Inle Lake

Inle Lake is a freshwater lake in Shan State in Myanmar. He is known by its unique one and floating villages and gardens. The lives of these people is completely focused on the lake.

The lake has a north- south extent of about 22 km and an east- west distance of 10 km. The lake is at 875 m above sea level and has a surface area of an average of 12,000 hectares. He is after Indawgyi Lake the second largest lake in Myanmar.

Within the lake and on the lake shore, there are a total of 17 villages, which are predominantly inhabited by the Intha people. The houses are built on stilts. A total of 70,000 people live here.

The population grows vegetables, fruits and flowers. Many of the cultures are ordered on floating fields. Based on these floating fields is a very fertile solid mass consisting of swamp, earth and water hyacinths, which are secured by bamboo stilts on the lake floor.

The movement in the narrow channels of the villages, in the fields and near the shore takes place in small canoes. Typical of the lake is used here, leg - rowing technique. The Rowing stands at the stern of the boat. When the hands are required, for example when fishing, it is only rowed to the foot, turning the rudder is clamped to the leg. For large distances on the lake only the larger boats with outboard motors are allowed but today.

The lake is part of the management unit Nyaung Shwe with about 130,000 inhabitants. The capital of the administrative unit is the same place Nyaung Shwe.

Fauna

In Inle Lake and surrounding marshes 16 to 31 endemic species of fish are, including the carp fish Danio erythromicron, devario auropurpureus, devario jayarami, Microrasbora rubescens, the nude arbor ( Sawbwa resplendens ) and the snakehead Channa harcourtbutleri. The grass carp ( Ctenopharyngodon idella ) and Labeo rohita occur as invasive species on. Since 1985, the Inle Lake is an official bird sanctuary.

Attractions

• Ywama: place in the middle of the lake. There was a floating market. One can here and visit many trades such as silversmiths, weavers, woodcarvers and cheroot - factories in the area.
• Daw U Pagoda Phaung: This pagoda houses five Buddha images, which are run annually as part of the Phaung Daw U festival in the royal barge from village to village.
• Nga Phe Kyaung Monastery: A 160 years old monastery. As an attraction, there were monks have trained cats, which jumped by small tires. For this reason, the monastery is also still called Monastery of The Jumping Cats. The demonstrations there is no more, as this was not requested by the new abbot.

Pictures

• Inle Lake

" Floating " tomato plantation

Monopod rowers

Buddhist temple on the lake shore

Sunset

Trained monastery cats