Golden Rock, Myanmar

Legend has it that in the 11th century, King Tissa received one of Buddha's hair from a hermit.  Tissa was instructed to find a boulder in the shape of the hermit's head and enshrine the hair in a stupa on top of the boulder.  The king found the boulder at the bottom of the ocean and voila!

These men are adding more gold leaf-

Many offerings of food and water are given-

Here's quite a load!  Yes, those are bricks!

I'm not sure how I could do this-

This is how I should have come up yesterday!

Our taxi is full!

We stopped along the road to give donations.  He hopped right up onto the truck-

In Thaton City, we visited the Shwe Saryan Pagoda.  It was built in the 17th century by King Thuriya Sanda and it contained 8 hair relics of Kakusana Buddha, the staff of Gonaguna Buddha, the emerald alms bowl of Kassapa Buddha and four tooth relics of Gautama Buddha.  

Notice the female buddhas on the sides-

Money boxes are everywhere.  People in all religions seem to think they can buy their way to heaven...  either with cash-

or other offerings-

Another fortune teller-

This monk is 81 years old!

I love this hat!

Snacks - peanut brittle, popped rice cookie and coconut-

We're in Hpa An for the night, and moving on to Thailand tomorrow.