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A person
in 1192 selected a site just
beside the reservoir at
Amana this
Bagan temple
buildings and enclosed it
with ut-ti piu
so tantuin - a wall entirely of
bricks, for the construction of a
big and pleasant monastery. Another
donor spent 10,000 ticals of silver
on building a monastery, a
hollow-pagoda and a
wall around them. An inscription of
1248 mentions that the wall alone
cost 432.25 ticals of silver.
It
must have been a fairly large
enclosure wall as the establishment
contained two monasteries, a library
and a hollow pagoda with four gates.
Some of the enclosure walls were
circular but usually they were
rectangular or square as they are
referred to as tantuin 4 myaknha-
four sided walls, complete with
tatirkha muk - doors and gateways.
These enclosures are essential not
only to distinguish a holy place
from its surroundings but also to
protect the buildings from fire. |
Bagan Temple Buildings.
Building Pagoda & Temple |
Some
built fire proof walls around,
maybe
they remembered that the whole of
Bagan burn to ashes in 1225 and
therefore the
decided that if he founded an
establishment it ought to have
adequate protection from fire. Some
builder built fantail,
double enclosures. The inner one was
for the shrines and the outer one
was usually for building
monasteries. In one case as much as
twenty boarding houses were built
for students. Sometimes a
Banyan tree which had been grown
from a seed imported from Bodh Gaya
would also be enclosed in a
magnificent wall. There were also
walls made from stone. Within the
wall a platform, was made
as the foundation of a hollow or
solid-pagoda, although there were
exceptions when it was made as a
promenade to an adjoining monastery
since walking to and fro seems to be
the only physical exercise befitting
a gentle monk. Asawat's wife, when
making a platform attached to her
monastery in 1236, said that she
used bricks from two kilns at the
cost of 60 ticals of silver in
addition to 22 ticals for caning
them. For bringing in timber,
probably for roofing, she spent 6
ticals more. in the case of a
platform for a hollow-pagoda, we
have several instances where it is
mentioned that the platform is made
in the shape of a kalaka pot.
Perhaps this refers to the plinth
molding of the platform wall.
On such
a platform was built a ka, which is
derivative of Pali guha meaning a
cave, and therefore it is a
hollow-pagoda made in imitation of a
natural cave. Some had four
gateways and thus acquired the name ket 4 myaknha Inside a four sided ka
there were always four images of the
Lords placed back-to-back in the
centre, representing the four
Buddhas of this present kappa. The
central block, around which the
images wem placed, was the relic
chamber where sariradhitu- the
bodily relics, were enshrined. The
walls of the ka would be painted
either with khlyu pan - floral
designs, or charrpu- pictures of the
Lord or with scenes from the Jataka.
One record says that as many as
14,619
Buddhas were painted on the
wall. A ka thus painted would be
known as ka prok -the variegated
cave. Athwat - the spires, of these
ka were usually made from copper and
gilded. Above the athwat were the MT
- umbrellas, sometimes made of gold
and studded with gems.
Ceti is
another form of pagoda, but solid in
structure. To build a ceti, firstly
a platform would be made in much the
same manner as for erection of a ka.
The following extract from an
inscription dated 1227 gives a rough
idea of what son of relics were
enshrined in a ceti. Author
Professor Than Tun
An expensive pagoda would cancel a
great deal of malicious scandal.
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At some time an ingenious
lordling had invented a
method of increasing the
merit that might normally be
expected. It was the
practice to set up a
dedication tablet in stone,
whereon the donor expressed
a wish to acquire the full
merit due. The gentleman in
question put forward the
idea that the donor should
ask in the inscription to be
allowed to share the merit
with a number of other
people, say, his uncles and
aunts.
The very fact of stating his
desire to share merit by
building pagoda
is rightly his own, was
itself an added merit, and
it was calculated that the
device, without increasing
the cost of the
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Building Pagoda at Bagan
around 17th Century |
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structure, doubled the merit
that might accrue from it
alone. This new practice
became the rule until, at a
later date, an even more
ingenious person suggested,
on the same grounds as
before, that a maximum merit
might be won if the donor,
on stone, gave the whole of
his merit to others, not
even reserving a minor share
for himself. In short, the
building of pagodas was as
elegant a pastime as any
invented. |
In the old days if someone wants to
build a temple
it was
no easy task to find an unoccupied
site, but by clearing away the ruins
of certain old pagodas, the
attendant slaves of which had died,
an arbitrary course, as some dared
to say, he acquired an area suitable
to his purpose. People
think the very true 'we all have
done things we ought not to have
done,' since it is hard in this life
to calculate precisely such a debit
account but one discovers it
afterwards.
After the pagoda was completely
built
pots
full of lilies, living
plantain-trees and sugar-cane to
form a fence were brought in. In a
gold chamber inside the pagoda they
placed numerous figures and
statuettes. But there was to be a
sequel not altogether so agreeable.
People even take off jewelry he and
place it among the objects in the
chamber. The day ended with a grand
entertainment, the area was
illuminated and countless candles in
shades of colored paper were
lighted. It was an enchanting scene.
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