Road from Mandalay to Hsipaw, Myanmar

Side Street, Mandalay

Gold is pounded into thin leaf then sold to Buddhists to add to Buddah statues in local temples. It’s an act considered meritorious.

Workshops 1: Wood Carving

Workshops 2: Saygin White Marble Sculpture

Psychedelic Buddah

Temple Golden Ceiling

Initiation Ceremony. Boys aged 7 and up are initiated into Monastery life as Novice Monks. There they live like monks up at 4am, eating only until 12pm, learning to pray, meditate and repeat Buddhist mantra and suryas. The initiation ceremony is like a Bar Mitzvah. They dress up, visit the Temple, tell the head monk that they are ready and celebrate with family and friends.

Novice Monk Ceremony 2: note the Buddhist symbols like the umbrella.

Road making by hand

More road making by hand. Preparing the tar.

Gardens at Pyin-OO-Lwin

I don’t think its called Veneration.

Cheese sales on the road side

The Rice Pancake Factory

Madahya Monastery at the entrance to Hsipaw

More of the Madhaya Monestary

Hsipaw mandarin seller. Cart, straw, mat, mandarins

Hsipaw.

Hsipaw. Still using the old wooden wheeled cart and bulls with the ring through their noses.

Hsipaw. Smart chess players even in the remotest place

Chess

Hsipaw’s local market

Hsipaw’s rice merchants. Each box a different rice type.