Ananda Pagoda Festival, Bagan

 Often at pagoda festivals there are concerts in the evening. A stage is constructed within a few hours and the audience sits on the ground in the open air watching Burmese classical dancing and modern dancing too, interspersed with singers and comedians. The concerts mostly start at nine in the evening and can last all night. Whether this one lasted all night, I cannot say, because some of us need our beauty sleep.

Next morning we returned to the Ananda to take photos in daylight as last night’s were a bit dark. I noticed that on the top of the head of all the Buddha images here there are little topknots of hair. Apparently when the Buddha left the palace and his staff he decided his long hair would need attention by him and he didn’t want this distraction from his meditation. He therefore wound his hair into a topknot. They say only Buddha images from Bagan have this distinctive feature.

It is especially sad that the Ananda was damaged in the earthquake as the government of India has a ‘Project of Conservation and Preservation of Ananda Temple at Bagan’.The pagoda is now a pale sandstone colour and is clean but, worryingly, they have used chemicals to clean it.

We visited two nearby villages to give away glasses. At Thiri farming village we made nine people happy. At Gandgar village where the people either farm or fish in the Ayeyarwady that flows at the bottom of the hill, we made eight people happy with eye-glasses and two others with sunglasses. Invariably a young person in a village will come forward to help Saya Htay take the glasses in or out of their cases. Here a young man helped me write their (difficult) names. So sunglasses to give away are very helpful too.

Bagan is an ancient city, proclaimed so by UNESCO.  It is celebrated for its more than 1,000 pagodas, its lacquerware and weaving workshops, its many splendid hotels and its many more restaurants. All looks affluent and business ventures thrive but all is not so a few kilometres outside the city walls. The people there are very poor, though a sign over a teashop reads: Myanmar Brimming with Confidence!

We reach Aye War village of 250 people who farm peanuts, beans and rice. Their toddy palms may be the tallest I’ve seen reaching up 60 to 70 feet. The toddy tappers climb them twice a day cutting into the top of the tree and bringing down the sugary sap. In the village the liquid is boiled until it has evaporated and only jaggery remains. Left unboiled, the liquid becomes alcoholic hence: toddy. I’m always happy when we give glasses to toddy tappers as one false move at the top of the tree could be (and has been) fatal.

People at Gyo Gan village said they were amazed that we visiting them. I was amazed too given the track was mainly several feet of sand. I was sure we’d need bullocks to pull the car out. With Win San’s many years experience over all sorts of terrain we didn’t get stuck. The villagers were great fun: laughing at each other’s ‘new look’ then going to their houses to bring us one gift after another of peanuts. Some were even shelled and ready to snack on!

In the two villages we visited that day we gave away 36 pairs of glasses.