Without an H

Photography from south-east Asia by Jon Sanwell

Posts tagged ‘mandalay’

The Devil of Mandalay and other pictures

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I don’t have many regrets about my autumn trip to Myanmar, but I do wish that I’d spent a little more time in Mandalay. The pictures here are some of my favourites from the trip, but there are too many others, not shown here, where I just didn’t quite capture the mood. Still, at least it gives me an excuse to go back another time.

This will be my last post of the year, so I’d just like to say a big thank you to everyone following the site. I know I’m not very good at replying to comments, but that doesn’t mean they go unnoticed or unappreciated. Thank you, and happy new year, everybody.

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The Devil of Mandalay

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Betel

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Chewing betelnut (actually a combination of betel leaves and areca nut, Wikipedia tells me) is a major part of the culture in Myanmar. Betel provides a mild stimulant, but also stains the chewer’s teeth red and is a major cause of cancer. This series of pictures from Mandalay shows the areca nuts being sliced and sorted; the betel leaves being arranged in baskets for sale at the market; a street stand selling parcels of nuts and leaves; and a betel smile.

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Streets of Mandalay

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Mandalay is a slightly odd city, full of history, but a little neglected in the present day. Flat, laid out in straight lines and right angles, and with no obvious centre, it’s not immediately appealing in the same way as Yangon, but there’s plenty to see if you wander round the right corner. I enjoyed walking and driving around on my rented motorbike, exploring the markets and streets.

The men in the picture above are playing chinlone, a kind of keepy-uppy game played with a ball made from rattan. It’s a common sight in open spaces throughout Myanmar.

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The buddha factory

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Wandering around the southern part of Mandalay’s central grid, looking for a pagoda that I never found, I came across a row of workshops where buddha statues were being made. The air was thick with dust as workmen used circular saws to cut away extraneous rock and reveal the buddha figures hidden within. Women cleaned and polished and provided the finishing touches. Half-finished statues, their bodies perfectly crafted but their heads still unformed, clustered together in the morning sun. Others, victims of some error or flaw, lay abandoned amid piles of rubble. In other workshops, craftsmen busied themselves with making gold-plated ornaments, such as the conical htis that sit on top of Burmese pagodas.

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Fruit ‘n’ veg

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So, what first caught my eye in Mandalay? The historic citadel? The teak wood monasteries? The temples on Mandalay Hill? Nope. A fruit and vegetable market near my hotel, particularly the bananas and onions.

I’m still in the process of updating this site. If you have a moment, check out the new look galleries here, now showing as large-size slideshows.

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