Burma is one of the least explored of the exotic countries of Southeast Asia. Mired for long in political turmoil, Myanmar, as it is officially known, never made it to any list of popular tourist destinations of the world. Destructive politics can be fatal for any culture but Burma, rather miraculously, survived. The Buddhist-majority country has witnessed its own share of problems – strategic or civic. A historic change in the Myanmar’s political climate offered photographers the golden opportunity to capture the untouched societal, architectural and natural beauty of the country. In fact these pictures from Burma reveal a land so beautiful you might as well forget the more popular Southeast Asian nations such as Thailand!
1. A monk in a monastery in Nyaungshwe
2. Plains of Bagan. Notice the hot-air balloons in the background
3. Young monks playing in Bago
4. A temple in Bagan where sunlight enters a particular way a week each year
5. Inle Lake fisherman. Notice the leg wrapping the paddle
6. The Monk and the Seagulls
7. Reclining Mya Tha Lyaung Buddha in Bago
8. Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon has a 350-foot gold-plated dome
9. Bagan stupas
10. An education
11. Untouched beauty in Bagan
12. Rural Burma
13. A pagoda in Pindaya, Inle Lake area
14. Hsinbyume Pagoda in Mingun
15. Navigating through lotus flowers of Inle Lake
16. Bagan
17. Golden Rock Pagoda in Kyitehtiyo
18. Cracks from a 1839 quake visible in an unfinished temple in Mingun
19. For enlightenment
20. Temple near Kyaukse in the Mandalay Region
21. In a Yangon Monastry
22. Mon women playing traditional instruments
23. Old monk and old building near Monywa
24. A child in basket and the temple in Bagan
25. The 1200-meter-long U Bein Bridge, the longest teak bridge, over Taungthaman Lake in Mandalay
26. A festival
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Credit: Smithsonian