U Min Thonze Pagoda

Beez Neez now Chy Whella
Big Bear and Pepe Millard
Mon 27 Nov 2017 22:37
U Min Thonze Pagoda
 
 
 
 
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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.
 
 
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Inside was a variety of Buddha images, a reverent tall Buddha and some important monks on the wall.
 
 
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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.
 
 
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ALL IN ALL I WONDER WHY THE BUDDHAS WERE SEPARATED

                    SO UNUSUAL