Lost in Asia: March 22nd - 23rd Ancient Ruins At Pyay (Sri Ksetra)

I decided to visit the ancient ruins on the outskirts of Pyay located at a place formerly known as Sri Ksetra. This was once a powerful city of the Pyu people, one of Myanmar's earliest peoples who had migrated south from China, and the builders of city-states along trade routes between China and India. Sri Ksetra dates from 7th or 8th century AD, and Pyu civilisation lasted for about a thousand years. Sri Ksetra's claim to fame is that Myanmar's stupas, which dot the landscape across the nation and are the defining architectural symbol of the country, first appeared there.

Getting to Pyay from Yangon meant a long bus journey, the ticket for which I obtained from the Aung San sports stadium near to where I stayed. It turned out that few bus operators provided a service to Pyay, and by the time I found one that did, it was something of a race against time to return to the hotel, check out of the place, and reach the bus station, which was about an hour and a half from downtown Yangon. As with the bizarre set up of bus services to the airport, it seemed really odd that to reach the main bus terminus linking Yangon to the rest of the country would involve such a long journey from what is virtually the downtown area of the city. The bus to Pyay left at 1.30pm. The absence of a straightforward service to the bus station meant the use of a taxi as the only reliable means of getting there on time.

I spent much of the 7 hours or so of the journey in conversation with Samuel, a man who was living in a fairly remote village bordering with Thailand, and who was heavily involved in trying to educate the children of his village. He spoke quite openly of the food shortages in his mountain village of approximately 100 households, which results from their crop yield being insufficient to feed themselves, so that they are forced to cut trees to sell as firewood to other villagers living on the lower slopes of the mountain. He also talked about how groups of local men would sneak over the border to carry out factory work in Thailand, for which he said they earned about one third of the wages paid to their Thai colleagues doing the same unskilled work. He talked about Thai police arresting these villagers and sending them back over the border, only for them to return the next day.

Samuel also spoke of the poverty of ambition amongst the young people of his village, saying that most of them would probably never meet a person with a professional job and so were unable to think of a life beyond unskilled farming. He was quite dismissive of the Myanmar government's work in helping small village communities like his, expressing the view that much more could be done to improve their quality of life.

I'd struggled with finding somewhere to stay in Pyay, and during the bus journey, Samuel was extremely generous in offering me accommodation on the outskirts of Pyay, with himself and his in-laws, which was really touching as he didn't know me at all, but I declined, and found a place not too far from the bus station run by an extended family, and managed by an engaging, amusing fellow who was extremely helpful in arranging a motorcycle taxi to take me the next morning to Sri Ksetra, a distance of about 15 kilometres. He also provided useful guidance on getting to Bagan.

The motorcycle taxi arrived at around 7am the next morning, as it seemed that an early start was the best way to avoid the baking heat. Arriving in Sri Ksetra was quite a haunting experience, a place littered with a series of hugely impressive stupas, some of which still housed stone carvings of the Buddha. The link between the structures located and built over a thousand years ago, and those I had seen in Yangon, and was soon to see in Bagan, was striking. Architecturally so much is owed to the Pyu people. Their skill in using brick in artistic ways, such as in creating curved archways, was considerably ahead of its time. The deserted nature of the place, apart from these magnificent buildings, suggested a culturally advanced city that no longer exists. The museum also held some interesting Pyay carvings from both Hindu and Buddhist traditions, illustrating the diferent religious traditions of that time.

The Sri Ksetra site was also interesting given the location of a Nat shrine at the entrance, the first i'd seen in the country. Nat worship involves revering spirits (most of which experienced violent deaths), and its a practice found in largely rural areas. It pre-dates Theravada Buddhism, and there are 37 Nats, some of which relate to Hindu gods as well as folk deities. It is said that King Anawrahta, who first established Theravada Buddhism as the national religion of the country, recognised the hold that the Nat tradition held over the people, and so incorporated it into a reformed version of Buddhist practice. At Sri Ksetra, the Nat shrine of Pauk Mae Taw is worshipped to protect the city and its inhabitants by keeping out evil spirits.

After leaving Pyay, we paid a short visit to the famous Shwesandaw Pagoda, which looked spectacular in the sunshine. In Pyay, I also felt that for the first time I sampled Myanmar cuisine in a restaurant close to where I had stayed, and it was delicious! I had ordered a fish dish, and it came with three additional dishes: bamboo shoots; gourds and green beans, together with rice. Its difficult to describe the flavours, but they were quite intense, slightly spicy and, to be honest, fairly oily, but delightful all the same. Completely different to both Chinese and Indian cuisine.