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Burma 1979
Burma 1979
Jacek Pałkiewicz2006-06-17 15:04:37
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www.palkiewicz.com
Burma is rapidly emerging from its cocoon of self-imposed isolation. And, as AMAR GROVER discovered, a visit to this land of golden pagodas is like a trip back in time. Long isolated, even from immediate neighbours Burma, or Myanamar as it prefers to be called now, is rapidly emerging, from a wasting socialist cocoon. Visit Myanmar Year has ended and as the accompanying controversy over visiting the country recedes, it is certain visitors will come once more. And, this seems to be what its people want.
Old hands may miss downtown Yangon’s complete absence of traffic, its “town from the lost end of time” feel. But for me, the city retains an intriguing mix. Ancient wooden Chevrolet buses still pack in the commuters and rumble up and down the Colonial British grid-like streets. The air of neglect is being gradually offset by development. Burma’s famous Strand Hotel has been thoroughly revamped (despite the air-conditioning ceiling fans still turn, giving that film set feel) and in the evening impromptu markets spring up on virtually every street corner.
Though a large Indian community stayed behind after independence in 1948, Burma is overwhelmingly Buddhist. Yangon’s Shwedagon Pagoda, rising nearly 100 metres from its base, is a pivotal point. One of the largest and most famous in the country, it is reputed to contain hairs of the Buddha and has survived earthquakes, fires and pillage.
I visited Shwedagon Pagoda on several evenings when the soaring golden stupa was aflame with the sun’s last rays. Worshippers stood or sat before their planetary posts, determined by one’s day of birth, while monks reclined in quiet alcoves surrounded by clay Buddha statues. A dazzling array of pavilions, shrines and prayerhalls make up the complex and it’s quite likely a local will approach and talk you through a tour of the temple. Rather than attempt Yangon’s other less interesting pagodas, it might be better
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See photographs from:
Burma (Myanmar) Gallery
