Remember Burma and Tibet?

... and the cute Panda bears in China? I hope you do because had you forgotten and tried to go back and look them up again on the blog over the last couple of weeks, you would've certainly found all of my writing, but not any of the pictures... (Thanks, Lott, for catching this!)

Well, the good news is last night, I went through and fixed everything, so the pictures are all back. I even tried to fix my spelling and grammar errors - I do tend to proof-read my posts, usually, but it seems I'm still not all that good at it. There is no bad news - everything is just back. There are some boring technical details, which you are welcome to skip, but I'll type up anyway, just in case you care (and because it gives me a forum to bitch at the governments of Burma and China for their idiotic internet policies): Burma and China aren't the types of countries that particularly encourage free and unfettered expression, such as blogging. They attempt to control it by using a standard, heavy-handed, Communist-style approach: you cannot access blogger.com or blogspot.com from a computer in China or Burma. As with most standard, heavy-handed, Communist-style approaches to solving problems that shouldn't really be problems in the first place, the approach doesn't work. I was obviously able to post from Burma and China - all because there's a million proxy servers out there that computer users of China and Burma utilize to get around their respective governments' idiotic restrictions. In Burma, the proxy would usually be already installed on most of the internet cafe machines... In China, they had wi-fi, so I got it on my laptop. There was, however, an issue - routing all your requests to blogger.com through a server in, say, Holland, made your [already slow] internet connection speeds that much slower, so I gave up on uploading pictures to blogger, putting them on my site instead, then simply referencing them from the blog. It actually took a bit of work to get the process all figured out, but pretty soon, I had it down to a science (which makes it kind of sad that I had to spend three hours undoing all of my cross-site magic last night). And this magical science worked great... all the way until last month, until I had to transfer the site from Arnie's server to one of my own - a process which allowed us to discover that when you cancel your account with 1&1 Hosting (whom I'm reluctant to recommend at this point, btw), they insist on hijacking your domain name for a month and using it to redirect traffic to one of the other sites they are being paid to host (and some nice man in Hyderabad, India will be powerless to do anything about it). This, naturally, means that all the images I had uploaded to my site from Burma and Tibet had now evaporated, so the blog posts that were pointing to them were now picture-less... So, that's the annoying technical reasons - if you are unclear on what the hell I'm talking about (or even if you are), never fear - the photos on the blog are all back now! (Unless you are reading this on Facebook, which imports my blog posts, but doesn't update the imported snapshots when I change them, so if you want to take the time to navigate their ineffective UI to get to some of the posts from last February, you will discover these elusive picture-less posts... But you shouldn't do that! You either don't care at all, in which case you should've stopped reading ten minutes ago, or you'll just use the fairly intuitive navigation tools you get at safety3rd.blogspot.com)

And as a reward for indulging me in my little rant, here's a few of these 'recovered' photographs:

Shwedagon Pagoda - Yangon, Burma

The Golden Rock on Burma's Mount Kyaiktiyo at sunrise

A fisherman on Inle Lake

The plain of Bagan just before sunrise

Snake Temple outside of Mandalay, Burma

Cute pandas in Chengdu, China

Tibet's Potala Palace, flanked by the Himalayas

A terracotta general: Xi'an, China

Who can build me the biggest Buddha?

The head's all that's left of this Buddha in Ayuthaya, Thailand. It's been here for a few centuries and nature has been trying to re-absorb

When you go to far East Asia, most places tend to have a lot of Buddha statues. The predominantly Catholic Philippines remains an exception, but 'communist' China is all about getting in on the Buddha bandwagon. And while, I suspect, Buddhism tends to generally discourage competition (especially when it comes to depicting Buddha himself), this hasn't really stopped everyone from trying to build bigger and bigger statues. Some time when I was in Burma (which really likes to build things on a grand scale), I started thinking about some of the biggest statues I've come across. And now that I'm back, and have access to my entire photo library again, let's share what I've come up with with the blogosphere. Note: the list is by no means scientific, and I don't even know the actual measurements of most of these statues, it's just the way I had remembered the Buddhas when I had first seen them... I also like how Lord Buddha looks significantly different as you move from country to country...

So, without further adieu, we'll start with:

#1: The cute and adorable, vaguely life-size Buddhas


From left to right: The Emerald Buddha at the Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep, outside of Chiang Mai, Thailand; The slightly spacy looking Buddha at the Pha That Luang in Vientiane, Laos; and a very happy rotund Buddha in Kunming, China.

#2: Let's see what we find in this cave

A reclining, napping stone Buddha in the Ajanta Caves in Maharashtra, India

#3: Bangkok chimes in with an imposing sitting statue

A golden seated Buddha at Wat Suthat in Bangkok, Thailand

#4: Mongolia is also re-discovering its Buddhist roots ever since the Soviet Union has withdrawn its influence

A white stone statue sitting just off the road in Darkhan, Mongolia

#5: reclining Buddhas are hard to judge, since they are not standing up, but they are nonetheless impressive, and giant

This may have been one of the biggest statues of any sort I had seen at the time - a huge reclining Golden Buddha at Wat Pho in Bangkok, Thailand

#6: I only spent one day in Sri Lanka, but that was plenty of time to come across a very serene and flexible Buddha
A statue in the park in the center of Sri Lanka's capital, Colombo

#7: Japan's not to be outdone!

