Mrauk U or Myohaung in Rakhine State

On the Kaledan River between Sittwe and Mrauk U

There are several passage ways with galleries throughout the inner temple. The temple is richly decorated with statues of  Buddha as well as images of the animals or persons which Gautama Buddha occupied in his 550 previous lives. People in native costumes with faded colors are shown wrestling, boxing and dancing.

A few kyats for the person sitting at the left behind the main entrance brings a half hour of electricity for the lamps. A rich cultural and traditional heritage mixed up with Portuguese, Indian and Arab influence came down to present day Rakhine or it was known before as Arakan. The foreigners came to city via the mouth of the Kaledan River at Sittwe navigated upwards, since the river is extremely slow moving this was no big deal. There are also indications that at that time the sea coast was much further to the east.

Mrauk U near Myanmar Bangladesh border

is a very old city with its heydays were in the 16th and 17th centuries, contemporary to the days of the Tudor Kings of England, the Moguls and the Ayutthaya Kings of Thailand. At that time Mrauk U was fortified with 30 km long fortification walls and moats. A big city of the size of London at that time. Ships could navigate to the city after entering the delta, read more.

One of the main differences to most other places is, many pagodas and temples of Mrauk U are built from stone, elsewhere they are made from bricks. The temple construction followed the Kunhaung architecture, that means smaller pagodas have built at the corners of the lower basement of the temples. In general this Buddha Temple reminds to the Borobodur Temple in Indonesia.

One of the absolute highlights is the Sakyamanaung Pagoda situated a half mile north-east of the palace-site. To the south is the Ratanamanaung Pagoda.

The Sakyamanaung pagoda was built in 1629 A.D

In ancient times Mrauk U had a tradition of producing coins

for trading, the Vesali kings started minting coins around the fifth century. Inscriptions on the coins show the title of the ruling king and his year of coronation.

Coins before 1640 had Arakan inscriptions on one side and Persian and Nagari inscriptions on the other. The inclusion of  foreign inscriptions that ment more easy acceptance by Indian and Arab traders.

About twenty types of silver coins and three types of gold coins have been found until now. It was the privilege of the kings to issued coins.

This was the last royal capital of Rakhine or former Arakan south of the Myanmar Bangladesh border. A scenic and exotic beauty with great historical remains and panoramas.

Mrauk U pagodas are a bit different in style compared to Bagan, the famous pagoda city in central Myanmar or Burma.

No wonder that Mrauk U is also known as the  'State of Pagodas' and the Portuguese who where one of the first colonist on the shores of Arakan gave the city the name 'The golden City'.

The city was founded in 1430 and became the capital of then Arakan. The area flourished over 355 years untill 1785. Before there were several other royal cities, Dhanyawaddy, Vesali, Sambawet, Pyinsa, Parein, Launggret , Hkirt.

Geographically, Mrauk U lies at the head of a tributary to the Kaladan River, about 45 miles from the Bay of Bengal coast. Sea going ships were able to reach the city via a network of waterways.

The position near the shores of the Bay of Bengal resulted in commercial and cultural development over the centuries.

Mr. Schouten, a Dutchman who visited the area in the 16th century mentioned that the city of was comparable in size and wealth to Amsterdam and London. He also mentioned that it was the richest city among the ports of Asia he had visited.

The wealth of the people depended mainly on extensive rice farming. The crops never failed because plenty of rain all over the year. Trading goods were allowed to import duty-free in order to encourage trade.

Thus Mrauk U or Myohaung as the city was also known  had a large number of foreign merchants from the neighboring countries and western countries as well, such as the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and later England. During British colonial times it was a strategic important city for the British East India Company vessels which sailed from the west coast of Asia, mainly Penang Georgetown to British India, also Phuket Thailand was frequented. An important export item to India were elephants. At that time a elephant had cost 1300 silver coins. Portuguese and the Dutch were permitted to build a factory at Aungdat port.