U Min Thonze Pagoda
Beez Neez now Chy Whella
Big Bear and Pepe Millard
Mon 27 Nov 2017 22:37
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U Min Thonze
Pagoda
 Out of the car, many steep steps up
through a skinny passage with the necessary tourist stalls, we reached the shoe
locker and saw first, an orange
building.
   Inside was
a variety of Buddha images, a reverent tall Buddha and some important monks on
the wall.
    We were so impressed with this
building, so different from all the other pagodas we have visited, so far. Bear
went to the far end for this picture. Inside are forty-five beautifully gilded
Buddha images in the crescent-shaped colonnade,
partly built into the side of the Sagaing Hill.
U Min Thonze Pagoda is one of
the most distinctive complexes on the main hill top of Sagaing,
constructed under the orders of Padugyi Thangayaza, a highly
revered monk. U Min means caves and Thonze
means thirty. Each Buddha statue inside, has a unique facial _expression_,
different in size and a couple were standing. We read some of the plaques placed
in recognition of their donations. We then followed steps up under a covered
walkway and found a few smaller shrines and a lean-to or two containing more
shorter lines of Buddha images. The views from the top over the fertile valley
and Irrawaddy River were spectacular. On our way down we had a look into the
‘caretakers’ digs, walked down through the lines of stalls once more and at the
bottom Bear’s trigger finger – always at the ready, found a dragon
guardian.
                             
ALL IN ALL I WONDER WHY THE BUDDHAS WERE SEPARATED SO UNUSUAL |