Mandalay Mandalay

I first visited Mandalay two years ago when I spent my time at the the U Bein teak bridge at Amarapura, the temples, palace and nunnery of Sagaing and the "mini Bagan" at Paleik. Returning earlier this month I wanted to see more of the daily life of Mandalay's citizens and to capture snapshots of it in a photographic record.

Central Market, Mandalay

With this in mind I began by exploring some of Mandalay's many markets. Perhaps the most interesting is the central market with its hundreds of vendors offering fresh fruit and vegetables, flowers, fish, meat, electrical goods, clothes both new and second hand and almost anything else you can think of. It includes a covered area, street stalls and informal vending that takes place on the railway lines behind the main building. Trains still operate here and when they are heard approaching the vendors quickly gather upon the parasols used for protection from the sun, place their goods between the lines and retreat for the few minutes it takes for the train to pass. Within seconds of the train going by, the parasols are back in place, the goods recovered and business is resumed. The whole thing is managed quickly, without fuss and with minimum of disruption to business. I tried to imagine something like this happening at home...

The train arrives

The vast majority of the stall holders are women. Many of them come from surrounding towns and villages, getting up early to bring their goods to Mandalay and to find a good position in the market. Daw Pu lives in Medaya, an outlying village. She gets up at 3 a.m. every day to take the bus to the city, carrying her stock with her and returns home in the late afternoon. I asked her if she goes to bed early, but no she stays up until 10 or 11, attending to tasks at home. She has four children, two of them at university. Several of the vendors told me they had children with degrees or studying for them and were rightly proud of this having worked hard so that the next generation can prosper. I photographed her and returned with a copy of the picture for her the next day. She insisted I take some butter beans in exchange! Several of the vendors agreed to be photographed and were a little surprised when I returned to hand them a picture. These included two very stylish young women, one selling vegetables the other selling clothes and who appeared to have recently spent some time as a nun.

Daw Pu from Medaya

Young vegetable vendor, Central Market

Young women with a clothing stall, Central Market

The tea man's son

Last year in India I became very fond of Indian style tea - hot, sweet and milky. I was happy to find it being sold on just about every street corner in Myanmar and consumed significant amounts of it. The central market has a number of tea stalls and I took a little time out to enjoy a cup at one of them. The owner's young son, perhaps four or five years old sat opposite me, assiduously ignoring my efforts to engage him. To my surprise he began singing something to the tune of Frere Jacques. It turned out to be the the Myanmar (Burmese) lyrics of that very song. I decided to turn the tables on him and joined in singing the French lyrics that I learned many years ago at school. Now it was his turn to be surprised. 

The fish market is a short walk from the banks of the Ayeyarwady river where at least some of the produce is caught. Walking through its pungent alleys I came across a small open fronted factory where people were making fish paste. I was struck not only by the overpowering smell but also by the visual impact of the backdrop to their work - peeling green painted walls bearing a couple of framed photographs and what appeared to be a small floral decorated shrine. I pointed the camera to take a candid shot just as one of the checked shirt clad women saw me and called out "don't show the picture to the boss, some of them are asleep in here" - much to the amusement of her colleagues. I was to come across a well-developed sense of humour throughout my time in Myanmar, something that gladdened my already won-over heart. 

I was introduced to what quickly became a favourite Mandalay stopping off point during this visit - the Arkar Min tea shop. I had breakfast here twice - excellent chai-style tea (which comes with a huge pot of green tea for free!) accompanied by fried chick-peas and a very crispy version of nan bread. Delicious. Just across the road from the tea shop there is a small local market. It was there that I noticed the first of many female butchers I was to come across in Myanmar - something rarely seen in the west.

Some of the produce sold in Mandalay's markets is manufactured in small factories tucked away in the city's many narrow lanes. These cottage industries provide employment for many people, often from several generations of the same family. Some operate from relatively sophisticated premises, easily recognisable as manufacturing concerns whilst others work within the living space of the owner. I visited a number of these businesses including one selling super chewy toffee, very tasty but devilish for the fillings. Another makes fried savoury crispy snacks. This one was especially interesting as packing for distribution to shops and markets was carried out on the bedroom floor of the owner who sat regally on her bed keeping an eye on things from above. In a second room two women sat beside a stove, dropping the flour based mixture into sizzling hot oil for a few seconds before lifting them out already cooked and ready for cooling and packing. They handed me one to taste. It was so hot I almost dropped it. 

