Sagaing
Sagaing Hill is regarded as the living centre
of Buddhist faith in Myanmar. The hills and
valleys are scattered with over 600 monasteries,
temples, stupas and caves dedicated to Buddhism
and it is home to over 5000 monks. (In 1988,
Sagaing was the site of demonstrations which
resulted in the massacre of around 300 civilians)
We visited the 14th century Sun-U-Ponnya-Shin Pagoda on the
hilltop connected by a set of covered staircases
that run up the 240 m hill. We then visited
a nunnery.
We crossed the Inwa bridge over the River
Irrawaddy and then took a small ferry boat
to cross the smaller river Mytinge into Ava
(Inwa). We travelled by horse and cart to
the ruined city of Ava which was capital
of Burma for 400 years. We visited a workshop where they made the
food bowls that are used by the monks to
receive their morning donations of food.
We then visited the Bagaya Kyaung monastery
built in 1834, entirely of teak wood. It
has 267 gigantic teak wood posts, the biggest
measuring 60 feet high and 9feet circumference.
The 188 feet by 103 feet monastery represents
ancient architecture and sculpture which
is rarely seen in any other monastery of
a later date.
