Mount Kyaiktiyo, Myanmar

The Golden and Balancing Rock of Buddha


Bike vs Bus
Cyclist passes between buses at a truck station between Yangon and Kin Pun.
Snacks
Snack vendors outside the transshipment zone to the golden rock of Kyaikhtiyo.
half load
Monks at the front of the lorry box that provides connections between Kin Pun and the middle slope of Mount Kyaikhtiyo.
Rock in Balance
A perspective that reveals the balance in which Kyaikhtiyo's Golden Rock has long held.
woman does not enter
Door that enforces the ban on the entry of women into the enclosure of the golden rock of Kyaikhtiyo.
pray from outside
Women light candles and pray outside the golden rock enclosure.
Monks Conference
Buddhist monks clustered on the polished ground of the golden rock enclosure.
gold on gold
Faithful glue films of gold leaf that renew the coating of the golden rock.
golden sunset
Sun disappears behind the clouds, at a time when Buddhist faithful worship the increasingly resplendent golden rock.
We are discovering Rangoon when we find out about the Golden Rock phenomenon. Dazzled by its golden and sacred balance, we join the now centuries-old Burmese pilgrimage to Mount Kyaiktyo.

Early morning arrival at the bus terminal in Rangoon, we choked on the unexpected ticket table.

We had been walking around Myanmar for several days. Never had the difference in what the Burmese paid the price of “Foreigner” irritated us like there. We barafustrada as possible. More than advisable.

Until a frail-looking young man, uncomfortable with our indignation, lends himself to clarify: “It's not worth it to despair in this way. All backpackers come with the money counted for their long journeys.

And everyone is frustrated by this exploration. But you have to understand that these are government orders. All companies must follow them. Otherwise, if they are discovered, they close them forever.”

The boy's intervention would never resolve the damage that the discrepancy and the additional 15.000 kyats would do to us. Even so, he had the gift of reassuring us and making us resign. We took the backpacks. We settled into the tight seats of the bus, among young Buddhist monks and peasants keeping an eye on the goats and chickens that followed on the roof.

At around 10 in the morning, we finally left.

Hot Journey between Yangon and Kin Pun Village

Reassured by the hot wind that massaged our heads, we let ourselves be carried away by the sway, the bumps and the flash sales attempted by successive itinerant vendors, each time the bus stopped long enough to let them on.

During the first tens of kilometers, the road follows the meanders of the Rangoon River. Soon, we entered the so-called Rangoon-Mandalay highway, the number one road in Myanmar. We continue aiming at Bago and there we make a short stopover. An additional half hour to the north, we reach Hpa Yar Gyi and enter Route 8 which cuts to the southeastern tip of Burma.

Golden Rock of Kyaikhtiyo, Buddhism, Myanmar, Burma

At the outset, we could have followed a much shorter and straighter itinerary heading east. All that arch we were forced to was due to the spread of another primordial river in Myanmar: the Sittang.

Like the Bangladeshi outlet of the Ganges, the last rattle of the Sittang generated an immense delta of swamp and soggy meadow that the Indian Ocean invaded in the form of the Gulf of Martaban.

Accordingly, the overwhelming floods generated by the monsoon rains from these places forced the road to cross the river near Taung Tha Pyay Kan, already well above the delta.

That crossing was so providential that he was entitled to a toll. More than a mere bridge, we were crossing the river border between the Bago region and the mystic Mon State, the state in which the final destination of the trip was located.

Kin Pun: the Overcrowded Transshipment to the Golden Rock of Kyaiktiyo

Around three in the afternoon, almost five hours of road sauna later, we were admitted to Kin Pun. There, we joined a small, tight crowd awaiting transport to an intermediate slope that the outsiders called, in English, the Upper Level.

An open box truck appears out of nowhere. Little by little, the driver and an assistant make the passengers sit, more than squeezed together, pressed against each other on boards to act as benches. Not everything was bad.

