Started out with our arranging for a tuk-tuk to take us to the ancient (4th to 9th century) Pyu city near Pyay, Sri Ksetra, to prowl around on our own. Then Dana met a delightful woman from Bremerton (yes, that Bremerton), Mona, in the parking lot and suddenly we were joining her and her excellent Burmese guide, Scott (nickname, duh) in their van for a guided tour of that World Heritage site. Not only that, we were going to go in the afternoon with them to the other two sites we'd hope to see in our second full day here, and we also were going to see tomorrow the river cliff carvings we thought we would miss, and the day after tomorrow the bonfire ceremony we thought might not exist.
But we're getting ahead of ourselves.
We first went to one of the pagodas of the city, that was the subject of a fascinating story of a vengeful queen who deceived her husband king into building a stupa in the shape of a breast. I don't buy it either, but it's a helluva story.
The site was not that photogenic, since they're still in the early stages of serious excavation, but there were interesting features, like a commoner cemetery, with clay pots containing bones and ashes of non-royals...
and another stupa in the more normal style of the period. Note the huge sash around the base and Scott holding the umbrella for Mona, ala Raj style.
There also were quite a few nats, since the Pyu period was early in the history of Buddhism in the area. These were horses in puppet form.
Unlike in Bagan, folks who were living on the several square mile Heritag Site had been allowed to remain when it was created a few years ago, but where not allowed new construction, so the area has escaped the warp speed modernization that has occurred elsewhere. We stopped at a farm with a lever well system...
watched a lovely young woman watering flowers (to be sold)...
explored a farm home with house nats and TV/DVR...
and a spoon rack we really liked...
and watched some guys bulk cooking sticky rice for the bonfire festival we'll observe on Tuesday.
We then took a midday break, which D and I used for a dip in our pool...
and then headed out for our second trip of the day, to a nearby town, Shwedaung, where we first visited the Shwemyetman Paya...
which is famous for having the only spectacled Buddha in the world.
The story is a bit long to relate here, but it also involves a vengeful woman.
We moved on to the Shwenattaung Paya as the sun was setting...
leaving us with nice color on the pagoda...
and some fine sunset views...
which we enjoyed with accompaniment from a chant by these young women.
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ReplyDeleteSerendipity is at its best when traveling.
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