Yangon, Bago and Kyaiktiyo

“The best door closed is one that can be left open”

(Chinese proverb)

 

 Yangon (Rangoon) with almost 4.5 million of inhabitants it is the largest city and capital of Burma (Myanmar), although the military government moved it in 2005 to Naypyidaw. The city is still little developed and full of decadent British colonial buildings, but houses some of the most important monuments of the country like the Shwedagon Pagoda, a Buddhist temple complex located on a hill and chaired by a stupa over 100 mts, high and completely covered with gold leaf. It is an icon of Myanmar and one of the three holy places of Buddhism in Burma. Other treasures that we see in Yangon are Sule Pagoda located between Avenues in the city center, the huge reclining Buddha Chauk Htat Gyi Phaya, Kandawgyi Lake and the Botataung Pagoda with its monastery on the banks of the river.

 

 We crossed Bago Division, one rural area filled with rice fields in which stand some Buddhist temples and monasteries. In the capital Shwemawdaw Pagoda surprises us with its lions Chinte guarding the entry and with the highest stupa in the country. Several temples appears before us: Khaung Daw Pagoda at the edge of a lake, and two giant reclining Buddha, the Shwethalyaung protected inside a kind of huge hangar, and the Nyathalyaung outdoors in the countryside. In the Golden Monastery we were welcomed by children monks.

 

 At the top of a hill, Kyaiktiyo religious complex in Mon state is the third holiest site for Burmese Buddhists and rises around the Golden Rock, a stupa standing on a large rock covered with thousands of sheets of gold that the parishioners deposite as offerings. According to the legend holds to the edge thanks to a lock by hair of Buddha.

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