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Bagan Myanmar Pagoda Temples
Irrawaddy.
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Bagan in
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Bagan Myanmar with myriads of
pagodas and
temples was once the capital of the
First Myanmar Empire. Located in
the dry zone of the country on the left bank of the mighty Irrawaddy or Ayeyarwady
River.
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Actually contradicting the
term "dry zone" since the Irrawaddy supplies more than enough water but
nobody pump it up? When travel in Myanmar all roads and
flights somehow leads to Bagan Myanmar at least one time. Hotels are plenty
and a Irrawaddy river cruise should be made to see the temples and pagodas
from the waterside.
The most famous pagodas and temples are the
golden Shwezigon pagoda and the majestic Ananda temple and more, this are some of the
highlights of this ancient city. This is now a 42 square kilometer area
dotted with thousands of ancient pagodas, stupas, shrines, ordination halls
and monuments.
Myanmar pagoda & temple city.
It's a must see destination during any travel in Myanmar, actually
every trip in the country somehow touches the city, Yangon, Mandalay and Inle Lake, that's the usual stops at any roundtrip in
the country. There are plenty other attractive trip destinations in the country
browse our website to discover them.
The Bagan Myanmar hotel
spectrum is wide, cheap hotels, expensive hotels,
everything is there and some are just beside the
Irrawaddy river. To get an idea what's
there just have a look the pictures of temples pagodas. Some of the most
impressive monuments are the Shwezigon Pagoda and the Ananda Temple and
there are plenty more.
A short Irrawaddy river cruise
is
recommended for every visitor, from Yangon
it would be
a 2 week journey on the river.
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Visiting
Pagodas & Temples
is a highlight of every trip to this ancient
city, actually all the most important pagodas should be on the agenda, very
special among them the Shwezigon pagoda and the Ananda temple.
Bagan temples and
pagodas is what most of the visitors come for.
The monuments form a surrealistic landscape in the
dry and flat area in central Myanmar.
At sunrise and at
sunset great visual impressions are around in
particular in composition with the Irrawaddy or
Ayeyarwady river
The monuments creators have set plenty of monuments
over into the landscape.
A reason to built
them is,
most of the Myanmar's are Buddhist and it is a usual
way to accumulate merit
in the current life by building a pagoda
to be in a better position in the next life.
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Ananda Temple and Shwezigon Pagoda
at Bagan Myanmar are probably the
most popular,
in appearance they easily can match the pyramids of
Egypt,
Boroboudor
and the temples of the Maya, its a great exotic and
monumental Buddhist environment. The monuments are
optically very similar to
Sukhothai and
Ayutthaya in
Thailand and a few places in
Cambodia, but not
Angkor Cambodia,
that's
more in the Hindu direction but the area is much
bigger, anyway
pagoda pictures are
real great.
Earthquakes (a major one
every two hundred years) and the monsoon flood, have taken their toll
on some of the most important monuments of Myanmar
Bagan and many |
Ananda Temple |
Travel
to Bagan |
have been
restored to their original condition.
People are continuously working to
restore more of the most historically important
ruins.
The Ananda Temple
is probably the most impressive Buddhist temple
structure in whole Myanmar its always impressive to
see what the people long time ago created without
all this technical
equipments we are used
to work with today
achieved, the monument can be seen already from far
away, read more.
Travel to
Bagan
Myanmar is easy either by air
from Yangon,
Mandalay or
Heho
(Taungyi near Inle Lake) in an hour. By road from
Yangon it's around 700
kilometers. |
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Myanmar Bagan
Ancient pagodas |
Buses need about 16
hours, if taking a car a local driver almost
mandatory since all road
signs outside the big city are in the local language
only, there are almost no petrol station, people
fill this by canister from somewhere in the village
and if anything happen, such as an accident you are
lost completely.
On top of it the driver usually
also functions as a tourist guide showing scenes
along the road via a short side trip a foreigner
will never see.
Mandalay and Taunggyi,
300 kilometers / 8 hours by car.
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The Shwezigon Pagoda is
together
with the Shwedagon
in Yangon a stunning implementation of a Buddhist
Pagoda and this are the most impressive pagodas. The
building is incredibly impressive when you stand in
front or looking from the Irrawaddy, its a great exotic and
monumental Buddhist environment Shwezigon
read more.
