I wanted to highlight my 20 days in Myanmar with a selection of pictures from my time there. So for the next 3 weeks the View of the Day will encapsulate an event or occurrence that happened during my time there.
Towards the end of my trip I spent a few days at Inle Lake. A monk had just passed away and a funeral procession through town was held our second day there. The whole town seemed to show up, lining the streets as first monks and then nuns processed down the street. The procession started off very solemn, with the chiming of a bell the only sound heard. Following them, groups of girls and women sang/chanted a song in a language I did not know. Behind them came the casket with the deceased monk, carried on the back of a truck with monks sitting around the casket.
Not far behind the casket, the solemn procession quickly turned into an orderly chaos as groups of townspeople vied to tear a piece of cloth from what I assumed to be some of the monk’s robes. I’m not entirely sure if they were the robes he was wearing when he died or another article of clothing, but the excitement in the crowd was a verging on a frenzy, albeit a contained frenzy. The procession started at a monastery, progressed through town, and ended at the town’s large sports field. Luckily enough, it wound its way right past my guesthouse, and my first inclinations of something occurring were the sight of people lining the street in expectation and the sound of a single low-tone bell in the distance.
Here a woman watches as the procession passes her by.
After the procession ended I went to a nearby restaurant to grab some lunch. Oddly enough, there was a wedding reception at the restaurant. It was quite a juxtaposition to go from a solemn funeral procession to a joyous wedding reception all within the span of an hour.