Travel Day 1142 – Bagan, MYANMAR
Bagan was absolutely amazing, it was simply stunning and yet it was not a UNESCO enlisted World Heritage site…
Stunning non-UNESCO enlisted Temples of Bagan in Myanmar
When we climbed some temples yesterday and got a little bit of an overview of what the area of Bagan had to offer, we were simply in disbelieve. There were some 3500 red brick temple ruins in the fields of Bagan and it was actually suggested that at some point it had been more than 4000 during the hey day of this former capital city. But even with the count of 3 ½ thousand temples, if one would be able to visit 10 temples per day, seeing them all would take one entire year…
Trying to understand the extent of Bagan and to capture the vast amount of historic monuments seemed simply impossible. The funny thing about this was that everybody knew the temples of Angkor Wat and they were a well-respected histrical site. While the temples of Angkor were obviously bigger in size, the extent of the temple covered area was not as great as in Bagan and yet the temples of Bagan were not an enlisted UNESCO World Heritage site. Why was that the case?
Ugly and out-of-place Viewing Tower in Bagan, Myanmar
As I found out, over the course of many years UNESCO had actually spent millions of dollars on restoration projects following the 1975 earthquake in Bagan. Apparently some of the restoration and re-construction projects have been done rather unprofessionally and without the expertise of educated historians or skilled labor, leaving Bagan today as a somewhat Disney like fantasy version of its former self. The following result seemed to be that a 1996 submission to UNESCO only made it to the Tentative List…
The recent additions of a really ugly and out-of-place Viewing Tower, a newly invented Bagan Golden Palace and a monstrously huge Archaeology Museum probably didn’t help to convince UNESCO to positively re-consider the nomination. Also the fact that some of the bigger, most tourist frequented temples had turned into what was best described as souvenir shopping malls seemed slightly concerning and was best avoided…
Unbelievable Extent of red Temple Ruins in Bagan, Myanmar
But beyond all that and away from the well-trodden tourist path along the Disnyfied temples lay still an authentic Bagan in the middle of the fields. After realizing that Old Bagan and the immediate area around it had nothing much to offer for my personal taste, I simply concentrated on the smaller temples along the many muddy paths between the fields. The visits here were much more peaceful and rewarding, leaving one only to imagine how grand the entire area of Bagan must have been in the 13th century before the final invasion of the Mongols…
Maybe one day UNESCO would come back, look at the still authentic side of Bagan and reconsider its decision. But maybe the government of Myanmar would simply continue to use the 15 USD entrance fee to conduct silly, unprofessional restorations and ultimately ruin what could easily be called Myanmar’s most striking and impressive historical sites. Only time could tell, but unfortunately the latter seemed more likely at this stage…
Find all Bagan Photos here.
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