Myanmar, a Land with a Million Brick-Temples

When dawn breaks, Bagan, a suburb of Myanmar, will be crowded with people coming from many different countries. They get ready before dawn, leaving their hotels when it is still dark. One thing they are all after is the picture of sunrise from the top of a temple there.

The daybreak in Bagan is phenomenal. The sun will appear amongst the towers of the temples observed from a distance. The sun is surrounded with silhouttes of hundreds or even thousands of temples.The ordinary routine sunrise  becomes very special here.

Bagan is an old town in Mandalay Province, Myanmar. At the beginning, Bagan was named Arimaddana (Town of Conqueror), and then Tambadipa (Land of Copper). Bagas was founded at the start of 11th century by Anawrahta King, the King who also started the relationship of the country with Sri Lanka for the development of Buddhism.

All temples in Bagan are made of red bricks, resembling the ones in Sumatra Island (Muara Takus Temples in Riau, Muara Jambi Temples in Jambi and Padang Lawas Temples in North Sumatra). When started, there were about 13,000 temples. As time passes, up to 1970s, there were still 5,000 temples left. After the big earthquake in 1975 and until present, only 2,217 temples remain to be seen.

There are several big temples among these two thousands of temples in Bagan. One of the most important ones is Ananda Temple, which has a twenty-meter high golden plated statue of Buddha inside it. At several other temples, there are sleeping Buddha statues measuring up to thirty meter long.

Two-week time is needed to explore the whole area of Bagan.However, if you have only one week to visit Myanmar, you could spend three days in Bagan and visit other interesting sites, such as Inle Lake and Mandalay City for the rest of the time.

The Rise

Talking about South East Asian Tourism, Myanmar falls under the shadows of Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia or even Singapore. The Junta, reigning for years in the country, had made travelling to the country relatively difficult until several years ago.

But now Myanmar has changed very much. Visits to the country from all over the world flow very strongly. For Indonesians, you just need to get the tourist visa in Jakarta several days before leaving. In fact, for Indonesian citizens, no visa is needed to visit member countries of ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations), with the exception of  Myanmar and Cambodia.

During the visit of some Indonesian photographers to Myanmar last October, in almost all corners of the country, there were plenty of good quality hotels available. Some very uniique hotels, with very good quality, were even constructed by the Junta right in the middle of Inle Lake, for example.

The previous closedness from the world during the reign of the Junta made things in Myanmar beautiful and original. Boats and tourist horse carts are everywhere; places are free from billboards, not like those in Indonesia or Thailand.

The currency is called Kyat; one Kyat is ten Rupiah, that is why living expense in Myanmar is a bit more expensive compared to in Indonesia. One surprising thing, however, in suburbs, souvenirs are sold using US dollars as means of payment.

The time in Myanmar is half an hour behind Indonesian Western Time Zone (which is weird!!). Therefore, if Jakarta time is 07.00 WIB, then it is 06.30 in Myanmar.

The best time to visit Myanmar is October, because this is the month of Lake Festival. Besides,  it is cool and the sky of Bagan is clear from clouds and fogs. Renting an air balloon, which will cost around USD 250 (about 2.3 million Rupiah) per person, you could take pictures of thousands of temples from the air.

Source: Kompas Cetak

(translated by JEC English Course – IK)

Keyword: a land with a Million Brick-Temples, myanmar, visit myanmar