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@bayinaung
The exteriors: Greatx2 grand uncle U Na Auk's pagoda & monastery
This monastery & pagoda is the Gadoe-Kornat's main tourist attraction. U Na Auk is a Mon businessman famous in Burmese modern history for competing against the British East India company on the Irrawady river ferry business with then modern steam boats in the short-lived but exceedingly destructive British colonial era. The monastery buildings were built during the British colonial era and shows some European influence in the architectural elements, most prominently, to me, the use of Greek capitals on top of columns and the doorway arches. This monastery had the fortune of escaping the bombings by both the Japanese and British/Allies that befell many (especially wooden) historic buildings in major cities in Burma during WWII.
Alas, this monastery is known for its interiors, which is next.
Another view of Greatx5 Grandfather's Pagoda
Orchids grow abundantly near the pagoda. The last photo shows the columnar pagoda posts that seem to be common at Mon pagodas and at some of the Thai pagodas but seldom seen at Burmese (Burman, Myanmar) pagodas.
Aerial view of beaches at Ngapali. Second photo is the most popular beach at Ngapali, and where I stayed during my visit. First and third photos are of a beach that is one bay away from the main beach, and is completely undeveloped.
Great (greatx4) grandfather's pagoda
The small country road led me to my maternal ancestral village of Gadoe-Kornat near Mawlamyine. Gadoe was a mythical place for me growing up, as it used to be a difficult place to reach to, and ethnic insurgency and piracy was rife on the roads leading to the place, thus nobody wanted to go back to visit. But it is my ancestral village. The only one that I knew of for me, as my paternal ancestors were, rather peripatetic, though of upper Burma, if a huge swath of land incorporating several towns and cities can be deemed an "ancestral town or village". My mother told us of a pagoda our great grandfather had built (or was it great great grandfather, I forgot), and I wanted to see it.
I was thinking it would be covered in vegetation and in disrepair, but hoped it would at least be maintained, as many of the former residents of this village had fled the village due to the afore-mentioned strife in the area since, it seems, WW2. On the road leading up to the pagoda, there were giant tropical trees with wild orchids hanging off its trunks lining the street towards what looks like a recently renovated pavilion for the pagoda. And as I approached the pavilion, to my surprise, the pagoda itself appears to have been recently renovated, resplendent in gold and a base coat of red (4th photo). Smaller pagodas that line the periphery of the main pagoda also seems to have been repaired recently as well. All the renovations were by present and former residents and their descendents and not the government who once burned down parts of the village.
I ventured into the monastery attached to the pagoda (as there usually are). The monastery was more of what I had expected - while some of the more "recent" buildings were in decent condition, inhabited by monks and continued to be maintained, the older buildings (photos #6-10) bearing architectural style of late Kongbaung dynasty and incorporating greco-style colonades, were abandoned, and covered in vegetation. One temple pavilion had iron bars and was locked up, in obvious attempt at thwarting thieves of antique religious relics. Within the ruins of one monastery building, a large jack-fruit tree had grown, bearing sizable fruits that will swell and ripen in a few months' time. It was a fascinating vision, made real, by my visit, by my presence in that place, in what John Burger would have called, a return to the centre of my universe.
Pristine
And the sun rises
Sunset @ Ngapali beach
Fishing village on a turquoise beach
Kaleidoscope
Farm shelter, in B&W
Floating gardens
Bird of prey in flight
Inle Lake Monastery
Misty morning
Yarn