Myanmar Embassy - Korea : Tourism

Tourism

Places to visit » Yangon :: Mandalay :: Bagan :: Inle :: Kyaikhtiyo :: Beach

Travel Information

Inle Lake

Location: Latitude: 20˚ 46’ N, Longitude: 97˚ 01’ E
Temperature: min 12˚ C – max 28˚ C
Population: 80,000

Inle Lake is a huge lake (22 km long and 10km across) located in Shan State, over 900 meters above sea-level, and it is outrageously beautiful. The strangest thing about Inle is native lake-dwellers, living on ‘floating islands’. Have you ever seen an island in your life which float around? This is no magic. No miracle. No joke. It’s real!

Inle Lake is one of the most significant and productive ecological system supporting an immense variety of plants and animals and yielding great wealth for Myanmar through its occurrence of floating islands and the living style of the natives.

Where to visit

Phaung Taw Oo Buddha Images

Phaung Taw Oo Buddha Images are in a set of five, cherished by Bagan Emperor Alaung Sithu, and dedicated to five Buddhas of this planet Earth. These Buddha images are famous because many prayers came true, after praying at Phaung Taw Oo. Try yourself.

Nyaung Shwe

Nyaung Shwe is the capital town for Inle Lake area. One of the mostcolorful markets in Myanmar is the 5-day market of Nyaung Shwe, which is opened only on every 5th days. Women from various hilltribes that live in the Inle Lake region come to sell their home products, fruit and vegetables in this market.

Indein

one of the 17 small villages of Inle Lake is on the west end. Visitors have to take 5-km boat ride from Ywama village, which is next to Nyaung Shwe. A Buddha Image is enshrined inside a white-washed stupa, on the summit of a hill. Below the stupa around the hill is a cluster of hundreds of ancient stupas. Many of them are ruined and overgrown with bushes.

Nga Phe Kyaung

This wooden monastery was built on stills of Inle, about 2 centuries aga. Century-old wooden sculptures can be seen there. It is widely mnown as ‘Jumping Cat Monastery’ because cats from this monastery can jump and leap through hoops.

Inle Vicinity – Taungyi

the capital of Shan State, with a moderate climate. Hot-air Balloon Festival is famous and held every November in Taunggyi.

Inle Vicinity – Kakku Pagodas

Kakku Pagodas are a group of over 2,000 stupas, only about 33 miles away from Taunggyi. Most of them are many centuries old, and it is a newly opened destination.

Inle Vicinity – Kalaw

Kalaw stands high on the western edge of the Shan Plateau. It is 70km west of Taunggyi, about halfway along the Thazi-Taunggyi road. This was a popular hill resort in the British colonial period, and it is still a peaceful quiet place. At an altitude of 1,320 m it is pleasantly cool and a good place for hiking amid pines, bamboo groves and rugged mountain scenery. Those around Kalaw are from four ethnics groups, Palaung, Pa-O, Danu and Taung Yoe.

Inle Vicinity – Pindaya Cave

Pindaya Cave is a small quiet town perched on the bank of the placid Botoloke Lake. It is a huge cave where hundreds and thousands of Buddha images in various size and shape are donated and installed since the 11th century. The most attractive place in Pindaya is the ancient Shwe U Min cave which contains about 8,000 Buddha statues, which are collected over the centuries.

Festival in Inle

The Phaung Taw Oo Pagoda Festival is held around late October, depending on the Myanmar traditional lunar calendar. Festivals in Myanmar mostly coincide with the full moons days and often related Buddhism. The Phaung Taw Oo festival is one of the most spectacular festivities in Myanmar.

Only four of the five Buddha images of the pagoda are placed on a royal barge and are rowed from village to village around the lake, stopping at each monastery. The decorated royal barge is towed by leg-rowers around the lake. Boat races are held during this festival. In some boat races, each boat carry, over one hundred people each, standing upright and rowing with their legs in the traditional Inle syle. Local and foreign visitors are crowded at such a time.