Dressing up

In southern and Southeast Asia, it is customary to dress up and adorn Buddha status. Maybe, that’s an admission that a naked sage becomes invisible.

Shwedagon Pagoda, Yangon, Myanmar, 2011 

Transit

The great Greek philosopher Pythagoras of Samos said almost 26 centuries ago “A thought is an idea in transit.”

True enough; the symbol of modern industrialization has been the steam machine, where it moves the world a lot faster, more efficiently.  Such symbol still carries its significance today as the efficiency of trains; the wait between transits sort of translating to each country operates her own system.

In February, 20111 I spent a good 10 days in Myanmar, good part of 2 of those days spent in the Yangon train station, and you see a lot. 

Here in Myanmar, life is slow for most, not that time does not matter, it does, it just matters less. And you see that in trains, in transits.  You see a small life developing inside a train station, a small world there, and one may say that is beautiful because there is nothing to rush.  It is not wrong, but then the countries that move fast and efficiently are not wrong either, they spent the time they save in transits for something else.

Yangon, Myanmar, 2011

Place to be

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched – they must be felt with the heart.

~ Helen Keller

Inle Lake, Myanmar, 2011

Vesākha

Vesākha (Pali; Sanskrit: Vaiśākha, Devanagari: वैशाख, Sinhala: වෙසක් පෝය) or sometimes referred to as Vesak is a holy day observed in greater South and South East Asia.  It was normally celebrated as “Buddha’s Birthday” while it actually encompasses birth, enlightenment and passing away of Gautama Buddha.

In Thailand, it is called the Wisakha Bucha and it is today, a national holiday and national tree day, a day when most Thais go to temple; a day of political bodies hustling the rivals, a day eventually can be pivotal to Thai future.

Picture was taken in a bronze foundry in Mandalay, Myanmar.

Mandalay, Myanmar, 2011

Guardians of belief

Nuns working on their morning study section at a nunnery, Mandalay, Myanmar.

Mandalay, Myanmar, 2011