Pyay Prome, Myanmar
Myanmar
Frequently Asked Questions
At the town's landing stage, which puts you minutes from the centre. Pyay lies about 260 kilometres north-west of Yangon on the eastern bank of the Irrawaddy.
Prome, on British maps. The town still lives to the rhythm of the water.
The gilded stupa that rises above the rooftops from its terrace. Tradition holds that it enshrines hairs of the Buddha, making it one of the country's great pilgrimage sites. You climb barefoot up covered stairways.
A seated Buddha several storeys high, facing the Shwesandaw pagoda. The two giants looking at each other make the strongest image of the call.
The remains of the Pyu people's capital, eight kilometres south-east of Pyay and far older than the rise of Bagan. It was Myanmar's first UNESCO World Heritage site.
The Bawbawgyi cylinder, as tall as a building and standing for more than a thousand years, the squat domes of Payagyi and Payama, brick gateways and grass-covered walls. A small site museum holds funerary urns, beads and inscriptions.
By car or in a cart pulled by a placid ox, among buffalo and farmers. The site scatters its stupas across the fields and is best taken slowly.
Thanaka, the bark paste locals wear on their faces, mangoes, freshwater fish and lacquerware. The surrounding streets mix wooden houses, faded colonial facades and tea shops.
Few, and that rarity makes exchanges all the more spontaneous. Smiles follow you the length of the street.
Late afternoon on the riverbank, when families come down to watch the convoys pass and the sun sinks behind the far shore, setting the Shwesandaw dome alight.
