Photo Essay: A Burmese Holiday

Figure 1.

Banana Salesmen, Mandalay

I arrived in Mandalay at five in the morning after traveling continuously from Bangkok to Yangon and then overnight on a bus up the country. I hadn't eaten since I was in Bangkok the morning before so I was ravenous. I had the equivalent kyat of two dollars, so I wanted to use it resourcefully. Because I wouldn't be able to change money until the black market opened (where you get twice the value than a market approved by the government), I thought the most filling meal I could have was bananas. I spent all of my money on a stalk of bananas, receiving a stalk that had about twenty or twenty-five bananas attached.

Figure 2.

Burmese Greeting, Bagan

Near Mandalay is the ancient capitol of Bagan. With over three-thousand temples, it is more populated by religious buildings than the more-famous Angkor Wat in Cambodia. Some of the temples have modern entrances. This one, with its beautiful Burmese characters, seemed like a warm and wonderful greeting welcoming people into the inner-sanctum of the temple.

Figure 3.

Young Monks Playing in Bell, North of Mandalay

Sixty percent of the Burmese monk population is in Mandalay. Men can become monks for any period of time, from one day to life. These monks were young teens that were touring the pagodas north of Mandalay on the river Irrawaddy. They took turns going inside the bell while the others banged the bell from the outside.

Figure 4.

Bagan Early Morning, Bagan

The city woke early, but on my third morning in Bagan, I woke earlier to get a good head start on the temples. The options were to either rent a bicycle to go from temple to temple, or to hire a mule-pulled cart to haul you around. I opted for neither and decided to walk down the main road for a few miles to reach the nearby temples. The smell and stillness of the wet street and trees was beautiful.

Figure 5.

People's Desire, Rangon

These signs are posted throughout the country. I took this picture and a passerby quickly came and pushed my camera down because members of the army were coming around the corner. He explained that they would take my camera if they saw me taking a picture of the sign.

This reminded me of the maps that are available in Rangon. Such maps show the country of Myanmar, but with large black swaths where foreigners are not allowed to travel.

Throughout the country there are areas where photography is foridden, and you can lose your camera, be detained, or worse, as happened to the Japanese photographer in Rangon during the recent protests (he was killed).

Figure 6.

3000 Temples, Bagan

Figure 7.

Man Taking Break with Oxen, North of Mandalay

This is the panoramic view from the top of one of the larger temples in Bagan. Because the country is sparsely populated and not a tourist destination, it is hard to imagine the days when these three-thousand temples were the center of a huge kingdom. Now, the country is quiet and the temples sit in silence.

The nap this man was taking was not very deep. He heard me walk by and woke to ask for his picture to be taken so he could see it in my camera. His wagon was empty. I thought his main cargo probably consisted of tourists going to a nearby temple. He was happy with his picture.

Figure 8.

Mother and Child, North of Mandalay

The white make-up on both the child and the mother is worn for two reasons: for beauty and as protection against the...