Monthly Photos　June 2017

Photos taken by ILCAA staff and associates are posted here once a month; most of them are taken during their field research in Asia and Africa.

(The copyright belongs to the photographers.)

A fallen plantain bud

Shwemawdaw Pagoda of Bago, a city in Lower Burma, is said to have been built in the 10th century and collapsed due to earthquakes several times in history. The top part of pagoda, called ‘plantain bud’ after its shape, fallen in 1913 is still preserved in part as if it leaned on the periphery of the pagoda. Commemorating the historical event, a monument with a small pagoda has been embedded on the fallen ‘plantain bud’. In typical Burmese fashion, the monument was created as a personal good deed. The pagoda became taller and taller through repeated restoration, and now it is 114m tall, the tallest pagoda in Myanmar.

1 JUN 2014
Shwemawdaw Pagoda, Bago, Myanmar
Photograph by Hideo SAWADA

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