* Other Places of Interest *

• Pyay(Prome), Northern Yangon
• Bago(Pegu), Northern Yangon
• Kyaikhtiyo Pagoda, Southern Myanmar
• Pindaya Cave, Southern Shan State, Eastern Myanmar
• Sittwe & Mrauk-U, Western Myanmar

Pyay, Northern Yangon

Interesting Places in Pyay are Shwesandaw Pagoda, Sehtetgyi Pagoda, Baw Baw Gyi Pagoda, Be Be Gyi Pagoda and Payama Pagoda. Other interesting places around pyay are Ahkauktaung, Shwe Myatman Paya, Shwe Nat Taung Pagoda and Shwe Bonthar Muni.

Location

HISTORY

Interesting Places to Visit

Srikshetra Ancient Days

Shwesandaw Pagoda

Sehtatgyi Paya

Museum

Bawbawgyi Paya and Bebe Paya

Around Pyay

Shwedaung

Shwemyethma Paya

Shwenattaung Paya

Akauktaung Mountain

Paung Te

Bago (Pegu)

Situated only about 80km (50 miles) from Yangon, Bago is easily reached from the capital yet is just far enough off the beaten track to avoid tourists. There are now several hotels and guesthouses where you can spend the night, and if you are on your way to Mt. Kyaikhtiyo or Mawlamyaing, an overnight stay here will break up the journey nicely.

Bago was reputedly founded in AD 573 by two Mon princes from Thaton, who saw a female swan standing on the back of a male swan on a island in a huge lake. Taking this to be an auspicious omen, they founded a royal capital called Hanthawady (from Pali-Sanskrit Hamsavati, Kingdom of the Swan) at the edge of the lake. During the later Mon dynastic periods (1287-1539), Hanthawady became the centre of the Mon kingdom of Ramanadesa, which consisted of all southern Myanmar.

The Bamar took over in 1539 when King Tabinshwehti annexed Bago to his Taungoo kingdom. The city was frequently mentioned by early European visitors – who knew it as Pegu – as an important seaport. In 1740 the Mon, after a period of submission to Taungoo re-established Bago as their capital, but in 1757 King Alaungpaya sacked and utterly destroyed the city. King Bodawpaya, who ruled from 1782 to 1819, rebuilt it to some extent, but when the river changed its course the city was cut off from the sea and lost its importance as a seaport. It never again reached its previous grandeur.

In difference to legend, the symbol for Bago is a female hamsa (hintha or hantha in Burmese; a mythological bird) standing on the back of a male hamsa. At a deeper level, the symbol honors the compassion of the male hamsa in providing a place for the female to stand in the middle of a lake with only one island. Hence, the men of Bago are said to be more chivalrous than men from other Burmese area. In popular Burmese culture, however, men joke that they dare not marry a woman from Bago for fear of being henpecked!

Kanbawzathadi Palace & Museum

Only the palace’s brick foundations are visible today. Everything else is being built anew, as at the Mandalay Palace including the king’s apartment and audience hall. Among other copied marvels, the original audience hall featured a seven-level roof, two levels higher than Mandalay Palace, and was topped with solid gold tiles. The entire palace compound was originally surrounded by a teak stockade, a few stumps of which can be seen in the new museum. The government is keen to make the site into a showpiece of sorts, since King Bayinnaung ruled during an era when Burmese domains reached their farthest in Southeast Asia. The nearby Mon site of Oktha-myo, meanwhile is all but ignored. The small, well stocked octagonal-shaped museum (admission US$4, open 9am-4pm daily) displays Mon, Siamese and Bagan-style Buddhas; clay tobacco pipes; glazed tiles and pots; ‘Martaban’ jars (huge water jars from the delta area); bronze weights and scales; pieces of the original teak stockade; and weaponry.

