Bagan Myanmar is accessible by air from Yangon, Mandalay or Heho (Taungyi) in an hour or less, the place can also be reached by road from Yangon, a distance of around 683 kilometers. Buses make the trip in about 16 hours or an adventurous traveler can reduce the time by 2 hours by taking a car —provided the traveler can take the stress and strain of travel on Myanmar roads. From Mandalay and Taunggyi, distances of around 320 kilometers in both cases, travel by road takes approximately 8 hours.

Why building a pagoda

This Pagodas and temples (still around about 2000) made the area visible on the tourist "radar". Its really incredible what buildings and native architecture is around here. naturally people ask what is this for' Building a Buddhist Pagoda or temple is to gain merit which counts when reborn, that's the Buddhist believe read more

Irrawaddy cruises should be done by everyone visiting the area. The cruise will open up a totally new view of the scenery. There is also intense river life, novices and schoolboys are bathing in the Irrawaddy, women do their laundry, other people clean their livestock and totally overloaded boats move, read more.

The Shwezigon Pagoda is together with the Shwedagon in Yangon a stunning implementation of a Buddhist Pagoda. The building is incredibly impressive when you stand in front or looking from the Irrawaddy. Easily matching the pyramids of Egypt, Boroboudor and the temples of the Maya, its a great exotic and monumental Buddhist environment Shwezigon read more. Shwesandaw Pagoda is one of the most famous at the city, and one of the reason is, the building is perfectly situated to watch the sunset over the plains and the Irrawaddy and it is allowed to climb up the pyramid. Every day dozens of tourist climb up shortly before sunset to watch a great tropical colors, together with the water. its a real "eye candy", it needs to come a bit more early since the crowd is dense, more.

