Fishermen of the Intha ethnic minority group, stand deftly on the sterns of flat wooden boats and use bamboo stakes to hit the surface of the water to attract fish. Approximately 2,000 Intha fishermen live around Inle Lake.
As youn can see, not only the fishermen fish on Lake Inle. This egret patiently waits for something to swim along.
A form of beautification on Inle Lake are the rings that are placed around the necks of the young girls. As they get older, their necks are stretched until they are incredibly long, as you can see on the weaver below. By the way, my wife purchased the scarf that the lady below is weaving.
In a tributary to the lake, a water buffalo drinks and washes. To the right, a lady is doing the laundry in the same river.
Inle Lake, near Kalaw in northeastern Myanmar, is like no other place on earth. The average income of people living near the lake is about one dollar per day and many of them eke out an existence by farming on the floating gardens or by creating and trading numerous articles at the marketplace. It is the only place in the world where the marketplace is also on boats in the water - a floating market.
Men on the flat boats smack the water with their paddles hoping to attract the shoals of fish that swim in the lake.
Below, people are working in the floating gardens.
Floating Gardens - The land to the left and below is not really land at all, but rather floating plants on which fruit and vegetables are planted. The water here is only about 4 feet deep. The plants sit about 2 feet down into the water and below them is more water. The man below is showing us how he can bounce up and down on the floating turf.
Below, these two ladies are on the way to the marketplace.
The people use boats everywhere they go. Not only to cross the lake but to go from their homes, which are built on the water, to the marketplace, which is also on a small island on the lake. The homes they live in on Inle Lake are often single bamboo huts built on stilts.
When the parents aren’t using the boats, the kids play in them in the “quiet” canals of the city.
Even in this city built on a lake, the Buddhist Religion is evident. There are at least 50 plots of land reserved for monasteries or temples around the lake.
Outside the weaver’s place, a man stands on his flat boat checking out the foundation of his home.
While the tourists are paddled down the river, ladies in flatboats hook onto the tourist boats and sell them their goods. Behind the lady with the umbrella, a merchant sells goods to a young man.