Shwemawdaw Paya

King Bodawpaya, in a reconstruction of Bago after the ravages of Alaungpaya, rebuilt the stupa to 91m (298ft) in 1796, but from that point it has had a rather chequered career. A new hti was added in 1882, but a major earthquake in 1912 brought it down. The stupa was repaired, but in 1917 another major quake again brought the hti down and cause serious damage. Again it was repaired, but in 1930 the biggest quake of them all completely leveled the stupa and for the next 20 years only the huge earth mound of the base remained.

Reconstruction of the Shwemawdaw commenced in 1952 and was completed in 1954, when it reached its present height. The glittering golden top of the stupa reaches 14m (46ft) higher than the Shwedagon in Yangon. Shady trees around the base make it a pleasant place to stroll or simply sit an watch the Burmese. At the northeastern corner of the stupa a huge section of the hti toppled by the 1917 earthquake has been mounted into the structure reminder of the power of such geological disturbances.

Like the Shwedagon, the stupa is reached by a covered walkway lined with stalls – some with interesting collections of antique bits and pieces. Along the sides of the walkway a collecton of rather faded and dusty paintings illustrates the terrible effects of the 1930 earthquake and shows the subsequent rebuilding of this mighty stupa.

The mouths of the two chinthe (a half-lion/half-dragon gurardian beast) at the western entrance contain two Mahayana bodhisattavas, Shin Upagot (Upagupta, on the left) and Shin Thiwali (Sivali, on the right). On the full moon of the Burmese lunar month of Tagu (March/April) the Shwemawdaw Paya festival attracts huge crowds of worshippers and merrymakers.

Hintha Gon Paya

Shwethalyaung Buddha

The Shwethalyaung is reputed to be one of the most lifelike of all reclining Buddhas. The Burmese say the image represents Buddha in a ‘relaxing’ mode – instead of parinibbana (death) – since the eyes are wide open and the feet lie slightly splayed rather than parallel.

The sturdy iron shed that houses the image may look rough and ready, but it’s spacious and airy and gives you a far better view than offered by the cramped cells of the most reclining Buddhas. The walkway up to the platform is crowded with souvenir and handicraft stalls.

Originally built of brick and stucco in AD 994 by the Mon king Migadepa the sedond, the Shwethalyaung was allowed to deteriorate and was then restored several times during its existence before the destruction of Bago in 1757. The town was so completely ravaged that the huge Buddha was totally lost and overgrown by jungle. It was not found until the 1880s British era, when an Indian contractor, digging in a large earth mound for fill to be used in the construction of the railway line, rediscovered the image. Restoration began in 1881 and the present iron and stell tazaung, a product of a Calcutta engineering company, was completed in 1903. The 1930s saw another flurry of renovative activity, as mosaic was added to the great pillow on which the Buddh’s head rests, and Italian marble was laid along the platform.

Near the huge head of the image stands a statue of Lokanat (Lokanatha or Avalokiesavara), a Mahayana Buddhist deity borrowed by Burmese Buddhism. Behind the reclining Buddha image is a set of huge painted reliefs depicting the legend of the founding of the image.

A Japanese war cemetery, Kyinigan Kyaung, can be seen on the grounds of a monastery just north of Shwethalyaung. Northwest of this monastery, a settlement of Mon weavers uses handlooms to produce cotton longyi (sarong-style garments) and other textiles.

Maha Kalyani Sima (Maha Kalyani Thein)

Subsequently it suffered from fires of quakes on a number of occasions before being leveled by the disasterous 1930 quake. As with the Shwemawdaw, reconstruction was completed in 1954. Next to the hall are 10 large tablets with inscriptions in Pali and Mon. The hall itself features rows of tented arches around the outside, with and impressive separate cloister and marble floors inside. Niches along the inside upper walls contain 28 Buddha images.

Across the road from the Maha Kalyani Sima, by the corner, is a curious monument with four Buddha figures standing back to back, in somewhat similar fashion to the four seated Buddhas at the Kyaik Pun on the outskirt of town. An adjacent hallway has a small reclining Buddha image thronged by followers, and some macabre paintings of wrongdoers being tortured in the afterlife.

