Bagan, bordering to the east bank
of the mighty
Ayeyarwady
or Irrawaddy River,
once was a splendid and glorious capital of the
First Myanmar Empire.
Bagan is now a 42 square
kilometer area dotted
with thousands of ancient pagodas, stupas, shrines, ordination halls and
monuments.
Bagan is one of the richest archaeological sites in Southeast
Asia with 2230 monuments still standing and some 1000 in ruins, there were
originally about 4500, as many as 600 disappeared into the
Ayeyarwady
- Irrawaddy
during the summer flooding. Bagan is optically very
similar to
Sukhothai in
neighboring Thailand but much bigger.
Time, man and nature,
particularly earthquakes (there is a major one every
two hundred years), have taken their toll on Bagan
but the most important monuments have been restored
to their original grandeur and there are plans to
restore 287 more of the most historically important
ruins.
Bagan is accessible by air from Yangon,
Mandalay or
Heho
(Taungyi) in an hour or less, Bagan can also be
reached by road from Yangon, a distance of around
683 kilometers. Buses make the trip in about 16 hours or an
adventurous traveler can reduce the time by 2 hours by taking a car
—provided
the traveler can take the stress and strain of travel on Myanmar roads.
From Mandalay and Taungyi, distances of around 320 kilometres in both
cases, travel by road to Bagan takes approximately 8 hours. One can also
reach Bagan by boat, a 2 week journey from Yangon.
(This reminds the writer
of his trip as a boy part of the way from the delta town of Hinthada to
Magway in the dry zone of Central
Myanmar). Coming from a international destination
the best is to travel via
Bangkok Airport and
Yangon.
From Mandalay the 12-14 hour cruise down the Ayeyarwady to
Bagan is very
pleasant and rewarding. It is possible to get to Bagan from all 3 places by
a combination of rail and road travel but it can be time consuming and
complicated.
UNESCO affirms that
the rustic Bagan-Pagan, 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.
Ancient Bagan, even after so many years of waste and decay still stands as a
unforgettable sight, depicting the greatness of
human endeavors and aspirations. In Bagan around
2000 temples and stupas, are spread over just four
square miles bordering the eastern bank of the
Bagan 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 Bagan city (a group of 19 villages) took place
quite early in the dim past (about 107 A.D.), but the illustrious dynasty of
temple-builders, which made Bagan strong and famous, started only in 1044
A.D. (i.e. 22 years before the Battle of Hastings in Britain).
King Anawrahta (42 nd. of the whole dynasty of 55 kings) headed the
temple-building era and in 242 years (1044 to 1286 A.D.) the zealous kings
Shwesandaw Pagoda Bagan
Balloons over Bagan
and people built, it is
said, over four million pagodas, big and small ! Thus the Great wheel of
Buddha’s Dhamma had been brought to Myanmars shores
by missionaries since Asoka’s time.
The wheel was
then set up and ready, but it needed a strong person
like King Anawrahta of Bagan to start turning the
wheel in motion.
Glorious Bagan surely owes a great deal to the Mons
of Thaton and Pyus of Tharekhittaya. In fact, Bagan
was born out of the two.
A very similar style and building
method of the pagodas and temples of
Bagan can be found in
Cambodia.
Ancient
Pagoda Bagan
Abeyadana Temple Bagan
Bagan History
The story of Bagan may
be told in two parts, Bagan before King Anawrahta
and after.
Rome, or any other city, wasn’t built in a day and
for Bagan to come into being, it had taken a long
time to receive the tradition and influence of three
former dynasties — Tagaung, Thaton and Tharekhittaya.
Bagan Dhammayangyi Temple
Bagan Oxcart and Pagodas
At the start (107 A.D.)
Bagan at Yone-hlut kyun
might just have been a strong 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. But 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, Bagan 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 nearby, wild beasts and fabulous birds
like rocs harassed the Bagan 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 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. The
present site of Bagan, 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 Bagan at that time had started to
prosper having commercial relations with Shans and
Chinese in the east, Assam and Manipur in the west
and the land of Pyus and Mons in the south.
As regards religion, people of early
Bagan, 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-lÈ-kyaung (344-384 A.D.), the 7th.
king of the dynasty, Mahagiri Nats came to Mt. Popa
(also page 57) and nat-worshipping was popular among
all classes.
Thus Bagan before Anawrahta, for nearly a thousand
years (107-1044 A.D.), still had no cultural
progress, though its position as a kingdom could be
considered to have been established.
