Mandalay is the main area in Indochina for the production of gold leaf and having seen what they go through to make it, we are not surprised it isn’t done anywhere else!
They pack the small piece of melted gold in between special layers of bamboo paper, wrap it in bamboo then manually hammer the hell out of it for 6 hours solid.
After this a bunch of very small Burmese ladies pack it into the different sizes of squares again in bamboo sheets and package it up for sale to the pagodas for people to buy as offerings. Just unbelievable how manual the whole thing was.
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| This guy is measuring and weighing the gold leaf and packaging into little packets so they can be bought for Burmese people to apply to a Buddha. It seems like the whole of Burma is getting covered in gold. |
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The gold leaf is smacked for 6 hours. each worker hammers for about 5 minutes then breaks for about 2 minutes. The timer is a coconut shell where water runs out of a hole like the sand in an egg timer.
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| Gold leaf being packed in Bamboo paper - hands are coated in ground bone which is used like talc. |
From there we went on to Amarapura a former capital of Myanmar. Mandalay and these old capitals around it are known as the home of the monks as most of the major monasteries are in these areas. It was a major focus area during the Saffron revolution where the monks demonstrated against the military government because the level of poverty was so badand the cost of living rising so rapidly. Our first stop was the Mahagandayon Monastery which is the top education place for monks and a place is much prized. It houses 1500 monks from novices through to some of the most revered and respected monks in Myanmar. We saw the lunchtime alms service where they receive their food in their "alms" bowls donated by Burmese people and walked round the campus to see where they study live.
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| We saw the lunchtime alms service where they receive their food in their "alms" bowls donated by Burmese people and walked round the campus to see where they study live. |
A quick run round the local market in Saigun where Mandy was soon like the pied piper giving candy to the children and where Janette tried out the local beauty product Thanaka.
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| The locals take 20 years off Janette, barely recognised her! |
Had to be done ! Steve carried on his tradition of "chief odd thing eater" by trying an egg cooked in lime and husks which ended up as an egg jelly – all revolting stuff…not one of his better ideas and Paul meanwhile caused much amusement to the local ladies when he was caught looking at the local traditional shampoo which is supposed to give you luscious locks !
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| The tarantula was much nicer than this egg !! |
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| The one Chelsea supporter in Myanmar |
Then on to Sagaing Hill which is covered in pagodas and is regarded as the religious centre of Myanmar. We visited the Swan Oo Pon Nya Shin pagoda where Janette was captured by friendly nuns who wanted their picture take her
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Nuns always wear pink where as monks always wear orange or red....nice picture for the mantel piece.
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| Janette having a religious experience. They have abducted Janette and look like they are going to ransom her blue eyes and white skin for charity |
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| Now, its customary for senior corrupt generals to donate a large financial gift to Buddha and in return has safe passage to Nirvana is assured - This is a picture of such a gift ceremony although he is probably only handing pack money he stole in the first place. |
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| View from the Temple - for as far as the ey can see, there are gold temples everwhere |
There are thousands of pagodas in Myanmar - Gold painting of them is fairly recent - 19th century onwards and now they appear to have gone gold crazy
On then to Ava which was the capital in the 14th century and yes you guessed it, we managed to sneak in another boat trip as Ava is an island ! This one was a piece of cake by our standards…. However the next challenge was already in sight. You can only travel by horse and cart on Ava, so into two horse and carts we piled and these poor horses had to cart us round to the pagoda. The carts had obviously been in use since the 14th century and the horses looked as thin as the cows, however we made it and again another site, a teak monastery built from teak posts so big that all the trees had to be over 100 years old all looked after by one sweet little old monk who lives in there with his cat, 2 kittens and a very cute little puppy who followed us round the whole place.
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| Janette on yet another death defying walk of the plank - shes gone all quiet !!! |
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| Taxi Rank Ava style |
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| Well we certainly were not smiling after that little ride on the "arthritis express" |
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| Paul and Mandy in the back of their luxury bone shaker |
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| Roast Duck, whole duck or half a duck...that's the menu |
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| The Teak Monastary |
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| Last stop today was the U Bain bridge, the worlds longest teak bridge at 1.2 Km long where we watched the sun go down amongst lots of local people. Just lovely |
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| You are never short of a monk when you need on for your picture and this bridge has been well photographed over the years |
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