Don't show the picture to the boss...

Female butcher near the Arkar Min tea shop

Making savoury snacks, a cottage industry

A short walk from the snack maker's place I noticed an elderly man sitting outside his house. U Than Myint smiled and waved and I greeted him with one of my few words of Myanmar mingalabar meaning hello. He responded in kind and I stopped to talk to him for a while. He told me that both him and his wife are in their eighties and whilst he appeared to be in good health, she was somewhat frail. He grew up in the countryside and had worked initially as a bullock-cart driver before coming to Mandalay where his family now have a car repair business as well as selling snacks. He has four grown-up children, two boys and two girls. He went on to say that his daughters are not married and looked after him and his wife but that the sons who have families of their own were only focussed on work. I am often surprised at how candid strangers can be when talking about themselves and those near to them. I liked his kind, youthful face. He let me photograph him and I agreed to go and look for him again when I am next in the city.

U Than Myint, former bullock cart driver and now businessman

On the riverside at 6.30 in the morning, I met some people who I may not be able to find next time I am here. The city authorities are undertaking a number of projects to improve the quality of life of their residents. These include working in partnership with Japanese cities to improve the infrastructure and environment. Related work is being undertaken to clean up the banks of the Ayeyarwady. Thousands of people have made their homes here for decades. Some live in makeshift structures temporarily in order to be near their place of work when crops are produced here during the dry season when the water recedes to reveal extremely fertile soil. Others live here more permanently and have nowhere else to go.  As part of a beautification project many of these homes have been removed and the residents offered new, relatively cheap accommodation in purpose built flats with electricity and running water. Many have taken up the offer, others have not including a mother and her young daughter that were preparing rice for breakfast as I walked beside the river. The woman and her husband work as porters unloading goods brought down the river for sale in the markets. They have six children. The two eldest are being educated in a monastery, the two youngest are less than 18 months old. Desperately poor she still offered to share her rice with me. Where will they be this time next year I wonder.

Preparing rice on the river bank

Novice monks, a face in the crowd

I was up and out early that morning in order to see the monks out collecting donations. Monks and nuns are a ubiquitous presence in Myanmar. One afternoon after eating lunch at a quiet monastery near the centre of the city I noticed a large group of novice monks crowding around a snack stall. All of them were from Shan state in the north of the country and had been sent to Mandalay to study. The light was especially strong that day. Streaks of light and shadows from the trees played against the bright colours of the boys' robes and I couldn't resist a picture. I later realised that one of the young monks had turned around and smiled directly at the camera, a face in the crowd.

Arriving in Mandalay by car, I passed through an area known for its stone carving workshops. The street is filled with hundreds, possibly thousands of Buddha statues in different sizes and at different stages of production. Everywhere there is dust from the work of the artisans many of whom are themselves covered in the white particles produced by the carving and dusting of the figures. Few wear protective clothing and many do not even wear masks. I am told that they believe eating bananas after work helps offset the impact of breathing in the dust. I hope they are right. Several women are involved in the industry, primarily in cleaning and dusting the particles from the sculptures. One of them, fixing a drill, posed for a picture.

Woman worker, stone carving workshop

Entrance to a temple, Paleik

The girl with curly hair, Paleik

Although I spent most of my time in the city itself on this visit, I was keen to go back to Paleik, a village and archaeological site 18 kilometres south of the city. It is home to several hundred stupas, many of them ruined and some in the process of being reclaimed by nature. The village is home to several family run weaving businesses and the clacking of machines, both hand-operated and automatic can be heard everywhere. I like wandering amongst the stupas and the villagers are extremely friendly. Some of them came outside to say hello, including a deaf woman who was insistent that I should photograph one of her three children. The curly-haired little girl was wearing a beautiful coat probably made in the village.

