The Flowering Buddha

Beautiful flowers for the Buddha.

This was one of the few Buddhas in the village that still had its head on. Sadly, many of the Buddha heads were taken over the years by thieves. I'm always curious where these precious antiquities go. How many are locals that just want a nice Buddha head in their home, versus how many get sold and smuggled out of the country. In either case, it's a sad situation.

Even though this Buddha is in fairly good condition, you can still tell the statue has been there for a while. I like that. Many people in Burma like the new Pagodas and Temples, but I enjoy the ones that have stood the test of time.

There's something a bit sterile about a bunch of new pagodas and stupas. Like, they haven't really had their spiritual break-in. Seeing the plants grow through the gaps in the bricks and I can start to immediately imagine what life might have been like hundreds of years ago in this small village.