Popa Mountain

Popa Mountain National Park surrounds Mount Popa, a dormant volcano 1,518 m high in Mandalay Region, about 50 km southeast of Bagan. It is designated as a nature reserve and national park^[1].

The mountain holds the largest population of the critically endangered Popa langur, about 200 individuals. Macaques roam wild, the lizard Lygosoma popae is endemic, and birds include red-billed blue magpie, chestnut-flanked white-eye and blue-throated barbet^[1].

There are five forest ecosystems, including dry forest and thorn forest, with bamboo and shrubs. The sandalwood forest is not native^[1].

Mount Popa is a stratovolcano whose cone is built of basalt and basaltic andesite lava flows, pyroclastic deposits and scoria. Its last eruption is dated to 6050 BCE, and the caldera, about 1.6 km wide and 0.85 km deep, is breached to the northwest^[1].

The surroundings are dry, but over 200 springs and streams on the mountain make it oasis-like, with a dry and a rainy season^[1].

Popa is considered the abode of Burma's most powerful nats, nicknamed Burma's Mount Olympus. Legend says it erupted out of the ground in 442 BC^[1].

Popa Taung Kalat, a 657 m volcanic plug southwest of the mountain, carries a Buddhist monastery reached by a 777-step stairway, with views toward Bagan^[1].

The mountain is a pilgrimage site, busiest at the full moons of Nayon and Nadaw, and the easiest route to the summit is a hike^[1].