I slept well and decided to walk around the monastery compound. I found a large party of Japanese tourists arriving by pony cart to visit the historic wooden monastery of Nat-Taung Kyaung at Taung Be.
Bagan Medical Clinic Saturday 28th April 2018: Japanese tourists arrived in pony carts to visit the old wooden monastery, Nat-Taung Kyaung.
The previous year, I had only been able to survey the outside of this 200-year old building but I knew from the internet that repairs were in hand so I was pleased to find that it was possible to go inside and determined to make a visit myself later.
As usual, I found the Abbott checking on the preparations for the free lunch. Two young monks were ‘dicing’ vegetables with scissors whilst an older man was tending the wood fires.
Bagan Medical Clinic Saturday 28th April 2018: Lunch preparation
In the Doctor’s consulting room, I observed the variety of patients for a time. Mobility problems and joint pain are common, particularly amongst the elderly, but all kinds of ailment present themselves.
On Saturday, the free lunches were being presented by a relative of the Taung Be Abbott who is Abbott of a monastery in the Mandalay area. In addition to the 330 registered patients, lunches are given to accompanying relatives and friends so the stream of eager diners seemed endless.
Bagan Medical Clinic Saturday 28th April 2018: Free lunches, ready for distribution.
In the afternoon, I visited the richly-carved wooden monastery of Nat-Taung Kyaung which lies just a few yards beyond Bagan Medical Clinic.
Nat-Taung Kyaung Monastery: Saturday 28th April 2018
Tired by my perambulations, I returned to the Doctor's Consulting Room to watch, although from time-to-time, I found myself falling asleep briefly, much to the amusement of the Doctor's female assistants.
Bagan Medical Clinic Saturday 28th April 2018
The Doctor carried on to 7.30 p.m. and then took dinner with his assistants and the writer before continuing. I went to bed not long after dinner, thoroughly shattered, and I'm not sure what time the Doctor eventually finished but I think there were about twenty patients carried forward to a 'short' Sunday morning list.
Related posts on this website
This is one of a series of posts describing my 13th visit to Myanmar.
The post Travelling again is the first post in the series.
Clicking on the 'Next report' link will show the post describing the next events. In this way, you may read about the trip in sequence.
Next report
Alternately, clicking on the 'All my Burma-2018 reports' link displays all the posts on this trip in reverse date-of-posting order.
All my Burma-2018 reports
My pictures
Bagan Medical Clinic Saturday 28th April 2018
Nat-Taung Kyaung Monastery, Bagan (includes pictures from 2017)
All my pictures on this trip to Myanmar can be found at Burma 2018.
[Pictures linked 10-May-2018, pictures inserted 28-May-2018]
