Every year I try make at least one trek far away from the comforts of our North American borders. This year I headed to one of the least known and least developed countries in the world – Myanmar.
Myanmar is a photographer’s paradise - gorgeous and diverse landscape, colorful longyis and headscarves, red-robed monks, gilded pagodas, and teak palaces. Fifty years of economic stagnation under repressive military rule have left Myanmar in a kind of quirky time warp.
I visited Myanmar with six other photographers on a Jim Cline Photo Tour led by Karl Grobl. Karl is an American who now lives in Siem Reap, Cambodia. He is a very talented humanitarian photojournalist who also leads photo tours through Southern Asia. If you are ever considering a photo tour to this part of the world, I strongly encourage you to look him up. We were also accompanied by a fantastic local guide, Mya Min Din, who has lived his whole life in Myanmar. MM, as we called him, provided us with a steady supply of cultural and historic information.
The tour started in Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city of almost 6 million. Even though this is a major city, most of its residents still live a primitive lifestyle. In the last photo above, you can see blue plastic pipes carrying rainwater down to a washbasin outside the shell of this ancient building that houses families tucked into its many dark and dusty rooms.
From Yangon, we took a two hour drive to Bago, the former Mon and Burmese capital where we visited the Kyakhatwine Monastery. This was our first close-up glimpse into the Buddhist religion that is so prominent in Myanmar. During the day we also stopped to see two giant reclining Buddhas each between 60 and 70 yards in length - one of which was built over 1000 years ago.
Along the Bago River, we wandered through a local market. There was a vibrant sense of community with cheerful, intimate interactions occurring all around us. We stuck out from the locals, many of whom had probably never seen westerners especially one who is 6’4” tall! Yet they made us feel welcome with friendly gestures and smiles.
We returned to Yangon for a late afternoon visit to one of the most spectacular religious monuments in the world, the Shwedagon Pagoda. This is one of the holiest structures for the Burmese Buddhists. It is believed that it houses hairs from the historical Buddha, Gautama, as well as relics from three of his predecessors. The warm light of sunset cast a magical, divine glow on the gold-encrusted stupa.