I also met Daw Hla Hla standing outside her house which is more than 100 years old. She is 69, her husband 70 and still working in the fields. Most of their income comes from the sale of charcoal, used for cooking. They also grow and sell mangos. Daw Hla Hla was very proud of her children, one of whom is an engineer. She kindly invited me into her house to look at photographs of her when she was much younger including a beautiful picture of her and her husband at the time of their wedding. I left her standing proudly on the steps of her home, in front of the original heavy doors.

I've written this before, but Mandalay is one of those cities that fires the imagination through its very name. Much of its historical centre and mystique was destroyed in the Second World War but it retains a certain charm, full of life and possibilities. Those charms are not at first obvious but given a little time, gradually unfold and draw the discerning visitor in. Three nights was not enough. I miss the place already.

Daw Hla Hla, Paleik

You might also like Return To Yangon  or Myanmar Journey Part 2 - The Road To Mandalay

You can see more pictures of Myanmar here

Myanmar Journey Part Two - The Road To Mandalay

Mandalay is one of those cities that stirs the imagination. Distant, somehow mystical in the same way as Timbuktu or Lhasa, yet somehow familiar. For some of us it's because of the reference to the city in the children's song Nelly The Elephant ...they met one night in the silver light on the road to Mandalay.... For others it's the mistaken belief that Bing Crosby and Bob Hope made a film called The Road To Mandalay in their famous Road series. Although such a film was planned, the title was changed to Singapore and Mandalay was omitted. And of course there's Kipling's poem Mandalay which doesn't really pass muster today with some references and use of language that might best be described as being of their time.

White stupas, Kuthodaw pagoda

My road to Mandalay was mainly in the air on a short flight from Yangon to the airport at Tada-U, 35 kilometres away from the city. I was met there by my guide and driver who delivered me to my riverside hotel but not before I had touched a snake, seen an elephant, an astonishingly colorful procession and enjoyed the temple ruins of Paleik.

The Hmwe Paya temple in Paleik is widely known as the snake temple because of a group of pythons that made their way there in 1974 and despite efforts to keep them away insisted on returning and were eventually allowed to remain. When I arrived at the temple, shortly before 11 a.m. the pythons were resting, apparently asleep at the foot of one of the Buddha statues. People were beginning to gather for the daily ritual of seeing the snakes being washed and fed by the two men that care for them. To my astonishment people were touching the snakes, even stroking them  believing them to be holy. My guide, Myoswe encouraged me to do so too. I am not particularly scared of snakes but nor have I ever wanted to hold one or drape one around my shoulders as some visitors to the temple do. Eventually, to the amusement of the other visitors, I managed to touch the smaller of the two pythons with the tip of my middle finger. Shortly before 11, a tiled bath was filled with water and rose petals and the snakes were bathed and then fed scrambled eggs by both the carers and visitors, some of latter coming forward to have their photograph taken holding or feeding them.

Feeding the snakes at Paleik

Mythical creatures in the Paleik ruins

Western influenced architecture, Paleik

A short distance from the temple there is a large collection of decaying stupas and a small village where there are several mostly mechanised weaving workshops in which the work includes dyeing the textiles as well as producing garments and household items. As with everywhere else I visited in Myanmar, people called hello or mingalabar as we passed by. 

It was in the village that I had my first encounter with the ubiquitous betel, chewed by both men and women of all ages. Four young men were playing a vigorous game of carom, a board game, proceeding at pace, chewing and then spitting deep red juice onto the ground as they played. The betel consists of areca nuts, tobacco and sometimes other ingredients wrapped in a leaf brushed with slaked lime. The nut produces a red liquid which is not swallowed but spat out. This is the explanation for the red blotches you can see on the ground, footpath and roads all over the country. You can also see people carrying small plastic bags for the same purpose. The betel produces a kick similar to that of coffee or cigarettes but also causes damage to the teeth and can lead to oral cancer. Despite this its use is widespread.  

The temple ruins receive few visitors despite the interesting mix of golden covered stupas and prayer halls some of which surprisingly exhibit western architectural influences. There are more than 300 temples in total dating from the 14th century. Some are in the process of being reclaimed by nature as the vegetation begins to take over.  

