Photos of Inle Lake, home of the Intha, Myanmar

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Inle Lake, home of the Intha

The Inle Lake, in the west of Shan State, is the second largest lake in Myanmar and totally unique. It is about 22 kilometres long and 11 kilometres wide. The shore and islands in the lake have small villages with houses on stilts, inhabited mainly by Intha ("sons of the lake") people; they are a Tibeto-Burman group speaking an archaic dialect of Burmese and number around 70,000.

Street in Nyaungshwe
 
Gilded stupas
 
Mosaic covered pagoda
 
View of Nyaungshwe
 
Dusk at Nan Chaung
 
Intha fisherman
 
Woman on Inle Lake
 
Stupa near Indein
 
Old abandoned stupas
 
Shwe Inn Thein
 
Boats at Indein
 
Village on Inle Lake
 
View to stupas
 
Monastery with stupas
 
Hnin Thit Sar
 
Making paper umbrellas
 
House on stilts
 
Phaung Daw Oo Paya
 
The five holy images
 
Two men rowing
 
Ornate ceremonial vessel
 
Vessel detail
 
Buddha and cobra
 
Woman weaving
 
Inle Lake village
 
Pagoda on the lake
 
Boat transport
 
Children on veranda
 
Boat crew
 
Village over water
 
Making cheroots
 
Lakeside pagoda
 
Floating gardens
 
Nga Hpe Chaung
 
Gilded Buddha statues
 
A gilded throne
 
Tibetan Buddhas
 
Leg rowing
 
Boats in the canal
 
Yaungwe Haw museum
 
Throne and audience hall
 
Monastery, Nyaungshwe
 
Nyaungshwe street.
 
Newly built monastery
 
Golden stupas
 
Thatched house
 
Walking past stupas
 
Ox cart in Nyaungshwe
 
Yadana Man Aung Paya
 
Pagoda in Nanthe
 
Farmers of Nanthe
 
Farm house near Nyaungshwe
 
Walking to Ywa Thit
 
Abbot and novices
 
Ywa Thit stupas
 
Ywa Thit Monastery
 
Thatched houses
 
Canoe manoeuvre
 
Across the bridge
 
Pagoda along Nan Chaung
 

The Intha people grow vegetables on floating gardens and are famous for their rowing technique, standing at the stern of their flat-bottomed boats, one leg wrapped around an oar and propelling the boat with their leg. This way they have a good view of the floating islands and water hyacinths that often form obstacles. Only men perform the leg rowing style however; women sit cross legged at the stern, using the oar with their hands.

The lake is part of the township of Nyangshwe, located a few kilometres north of the lake and to the south west of the state capital of Taunggyi. It is a hub for visitors and has all amenities, hotels, restaurants, a few stupas and a canal filled with local boats. It is easy to organise trips around the lake, a great trip with lots of points of interest; old villages like Indein with its crumbling stupas, impressive monasteries like Phaung Daw Oo Paya, the holiest religious site in southern Shan State, the many stupas of Aung Min Ga Lar Paya and cottage industry in villages: weaving, silver smiths, making of cheroots, cylindrical cigars with both ends clipped during manufacture, to mention a few.