Oct
15
to Oct 28
Myanmar (14 days)
A striking Journey in the Land of Golden Pagodas and unspoiled beauty.
Myanmar is a country rich not only in precious stones such as jade and gems, but rich in its ancient and the relatively untouched cultures of what was at one time the very epicenter of the largest empire in south east Asia.
Myanmar, formally known as Burma, has a history dating back some 400,000 years, of which cave paintings from before 6,000BCE displaying the life and times of the hunter-gatherers well before any thoughts of the modern world issues that cause issues as this relatively untouched country grows to meet modern world standards.
Floating Villages & Tattooed Faces
All though Myanmar is primarily Buddhist in religion, our journey crosses many different ethnicities ranging from the Bamar people living in the incredible valleys of the Irrawaddy River, through the Intha and Shan peoples of Inle Lake that live in floating houses and row their boats using their legs, to the edges of the Bay of Bengal and the tattooed faces of the Chin people.
Each unique and amazing in their own ways, each living in harmony with the distinctive environment that has shaped their lifestyle and belief systems, each filled with different sorts of wisdom from which we can learn about our own world from a very different point of view.
The Rainbow Tapestry of Life
Our journey will take us into many Buddhist monasteries and temples. There are countless numbers of temples in Myanmar, as an example there are over 700 in the city of Bagan alone, many are centuries old and most are tipped in gold. And some of these monasteries house nearly 2,000 monks and nuns, learning the sutras and living the day-to-day life same as the monks of an era long gone in the modern world.
Myanmar truly is the “Land of the Golden Pagoda”.We will have time in these monasteries to meditate and explore, to talk with the Lamas, and share in the chanting sessions, to see Buddhist artwork of the ancient Asian worlds, as well as unique woodcarvings and books made of marble. Even temples made of glass radiating the blue of the sky, the orange of the sun and the rainbow colors of prayer banners flapping in the wind.
We will explore the revered caves at Pindaya filled with over 8000 statues of Buddha and connect to the energy of this inner sanctum of one of the most sacred places in the Buddhist kingdom, and learn about the myths and legends that surround this area.
Mythological Beasts
Myanmar is more than just its amazing Buddhism and unique cultures still existing from a time long gone, it has the archeological remains of a powerful trading city of Mrauk-U. This city and these people are steeped in mythology and mystery, with stories of the people being born by the union of a female monkey and a beautiful peacock that gave birth to a mighty prince. And this prince led them across many thousands of years to where Mrauk-U became the center of trade between the jungles of South Asia to countries as faraway as Portugal and Holland.
