The Temples of Bagan

Bagan, Myanmar is one of Myanmar’s most famous tourist destinations, heartland of the first great pan-Burmese empire, whose legendary temples blanket the landscape.  There are many ways to explore Bagan’s temples, either by private car, bike, horse and cart, motorbike or scooter.  We tried two of the options, private car and electric scooter. Bagan proved to be the perfect place to explore by electric scooter and you see many people exploring the temples on scooters, motorbikes or bicycles.  The streets are relatively quiet, there are many sandy tracks that take you to villages and smaller temples, and traveling by electric scooter is great fun for kids and their parents.

Bagan is home to 2300 temples.  At one point Bagan was home to over 10,000 temples, all dating back to the 11th to 13th centuries.  Over the years the temples have been destroyed by earthquakes and other natural causes. The most recent earthquake on 24th August 2016 has left its mark on the temples of Bagan with many being damaged. Unfortunately for us many of the temples are now being repaired, so many are covered in scaffolding or sheets of tarpaulin, and several were unclimbable due to cracks and fallen debris, however there were still many we could explore in their full glory.

We spent hours wandering among the temples.  Some temples are only viewed from the outside but several we were allowed to enter.  We climbed up very steep steps to the tops of several temples, the reward being amazing views over Bagan and all of its temples.  Sometimes the steps were inside the temple and very dark, other times on the outside of the temple, rather precarious at times. Inside some of the temples we saw murals and fresco’s painted a thousand years ago.

One of our favourite temples was Shwe San Daw which we visited both at sunset and sunrise. You climb this monument up the outside, up very steep steps, it is very popular with tourists at these times but it is worthwhile for the beautiful views across many Bagan temples.

Whilst at some temples a group of nuns came past us. They were from Yangon and in Bagan to help with the temple clear up after the recent earthquake. They posed for a photograph with the boys.