two shots wandering the streets of Nyuang Shwe.
What a brick pagoda looks like showing it’s age
Lawn care Myanmar style
Having gotten my boating trip done I rented a bycicle to explore the area a bit further out of town. First stop the teak monestary. The building needs some work but still very much in use. You can see monks sitting in the wall opennings at morning prayers. Notice the dark reddish brown color of the robes. My guide at the Shweduang temple back in Yangoon told me the subdued earth color was to show humility, shunning the more flashy saffron robes in Thailand.
The inside of the monestary was polished to a high shine
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Here north of the lakes there are flat rice fields, the road doubles as a dike, holding back the smaller lake. There is quite a bit of road and infrastructure work, and water management.
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.These guys were lining the canal with stone concreted in using a 1/3 Yard gas mixer. Slow but steady
Moving on to the Cultural Museum, Last Shan Kings palace. There were some interesting ehibits, lots of old photos and interesting documents. Gathering by contesxt partly guessing, some historical politics seemed evident. The Shan state was a power in antiquty. Why Bagan could build so many temples. Today It’s one of if not the largest state makig up Myanmar. British consolidation of colonial rule was a gradual process. Starting in the south, Yangoon etc. where thier gunboats could get up the rivers. There are a lot of various ethnic tribes, mostly in the hills. The doc I found interesting was from the British signned with this Shan king in his palace and with leaders of these tribes. It seemed to lay out how the Shan would rule (under British Unbrella) these minoritys but also giving the tribes chiefs some representation. Date for this doc was I think 1847.
Also a couple shots of the cooler looking chiefs, can’t find the shot of the whole collection of all 14 of them.
There was a really nice large Budda constructed from Bamboo, the kings throne, in his throne room, Photo of the King & his queen in full regallia, and the actual robes. There was uniforms for a general, bodygaurds, regular soldiers and a few traditional dress of tribes folk.
And very nice seeing boats. These are pretty much what the standing rowing fishermen were in. No, in is not accurate. More like on. Like on a paddle board.
So moving on to the palace building it self. The place needs some serious maintenance & repair. Still a nice building. Travel fish.org had an interesting comment about the palace. Apparently the present day Shan & local monks were a big part of the “Monk uprising” in ,I think late ’90s,. So after the Junta got that put down they carted off a bunch of the nicer artifacts to some warehouse – & the Yangoon Museum as punishment. There was another, I assume older Shan Palace in a different Shan city which the Junta took all the stuff then bulldozed the building. A bit harsh if true!
Maybe explains the lack of Government maintenance budget
Here’s a pic which would better fit into the final Bagan post. But it’s from the absolutely delightful Nyuang She /Inle hotel “Aquaris”. First is the family girls Tharnaka spot. A couple more of some of the antiques & cultural things spread around the garden hotel out of room nooks.
Shawn's travel updates 