ကရင်ပြည်နယ်

Kayin State

Kayin State is the name given by the Burmese military government to Karen State. The Capital is Hpa-An. Located in the tropics it is hot and humid, with monsoon climate. The rainy season is summer. There are huge limestone areas, which are typically tower karst, a result of the hot and humid climate.

The state has an enormous amount of buddhist monasteries and temples. If there are caves, as in the karst towers, they are almost all filled with buddha statues and used as a temples. If there is no limestone with caves, many monasteries have underground tunnels for meditation. The state economy is strongly based on tourism, and many sites are open to the public. However, the temples are frequented by locals and are thus often crowded on holidays and weekends.

An impressive thing which we do not list as it is not underground are numerous monasteries with pagodas on top of mountains. The strangest sight we found is a pagoda on top of a mushroom shaped rock, which looks as if it should collapse any minute.