Stalls and vendors abound on the temple grounds, especially
on the big and popular ones. It makes sense: the tourists are there. It reminds
me of Jesus and his rampage over temple sellers, however.
Outside Ananda Temple was a huge tiangge (flea market), which would be running for the rest of this month. They call it a pagoda festival. Everything from clothes to food, tools to toys, amulets to artefacts are there on sale.
In Htolominlo Temple, local art was the offering. A man
pulled me over to show me his sand paintings. Another one placed a stone
carving of Buddha on my hand. A woman waved a small brass bell near my face.
Either the bell was ancient or was made to look ancient.
But the thing that caught my attention were two women with
brass coil rings on their necks, arms, and legs. They're Padaungs, an ethnic
group from central Myanmar. The name literally means "copper necks." At
age 9, they start putting brass coil rings on their necks and continue to add
more rings over time. Some of them have as many as 20 on their necks. The
practice gives the illusion that their necks are stretched disproportionately.
They're not. It's the shoulders and collarbones that are pushed and distorted.
The Padaungs remove these rings when they go to bed.
The women quietly tended a loom. The fabric they wove was
curiously similar to the ones our own Ifugaos make.
I left with mixed feelings. While I was pleased to see Padaungs in person (I've seen them in pictures and read a bit about them), I also felt uncomfortable at the way the tourists were gawking at them. A French woman called them "giraffa" - giraffe. I thought it was a bit like what we do in a zoo ...
Our trip to Bagan is almost done. Read my parting words in my Bagan Journal 7.
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