The domes and spires of Myanmar’s temple city of Bagan mark an island of calm in the country’s raging civil war, but with conflict keeping tourists away locals are struggling to make ends meet. The UNESCO world heritage site on the banks of the Ayeyarwady River became a travel showpiece after decades of military rule were relaxed in 2011. Myanmar became popular with travelers seeking a destination away from the well-trodden backpacker haunts of Southeast Asia.
But the tourism industry was battered by the coronavirus pandemic and then in February 2021 the military seized power again, unleashing conflict across swathes of the country.
In the year following the coup around 200,000 international visitors came to Myanmar, according to figures from the junta’s tourism ministry. Five years earlier the figure was 3.4 million. Hundreds of centuries-old Buddhist pagodas rise from the dusty earth around Bagan, once the capital of a regional empire.
The 50-square-kilometre (12,355-acre) site is also strewn with stupas, temples, murals and sculptures, some of which date back to the 11th to 13th centuries. But many hotels and restaurants are shuttered, and guides and vendors are out of work.
On a hill usually thronged with tourists watching the evening shadows lengthen over the old city, there were as many souvenir vendors as visitors. "I think people don’t want to spend much money and they rarely travel and buy from us,” one seller said. "On some days we don’t see even a single person.”
On the far bank of the Ayeyarwady River the atmosphere is far more worrying, locals told AFP. The area has seen sporadic clashes between the military and pro-democracy "People’s Defense Forces”, with Bagan residents saying they often hear the sounds of gunfire from across the river. All spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons.