Thousands and thousands of Pagodas and Temples glitter in the Myanmar sun with GOLD! Myanmar is maybe the most devout Buddhist country in the world. From the small village to the largest city, you will find Buddha images and the places that house them plastered in gold leafs!

As I travel around this unique country, I see gold everywhere . Every day gold leaves are applied to the favorite Buddha of a Burmese person (by men only). The gold leaf is applied to the Buddha as an offering. 

On the country's most popular Buddha image, at the Mahamuni Temple, so many gold leaves have been pasted to it that it is almost unrecognizable. 

The gold leaves go through a labor intensive process to become thin enough to be used for pasting on the Buddha. The gold is literally hammered for 5 hours into thin leaves after a long, time consuming process. There are huge work shops around the country where you can see this done.

Today I visited the Botataung Paya Temple in Yangon. It was first built 2500 years ago, but was completely destroyed in WWII and was rebuilt after the war.

I walked from where I was staying and took photos along the way of everyday life here. As I got closer to the Temple, there were sellers taking advantage of the crowds that come to the temple.

This temple is hollow. You walk through it and the ceilings and walls and everything else are plated in gold leaves! But, it is an empty building, except for the cabinet that holds a hair of Buddha.

Different Pagados and Temples in Myanmar claim to hold relics or articles belonging to Buddha. One is said to have a bone of Buddha. In this one, there is a cabinet that is said to hold a hair of Buddha.
 
You can get close enough to get a photo of the hair, but I left that to the Buddhist followers to do.

NEXT: "60 TONS OF GOLD!"