Yet Another Ancient City

July 19

Mingun

We went to Mingun with two Burmese friends of ours. They wanted to take us site seeing and since we had seen most of the places around Mandalay, we decided to head across the river. Unfortunately, we had to pay the historical fee that we were trying to avoid in Sagaing (the fee was for both locations). And, we were unable to take the local boat across the river and so our friends were stuck paying the tourist fee, which is three times the amount as the local boat. This is the stuff that really irked me about travelling in Burma.

Mingun Paya (temple):

Built by King Thibaw's grandfather. King Thibaw was the last king of Burma. His grandfather was from Shwebo, which is the town over the mountains. As the legend goes, he wanted to see his hometown form the top of the paya and so he began to build what would have been the world's tallest paya if it had ever been completed. Unfortunately, he died before it could be finished and no other king recommissioned the project.

All that remains of the magnificent structure is a 173 foot high stack of bricks. Some of the bricks are crumbling and there are deep fissures in the paya from an earthquake. It's a bit of an adventure climbing up the pile, but the views of the Ayeywady River and hills that block the views of Shwebo.

Myathendan Paya

Our tour guides informed us that this pagoda was built from bricks taken from the vast Mingun Paya. The paya is unusual and gorgeous. There are 7 waves encircling the paya which are said to represent the 7 oceans (though our LP says that they represent the 7 mountain ranges of the mythical world - for some reason I trust our guides more). There are three entrances followed by three staircases which lead to the top. The middle and most grand staircase was strictly for the king and queen. The left side was for the princes and the right side for their followers. Today, everyone is a king or a queen.

This is a kid trying to sell me incense to burn at the alter. I can't understand why they were so persistent. I highly doubt that most Westerners buy it considering they're usually not Buddhist, but perhaps I'm wrong. It made me feel better to know that they heckled our tour guides just as much as me. It's just their nature.

Mingun Bell

Impressive. The second largest bell in the world and the largest uncracked bell in the world. It ways 55,555 viss and is 1/3 of the size of the largest bell in Russia.