After a boat ride back from Mingun and a delicious Thai lunch with our wonderful guide, we visited an ancient monastery – every square inch of it carved by hand.

This most beautiful teak wood building, was erected inside the Palace at Mandalay by king Mindon, the founder of Mandalay. After he died in 1878, his son king Thibaw Min – the last king of Burma – had the building moved out of the city. It is the only remaining structure from the original Mandalay Palace. All of the rest of the buildings inside the palace city were completely destroyed in 1944 by allied bombardment at the end of the second world war. (Thanks for the history lesson, Tun!)

Heh. While resarching Shwe Nan Daw, I can across this familiar-looking image. At first I thought it might be the very same young monk, but it’s not. Maybe it’s his brother. 🙂