By Mark McConville
ASTONISHING aerial images have captured a bird’s eye view of the dazzling Buddhist temples of Myanmar.
Stunning pictures show the variation in the temples as you look down on them above with some golden and red circles being replaced by darker rectangles and pyramid-esque shapes at other locations.
Other striking shots show a bamboo structure around one of the temples, white walls leading to a golden top and a new place of worship undergoing construction with scaffolding all around it.
The amazing photographs were taken across Myanmar by London-based architect and photographer Dimitar Karanikolov (42), from Sofia, Bulgaria.
“I thought Myanmar from above would look amazing,” he said.
“I love this new point of view as top down images are very architectural and can only be done with a drone.
“It’s like seeing familiar places in a new and almost hard to recognise perspective. People normally ask how the images are taken and how high the drone was to achieve this.”
Each photo features one of the thousands of centuries-old Buddhist temples, shrines, and pagodas built in the sprawling forests of Bagan, Yangon, and Mandalay.
In addition to highlighting the beauty of the temples’ designs, these photographs also visually illustrate the prominence of Buddhism in both past and present Myanmar.
More than 10,000 temples exist in Bagan alone, and—as evident in Karanikolov’s photos—many of them are currently being restored.
Though Myanmar has an ancient relationship with the religion, Karanikolov’s modern approach to photographing its temples shows it from a dazzling new perspective.
Unfortunately, it’s not all beauty in Myanmar as for most of its independent years, the country has been engrossed in rampant ethnic strife and its myriad ethnic groups have been involved in one of the world’s longest-running ongoing civil wars. During this time, the United Nations and several other organisations have reported consistent and systematic human rights violations in the country.
The country’s military is facing fresh accusations that it’s launched deadly attacks against civilians. This time, not against the Rohingyas, but against the Kachin people in the north.
For more information see instagram.com/karanikolov
