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Mrauk U

Temples here, there, pretty much everywhere

 

 

 

Mrauk U is all about temples, as far as the tourist is concerned  

 

some shiny...

 

 

...some hairy

 

 

More than 150 of them in the town 

 

 

 

 

and surrounding hills

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

see all those stupas poised in the background?

 

 

 

One of the most prominent is Shite Thaung, temple of 80,000 Buddhas

 

 

 

thousands of small ones

 

 

and one pretty-good-sized one

 

 

One day I engaged Tunbo, a local man, to guide me to several temples

 

One was Mipharagri-gu

a rather small one

 

 

 

Tunbo with the caretaker of the pagoda

 

 

 

The elegant way to see the temples

 

 

 

or the frugal way

Tunbo and I bike to Koe Thaung

 

 

Graven images galore!

 

 

The next day Tunbo and his friend Shwe Da guided me to Shwe Taung, the highest temple in Mrauk U

 

 

with a grand view of the environs

 

 

 

Something more modest?

 

 

While on a neighborhood walk I met 38-year-old Phyu Phyu

 

She offered to show me more temples

 

 

 

So we set off walking

 

 

with her friend Ma Chay

and parasol

(the Burmese do not want to darken their skin)

 

 

along the way encountering many kids

 

 

Some of the temples presented only hewn stone, inside and out

 

Others, like this one, contained numerous works of exquisite beauty

 

 

including story panels

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