Chinatown was ablaze with amazing light show of dancing horses in the sky. We took the kids through Chinatown to experience the celebrations, and we had a great time buying small trinkets.
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| Belle, Stephie and Basty in Chinatown |
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| colourful shophouses in Chinatown |
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| Stephie loves getting her hair washed at the hairdresser |
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| Basty and Jasper |
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| Sebastian prepared a tea-party for us |
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| Clouds in Singapore, sunset the night before Valentines 13/2/14 |
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| Jane received a beautiful bunch of flowers from the Angel Florist for Valentines |
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| sunrise at Sentosa |
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| mum's wig |
Fred and I went for 3 days, whilst he worked I checked out the temples and toured this amazing city. Myanmar is known as the 'golden land', and it was apparent with the amount of golden pagodas within the city and countryside. These pagodas are made of gold leaf, jewels and the amount of Buddha statues are countless. A country with amazing history, beautiful people and a real 'buzz' of new times ahead.
Shwedagon and the surrounding temples ... this is the northern view... you then walk around the entire compound with I have no words to describe, its just amazing.
Shwedagon Pagoda, Yangon.
"The origin of Shwedagon Pagoda materialized in brilliant epoch in Buddhist history over 2,600 years ago. In India, Prince Siddhartha had just attained Buddhahood when he was visited by two brothers Tapussa and Bhallika, merchants from Myanmar who offered a gift of honey cakes. In return, the Buddha personally removed eight hairs from his head and gave these to the tw...o brothers for enshrinement in their native town of Okkalapa which is now the City of Yangon. On their return, the two brothers presented the Buddha's hairs to the King of Okkalapa who erected the pagoda and enshrined the eight haris together with the relics of previous three Buddhas. The original height of the pagoda was 66 feet. From the 14th century onward successive monarchs in Myanmar rebuilt or regilded it until Shwedagon reached its present height of 326 feet (about 100 meters). It has mostly of gold, diamonds and precious jewels, and the gold itself is worth over $3B.
"The origin of Shwedagon Pagoda materialized in brilliant epoch in Buddhist history over 2,600 years ago. In India, Prince Siddhartha had just attained Buddhahood when he was visited by two brothers Tapussa and Bhallika, merchants from Myanmar who offered a gift of honey cakes. In return, the Buddha personally removed eight hairs from his head and gave these to the tw...o brothers for enshrinement in their native town of Okkalapa which is now the City of Yangon. On their return, the two brothers presented the Buddha's hairs to the King of Okkalapa who erected the pagoda and enshrined the eight haris together with the relics of previous three Buddhas. The original height of the pagoda was 66 feet. From the 14th century onward successive monarchs in Myanmar rebuilt or regilded it until Shwedagon reached its present height of 326 feet (about 100 meters). It has mostly of gold, diamonds and precious jewels, and the gold itself is worth over $3B.
The Shwedagon Pagoda platform occupies an area of 5.6 hectares, and is covered with buildings and smaller temples of all sizes, with hundreds of Buddha statues within.
The outside of Guatama Buddha's adoration hall, amazing intricate design
Guatama Buddha Image within this pagoda
Maha Titthadaganda bell, cast by King Tharrawaddy in 1841
Ceiling above the Maha Titthadaganda bell
Entry to Swedagon pagoda via the north gate (there are 4 of these entries to the Shwedagon Pagoda!)
Night time at the Shwedagon Pagoda: Chan-Thar-Gyi Buddha Image, it is the largest concrete image at the site ... and people worship and believe that it fulfills wishes
Night time at the Shwedagon Pagoda: Shin Izzagona's Buddha Image (this place had SO many Buddha's) ... apparently this Buddha was donated by a monk named Shin Izzagona during the Bagan period (11C). The monk had supernatural power that could turn brass to gold and had rained gold and silver treasures to the citizens. The Buddha image has eyes of unequal size, one small and one large, because with his miracle powers he replaced his blinded eyes with one from a goat and one from a cow.
Night time at the Shwedagon Pagoda: A little boy with his family
Night time at the Shwedagon Pagoda: stunning!!!
The Karaweik (Sanskrit for garuda, the legendary bird-mount of the Hindu god Vishnu) is located on the Royal Lake, it resembles the images of a traditional royal barge.
Chauk Htat Gyi Pagoda
The Buddha wears a crown encrusted with diamonds and other precious stones and clearly displays the 108 sole marks of a Buddha.
The reclining Buddha is 72 meters long and the third largest in Myanmar. It features life-like five feet wide glass eyes. The original Buddha image was built in 1907, and rebuilt in 1957
Beautiful Myanmar girls
The colonial buildings are in need of repair...
St Mary's Yangon, a stunning church. It was design by Jos Cuypers, son of the famous Dutch architect Pierre Cuypers who was responsible for Amsterdam's Rijkmuseum.
Local Yangon housing ... great security!
Supplies being taken to a waiting ferry
Outside Botataung Pagoda (where another hair relic is contained, the energy in this Pagoda was amazing).
Botataung Pagoda was named after the thousand military leaders who escorted relics of Buddha brought from India over 2000 years ago. The zedi (centre of the pagoda) is hollow and you can walk through it and it is all gold within with a centre to view the hair relic ... I didn't take photos (wasn't aware I was allowed to take pictures).
Golden Rock, or known as Kyaiktiyo, is one of the country's most revered Buddhist shrines. It weighs over 46 tons and its history stems from the 15 century.
A large construction style truck, filled with 60+ Myanmar pilgrims and me (sitting on benches in the back) went directly up a steep 1.1km road, to reach the peak ... and this amazing view!
The truck that took us up the 1.1km mountainside to the Golden Rock ... a hairy ride!!!! There was 60+ of us in the back of the truck. I didn't have local currency, and one of the guys behind me paid for my trip up, very kind of him!
I was the only non-local tourist on the back of the truck.
Golden Rock, or known as Kyaiktiyo, is one of the country's most revered Buddhist shrines. It weighs over 46 tons and its history stems from the 15 century.
Sir George Scott (1886) said "The boulder stands on the extreme verge of the bare rock and hangs over it as if a gust of wind or a few extra pounds add would make it topple over and crash down the dizzy height far away into the green valley below". (On this huge boulder a tiny gold pagoda is perched, photos from 1890 show it being there then).
The rock defies gravity ... it is naturally perched on a platform (with no support, or concrete) and the gold is culmination of the many pilgrims over time pressing gold leaf onto the rock
The hillside town next to Golden Rock
Supplies being carried to the local hotels & village at Golden Rock
Selfie with Golden Rock
One of Myanmar's most sacred sites, the Golden Rock contains one or more Buddha hair relics, believed to be balancing the boulder on the cliff face.I took a taxi 4 hours through the countryside to a different province of Myanmar (Mon State) - to see this amazing Golden Rock.
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