A long day's drive lies ahead of us. But first, we stop at the little transportation town and to the market.
Watching the long boats maneuver through the small canals was interesting. Talk about a traffic jam.
The town was full of people and vibrant colors.
The drive to Kakku was a long, bumpy, hot, crowded one. But so very worth it.
The Pa-O people are from this region, and they also manage this site through a collective. We had to stop and pick up our very own Pa-O guide in Taunggyi. He was a delightful young man who was dressed in his people's traditional costume. He did tell us that he wears jeans to his college classes, though. The people believe they are descended from a father who was a shaman and a mother who was a dragon. The legend has it that the dragon mother gave birth to three eggs, one of which hatched the Pa-O people. The turban that they wear is symbolic of this legend. The men wear their turban as a shaman might, and the women's style mimics a dragon's head. Our guide was nice enough to stand near the Pa-O mini-stupa that has symbols of his ancestors positioned on the front. We could see the different hear gear and how that is translated in their turban styles.
The Kakku complex is breath-taking. As we walked through the center aisle, all the bells on the stupa umbrellas were tinkling. It was magical. Every stupa is slightly different, despite how uniform they look en masse. When you look closely, there are so many details to see, so many places to point the camera.
At one point I was alone in the field of stupas and all the bells went silent. The wind had stopped and there was just…silence. It lasted only a few moments, but it was a small pause in the peaceful harmony that only seemed to enhance the sound of the bells when they started back up again.
I walked with our guide as we were leaving and asked him some questions about the stupas, specifically how many there were. He said, "There are about two thousand four hundred stupas, but we will go someplace where the two thousand four hundred become four thousand eight hundred." I thought about it for a moment, and then asked if there was a pond nearby. He smiled and said, "You guessed!"
And while the pond was very small and nothing to look at on its own, the reflection it produced was miraculous. It brought tears to my eyes.
Watching the long boats maneuver through the small canals was interesting. Talk about a traffic jam.
The town was full of people and vibrant colors.
The drive to Kakku was a long, bumpy, hot, crowded one. But so very worth it.
The Pa-O people are from this region, and they also manage this site through a collective. We had to stop and pick up our very own Pa-O guide in Taunggyi. He was a delightful young man who was dressed in his people's traditional costume. He did tell us that he wears jeans to his college classes, though. The people believe they are descended from a father who was a shaman and a mother who was a dragon. The legend has it that the dragon mother gave birth to three eggs, one of which hatched the Pa-O people. The turban that they wear is symbolic of this legend. The men wear their turban as a shaman might, and the women's style mimics a dragon's head. Our guide was nice enough to stand near the Pa-O mini-stupa that has symbols of his ancestors positioned on the front. We could see the different hear gear and how that is translated in their turban styles.
The Kakku complex is breath-taking. As we walked through the center aisle, all the bells on the stupa umbrellas were tinkling. It was magical. Every stupa is slightly different, despite how uniform they look en masse. When you look closely, there are so many details to see, so many places to point the camera.
At one point I was alone in the field of stupas and all the bells went silent. The wind had stopped and there was just…silence. It lasted only a few moments, but it was a small pause in the peaceful harmony that only seemed to enhance the sound of the bells when they started back up again.
I walked with our guide as we were leaving and asked him some questions about the stupas, specifically how many there were. He said, "There are about two thousand four hundred stupas, but we will go someplace where the two thousand four hundred become four thousand eight hundred." I thought about it for a moment, and then asked if there was a pond nearby. He smiled and said, "You guessed!"
And while the pond was very small and nothing to look at on its own, the reflection it produced was miraculous. It brought tears to my eyes.
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