Breakfast, pick up at 08.30 a.m. and this time, we’re off to Kakku, in the Pa-O part of Shan state. Half an hour on the boat to Nnyaung Shwe and then pick up the car and retrace our steps on the fairly poor road back to Shwe Nyaung. The earth road is usually a good width for two-way traffic, but about half the width has been metalled. Sometimes it’s the left or right half, sometimes it’s a strip down the middle. Either way, maintenance has been minimal, so the edges of the tarmac are broken away and there are potholes everywhere. Still, people prefer driving on the tarmac, so you keep finding traffic heading straight towards you on the metalled strip. At the last moment, the vehicles move towards their correct (right) side of the road and disaster is averted, but only just, and the bumping increases as two wheels run into the dirt.
It’s Full Moon Day in the Buddhist Lent, a bit like a Bank Holiday, so most people are not working today. They put on their best clothes and go to the temple to make an offering. Then, they meet up with friends and family for the rest of the day and generally have a good time. Shwe Nyaung is always busy, but today it’s really crowded. We turn right and head for Taung Gyi. This was used by the British as a Hill Station, in the same way that they adopted Shimla in India. As we approach, you can see why. The road climbs on a series of hairpins, the temperature drops and the landscape appears almost English. Taung Gyi is over 4,000 feet above sea level, so it’s invariably cooler. Today, it's rather grey and overcast and there’s an intermittent drizzle.
We stop at the vineyards of Aythaya Wine – a joint venture between Myanmar and the Germans. All very professional and set up to handle the tourists for wine tasting but very quiet today. We carry on into the town centre. At the hospital, over 100 people are seated on plastic chairs on the verandah, patiently waiting for attention at the emergency department. It’s a big town (I think the population is around 200,000) mainly rather modern, nondescript buildings. We stop outside a fairly impressive multi-storey hotel, clad externally with white tiles. Here we are to pick our guide for Kakku. The politics of the region are rather convoluted. Myanmar incorporates over 100 distinct ethnic group. Here, the Shans predominate but the Pa-O are the next biggest group. A few years ago, as part of a deal to control the insurgency, the Pa-O have been given a designated tourist region including Kakku and visitors must have an authorised Pa-O guide.
We meet a young girl, Pew, dressed in the traditional dress of the area with black tunic and trousers and a multi-coloured scarf wrapped around her head. Then, we set off again with our driver, my guide Mr. Win, Pew and myself. There’s a Check Point at Ta Non Rey as we leave the town centre and Pew has the necessary permit to allow us to proceed. Knowing of my interest in railways, Mr. Win asks if I want to visit the station and, of course, I say yes.
The railway from Taung Gyi to Kakku was only built in 1996, to open up the Pa-O region. There’s a modern station building at Taung Gyi but no passengers at present as there’s only one or two trains to Kakku each day. However, a locomotive is shunting what I presume will be the next train to Kakku so I take a few pictures before we continue for almost a couple of hours, on the worst roads yet, South through rolling hills to Kakku. The Kakku Pagoda is called ‘Long Lost’ but it’s just that people from other parts of Myanmar didn’t go there and, until the recent agreement with the Pa-O, foreigners weren’t allowed to. As we travel, the rain becomes heavier.
The Kakku Pagodas are special to the Pa-O people and by the time we arrive, there are hundreds of people milling around on all the various forms of motorised transport they use in the country areas. There’s a lot of noise from people, mopeds, pick-ups and the strange-looking lorries with the loud Chinese diesel engine. Oh, and there's firecrackers. The rain is monsoon-like and various plastic ponchos, sheets of polythene and umbrellas are being used to protect the bedraggled pilgrims. There’s a large open-sided restaurant overlooking the temple complex and my car nudges under the porte-cochere at the entrance, moving aside dozens of people using its cover to shelter from the rain.
Mr. Win suggests that we have an early lunch there, in the hope that the rain will have abated by the time we finish. He has pre-ordered food with vegetables, fish and little spice to suit my rather bland tastes. The vegetable soup, tomato salad (they’re very big on tomatoes – that’s the main crop from Inle Lake – but that suits me fine) and fresh vegetables are splendid, the fish is OK. The appearance of a foreigner causes a minor stir and lots of people want to see the strange-looking European lady. But they’re all very friendly, and there’s lots of smiling and waving. The rain seems no better so we agree to make a tour notwithstanding. The car takes Mr. Wim, Pew and myself to the entrance where Pew and I discard our shoes and make our way into the complex, over a mixture of concrete and marble paths, with the rain still sluicing down.
The site has well over 2,000 pagodas of various styles and little is known about its history. The locals believe it to be thousands of years old but archaeologists, from stylistic evidence, believe there to be at least three distinct phases, the oldest only 300 years old. Dating is problematic, because many of the pagodas are reduced to grassy mounds. A number of people have paid for the restoration of one or more pagodas (such donations are a sure way of “earning merit” – the former Commander-in-Chief of Shan State has paid for a number of restorations). But this has also proved controversial. Where details of the original design are lost, the restored appearance is the product of imagination, rather than history. There’s also been some criticism of the widespread use of gold paint. Each restored pagoda carries an engraved marble tablet with the details of the benefactor. There are ‘Monastery Style’ pagodas (rectangular, stepped form) ‘Stupa Syle’ (bell-shaped, with a spire) and just one ‘Temple Style’.
The ‘Temple Style’ pagoda has been left as found, roofless and with the remaining walls standing about eight feet above the original floor level. The design is rectangular, with four pointed arches for entrance with a central Buddha image – in this case, a sleeping Buddha on a plinth in the centre. Construction is brick with the original stucco surviving only in places. I’m so interested in clambering around this relic, I fail to notice for a moment that the rain has stopped.
There’s a fairly modern pagoda which is the centre of worship and this is square with four Buddha images. I find it incongruous that the seated guard is armed with a fierce-looking gun. During the morning, people have made offerings of food to the temple, which are collected and will go for pigswill. I can quite see the logic of giving food to the Monks each morning, but am puzzled by the idea of donating food which will be fed to animals. By the time we finish our tour, most of the local people have set off for home and the site is much quieter. We then have the long drive back to Taung Gyi with the rain starting and stopping.
Some of the villages we pass through use traditional, wooden building styles, others use concrete frame with either block or woven bamboo infill. There is partial electrification, using particularly Heath-Robinson techniques. Most villages appear to have large public water tanks, so I assume piped water is not generally available. One village used privet hedges to mark the property boundaries, which, combined with the rolling hills and the rather European-looking trees in these regions, gave a particularly English appearance. This area produces the leaves used in cheroots – a planned visit to a Cheroot Factory had to be cancelled because this Full Moon Day is a public holiday.
We leave Pew at the hotel in Taung Gyi, where a ball game is being played in the rear courtyard by some of the young men. They’re using a cane ball (tending to be replaced by plastic these days, I am told), there’s a high net (like netball) and the ball appears to be kicked upwards with the heel (like Kabaddi). Then we retrace our steps to the ferry port at Nyaung Shwe. Leaving Taung Gyi I notice that the queue at the hospital has reduced to 20 or 30 people waiting. We board our motor boat at the wooden landing stage which, this time, we are sharing with a number of local people doing their afternoon ablutions. As usual, there’s lots of smiling. Our regular boat driver returns me to the quiet of my hotel. By now, it's a balmy evening but the earlier rain has left a rainbow over in the East. The Myanmar people also believe there’s treasure at the end of the rainbow. The boat then returns to Nyaung Shwe with Mr. Wim. A wonderful, if tiring, day.
My pictures of Kakku are here.
My pictures of Taung Gyi station (and other railway pictures in Shan State) are here.
