South of Mingun, also on the West Bank of the Irrawaddy, is the spiritual center of Sagaing (pronounced Sa-gai) spread across the hillsides with hundreds of pagodas and monasteries, that attract Buddhists searching for peace, meditation, and enlightenment.

U Min Thone Zel Paya — at the top of Sagaing Hill sits a particularly impressive pagoda with a grand semi-circular white and gold facade and a great view of the rest of Sagaing. It is best known for the 45 Buddhas lined up in a semi-circular corridor, representing the 45 years of the Buddha’s life after enlightenment. Paintings on the walls over the doorways chronicle the Buddha’s life.

Soon U Pon Nya Shin Paya — down Sagaing Hill is an old pagoda with a story. The magical legend is that a King received a relic of the Buddha – a hair – which he entrusted to the care of his closest minister – Pon Nya. The box the minister placed it in turned up empty, and the minister accused the box maker of taking it. Convinced of the box maker’s innocence, the two men sought to deceive the King, were discovered and sentenced to death. Fervent prayer miraculously caused the hair to reappear in the box, and the minister built the pagoda in thanks. Sagaing Hill is known locally as frog hill because it has the shape of a frog. Another story associated with the pagoda is that the Buddha in an earlier life was king of the rabbits and visited frog hill. In the pagoda are bronze statues of a frog and a rabbit.

Sunset at the Teak Bridge — Back across the river from Sagaing is the U-Bein bridge – the world’s longest teak footbridge built to enable local villagers to cross the lake. We are seeing it in the dry season when the tall piers it sits on are fully exposed by the receding lake, and have been oared out in small boats along with a legion of other tourists to a position below the bridge to watch the sunset. The reddening sky creates an intense backdrop to the silhouettes of monks, villagers, and tourists all moving across the bridge.