The Dhammayangyi Temple is the largest temple in Bagan and it shows. While standing on the upper terrace of some random pagoda, the Dhammayangyi Temple completely dominated the landscape. It turned out that this massive temple was not even part of the original list of temple that I would be visiting. As I was going through the Map of Bagan which has a list of the more important temples, I asked my driver whether we would be going there. However, it turns out that Dhammayangyi Temple was not part of the original agreement.
He did tell me that we can go visit the two more temples including the Dhammayangi Temple for an additional USD 2. Fine. I was kind of looking forward to visiting the temple in the first place. Approaching the temple, you can immediately see how massive the structure is. The people on the temple look really miniscule compared to the temple. It is said that the king who ordered the building of this temple demanded the builders not allow a needle to be pushed in between the brickworks.
Alas, the king was so disliked by his subjects that he was soon assasinated and the temple was never completed. Incomplete as it is, the Dhammayangi Temple can still be appreciated as much of the construction was already done. During my visit there were a lot of hawkers selling the usual postcards, artwork and souvenirs. In particular, a little Burmese girl was hounding me all the way since I entered the grounds. She actually spoke decent English, I guess years of practicing with tourists have improved her English.
The Burmese girl is also quite smart and she was willing to make bets on how she can name the capital of the country I came from. If she got it right, I buy a postcard. I guess this is a common trick to get visitors to buy the postcards. After I was done exploring unimpressive interiors of the temples inside. I was surprised to see her hounding me again. I guess they have been trained by their parents not to let go of any tourists. So I made an agreement with her, I take her photo and she gets to keep the postcard. I didn’t really understand it at first but eventually she got it. And she was naturally very happy to have “sold” something.
Well, I managed to finally get a photo of a typical Burmese girl. She has the typical Southeast Asian look but I guess what sets the Burmese women apart is their use of a powder called thanaka. This is the Burmese sunscreen which is used by most women in the country. It may look a little strange to see women with yellowish powder in their faces but this is absolutely normal here. Some of the powder even come in patterns of leaves. As to the efficacy of the sun screen, I think hundreds of years of use of this powder cannot be wrong. It is also use as an ingredient in the manufacture of western style sunscreen.
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