in Myanmar to this day. The king established Buddhism as a state religion and began building pagodas around Bagan.
We spent two days in Bagan exploring the pagodas and temples with our guide. While our minds grew numb over the details of the plans for constructing the pagodas (five entrances for four previous Buddhas and one future one, eight corners for six days of the week plus Wednesday morning and Wednesday evening …), we were amazed to find that many of the temples still contain original paintings.
In the Ananda Temple,
we saw a huge standing Buddha that was original to the temple. It was carved in the simple "Bagan-style" from a single teak tree and gilded. The robe was about six feet across at the bottom, to give you a sense of the size of this statue.
Of course our experience of Bagan wasn't just about pagodas. One of the best meals we had in Myanmar was our first lunch, a multi-course set menu. Too much food, but it made us quite happy.
We ended each day of touring by enjoying the sunset from the top of a pagoda.
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