The limitless wisdom of Buddha – Ananda Festival – Bagan, Myanmar
Every year, usually in January, the Ananda pagoda in Bagan, Myanmar witnesses if not the biggest, but one of the biggest buddhist festivals of the year.
This is a month long festival promoting socialising, reunification and the propagation of Buddhism and its principals.
So much entertainment takes place during that: open air theatre called Anyeints, singing and dancing called Zats, and huge popular pops up selling everything from food to traditional attires to mobile phones to pretty much anything you can think of. A fun fair for kids also attracts a lot of attention.
But the culmination of the festival is on the full moon when thousands upon thousands of monks line up outside the Ananda Temple to take back to their monasteries donations and gifts in the form of food, various objets, sometimes money for the upkeep of the monastery.
As you can see from the images, monks and novices of all ages line up and wait from dawn onwards until the line starts moving. In the mean time, monks families gather around and keep them company (having also donated for the festival most of the time).
Everyone and their brother is taking pictures: monks of monks, tourist of monks, monks of tourists, it really is a blast to experience.
Hope you enjoy the photos below…
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Helen Darling says
Simply stunning. Gorgeous contrasting colours and personalities are beautifully captured.