South East Asian Trips

Inle Lake, the Jewel of Shan State, is located about 30 Km to the south of Taunggyi. This vast, beautiful and picturesque Lake, sheltered among the hazy blue mountains of 1524 meters, stretches 22.4 Km long and 10.2 km wide. The lake itself is about 900 meters above sea-level and studded with floating islands. Inle Lake is famous for its unique one-leg rowers, floating villages and colorful markets. Ywama, the site of every five days floating "markets" and Inle Kaungdaing Spa are the places to be visited. Inle silk is quite popular in Myanmar and hand-looms silk weaving can studied at Inpaw-Khon village.

The celebrated Phaung-Daw-Oo Pagoda is situated in this Lake. Its festival is full of pageantry and ceremonial splendor that held once a year in October. There is the one special thing very peculiar and different from other countries. During the Pagoda Festival, the traditional unique one-leg rowers boat races is the most fascinating events for all the visitors far and near. It can only be seen during the festival of Phaung-Daw-Oo Pagoda that held in mid October.

Just a short plane flight away from Yangon in the cool green highlands of Shan State, and yet seemingly worlds apart from the rest of Myanmar, lies Inle Lake in an area of outstanding natural beauty. The lake itself sits at a pleasant 2900 feet above sea level and is famous for its leg rowers, floating markets and prolific birdlife. In this unique wetland environment, whole villages sit on floating islands on the lake. Colourful hill tribes inhabit the surrounding fertile valleys and forested mountaintops, and their hand-woven silks are a specialty of the region.

Inle Lake is 22km long and about 11km wide. The lake is at 1328 metres above sea level. Inle is one of the most popular tourist destination in the Shan State.

The lake is full of floating vegetations and houses. The lake dwellers are one-legged rowers. They are well-known for it. They are called as "Inthar" meaning people of the lake. There are about 18 villages around the lake. They are Buddhist and about a hundred Buddhist monasteries can be found. A lot small pagodas can be found too.

Inle Lake and the surrounding mountain range Inle lake dwellers or the Inthar, fishing with a specail kind of net used in this region The blue sky matches the blue and clear lake of Inle The boat stand in Nyaung Shwe, for Inle Lake The floating water hyacinth are the major products of this region. Many hand made products such as bags, baskets are made from water hyacinth. Other vegetations are tomatoes, beans, cauliflower, cabbage, eggplant, garlic, onion, betel, melon, papaya and banana. Some villagers also grow rice.

The Inthars also make their living by fishing. The silk dresses and clothes of Inle are popular among local and foreign visitors. Inle also produces silverware,

Major Attractions

Phaung Daw Oo Pagoda - The main pagoda in the Inle lake is called as "Phaung Daw Oo" Pagoda. There are five small Buddha images all covered with gold and difficult to make out the figures. There is an annual festival around October/November.

Phaung Daw Oo Pagoda in the centre for the Inle Lake