Cattle drawn carriage on the way to the novitiation ceremony

Novitiation ceremony procession

Back on the road to the city and a few kilometers on we ran into a long, colourful procession involving carts, people in brightly colourful clothes, loud music and even an elephant on the way to a novitiation ceremony which is called Shinbyu Pwe. The children who are to be novice monks are dressed in costumes like those of a prince or a king and ride on a horse or in a carriage, protected from the sun by a parasol. The children of wealthier families may even ride on an elephant as in the parade I saw. The process symbolizes the journey of Prince Siddhartha as he relinquished the world of possessions in the first step towards enlightenment and becoming the Buddha. 

Not long after passing the novitiate procession, we arrived in the city. Mandalay is a busy, modern  place of more than one million people and I was immediately struck by the volume of motor-cycles. In recent years motor cycles have almost entirely replaced bicycles due to the availability of cheap Chinese imports. Visitors looking for the Mandalay of Kipling might have to look very hard. Japanese air raids destroyed 3/5 of all the city's houses in 1942 whilst the British flattened the Royal Palace in a major bombing raid at the war's end in 1945. Although the palace has been faithfully reconstructed, I was reminded of my time in Manila last year which had a similar wartime experience albeit on a larger scale. 

The view from Mandalay Hill

Detail, Shwenandaw monastery

Detail, Shwenandaw monastery

On reaching the city, we headed for Mandalay Hill with its spectacular views that stretch to the Ayeyarwady River (which readers in the UK might know as the Irrawaddy). I loved the Kuthodaw Pagoda (pictured at the top of this post) at the foot of the hill with its white, gold topped stupas. Completed in 1868 during the reign of King Mindon, the pagoda is famous for being home to the world's biggest book - consisting of 730 stone leaves, 107 cm wide, 153 cm tall and 13cm thick. The pages carry the canonical texts of Theravada Buddhism and are inscribed in the ancient Pali language. Each page is housed in a small roofed structure with a precious stone at the top.

The Shwenandaw monastery is a short step away from Kuthadaw. Built as a royal residence in the nineteenth century under the direction of King Thibaw, it originally stood in Amarapura, which will feature later in this post. The building was later dismantled and brought to Mandalay to be used as a monastery. Constructed in teak it features beautiful carvings depicting figures and stories from Buddhism.

Mandalay was once the capital city of Myanmar and to some extent remains a cultural capital with music venues, theatrical performances and authentic marionette shows. Marionettes have been an integral part of Myanmar culture for centuries. The shows may tell stories from the life of Buddha or folklore whilst others tell stories from the former royal courts. The marionettes can be up to one metre high and manipulation of their dozen or more strings is a highly skilled operation. Over the last several decades the art has seriously declined to the point where it was felt to be dying. There are now efforts to revive it, mainly by Mandalay Marionettes - a small theatre running nightly shows that include traditional music and dance as well as the puppets. Before the show commences, there are brief explanations in English of the stories and of the instruments in the small orchestra. In the old days shows could last all night - these ones last for an hour and conclude with a humorous exchange between the musicians and the puppeteers. I attended a performance during my stay in the city and thoroughly enjoyed it. If you wish you can buy puppets to take home from the theatre itself as well as from just about any market or souvenir shop in the country.

Marionettes for sale

The Ayeyarwady river runs through Mandalay on its way from the far north of the country all the way to the Indian Ocean. It provides an alternative means of exploring the country and visiting the many temples, towns and villages close to the city. During the dry season, it also provides temporary farming land as islands emerge when the water recedes. The soil is so rich that farmers can grow two crops in eight months, usually peanuts and watermelons. When the rainy season commences and the water begins to rise, they move, along with their families, to cheaper rental accommodation in the city. The river is also used to transport goods to and from markets, to do the weekly washing and as a tourist attraction as visitors travel by boat between different towns and villages.

Part of the Setkay Thida nunnery

Ruined temple, Ava

I took a boat from the jetty near my hotel, arriving first at Sagaing, 25 kilometers south of Mandalay on the opposite side of the river. As the boat approaches the city, Sagaing Hill rises up with its many stupas. The village is one of the chosen locations for visitors who come to Myanmar to meditate. It is also where one of the country's largest nunneries - the Setkay Thida - is located. Visitors are welcome and can see the many pink clad nuns paying respect to the Buddha.