Golden Rock of Kyaikhtiyo, Buddhism, Myanmar, BurmaWe follow outdoors. For half an hour, we went up a mountain road surrounded by tropical vegetation furrowed by waterfalls that are longer than voluminous.

Either point would have made enriching photographs. That was, if we could move our arms enough to detach the cameras above the passengers squeezing us.

A succession of souvenir stands and religious shrines, restaurants, tea houses and others filled with essences, substances and products recommended by traditional Burmese medicine confirm our Upper Level.

Despite the name of the place, the epic would not stop there.

Golden Rock of Kyaikhtiyo, Buddhism, Myanmar, Burma

The Heavy But Provident Services of Mount Kyaiktiyo Porters

The Golden Rock hotel awaited us higher up. The one above was so steep that it was work for a troop of porters. Most passengers trust them with their luggage. These sherpa from Mon State put it in large baskets and on their backs.

Recomposed of an inevitable descent, they sweat their stumps and make bones creaking to fulfill the deliveries at the door of the visitors' hotels.

Porters carry more than just luggage. When elderly, incapacitated, too obese, or weak devotees reach the base of the mountain, it is up to the porters to carry them to the top on stretchers made of bamboo.

We comply with hotel registration. It took us long enough to drop the big backpacks we wouldn't need anymore. At those latitudes, sunset would not be long. We grabbed the ones from the equipment. We shot up the ramp.

We pass between the mirrored statues of two large golden lions. Soon after, at the entrance to Golden Rock, a new diversion of funds in “Foreigner” mode multiplied, stains the spirituality that we thought immaculate in the place. We came across not only a Foreigner Entrance Fee, but also a Foreigner Camera Fee.

With no time to get frustrated, we took off and fixed our shoes. Even so, with Buddhist bare feet, on the hard, hot stone, among monks who we believe to be devotees, we investigated the complex.

Golden Rock of Kyaikhtiyo, Buddhism, Myanmar, Burma

The Magical Hour When the Golden Rock Shines the Most

From a privileged balcony, we watched the lapse in which the sun orange the edge of a cloud front, above the mountains. These high clouds canceled out the chromatic exuberance that was expected from the sunset. Accordingly, we focused on the twilight subtlety that followed.

With the fading of light, the blue of the firmament intensifies. And it sparkles the gold that surrounded the great rock, already in its unusual position.

Even almost round, at some 1.100 meters of windy altitude, the Golden Rock insists on resisting on the tip of a polished slab that stands out from a so-called Paung-Laung crest in the mountains of Eastern Yoma.

Golden Rock of Kyaikhtiyo, Buddhism, Myanmar, BurmaWe are on the verge of Mae Sot's Thai border. Over there, Buddhism is little different from Burmese.

Crowning the Golden Rock is the small Kyaiktiyo pagoda (7.3 meters), also golden. In Bagan, further north in Myanmar, wealthy believers have great temples and stupas built.

Those who visit Kyaiktiyo on pilgrimage help to maintain the lining of the set by unrolling and pasting on the face of that spiritual pebble small gold leaves that they buy on the slope that precedes the entrance.

Part of these leaves falls on the slab. It sways back and forth in the wind.

Some remain glued to the bare feet of believers, while they express their faith by feeling and embracing the glossy surface of the stone, while others leave offerings of food, fruit and incense.

Golden Rock of Kyaikhtiyo, Buddhism, Myanmar, BurmaFrom where we admire its movements and the nightfall, we have the feeling that, pressed by the faithful, the stone could fall at any moment. According to legend, what prevents gravity from fulfilling its role is a fine piece of Buddha's hair.

The Buddhist Legend That Has Long Supported the Golden Rock

How Golden Rock got there is explained in an intricate legend. He narrates that, in the middle of the XNUMXth century, the pure asceticism of Taik Tha, a Buddhist hermit priest, will have amazed the Buddha. As a reward, Buddha offered him this piece of hair.

