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Nyaungshwe, also known as Yawnghwe, is the gateway town to Inle Lake in southwestern Shan State, Myanmar, and the boat harbour for the long-tail boats that carry visitors down a river channel onto the lake. It is famous for the stilt villages and floating gardens of Inle, its leg-rowing fishermen and lake shrines such as the Phaung Daw U Pagoda.
The town was the seat of the Shan state of Yawnghwe, said to have been founded in 1359, whose saophas ruled the lake and its hills. Their palace, built from 1913 for Saw Maung, now houses the Nyaungshwe Cultural Museum, and the last saopha, Sao Shwe Thaik, became the first president of the Union of Burma. The Intha people of the lake live from fishing and farming.
Boat trips lead to the floating market at Ywama, the teak Nga Phe Chaung Monastery and the stupas of Shwe Indein, while Shwe Yan Pyay Monastery lies in town. Inle Lake is a UNESCO biosphere reserve, and Heho Airport, about an hour's drive away, is the main air link.
Phaung Daw U Pagoda in Ywama village is the most sacred shrine on Inle Lake, a boat trip south of Nyaungshwe. It keeps five small Buddha images, believed brought by King Alaungsithu of Pagan in the 12th century, now so thickly covered in gold leaf that their original shapes can no longer be seen.
Nga Phe Chaung is the oldest and largest wooden monastery on Inle Lake, dating from the mid-19th century and reached by boat from Nyaungshwe. Raised on hundreds of teak pillars, it shelters Buddha images in Bagan, Ava and Tibetan styles and was long known as the Jumping Cat Monastery.
Shwe Indein Pagoda is a group of Buddhist stupas in the village of Indein, near Ywama on the western side of Inle Lake and a boat trip from Nyaungshwe. The pagodas were commissioned in the reign of King Narapatisithu of Pagan, although local tradition credits them to Ashoka and Anawrahta.
Shwe Yan Pyay Monastery in Nyaungshwe Township was built around 1889, when the Sawbwa of Yawnghwe paid for its pagoda and gave the land. Its red-painted teak hall stands on 167 wooden pillars and has distinctive oval windows, and the ordination hall glitters with mosaics and mirrors.
Inle Lake, reached from Nyaungshwe by a river channel, is the second-largest lake in Myanmar, covering about 116 square kilometres at 880 metres. Stilt villages, floating plants and 17 endemic fish make it unique, and in 2015 it became the first UNESCO biosphere reserve in Myanmar.
Ywama is a stilt village on the western side of Inle Lake, reached by boat from Nyaungshwe, with canals in place of streets. It hosts the best-known floating market in the five-day rotating market cycle of Inle, and its workshops turn out weaving, metalwork, wood carving and umbrellas.
The floating gardens of Inle Lake are beds of lake weeds gathered by Intha farmers and anchored with bamboo poles, mostly on the western side of the lake. Tomatoes and other crops grow on them, and because the beds rise and fall with the water level they resist flooding and stay very fertile.
Intha fishermen on Inle Lake are famous for rowing while standing at the stern on one leg, with the other leg wrapped around the oar. The style grew from need, since standing lets them see over the reeds and floating plants, and only men row this way, while women sit and row by hand.
The Nyaungshwe Cultural Museum fills the Haw, the palace of the Yawnghwe saophas built from 1913 and one of the few Shan palaces still standing. Under its seven-tiered roof are thrones, palanquins and royal costumes, and it recalls Sao Shwe Thaik, the first president of the Union of Burma.
The Phaung Daw U Festival is an 18-day celebration held on Inle Lake each Thadingyut, around September and October. Four of the pagoda's gilded Buddha images ride a royal barge shaped like a hintha bird, towed from village to village by teams of leg-rowers pulling in unison.
The Inlay Lake Wetland Sanctuary protects 534 square kilometres around Inle Lake and was gazetted in 1985 for migratory birds. It became an ASEAN Heritage Park in 2003, its records include 255 woodland and 90 wetland bird species, and about 20,000 gulls winter on the lake.
Khaung Daing Hot Spring is the natural hot spring on the northwestern shore of Inle Lake, an easy outing from Nyaungshwe by boat or by road. Its warm pools make a restful break between visits to pagodas and stilt villages, and the shore here looks out over the reeds and open water.
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