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Bagan temples such as the Abeyadana is a good example for a beautiful and rather simple temple structure, embedded into a "sea" of other temple and pagodas it is easy to reach and explore the architecture, more. A Bagan monastery is almost as famous the the temples and pagodas, this is, among others, at Sale, a bit outside the ancient city. There are many monasteries in the area, they have been built over centuries, most have a combined wooden and brick architecture, more. Bagan murals or wall paintings in the temples show sacral scenes and what happen everyday. Very often Jakata Stories of Buddha's live adorn the walls and ceilings, more. History is closely connected with King Anawrahta who made Kyaukse the granary of northern Myanmar. He made administrative reforms, dividing the kingdom into districts and appointing officers to look after all affairs and to collect fair revenue. For security, he established 45 out-posts along the border of his kingdom. In religion and culture, Anawrahta did not encourage the shabby customs of Aris, nor the popular celebrations of nat-pwe's. He looked for a true faith and, in 1056 A.D., read more. The Bagan museum containing exhibits illustrating the iconography, architecture and religious objects. Along the verandahs of the museum are inscribed stones collected from the vicinity. They record religious endowments of the Bagan Myanmar period in different languages. Burmese, Mon, Pyu, Tamil, Siamese and Chinese, more. Bagan pictures and videos give a much better impression than any text we have uploaded some of our videos to youtube and some are also available in the video section through the main menu at left, more. Bagan images   Anawrahta Kingdom of Bagan, this was the King who made the city breathing and famous. Some Bagan history, with over two thousand religious edifices and ruins, is an archaeological treasure not only of the Myanmar people but also of the whole of civilization. This ancient place still stands after so many years of waste and decay as a unforgettable sight, depicting the greatness of human endeavors and aspirations. Around 2000 temples and stupas, are spread over just four square miles bordering the eastern bank of the Ayeyarwady - Irrawaddy river in the dry zone of Central Myanmar. The city had been the capital of Myanmar for two and a half centuries (1044-1286 A.D.) when the Myanmar empire, so to speak, reached the zenith of its power for the first time. Actually the founding of the city (a group of 19 villages) took place quite early in the dim past (about 107 A.D.), but the illustrious dynasty of temple-builders, which made the city strong and famous, started only in 1044 A.D. (i.e. 22 years before the Battle of Hastings in Britain). The story of the city may be told in two parts, before King Anawrahta and after. Rome, or any other city, wasn’t built in a day and for this city to come into being, it had taken a long time to receive the tradition and influence of three former dynasties — Tagaung, Thaton and Tharekhittaya. At the start (107 A.D.) at Yone-hut kyun it might just have been a strong fortress or garrison town. The founder, King Thamodarit, paid tribute to his Pyu descent by giving his fortress city the name Paukkan or Pyu Gama (which simply means a Pyu Village.) In everyday usage, the name changed to Bagan. But Myanmar cities used to have at least two names, formal and informal. (Shwebo of the last Konbaung Period had five names.) So, in formal declarations, ir was was described gradual as Arimaddana Pura, meaning the “City of Conquerors”, and as the name suggested, the first group of kings had quite a hard time just taming and conquering the wild environment. It is said that from the dense forests  around the Irrawaddy River, wild beasts and fabulous birds like rocs harassed the people. Even wild vegetation of ground bushes overran the paddy fields in the countryside. Brave knights like Pyu Saw Hti (the 3rd, king) appeared to do away with the wild ones. Thus, Hnget-pyit-taung pagoda (where the great roc was shot) and Bit Phaya (where the wild gourd was cleared away) stand today in memory of those early struggles against natural enemies. Even the palace sites of the kings had to change four times, though all were in the same vicinity but all possibly would have never existed without the mighty Irrawaddy River. The present site at the Irrawaddy, with walls and Tharaba Gate, was the fourth city built during the reign of King Pyinbyu in 849 A.D. He was the 34th. king of the dynasty and at that time the city had started to prosper having commercial relations with Shans and Chinese in the east, Assam and Manipur in the west and the land of Pyus and Mons in the south. As regards religion, people of early times, with some Pyus and other natives of the north mixed up, had diverse interests. Horse-riding Aris (monks) with pugilistic habits and other malpractices had migrated from N.W. India and they gained considerable sway over common people. Then during the reign of Thin-ie-kyaung (344-384 A.D.), the 7th. king of the dynasty, Mahagiri Nats came to Mt. Popa (also page 57) and nat-worshipping was popular among all classes. Thus the city before Anawrahta, for nearly a thousand years (107-1044 A.D.), had no cultural progress, though its position as a kingdom could be considered to have been established. This glorious place surely owes a great deal to the Mons of Thaton and Pyus of Tharekhittaya. In fact, it was born out of the two. A very similar style and building method of the pagodas and temples can be found in Cambodia. A Bagan hotel is almost always a positive surprise, the area has the highest density of excellent hotel in the country. Not only the high end hotel have everything needed plus a good service, even the mid range and budget hotels are quite ok. One subject should be kept in mind, since the electricity supply is real bad (government matter) the high end hotels have generators which take over when the electricity drop, most of the lower priced hotels don't have their generator. The government tries at least to supply electricity during evening and night which works quite ok. Most hotels have restaurants and the Golf Resort has (as the name indicates) even a golf club just beside the hotel buildings means golf and pagodas. All high end hotels have a good swimming pool and usually a dinner buffet around the pool. During high season they bring dance and acrobatic shows at dinner time, they are doing a good job to make the tourists feel good, more.

Thus the city of today, with the remaining two thousand temples and pagodas, though grand and splendid in old age, is just a skeleton of the great glorious past. On certain places it might be useful to hire a local photographer to assist you in finding the right places for photo - pictures at the right time.

The reason is, the local photographer know all the good photo shooting places, that includes naturally also video. They show you places to make your super photo you would never have found, especially when you don't have more than maybe a couple of days in a particular for doing your Myanmar photo. If you are on a longer photo - video trip you can hire a Myanmar photographer to come with you just like you hire the tourist guide, its worth it, doesn't cost lot of money and makes sure you will find the REAL places.

If you look for a photo guide in Yangon, Mr. Ko Oo is a excellent choice, you can reach him through the e-mail of this site, click contact above. All other places have their own local photographer ask at the hotel or us. We also have a pool of writer available who can do a excellent text on almost any subject.