Word: shwedagon
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Dates: during 1986-1986
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There are no skyscrapers or neon signs. The largest building around is the Strand Hotel, left over from colonial days, where you can get a lobster dinner for four bucks. But the city is really dominated by the Shwedagon Pagoda, a huge golden dome three kilometers above the city, surrounded on eight sides by smaller pagodas in resplendent red and silver. Both the men and women on the streets wear the traditional longgyi, a tube-shaped piece of cloth knotted at the waist and falling to the ankles. Even children, but especially old women, smoke sold everywhere on the sidewalks...
...Shwedagon Pagoda, my friend Tom and I were lucky enough to happen on a pwe, one of the Burmese religious festivals that go on all night and all day, held on various special occasions, like weddings. We stood at the door watching as two female dancers in elaborate face make-up and gold-embroidered longgyis danced to the rhythm of traditional wooden Burmese instruments. The dancers were encircled by small children at their feet and adults further back, all squatting on the floor...