Myanmar Mandalay City and Vicinity

The location is right in the center of the country serving as a economic hub for "upper Myanmar", via the Irrawaddy, it is also a cultural and religious center. Many small workshops around the Mahamuni Pagoda are producing arts and crafts such as marble, wood and jade sculptures.

The Mandalay Palace enclosed with a moat and a wall fortification is probably the most impressive structure in the city beside of the Mahamuni Pagoda and Temple. There are plenty of other beautiful religious structures in the vicinity, in particular on the other side of the Irrawaddy at Sagaing and Mingun.

Totally destroyed and burned down after a direct hit by a Japanese bomb from an aircraft during WW2 it took a long time to to rebuild everything according to the old construction plans, read more.

Plenty of photos tell much more, here is a rich collection of taken over a long period showing how attractive this city is. When arriving the first time the whole wont look interesting and very it is very dusty but after some sightseeing the highlights and more come up.

It is almost mandatory to invest some dollars into a tour guide otherwise you are lost and you will never find the interesting stuff within a short timeframe, read more.

The old city of Amarapura  now stands in ruins amongst this debris one could still find a treasury building and old Watch Tower. The tombs of King Bodawpaya and Bagyidaw are there, though the cremated ashes of these Kings have been put into velvet bags and thrown into the Irrawaddy in the old city some old stupas remained to be seen.

Close by are the older royal cities Innwa (Ava), Sagaing and Shwebo. Other interesting places around are Taungthaman Lake and the U Bein bridge, among others. It had been the royal city twice King Badon (Bodawpaya) and King Tharyarwaddy. King Badon (Bodawpaya) founded Amarapura in 1782, read more.

A Daytrip to Sagaing and having a look around the pagoda and temples which are often close to the banks of the Irrawaddy and the hills behind. At this area it's virtually possible to breath Buddhism and Asian history, there is such an high amount of Buddhist shrines in various forms and sizes, it's amazing. The dedication of the people to the religion is immense it might have something to do with the fact that most people are very poor and when they wont see a chance of better living it is often that they flee into religion.

Even by local standards there are a lot and this are no ruins, they are all well maintained and in good conditions but I always wonder when the people start to learn insulating the brick walls because the monsoon flood needs continuous renovation, read more.

The Mingun pagoda and the area around is another spectacular daytrip destination. The best is to get to the jetty take a boat and cross the Irrawaddy already the works at the banks is very interesting since this one of the biggest river harbor in the country. Items moved are mainly logs, bamboo and big jars. The water which comes from the Tibetan Himalayas offshoots is the life spender of the country what is somehow strange is that it is not used in a better way. This area and down to Bagan is the "dry zone" but they have this immense water way running through, although its very dry.

The crossing itself is very interesting because of the river life around, people live at the waterfront, there are very lively scenes, read more.

Mandalay Hill offers a panoramic view over the city,

and over the Irrawaddy show a flat scenery with the Ayeyarwady - Irrawaddy river in between. Legend tells that a ogress after a arguing with Lord Buddha decided to cut off her breasts and presented the same to Buddha.

There upon, Buddha solaced her and made a prophesy that the ogress would be reborn as a prince. This prophesy turned out to be when the city was founded by the pious King Mindon who convened the Fifth Buddhist Synod (Council) in 1871, read more.

When King Mindon

ascended the throne, the King found a new and flourishing city at the foot of the hill, to be known as Yadanabon. Here, Buddhism will be promoted and perpetuated. King Mindon (1853-1878) was upright, wise and compassionate, he ruled the country efficiently. He made vast and far-reaching reforms in the fields of administration, economy and judiciary. He also sent envoys to Europe for the first time. The first minister who visited the West was distinguished minister, Kinwun Mingyi, eminent administrator and jurist.

King Mindon convened the Fifth Buddhist Synod (Sangayana), engraving the Buddhist scriptures at the Kuthodaw Pagoda at the foot of the hill. The Buddhist Canon of Tripitaka Texts were inscribed on 729 marble slabs and housed in small shrines there. It constitutes the “World’s Biggest Book”. If piled up it will reach the height of 20 storied high rise building. King Thibaw (1878-1885), the last king who ruled the country. Buddhist scriptures at the Kuthodaw Pagoda.

The city probably has together with Amarapura and the Sagaing Hills on the other side of the Irrawaddy the highest concentration of monasteries. Some of them went with modern times and restructured their monasteries into meditation centers.

Some of the most beautiful teak carved monasteries are in Myanmar Mandalay, its amazing to see all this artwork, there is no problem to visit them, the people are very friendly and foreigner oriented, but visit the places together with a guide since you don't know how to handle this in the proper way, a donation would be taken positive before leaving, most monasteries are existing via external contributions.

Mandalay Myanmar is a incredible oriental city on the best historical sense, full with everything which makes the old orient so interesting. At a first glance not much to see and also the flat area in this part of the dry zone shows lots of dust and nothing interesting, but a second and third look is needed to get the old orient unfold.

Among other, there are still the old quarters where arts and crafts are made. Silk weaver, marble sculpture, wood carver, bronze and brass casting, jade carver and so on, have a look at the images.

This work is done mainly in open air, sometimes even just at the pavement. Everyone at Mandalay Myanmar is positive when people are watching, this places are also ideal to buy genuine and unique items and souvenirs.

The Mahamuni Temple and Pagoda is probably the most venerated in the city, actually its not only the temple which is very interesting, its the same with they area around the temple which is one of the oldest quarter for arts and crafts in the modern history of the country.

There are woodcarver, artists creating marble Buddha statues creator and everything around this theme, more.

This tram or streetcar in Mandalay City was the first in Asia, was running in the city during the same time as the Meiji dynasty was on in Japan. During this time the development of Burma was about the same as the development in Japan.

The British colonialists destroyed everything according to the doctrine to keep the country purely as a supplier for raw material. This is one of the reason why there is this mess in the country, the foundation for this was laid by the British.
 

  much more all at e-books