Now the hermit, in turn, offered it to his then king, Tissa, on the condition that he consecrated it in a dedicated pagoda which was to include a stone in the shape of the head of Taik Tha. King Tissa tried by all means.

He failed in his quest to find a stone with the right profile. Desperate, he begged help from Thagyamin, the heavenly king of Buddhist cosmology.

Thagyamin had supernatural powers inherited from his father Zawgyi, a prodigious alchemist, and his mother, a Naga princess, who is, so to speak, a semi-divine, half-human, half-serpent that inhabits the underworld.

Thagyamin resorted to his formidable strength. He plucked the stone Tissa was fetching from the bottom of the ocean and pushed it over a boat, out to sea. Once on land, he placed the stone where it stood and we admired it.

In order to complete his sacred work, he built the small pagoda on top of the rock as a shrine to the hair of Buddha and forevermore.

The term mon kyaiktiyo by which the shrine is known, by the way, translates as a pagoda on the head of a hermit.

Over time, this rock head became the third most important pilgrimage site in Myanmar. Only the Shwedagon pagoda, in Yangon, and the Mahamuni pagoda, located southwest of Mandalay, the second city in the country, preceded it.

Golden Rock of Kyaikhtiyo, Buddhism, Myanmar, Burma

Women Don't Get In: An Unusual Buddhist Determination

By secular order of Buddhism, the entry of women in the complex is prohibited. This ban comes from another. According to the Buddha's precepts, women cannot touch monks, as they live under a vow of chastity.

Since the stone itself emulates the head of a hermit-monk, they are prohibited from approaching or touching the Golden Rock.

Still, the most devout women make their own pilgrimage to the place. Instead of touching it, they praise Golden Rock from some distance away.

We see them sitting outside the ultimate fence wall that isolates the rock. They pray and light candles after candles.

Golden Rock of Kyaikhtiyo, Buddhism, Myanmar, BurmaAt a certain point, we found that the gilding of its many small fires rivals that of the sanctuary pebble, even though, with the metamorphosis from dusk to night, the focuses that fall on it gild it twice.

That night, the believers who worshiped the Golden Rock were little more than a few dozen.

Every year, during the day of Tabaung's full moon which happens in March, around 90.000 candles are lit. Illuminated by the corresponding 90.000 flames, the rock shines brighter than ever.

On that day, several hundred, even a few thousand Buddhist faithful flock to Mount Kyaiktiyo. Your access to the Golden Rock base is strictly controlled. Even so, the longed-for contact with the pebble of Buddha is disputed to the last centimeter.

Legend has it that Buddhist believers who complete the 13km pilgrimage from Kinpun at least three times a year find themselves gifted with prosperity and community recognition.

The possibilities of pleasing Buddha do not stop there. The same legend that until then had illustrated and justified the Golden Rock's Buddhist and tightrope walker's reason for being, explains that, upon arrival at Mount Kyaiktiyo, the boat used by the celestial king Thagyami turned to stone.

Buddhist believers also take the opportunity to praise this stone, located a mere 300 meters from the Golden Rock and named the Kyaukthanban stupa.

Around six in the afternoon, Golden Rock begins to give way to the night pitch. Only a few more resilient believers prolonged their worship of the golden stone.

Golden Rock of Kyaikhtiyo, Buddhism, Myanmar, BurmaThe long pilgrimage from Yangon was beginning to impose on us the due fatigue. In these matters of worldly energies, Buddha would be of little help to us. We pick up at the hotel. We try to revive ourselves.