Back on the river, my next stop was at the former capital city, originally known as Ava but now called Inwa. Today it is a quiet, rural place scattered with ruins of the old city walls, stupas and other reminders of its glorious past. Like most visitors, I toured Ava on a horse-drawn carriage stopping off at the sites, some of which I had almost to myself.

Maha Aungyme Bonzan, Ava

Carved peacock, Bagaya Kyaung, Ava

Rice field and stupa, Ava

Working in the rice field, Ava

The Maha Aungyme Bonzan is  gorgeous, fortress-like stucco covered structure was built in 1818 by Queen Me Nu as a home for the Royal Abbott. At a time when most monasteries were built from wood, its brick construction led it to sometimes be referred to as the "brick monastery". It was damaged by an earthquake in 1838 but restored before the end of the nineteenth century. Guarded by two mythological Burmese lions it is home to a large colony of bats who I am told can be seen taking off en masse at dusk as they go to look for food.

Ava still has a beautiful wooden monastery - Bagaya Kyaung, made of teak and built in 1834 during the city's final period as a royal capital. It is still a working monastery and includes a small school for the younger monks. It is exquisitely decorated with carved figures and peacocks and flowers painted on the internal surfaces.

In addition to temples and monasteries there are many banana plantations in Ava. I like bananas. I especially love the deep red colour and rubbery texture of the hood-like bract on a maturing banana plant. I really wanted to get some pictures of these and of a full banana plant and my excellent guide Myoswe accommodated this slight eccentricity by walking through the fields with me until we found some. Please indulge me by enjoying the photographs below!

Bananas!

Fallen banana bract

Amarapura is a small town just 11 kilometers south of central Mandalay. The Maha Gandyon monastery is home to hundreds of monks and some beautifully restored prayer halls. The abbott, Ashin Kelasa,  receives visitors within certain hours and as in other monasteries, people come to seek his advice and guidance. He is also the author of a number of books on Theravada Buddhism.

Monasteries are a key element in Myanmar society where more than 80% of the population are Theravada Buddhists. At some point during their lives, all Buddhist men will spend some time as a monk. As well as providing guidance and teaching in Buddhism, the younger monks will learn reading, writing, mathematics and other academic subjects. This is vital as although access to primary education is free, children must provide their own books and other materials which is often not possible for the poorest families. At Maha Gandyon there is also a project to provide work for women from the surrounding villages.

Local women employed at the Maha Gandyon monastery

Shoes (and socks) must be removed before entering monasteries and temples

The spectacular U Bein footbridge is a short distance from the monastery. It stretches 1200 metres across Lake Taungthaman. Constructed entirely of teak in 1859, there are more than 1000 columns that support the bridge. Some of the original teak columns have been replaced with concrete. Together with hundreds of other visitors (and locals) I visited the bridge to see the sunset but in sufficient time to first walk its length and have a look around the small settlement on the opposite side of the lake where there is a pretty pagoda complex with many ceiling paintings. However, the highlight of the other side of the bridge (at least for me) was a small street food stall where a young woman was cooking and selling very thin savoury pancakes topped with chillies, tomatoes and herbs, which were then folded and sliced. Delicious. And very cheap too. That pancake alone was worth the walk across the bridge!

Street food near the U-Bein bridge

Small temple complex near the U-Bein bridge

After a quick visit to the temple and longing looks at the pancake stall on my way back to the bridge, I was stopped by two young monks one of whom was pointing to his camera. At first I thought they wanted me to take their photograph, but no, they wanted to have their picture taken with me. My guide obliged and I removed my hat for the camera - to much hilarity on their part as they realised I probably have less hair than they do! Smiles and thanks and on I went to the centre of the bridge where there are steps down to a small cafe set up on the land exposed during the dry season. As the sun began to go down, hundreds of people gathered, many of them in small boats in the centre of the lake. The Myanmar sunset comes quickly and leaves the sky a deep orange.  At Amarapura it silhouettes the people on the bridge and provides opportunities for great photography. Unfortunately my low light photography skills are not good. In fact they are terrible and so I sat back and enjoyed the beauty of it all, unencumbered by my camera. A great way to end another great day in Myanmar.

U-Bein bridge just before sunset

You might also like Myanmar Journey Part One - Yangon.

You can see more pictures of Myanmar here.