After we docked at Bagan, a World Heritage site, we boarded a bus to visit an overwhelming array of almost 3,000 temples and stupas covering 25 square miles. Stupas are usually gilded solid structures with a dome and a reliquary while temples are composed of river bank mud bricks and are places of
Buddhist worship. This land of pagodas is sustained by farming sesame and peanuts for oil. During the “Silk Road” period, the Burmese traded lacquerware and oil for other goods.
One evening some local puppeteers presented a Burmese puppet show featuring a monkey, a flying sorcerer and a nat (spirit puppet). Before we could visit Yandabo, famous for its terracotta pottery, Daniel supervised the crew in making steps in the clay bank so we could get to the road. I always had one of the crew as my personal assistant in addition to Kathy to maneuver the uneven terrain.