The slightly weathered statue of Amida Buddha on the grounds of Kotoku-in Temple in Kamikura, Japan. This has so far been the only Buddha statue I've been able to walk inside of...

#8: The Burmese love a good competition, especially if the winner is determined by quantity, or sheer size

Things in Bagan, Burma, home of over 5,000 temples, really are on a whole different scale, so this massive Buddha statue, barely fitting inside of the Ma-nu-ha Temple is right at home

#9: Commence the heavy weight division!

Hong Kong didn't strike me as a particularly religious place, but the nearby island of Lantau is nonetheless crowned by a large statue of a sitting Buddha - the Tian Tan Buddha. Hong Kong being Hong Kong, of course, it's mostly just a tourist attraction

#10: Modern Technology to the Rescue!

This is the Naung Daw Gyi Mya Tha Lyaung in Bago, Burma. It was only built in the past twenty years, likely making it a lot easier to construct this giant relic. There was apparently a different reclining Buddha, a mere block away - that one was much older, and slightly bigger, but we didn't expect to keep looking for another huge reclining Buddha after finding this one!

#11: more from Japan
The Todai-ji Temple in Nara, Japan is the largest wooden building in the world, and today, it's only a third of the size it used to be at its peak a few centuries ago. Inside, there's a number of imposing (and sometimes angry) statues, headlined by the massive seated Virocana Buddha

#12: And the winner is...

The 45 meter tall Phra Puttamingmongkol Akenakkiri Buddha on the island of Phuket in Thailand rules over the surrounding islands and countryside. It is not yet quite finished, unfortunately, but it's just the details that remain - the huge structure itself is already in place.

If we were to be a little more scientific about it, things get very complicated very quickly as there are categories for standing Buddhas, and sitting Buddhas, and reclining Buddhas... and some have pedestals, while others do not, so it's hard to judge. The Taliban has also taken the liberty of destroying one of the biggest Buddha statues in the world in the mountains of Afghanistan - the Buddhas of Bamyan. The Leshan Giant Buddha, outside of Leshan City, China seems to be generally accepted as the biggest Buddha statue in the world at 71 meters in height - then again, it's unclear what the criteria are, as on this list it only comes in at number eleven. Everyone does seem to agree that the Maitreya Buddha in Uttar Pradesh, India will eventually become the biggest Buddha statue in the world (152 meters tall), but they are still working on it, and considering that it is India, I wouldn't hold out too much hope for a speedy completion.

In the mean time, if you'd like a Buddha of your own, to, say, decorate a backyard, the Thais have been perfecting their Buddha transportation techniques:

Buddha on a truck in Bangkok, Thailand - getting ready to hit the road!

Inle & Bagan

Yes, these two do probably deserve a post each, but I'm feeling lazy and tired, and the internet access speeds here in Burma are nothing short of infuriating, so it'll be a one post summary for both... Now to see if I can actually upload 15 pictures.

Besides, Inle Lake, while certainly being beautiful and interesting, wasn't quite the awe-inspiring, can't miss sort of destination, in my mind. The biggest attraction of Inle is, of course, the lake, which is beautiful, a little reminiscent of Bolivia's Titikaka, with the mountains rising up just beyond it. It also has the unique distinction of lacking any actual shoreline - the water slowly morphs into reeds, and tall grass, and marsh-like areas, and eventually, voila, dry land! Beyond the lake though, you get to just see everyday Burmese life (in a very pretty setting, and with a little too much of tourist point-of-sale thrown in), which I didn't find quite as interesting. But equipped with a 300mm zoom lens, I set off documenting said every day life, with the long zoom allowing me to feel mildly less intrusive

The definitive view of Inle - the lake, the mountains, and a lone fisherman paddling a canoe along, with his leg(!)

This fisherman choosing to use his arms to paddle - so much less picturesque!

A lady piloting her boat along, hidden beneath the wide brims of her hat

Not really sure what this was all about, but these guys were all rowing their boats along in the morning. Monks? Students?

Well, I may have lied a bit when I said (only implied, technically) that there were no temples at Inle. There are, but now that I'm in Bagan, unless you built your temples by the thousand, you might as well not have bothered building at all!

Well, Inn Dein, a short canal ride away from Inle, actually comes pretty close, supposedly sporting 1054 Zedi (the pointy-things behind me) on top of a hill. Bagan still scoffs at you, Inn Dein!

