Earthquake Impact on Bagan- Myanmar

When I told my friend Tom that we were going to Bagan which was in the epicenter of the earthquake in Myanmar the day after it hit, he emailed back saying:

 "Heading to the epicenter. So your IQ remains unchanged by the shock"... 

You got to love your friends, right? Just so you know, we're not complete quackerjacks! We checked the news at our hotel about after shocks, etc. and Bagan wasn't hit nearly as hard as Italy so we decided to go. 

When the earthquake hit Myanmar, we were in our hotel in Mandalay and the whole building was moving back and forth, a surreal experience. We went downstairs and out to the road but you could still feel the earth moving and there's very little you can do except pray until it stops. Thankfully, nothing collapsed in Mandalay. Bagan is another story- it WAS in the epicenter and there is visible damage (but again nothing like Italy). 

Some history on Bagan, this is an old city and has a spectacular landscape of more than 2,200 pagodas, temples and monasteries all built between the 11th and 13th centuries. So these buildings are 700- 900 years old.

Our guide in Bagan was actually on a tour that day and said it was like jumping up and down except the earth was doing the moving! The most major damage was at the Sulamani temple. Here's a shot from the Internet of what it looked like before the quake and then our shot when we arrived:

There was also damage to other temples and stupas:

Thank goodness most of the pagodas remain standing. It was kind of an eerie feeling walking into some of the buildings though. There were some buildings completely closed with police around to ensure you wouldn't go in. And you couldn't climb any of the temples and police patrolled all of those. Still for some, it just didn't feel safe and we avoided going in. But the beauty is awesome:

On our tour, the last temple we went to was called the Ananda Phay which is a spectacular renovated buddhist temple from 1090 A.D.:

There are 4 remarkable buddhas made of wood (single trees) and measuring 30 feet high, one each representing the north, south, east and west entrance:

The pictures might not show the incredible beauty of these masterpieces. Just thinking how the artists could figure out the lighting (when there was no electricity) and show the beauty of these statues, it just boggles the mind!