Yangon, Myanmar

The Great Capital of Burma (Delusions of the Military Junta aside)

In 2005, Myanmar's dictatorial government inaugurated a bizarre and nearly deserted new capital. Exotic, cosmopolitan life remains intact in Yangon, Burmese's largest and most fascinating city.
Inle Lake, Myanmar

A Pleasant Forced Stop

In the second of the holes that we have during a tour around Lake Inlé, we hope that they will bring us the bicycle with the patched tyre. At the roadside shop that welcomes and helps us, everyday life doesn't stop.
Bagan, Myanmar

The Plain of Pagodas, Temples and other Heavenly Redemptions

Burmese religiosity has always been based on a commitment to redemption. In Bagan, wealthy and fearful believers continue to erect pagodas in hopes of winning the benevolence of the gods.
u-bein BridgeMyanmar

The Twilight of the Bridge of Life

At 1.2 km, the oldest and longest wooden bridge in the world allows the Burmese of Amarapura to experience Lake Taungthaman. But 160 years after its construction, U Bein is in its twilight.
Chiang Mai, Thailand

300 Wats of Spiritual and Cultural Energy

Thais call every Buddhist temple wat and their northern capital has them in obvious abundance. Delivered to successive events held between shrines, Chiang Mai is never quite disconnected.
Nara, Japan

The Colossal Cradle of the Japanese Buddhism

Nara has long since ceased to be the capital and its Todai-ji temple has been demoted. But the Great Hall remains the largest ancient wooden building in the world. And it houses the greatest bronze Vairocana Buddha.
Miyajima, Japan

Shintoism and Buddhism with the Tide

Visitors to the Tori of Itsukushima admire one of the three most revered scenery in Japan. On the island of Miyajima, Japanese religiosity blends with Nature and is renewed with the flow of the Seto Inland Sea.
Lhasa, Tibet

When Buddhism Tires of Meditation

It is not only with silence and spiritual retreat that one seeks Nirvana. At the Sera Monastery, the young monks perfect their Buddhist knowledge with lively dialectical confrontations and crackling clapping of hands.
Nara, Japan

Buddhism vs Modernism: The Double Face of Nara

In the 74th century AD Nara was the Japanese capital. During XNUMX years of this period, emperors erected temples and shrines in honor of the Budismo, the newly arrived religion from across the Sea of ​​Japan. Today, only these same monuments, secular spirituality and deer-filled parks protect the city from the inexorable encirclement of urbanity.
Mount Koya, Japan

Halfway to Nirvana

According to some doctrines of Buddhism, it takes several lifetimes to attain enlightenment. The shingon branch claims that you can do it in one. From Mount Koya, it can be even easier.
Lhasa, Tibet

Sera, the Monastery of the Sacred Debate

In few places in the world a dialect is used as vehemently as in the monastery of Sera. There, hundreds of monks, in Tibetan, engage in intense and raucous debates about the teachings of the Buddha.
Kyoto, Japan

The Kyoto Temple Reborn from the Ashes

The Golden Pavilion has been spared destruction several times throughout history, including that of US-dropped bombs, but it did not withstand the mental disturbance of Hayashi Yoken. When we admired him, he looked like never before.
Masai Mara Reservation, Masai Land Travel, Kenya, Masai Convivial
Safari
Masai Mara, Kenya

A Journey Through the Masai Lands

The Mara savannah became famous for the confrontation between millions of herbivores and their predators. But, in a reckless communion with wildlife, it is the Masai humans who stand out there.
Herd in Manang, Annapurna Circuit, Nepal
Annapurna (circuit)
Annapurna Circuit: 8th Manang, Nepal

Manang: the Last Acclimatization in Civilization

Six days after leaving Besisahar we finally arrived in Manang (3519m). Located at the foot of the Annapurna III and Gangapurna Mountains, Manang is the civilization that pampers and prepares hikers for the ever-dreaded crossing of Thorong La Gorge (5416 m).
by the shadow
Architecture & Design
Miami, USA

A Masterpiece of Urban Rehabilitation

At the turn of the 25st century, the Wynwood neighbourhood remained filled with abandoned factories and warehouses and graffiti. Tony Goldman, a shrewd real estate investor, bought more than XNUMX properties and founded a mural park. Much more than honoring graffiti there, Goldman founded the Wynwood Arts District, the great bastion of creativity in Miami.
Full Dog Mushing
Adventure
Seward, Alaska

