Seat of Our Pants

A few weeks ago, while I was waiting in line at the Kathmandu Airport, I happened to strike up a conversation with an American part-time Buddhist monk. While the security people did their best to delay all the flights, we had time to exchange a few pleasantries and travel anecdotes. Upon hearing that we were headed for Burma, he said that the Sagaing Hills are well worth a visit if we made it to the Mandalay area.

Taking his advice, we decided to give the Sagaing Hills a whirl. Now, it doesn’t make sense to try to take in all of it – Sagaing is a conglomeration of 500 monasteries, stupas and pagodas, spread out over a hilly shelf above the Irrawaddy River. We opted to scale Sagaing Hill itself – a sweaty stroll up to the main temple of the area.

In contrast to Mandalay Hill, Sagaing Hill feels more like an active place of worship and religious study than a tourist attraction. Monks walk around side by side, engaged in conversations about Buddha-knows-what, and there are comparatively few people trying to sell you postcards, coca cola and souvenirs.

If we had more time and a burning interest in Theravada Buddhism, these hills would surely be a nice place to base ourselves. Some monasteries give Vipassna courses, and others offer to help arranging longer stays for the serious students. For us, it was a nice glimpse of the religious side of the country; because in Myanmar, Buddhism is bigger than anything else – except for English football.

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