Bagan: Where fields of pagodas dot an ancient city’s landscape

By Rahul Banerji

Myanmar On The Run continues, bringing us to the old, old city of Bagan, seat of power for Myanmar’s kings for a remarkable 55 generations before it was overrun by the Mongols in the 13^th century AD.

Between human devastation and nature’s fury in the form of earthquakes, a city once estimated to have had over 10,000 pagodas and temples of differing vintage and importance now boasts of “only” around 2,000, a number  slightly overwhelming for the fleeting visitor.

Unlike the in-a-hurry-to-modernise Yangon, Bagan retains a laid-back, almost rustic air. It is a spread out, a low-slung settlement that sprawls between Old Bagan and Nyaung Uand just its Archeological Area spreads out over a massive 26 square miles. People too are of a like, laid back and friendly.

That impression lasts till you run into a tuk-tuk or taxi driver, the local restaurateur or merchant in the Mani Sithu market, who are very good at chiseling out an extra kyat or ten if allowed to.

Good folks

Yet there’s an air of innocence, an absence of obvious avarice that robs such encounters of any edge or lingering after-thought. It’s all done with a grin, a smile, or a huge laugh especially at our stumbling attempts at bargain-hunting in Myanmarese.

There are more than a few ways of making your way around Bagan; by road, by water, and from the air. The city offers hot-air balloon rides that sends fleets of the bulbous monstrosities sailing into the sky at dawn for a literal bird’s eye view of the massed ruins, for a pretty penny.

I opted to keep my feet firmly planted on terra firma and was rewarded with close up views of the massive pagodas that dominate the skyline, the Shew ze Gone Pagoda and the Ananda Temple in particular.

Golden glow

Gold glitters everywhere on the domes and spires and with the Thadingyut festival of lights looming, it is elbow-room only at most places of worship. Yet it is all very courteous, no pushing and shoving and for the extremely devout Myanmarese it is part of the occasion, to be borne with a smile and a greeting.

Getting to Bagan needed a 10-hour, 650-km car journey from Yangon along the broad highway that connects the former capital with the new one, Nay Pi Taw, and beyond.

The road also has well-demarcated rest and recovery areas that combine ample parking spaces with a wide range of eateries and street stalls selling everything from biscuits to fried bats.

From the Mandalay-Bagan fork itself, it was another four-hour run till we pulled up outside our hotel, the quaint little Nanda Garden, filled with faux structures and a huge, slightly decrepit garden ruled by a group of lazy dogs and one little kitten who cleaned up my stock of fish papad in two sittings.

Having consciously shed agendas and time-tables, we had the time and space to see Bagan at leisure, mostly on foot, the rest by tuk-tuk.

Hidden treasure

The open-air, rustic Mani Sithu market is a heaving mass, but once you make the breakthrough into the deeper alleys of the bazaar, there is much to see and find including great examples of bronze work, lacquerware and high-quality cottons.

Oh, and Nanda Garden also provided us with our first full-blown Myanmarese breakfast. In Yangon, we largely had opted for the Mohinga, a fish and lentil soup with noodles. And crispy dal fritters plus a boiled egg. At Bagan we hit the jackpot.

Imagine an 11-course spread to start the day. Four kinds of fries (including onion-filled samosas), a soup of the day, a tomato curry and three other veg, shredded and fried chicken, cured pork slices, a chilly and anchovy concoction, all to go with huge helpings of rice, a fried egg and a fresh fruit platter.

Juice, tea and coffee not counted.

Also read: Crunching Myanmar in 12 days, means one is really on the run