Anawrahta’s
Kingdom of Bagan
(1044-1298 A.D.) Anawrahta was the 42nd. king of Bagan dynasty and he
came to the throne in 1044 A.D. He opened the stage
of his pegency dramatically by fighting and killing
his half-brother King SokkatÈ 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.
Bagan old Palace
Bagan old Temple
Anawrahta did many works of public utility, such as
repairing Meiktila lake and construcing irrigations,
thus KyauksÈ became 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 of nat-pwe's. He
looked for a true faith and, in 1056 A.D., Shin
Arahan, known to be Arhat missionary, came from
Thaton to Bagan. The dedicated Buddhist monk and the
dynamic king met to make the historic change in
Bagan and later to all Myanmar.
Bagan the King
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 to Bagan. Manuha and his family were taken prisoners. A very
important thing was that Mon crafts≠men, artistes
and skilled workers numbering about 30,000 were also
brought to Bagan.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 glorious Bagan.
Bagan the king listen to the public
Bagan people, 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 great monasteries.
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 !
The Ananda Temple
This temple
symbolizes the endless wisdom (Ananta
Panna) of the Buddha just as the Thatbyinnyu temple symbolizes the
omniscience of the Tathagata. Hence the
name Ananta, which changed later to
Ananda, the name of Buddha’s cousin.
Bagan Ananda Temple
It is in plan a square of nearly 200
feet to the side and broken on each
side by the projection of large
gabled vestibules, which convert
the plan into a perfect Greek
cross. These vestibules are
somewhat lower than the main
mass of the building, which
elevates itself to a height of
35 feet (about 10 m) in two
tiers of windows
Above this rise successively diminishing
terraces, the last of which just
affording breadth for the spire which
crowns and completes the edifice. The
lower half of this spire is in the form
of a mitre-like pyramid adapted from the
temples of India;
the
upper half is the same molded
taper pinnacle that terminates
the common bell-shaped pagodas
of Bagan.
The gilded htee (umbrella) caps the
whole at a height of 168 feet above the
ground. The interior consists of two
vaulted and high but narrow corridors
running parallel to each other along the
four sides of the temple. They are
connected by low and narrow passages in
front of the window by which light is
admitted and further intersected by four
large corridors into which access is
obtained through the porticoes.
In the center is an enormous cube, on
the four sides of which are deep and
high niches enshrining four colossal
standing Buddhas of the present world
who have appeared and entered Nirvana.
The images are represented in the
following order: north—Kakusanda; east—Konagamana;
south— Kassapa; and west— Gotama. Each
of them is 31 feet high above the
throne, which itself is nearly 8 feet in
height. Of these images only those on
the north and south are the original
ones contemporary with the foundation of
the temple ; those on the east and west
were put up later to replace the
original images which were destroyed by
fire.
Other Interesting features of the
Ananda temple
are the numerous glazed terracotta tiles ornamenting the base and
the receding terraces which represent
the Jataka stories and the hosts of
Mara’s army. Each of these plaques is
inscribed with a Mon legend. The
interior walls are honey-combed with
niches in which are set small stone
Buddhas in various postures. The most
notable among the sculptures is a series
of eighty relief’s in the two lower
tiers of niches in the outer corridor,
illustrating the life of the Bodhisattva
from his birth to the attainment of
supreme wisdom. The western sanctum also
enshrines the life-size statues of its
founder, Kyanzittha and the primate,
Shin Arahan.
In the porch on the west face there are
two Buddha-pads (Buddha’s footprints)
placed on a pedestal. Each footprint
bears the traditional 108 marks as
enumerated in some of the Pali
commentaries, but owing to the gilding
and wearing away due to constant
washing, some of these marks have
disappeared and cannot be properly
identified.
Close to the Ananda Temple is the local museum
containing exhibits illustrating the
iconography. architecture and religious
history of Pagan. Along the verandahs of
the museum are inscribed stones
collected from the vicinity. They record
religious endowments of the Pagan period
in different languages. Burmese, Mon, Pyu, Tamil, Siamese and Chinese.
Thus Bagan of today, with the remaining two thousand temples and pagodas,
though grand and splendid in old age, is just a skeleton of the great
glorious past.
On certain places like Bagan,
Mandalay, Yangon etc. it might be useful to hire a local
photographer to assist you in finding the right places for photo
- pictures at the right time.
Bagan Author - Photographer -
Moviemaker and friend
The reason is, the
local photographer know all the good photo shooting places, that
includes naturally also video. They show you places to make your
super photo you would never have found, especially when you
don't have more than maybe a couple of days in a particular for
doing your Myanmar photo.
If you are on a longer photo -
video trip 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, but
... no politics !