The Alaskan Dog Mushing Summer

It's almost 30 degrees and the glaciers are melting. In Alaska, entrepreneurs have little time to get rich. Until the end of August, dog mushing cannot stop.
Parade and Pomp
Ceremonies and Festivities
Saint Petersburg, Russia

When the Russian Navy Stations in Saint Petersburg

Russia dedicates the last Sunday of July to its naval forces. On that day, a crowd visits large boats moored on the Neva River as alcohol-drenched sailors seize the city.
Totem, Sitka, Alaska Travel Once Russia
Cities
sitka, Alaska

Sitka: Journey through a once Russian Alaska

In 1867, Tsar Alexander II had to sell Russian Alaska to the United States. In the small town of Sitka, we find the Russian legacy but also the Tlingit natives who fought them.
Meal
Markets

A Market Economy

The law of supply and demand dictates their proliferation. Generic or specific, covered or open air, these spaces dedicated to buying, selling and exchanging are expressions of life and financial health.
the projectionist
Culture
Sainte-Luce, Martinique

The Nostalgic Projectionist

From 1954 to 1983, Gérard Pierre screened many of the famous films arriving in Martinique. 30 years after the closing of the room in which he worked, it was still difficult for this nostalgic native to change his reel.
combat arbiter, cockfighting, philippines
Sport
Philippines

When Only Cock Fights Wake Up the Philippines

Banned in much of the First World, cockfighting thrives in the Philippines where they move millions of people and pesos. Despite its eternal problems, it is the sabong that most stimulates the nation.
scarlet summer
Traveling

Valencia to Xativa, Spain (España)

Across Iberia

Leaving aside the modernity of Valencia, we explore the natural and historical settings that the "community" shares with the Mediterranean. The more we travel, the more its bright life seduces us.

Tatooine on Earth
Ethnic
Matmata Tataouine:  Tunisia

Star Wars Earth Base

For security reasons, the planet Tatooine from "The Force Awakens" was filmed in Abu Dhabi. We step back into the cosmic calendar and revisit some of the Tunisian places with the most impact in the saga.  
Portfolio, Got2Globe, Best Images, Photography, Images, Cleopatra, Dioscorides, Delos, Greece
Got2Globe Photo Portfolio
Got2Globe Portfolio

The Earthly and the Celestial

Tabatô, Guinea Bissau, tabanca Mandingo musicians. Baidi
History
Tabato, Guinea Bissau

The Tabanca of Mandinga Poets Musicians

In 1870, a community of traveling Mandingo musicians settled next to the current city of Bafatá. From the Tabatô they founded, their culture and, in particular, their prodigious balaphonists, dazzle the world.
Asparagus, Sal Island, Cape Verde
Islands
island of salt, Cape Verde

The Salt of the Island of Sal

At the approach of the XNUMXth century, Sal remained lacking in drinking water and practically uninhabited. Until the extraction and export of the abundant salt there encouraged a progressive population. Today, salt and salt pans add another flavor to the most visited island in Cape Verde.
Geothermal, Iceland Heat, Ice Land, Geothermal, Blue Lagoon
Winter White
Iceland

The Geothermal Coziness of the Ice Island

Most visitors value Iceland's volcanic scenery for its beauty. Icelanders also draw from them heat and energy crucial to the life they lead to the Arctic gates.
Couple visiting Mikhaylovskoe, village where writer Alexander Pushkin had a home
Literature
Saint Petersburg e Mikhaylovkoe, Russia

The Writer Who Succumbed to His Own Plot

Alexander Pushkin is hailed by many as the greatest Russian poet and the founder of modern Russian literature. But Pushkin also dictated an almost tragicomic epilogue to his prolific life.
Entrance to Dunhuang Sand City, China
Nature
Dunhuang, China

