Mount Popa

The thing everyone photographs is not the mountain but Taung Kalat, a volcanic plug rising abruptly out of the plain with a gilded monastery balanced on its flat top. Mount Popa proper, an extinct volcano, stands behind it. The plug is climbed by a covered stairway of 777 steps, barefoot from the base as it is a sacred site, past shrines to the nats, the thirty-seven spirits of pre-Buddhist Burmese belief who are venerated here more openly than almost anywhere else. Macaques line the entire route and are aggressive about anything carried in hand. From the top, the view runs over the plain towards Bagan, and on the way up the nat shrines with their brightly dressed figures are as interesting as the summit.

History

Legend says the mountain rose from the ground in a great earthquake in 442 BC. Mount Popa is the home of Burma's most powerful nats, and so is called Burma's Mount Olympus; one story tells of the brother and sister Mahagiri nats from Tagaung, who were enshrined here, and the nat cults are thought to have blended with Buddhism from the 11th century (Wikipedia, Mount Popa).

Highlights

• The 777-step climb - the covered stairway to the monastery on the plug.
• Nat shrines - figures of the thirty-seven spirits, dressed and offered to at the base.
• The summit view - across the dry plain towards Bagan and the volcano behind.
• Mount Popa proper - the forested extinct volcano, with a separate resort viewpoint.

When to go

November to February for cooler weather; the barefoot climb on hot stone in the dry season is genuinely painful. Early morning is coolest and the monkeys are marginally calmer.

What to expect

The climb is barefoot on stone that the monkeys use freely, which is exactly as unpleasant as it sounds; most visitors bring socks. The macaques snatch bags, glasses and food and can bite, so carry nothing loose in your hands. The best photograph of Taung Kalat is taken from the hill opposite rather than from the plug itself, which surprises people who climb expecting the postcard view.

Nearby

Bagan is an hour northwest; the Chin hills lie further west.