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the men standing on the elevated pole in the middle of this slender boat are singing and dancing
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here comes the barge that everyone's been waiting for. shaped like a mythical bird, it's carrying 4 buddha images from the 12th century (except over the years, devotees have been plastering them with gold leaf so they're shapeless lumps now)
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the barge takes the buddhas from village to village around Inle Lake to bless each monastery, which takes 20 days to complete since there are so many monasteries on the lake
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barge carries 4 buddhas, even though there are 5. the story goes that in 1965 the barge, which was carrying all 5, capsized & sank in a storm. only 4 were recovered but back at the pagoda 5th was sitting there covered in weeds; so now he never leaves
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birds all hanging out
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flying off as our boat approaches
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Intha fisherman on Inle lake rowing standing up with one leg
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we stopped at Anna's Restaurant in the middle of the lake to get some food at 9 in the morning (we'd been up 5 hours by then).
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Inle is the 2nd largest lake in Burma. it's about 4400 feet above sea-level, so the temperature is really pleasant (doesn't get scorching hot, unlike Mandalay). it's surrounded by these blue mist shrouded mountains. stunning place!
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it was amazingly relaxing sitting at this restaurant surrounded by water and mountains, watching the occasional fisherman or lake people going by on their canoe
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doing laundry. there are many of these villages on the lake. since the lake isn't deep (although it's big), houses are built on stilts and people have floating vegetable plots and gardens
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at a silver workshop on the lake
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the Phaung Daw U Pagoda on Inle lake. thousands of people thronged here to pray to the 5th Buddha who stays in the pagoda while the the other 4 travel to the monasteries on the lake to bless them during the festival period
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protecting myself from the rain with my parasol
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this pagoda on the lake is quite big surprisingly
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all kinds of stalls had been set up on the pagoda grounds in the lake for the festival. there were thousands of tribal people here
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weaving silk on Inle lake
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really pretty silk; it was interesting watching the process of making fabric like this
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spinning silk. this woman was so old, hard to believe she was still working
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lotus fabric, unique to burma. this woman is pulling fragile fibers from lotus stems; the fibers will be spun to form stronger thread. stems have to be used within 3 days of plucking, and over 100,000 stems are needed to make a monk's robe.and the lotus is not cultivated, they grow wild. the process of making just the thread involves an incredible amount of work, let alone weaving lotus thread which requires special looms. the monks get to wear lotus fabric - so much devotion & hard work goes into their simple garb
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at the Jumping Cat Monastery :) on Inle Lake. the kids are all waiting to see — cats jump, of course
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