An Oasis in the China of the Sands

Thousands of kilometers west of Beijing, the Great Wall has its western end and the China and other. An unexpected splash of vegetable green breaks up the arid expanse all around. Announces Dunhuang, formerly crucial outpost on the Silk Road, today an intriguing city at the base of Asia's largest sand dunes.
Sheki, Autumn in the Caucasus, Azerbaijan, Autumn Homes
Autumn
Sheki, Azerbaijan

autumn in the caucasus

Lost among the snowy mountains that separate Europe from Asia, Sheki is one of Azerbaijan's most iconic towns. Its largely silky history includes periods of great harshness. When we visited it, autumn pastels added color to a peculiar post-Soviet and Muslim life.
Tinquilco Lake in PN Huerquehue, Pucón, La Araucania, Chile
Natural Parks
Pucón, Chile

Among the Araucarias of La Araucania

At a certain latitude in longline Chile, we enter La Araucanía. This is a rugged Chile, full of volcanoes, lakes, rivers, waterfalls and the coniferous forests from which the region's name grew. And it is the heart of the pine nuts of the largest indigenous ethnic group in the country: the Mapuche.
UNESCO World Heritage
Boat Trips

For Those Becoming Internet Sick

Hop on and let yourself go on unmissable boat trips like the Philippine archipelago of Bacuit and the frozen sea of ​​the Finnish Gulf of Bothnia.
Heroes Acre Monument, Zimbabwe
Characters
Harare, Zimbabwewe

The Last Rales of Surreal Mugabué

In 2015, Zimbabwe's first lady Grace Mugabe said the 91-year-old president would rule until the age of 100 in a special wheelchair. Shortly thereafter, it began to insinuate itself into his succession. But in recent days, the generals have finally precipitated the removal of Robert Mugabe, who has replaced him with former Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Lifou, Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia, Mme Moline popinée
Beaches
LifouLoyalty Islands

The Greatest of the Loyalties

Lifou is the island in the middle of the three that make up the semi-francophone archipelago off New Caledonia. In time, the Kanak natives will decide if they want their paradise independent of the distant metropolis.
Sanahin Cable Car, Armenia
Religion
Alaverdi, Armenia

A Cable Car Called Ensejo

The top of the Debed River Gorge hides the Armenian monasteries of Sanahin and Haghpat and terraced Soviet apartment blocks. Its bottom houses the copper mine and smelter that sustains the city. Connecting these two worlds is a providential suspended cabin in which the people of Alaverdi count on traveling in the company of God.
Back in the sun. San Francisco Cable Cars, Life Ups and Downs
On Rails
San Francisco, USA

San Francisco Cable Cars: A Life of Highs and Lows

A macabre wagon accident inspired the San Francisco cable car saga. Today, these relics work as a charm operation in the city of fog, but they also have their risks.
Society
Military

Defenders of Their Homelands

Even in times of peace, we detect military personnel everywhere. On duty, in cities, they fulfill routine missions that require rigor and patience.
herd, foot-and-mouth disease, weak meat, colonia pellegrini, argentina
Daily life
Colónia Pellegrini, Argentina

When the Meat is Weak

The unmistakable flavor of Argentine beef is well known. But this wealth is more vulnerable than you think. The threat of foot-and-mouth disease, in particular, keeps authorities and growers afloat.
Esteros del Iberá, Pantanal Argentina, Alligator
Wildlife
Iberá Wetlands, Argentina

The Pantanal of the Pampas

On the world map, south of the famous brazilian wetland, a little-known flooded region appears, but almost as vast and rich in biodiversity. the Guarani expression Y bera defines it as “shining waters”. The adjective fits more than its strong luminance.
Passengers, scenic flights-Southern Alps, New Zealand
Scenic Flights
Aoraki / Mount Cook, New Zealand

The Aeronautical Conquest of the Southern Alps

In 1955, pilot Harry Wigley created a system for taking off and landing on asphalt or snow. Since then, his company has unveiled, from the air, some of the greatest scenery in Oceania.
PT EN ES FR DE IT