So, if Inle Lake can be descibed as 'interesting,' the word that comes to mind for the Bagan Plain is 'jaw dropping' (ok, so, it's two words). The bus ride from Inle to Bagan can, incidentally, be best described as jaw-shattering. During that bumpy ride, I did, however, manage to read a bit of my guide book, learning that the old Bamar Kings had built over 4,400 temples in Bagan over the course of about 230 years (before getting properly beaten down by the Mongols, of course...) to remind the population that they were all Buddhists now, I suppose. Upon reading that, I figured I'd see a few dozen restored temples, and the rest would be piles of rock, sort of like the Inca ruins in Peru, where some archaeologist has authoritatively stated that every single rock you come across is actually an integral part of an Inca Temple... Well, I was wrong:

The plain of Bagan is quite literally filled with thousands of temples - still standing, restored, it's hard to tell the difference, but all unmistakably amazing

Golden domes hiding behind brick domes, as far as the eye can see

So, naturally, the first thing I did upon arriving in Bagan was ... leave. Well, I didn't really live, I just ran into Heinrich and Martina, a Norwegian couple, on my first morning in Bagan, and decided to go with them to Mt. Popa. I'd been hoping to see Mt. Popa anyway, but it's about 50km away, so you have to go with a taxi of some sorts, and having people there already to share the costs with was enough to convince me, so off we went

Mt. Popa, an extinct volcano, rising in the background.

We made a little detour on the way too, stopping to see the locals harvest palm trees and make palm juice, beer, and distill a spirit, which is 45% alcohol by volume... Not the most awful moonshine I've ever tasted either. The mountain itself was highlighted by the monkeys, who inhabit the stairwells leading up, and the nats, who inhabit the temples on and around the mountain. The nats are basically guardian spirits - pre-Buddhist era deities, which were kept around just in case. My favorite was the patron saint of gamblers (who gets whiskey bottles as offerings) - clearly, if you're going to get started in cock fighting, you might as well have your bases covered, since I'm not sure Buddha himself has ever revealed his true feelings on the subject.

Bagan, Day 2: Bring on the temples in full force! I got up, rented a bike, picked up a detailed map, and headed off, camera at the ready. I only returned after the sun had set. Along the way...

The beautiful Ananda Phaya, sporting a Golden Peak

Maha-Bodi Pagoda, closely resembling the one in Bohdgaya, India, at the spot where Buddha achieved enlightenment.

If you have a minor fortune, and remembered to bring most of it with you, in crisp new American dollar bills, to Myanmar, you can afford to take in sunrise over Bagan from a balloon. I was happy to settle for taking pictures of the balloons floating over the Gaw-daw-palin Temple

And then, of course, there is the small matter of the sun - setting and rising, creating a spectacular sight over the temple-filled plains. There is a few temples that you can scale and join a couple dozen other tourists gazing away at the spectacle of the sun coming up and down over the horizon. Snapping away lots of pictures, of course, as was I:

Sunset view from atop the Buledi Temple. That-byin-nyu Temple featuring prominently in the middle

The temples leaving nothing but silhouettes behind as the sun descends

And a little before seven the following morning, the sun comes back up into the sky, basking everything around in a deep red colour.

By the middle of my third (and last) day in Bagan, I was getting a little tired, after spending the previous day and a half on a bike, temple-hopping, and dodging the crowds of souvenir trinket salesmen (sales-children?), not to mention the whole getting up in time to see the sunrise thing. But it's the crowds of souvenir hawkers that really start to wear on you (the locals are clearly keenly aware that Bagan is the prime tourist attraction of their country). So, at about 2 in the afternoon, feeling like I had dodged the crowds enough to see all the temples I had wanted to see, I felt ready to head back and relax for an afternoon. But then I spotted this guy, while at Dhamma-ya-za-ka Zedi

I was intrigued...

The temple was clearly huge, and I was making a point to hit most of the big ones, but they were generally specially marked on my map, and attracted throngs of tourists. This one I was having trouble identifying and couldn't see anyone there. So, I hopped back on the bike and headed in the general direction trying to navigate the sandy goat paths, and remaining glad that I had chosen to pay extra for a proper mountain bike, with its thick spiky tires, and 7 gears. After 15 minutes of traversing the worst goat-paths yet, I arrived, and was greeted by the glorious sounds of ... silence! I had the place (Pya-tha-da Pagoda, as I later identified it by triangulating my position relative to the other big temples I could see) all to myself. No tourists, no salespeople, no shady ruby dealers, no kids following you around the whole temple, offering some postcards (or a copy of Orwell's Burma Days), just Buddha sitting there, in glorious, serene, meditative silence. I was starting to feel like I could relate to Buddha... After making a circle through the temple's interior, I emerged, ready to head home, but now I finally saw somebody stir in the nearby shade - ahh, I wasn't alone after all... I was ready to ignore the man, but instead of coming up to ask "Where you come from?" (the de facto tourist greeting around these parts), he just called out "You want to go?" I had to think about this for a moment, but soon enough the image of the closed off staircase popped into my head
- go up?
- yes
- yes, definitely!
So, in summary, Pya-tha-da actually got better at this point, when the gatekeeper let me up onto the roof. Not showing any desire to sell me anything in the process, nor to find out where I come from... In fact, the only desire I was able to discern was to lock the staircase back up after I was done, head back to his spot in the shade, and go back to napping. I liked the guy, and his temple!