Shwesandaw Pagoda
is one of the most famous in the area,
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, |
Pagoda,
Shwezigon pagoda
at Myanmar
Bagan. |
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History at
Tharabar Gate |
together with the water. its a real "eye
candy", it needs to come a bit more
early since the crowd is dense,
more.
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.
The temples and stupas are spread over just four
square miles bordering the eastern bank of the
Ayeyarwady -
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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
Bagan Myanmar temples 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
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Bagan
temples |
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former dynasties — Tagaung, Thaton and Tharekhittaya.
At the start (107 A.D.) at Yone-hut kyun it
might just have been a 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.
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
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King of Bagan Myanmar |
King Anawrahta
Bagan temples
interior
Bagan
temples pagodas
Irrawaddy river at
Bagan
Anawrahtas palace
Buddhist Monk
Buddhist scriptures
at a Bagan monastery |
of nat-pwe's. He
looked for a true faith and, in 1056 A.D., read
more.
Anawrahta
Kingdom of Bagan,
this was the King who made the
city breathing and
famous. Very important was that Mon
craftsmen, artistes and skilled workers
numbering about 30,000 were also brought
to the city. Anyway, destiny seemed to
have sacrificed Thaton for the coming
greatness of Bagan and also for the
emergence of Myanmar as a leading
Buddhist country today. Shin Arahan, the
scriptures, Mon craftsmen and Anawrahta,
with his people together started
building the city and the Bagan temples.
During Anawrahta’s reign and after,
became so well-versed in the scriptures
that, it is said, even village girls
could discuss metaphysics with the
learned monks from a Bagan monastery.
Then there appeared exceptionally
learned persons among the leisurely
royal class King Kyaswa, Princess
Thanbyin, etc. who held regular classes
teaching monks in Pali and Sanskrit
texts !
Thus Bagan Myanmar of today, with the
remaining two thousand monuments, 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 pictures taking at
the right time such as with the Shwemadaw Pagoda, right picture.
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, it 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
Anawrahta’s
Kingdom of Bagan (1044-1298 A.D.)
He was the 42nd. king of the dynasty and he
came to the throne in 1044 A.D. He opened the stage
of his regency dramatically by fighting and killing
his half-brother King Sokkate in single combat.
He
was hot-tempered and did many wrongs as a young
king. But at heart, he was just and
straight-forward, and he tried to repair
his wrongs.
Anawrahta did many works of public utility, such as
repairing Meiktila lake and constructing irrigations
and the also the temple building started.
Shin Arahan, known to be
a dedicated
missionary, came from Thaton to Bagan.
The dedicated Buddhist monk and the
dynamic king met to make the historic
change and later to all Myanmar. Anawrahta became a pure
Theravada Buddhist with great zeal. First of all he
abolished the Ari gangs, driving some away and
forcing most of them to work as lay men.
Then to foster the true religion, he needed
Buddhist
scriptures. Because King Manuha of Thaton bluntly
refused his decent request, Anawrahta made war on
Thaton (1057 A.D.) and thus destroyed the Mon
dynasty.
Thirty-one elephant loads of the
scriptures were carried away. Manuha and family were
taken prisoners, after he built the Manuha
temple. |
King
Anawrahta Palace
Buddhist Mural
Painting
Shwemadaw Pagoda
Irrawaddy River
Bupaya Pagoda at
Bagan
Anawrahta palace
Thatbyinnyu Temple
Dhammayangyi
Temple |
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Irrawaddy river
at Bagan |
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
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Shan
State and
Chinese in the east, Assam and Manipur in the west
and the land of Pyus and Mons in the south.
Bagan 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, |
Shan State |
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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
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Myanmar
Bagan Hotel Tharabar Gate |
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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.
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.
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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.
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Bagan
temples
are
great Buddhist shrines
conserving art and architecture
over several hundred years.
There are simple and
sophisticated temple structures,
embedded into a "sea" of other
temple and pagodas
more.
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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. |
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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.
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This
Pagodas, temples
and monasteries 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
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Bagan
Monastery,
Bagan
images.
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If
you
don't have more than maybe a couple of days in a particular for
doing your photos 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.
all at e-books
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