Grandiosity
Somewhere around the seven hundred plus Stupas the original idea got lost in the grandiosity. A large Buddhist synod gathered in Mandalay to read the scriptures at a single sitting. The pages, all 728, were Read More …
Quakes and Tremors
The split wall of the unfinished temple, a cursed presence created by a King seeking vain glory.. A stack of bricks torn apart by two earthquakes. The guardian lions rolled into the grass fields like Read More …
The Road to Mandalay
The chorus of the musical tune rang in my ears as Pu Pu tried explain the dual and triple meanings of the name. Mandalay is that Kipling poem that became the text for the popular Read More …
Myathalun Pagoda, Children, Trishaws & Festivals
The glittering gold, whether leaf or gilded, leaves an impression of glittering decadence. A mark of square centimetres donated one leaf at a time by those who seek to serve rather than be served. Donated Read More …
Greens, Grazing and Golf
With this much verdant vegetation. This bright green. Their blessing of the land is more than a holy arm waving. This country is crop capable rich. Golf course green. Across the fairway the black angus Read More …
Fort and fortification
The diesel fuel tanker delivers door to door. There is the occasional drip on the crumbling roadway. There are no pickets, no tanker complaints, no pipelines, just an old man struggling to survive. On the Read More …
By land, by sea, by tears
The slashed greens from the rice fields lashed onto an ox drawn cart travelling down a quiet road. The silence undisturbed. A periodic squeak from an unlubricated wheel breaks the trance. We are 13,000 km Read More …
The Politics of Art and the Art of Politics
With back turned toward the viewer, the monk silently protests the political. Visiting the artists and their work in Yangon we are enlightened by Sue Shue, who from my cultural western perspective was, as best Read More …
Steps, Steeples, Stupas #3
The Sule Pagoda in Yangon needles its diamond tipped spears to the threatening sky, each point threatening to unzip the rain. Yet in the centre of the city at mile zero sits the Pagoda, a Read More …
Steps, Steeples, Stupas #2
In Myanmar nearly 85% of people of faith are Bhudist adherents. That leaves very few people committed to the conventional church-seeking-steeple-chase, but when we pause and include the mosques with the western rooted churches into Read More …