Myanmar Magical Impressions: Glittering Temples and Lotus Flowers Rising From Murky Waters

I persevered in my quest to conquer the slopes of Mount Kyaiktiyo in southern Myanmar. It wasn't a mountain to be approached lightly. The devotion-charged Golden Rock at its pinnacle was the reward.

Most Burmese people pay homage to this wish-drenched balancing boulder--a miraculous pilgrimage site they must visit before they die. Legend has it that a dragon serpent princess found this rock at the bottom of the sea and with her supernatural powers she transported it to heaven. Many believe that touching this gigantic sacred stone allows wishes to be granted. Men struggle up the mountain just to apply more gold leaf to enhance the rock's already magnificent gilded glow. In the shadows you can just make out the silhouettes of two men who offer scale. But all is not fair. While women are free to ascend these sacred slopes, none of them can touch this breathtaking, stupa-graced wonder once they've arrived at the top. In a gesture of solidarity I, too, chose not to touch its shiny surface. Who made such rules? I bet the dragon princess is furious. I'll find other ways to make my dreams come true.

Despite the stranglehold of the staunch military government, everyday people in Myanmar seemed to be happy . . . and I never saw soldiers on the street. It's only the Westerner who suffers from the nonexistence of ATMs. Many tourists have been known to have exited the country immediately upon arrival because they didn't have spare dollars in their pockets for exchange. Only a couple of five-star hotels accept credit cards but for that pleasure they tack on a hefty ten percent surcharge. For currency exchange one must bring crisp US dollar bills in tow. And I mean CRISP. Even a tiny pencil mark or slight abrasion renders such notes useless. There was a half-millimeter, microscopic tear on one of my starched hundred-dollar bills but no establishment across the country would accept it in exchange for local currency, which, by the way, is often found in tatters with dangling bits hanging here and there--just like the sidewalks of Yangon.

Myanmar is filled with wonder. In Bagan more than a thousand magnificent stupas were built about the same time the Renaissance was happening in Europe. Sunlight brilliantly reflects from the shimmering golden spire of the much revered Ananda Temple, built in the year 1090 AD. It is located roughly 490 yards east of the awesome pagoda, Thatbyinnyu, 550 yards north of the huge temple of Shwesandaw and about 1000 yards northwest of the magnificent Dhammayangyi. There are about 997 other stupas nearby from which distance could easily be measured. But Ananda's towering, and perfectly proportioned edifice, is the one that heralds the stylistic end of the early Bagan era. When I was there, a blast of rainbow celebrated the stupa's existence.

Why have so many people never heard about this marvelous place?

The piece de resistance, however, surely must be the glitter of golden spires and shiny Buddhas that cast an ethereal glow over Burma's most sacred pagoda, Shwedagon Phaya, which looms above the country's commercial capital, Yangon, or Rangoon as it was known in a former existence.

Shwedagon can take your breath away.

Myanmar Buddhists dream of visiting here at least once in their lifetimes. No one, even tourists, ever forgets such a visit. It's said there is more gold laced on Shwedagon's surface than exists in the vaults of the Bank of England and perhaps even more than the mega tons stored at Fort Knox. Perhaps such overstatement is justified when setting the tone. This is an amazing place.

Long ago Rudyard Kipling waxed lyrical about this gold-swathed icon, "A golden mystery upheaved itself on the horizon--a beautiful winking wonder that blazed in the sun . . . "

Allow me to put this explosion of glitter into perspective by describing just the top portion of the main spire which is clad in 13,153 plates of solid gold measuring one square foot each. The top-most vane of this tower is sliver-plated and studded with 1100 diamonds totaling 278 carats with 1383 other precious stones embedded nearby. At the very top of the vane is a golden sphere enveloped with 4351 diamonds, weighing 1800 carats. And at the very tip of this orb is a single 76-carat diamond perched more than a hundred meters above worshipers below. There's a telescope off to one side for those wishing a closeup view of the jewels.

Shwedagon has existed for two and a half millennia. Perhaps myth makers of ancient times visited here for inspiration. Clustered around the mighty golden stupa of Shwedagon is an awesome array of temples and zedis and shrines and pavilions and gilded Buddha statues in altars that defy description. One's imagination can fail in comparison to what exis ...