Wall murals paintings and frescoes

which is more or less the same is a form of art used in Myanmar at least for well over thousand years. Wall murals and frescoes adorn many Myanmar Bagan temples; some of the best maybe around thousand years old are in the basement of the Abeyadana and Nanpaya Temple among other. It is not possible to find out exactly because the authorities closed most of them and open only to highest bribes.

Many wall murals

at Bagan depict Buddha is more or less the same since ancient times, first the wall is getting a smooth surface, after the master painter draws the outlines and his assistants will apply the colors on the outlines the colors are a mixture of vegetable material, animal fat and minerals, after this it will dry for a couple of days. The frescoes have no perspective, to imitate perspectives lines of different types are drawn and pigments with strong colors are used.

Usually paintings in the temples

tell a certain story, e.g. jakata stories from the life of the Buddha, stories are depicted within one picture which is divided by boundaries, space is left for explanations.

The earliest artwork

are the paintings of the caves in prehistoric times. The paints are a composition of pigments, colors, some liquid and other substances as indicated before, different places means different material used.

To apply all this to wall various objects are used, maybe a brush or other objects such as simply use the fingers surfaces are of different nature but we concentrated here on wall murals since this is the real ancient form of painting, there is no limit for materials, even collages are made. There are naturalistic frescoes, abstract forms, still life and as it is here in Myanmar Buddha images with high amount of, symbolism, spiritual motifs and history.

There are mythological Bible scenes

on the inner walls and ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and in the East scenes of the life of Buddha as in Bagan temples. These paintings are representation of perception; painters create figures and objects putting together surfaces of different color intensity. All this is symbolic all parts of the mural can have different means, like the geometry, lines of different thicknesses and characters in between.

Bagan wall mural and frescoes.

They adorn the interior of temples, not pagodas since a pagoda is a solid structure, it's such as a temple with rooms inside and this rooms are usually adorned with wall murals.
Bagan today is a small town spread over a large area, there is new Bagan with the airport and old Bagan with the pagoda and temples, but in reality this all somehow is one. The only difference is the cultural and social implications of the past, in some temples are even erotic images clearly showing Hindu influence from India, this all are great and colorful wall paintings. Considering the timeframe of more than one thousand years it's amazing that all this stands, more.

A great Buddha mural

is in every temples, but not only, they have plenty of them showing everyday life and imaginations of the artists. All temples have them on religious and everyday life themes, this old frescos are also a good source to understand live about thousand years ago and this is not only in Buddhist temples but also in Churches. The frescos are an integral part of the architectural style of that time and give valuable information about the art and culture.

Buddha frescoes, wall murals Bagan.

Myanmar or Burma is a destination

full of history and traditions and the center of this is, from a historical point of view is Bagan. There are several other pagoda and temple cities in the country such a Mrauk U with great views into the past, this are real attractions boasting tradition

and Buddhist religion they are a must see when visiting Myanmar. Exploring Bagan is not only from outside, there are hidden treasures in the interiors of the temples, this are murals and Buddha statues. Looking through this old interior opens a feeling of mystery but the wall paintings are full with scenes of a very real world, aside of the Buddha paintings and statues.

At some temples masonry sculptured chintes are placed in front of the entrance as guardians. Whole Bagan actually is a open air museum on the banks of the Irrawaddy river in central Myanmar.