Myanmar temple city pines for tourists as conflict rages

One-time hot spot now features shuttered hotels, with guides and vendors out of work

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The domes and spires of Myanmar’s temple city of Bagan mark an island of calm amid 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 Irrawaddy River became a travel showpiece after rules were relaxed in 2011 after decades with the military in charge.

Myanmar became popular with travellers seeking a destination away from the well-trodden backpacker haunts of South-east 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, Myanmar recorded around 200,000 international visitors, 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 sq km site is also strewn with stupas, temples, murals and sculptures, some of which date back to the 11th to 13th centuries.