Kyaikhtiyo Pagoda, Southern Myanmar

Location

The meaning of Kyaik Hti Yo

Structure

History

On the extreme edge of this sloping rock table, and actually over hanging it by nearly half, is perched this wonderful boulder (now completely gilded with gold), thirty feet high and surrounded by the pagoda. By gently rocking the boulder a thread can be passed underneath; seemingly appears as if the additional weight of a few pounds, or a strong wind, would send it sliding down from the place it has occupied for unknown centuries watching over three thousand feet into the sloping valley beneath and we know what freakish law keeps it in its position. Anyway pious Buddhists attribute it to the power of the relic enshrined in the pagoda.

This relic is a hair of Gotama Buddha given to a hermit residing on the mountain by the Buddha himself as he was returning from the second heaven of the Nats whither he had gone to preach the law to his mother.

Festival

Pindaya Cave, Southern Shan State, Eastern Myanmar

Pindaya is really a very pleasant site especially the drive to there is the most fabulous. The westerners dubbed the scenary on the way the Holland of Myanmar. Beautiful hills and patches of farms on red soil land as far as eyes can see locate on the either side of the road. (I normally don’t put it in the normal itinerary because most Americans hate driving especially on roads of countries like ours. This takes 2.5 hours from Inle but really worth it. The roads are not very bad and we will have a spacious wagon for this part of the trip for your leg-stretching.) On the mountainous areas like this Kyaing Tong, Inle Lake, Pindaya and Kyaik-hti-yo Pagoda site the temperature could be as low as 40 to 60 in December and January.

Sittwe & Mrauk-U, Western Myanmar

Sittwe

Attractions Payagyi Temple

Buddhist Museum

Mrauk-U

Most ancient cities in Myanmar have normally three kinds of moat - shunt kyon, Nyun Kyon and Kyon Chauk defending them. But in the case of Mrauk U, there were two more types of moat namely Kyon Shin and Kyon Pinlei in addition to the usual three types. So Mrauk U was unique in her defence system for it was defended with 5 types of moat. Mrauk U is situated within the seacoast. It is encircled with a natural water system. Rivers and creeks are fed and activated by the ebb and flow of the tide. For defence purpose some bodies of natural water were drained off and land-filled, some were widened and extended, yet some were deepened so that water flow could be regulated to form Kyon Shin to obstruct the invaders.

King Minbin who made security and defence top priority in his national policy even turned to occult science for reassurance. Two of his guru monks Venerable Shin Mya Wa and Venerable Maha Panna Kyaw who were expert in vedas astrology, charm and cabalistic diagrams were consulted. Under their instruction and supervision, a hundred large fences and a thousand small fences with cabalistic diagrams affixed to them were installed on the summits of hills and mountain ranges around Mrauk U. These mystic fences arranged by the two monks were believed to have potent supernatural power to ward off the enemies. Many caves and pagodas were built near them.

After the security and defence systems were established naturally, artificially and supernaturally, King Minbin did his best in food storage for his subjects for normal times as well as for emergencies. Special sites were chosen to build granaries. Historical records tell us that there were 41 granaries at Mrauk U alone. Right now archaeologists have discovered and compiled an inventory of 13 granaries. It is expected that more will be found. Of the 13 granaries, Win Ma Na Granary is now being preserved by Archaeology Department, Mrauk U Branch.

City gates that provided entry into the city were built in accordance with their strategic importance. They are strong gates built of stone. Water gates and sluices built of the same material are in good condition till today. Contemporary of Kings Tabin Shwe Hti and Bayint Naung of Taungoo and Hamsawadi respectively, King Minbin ranked equal to them, in that he provided strong security and defence, and sufficient food storage for his people. His kingdom was a modern and developed kingdom of the time. He left a strong united, consolidated, prosperous and progressive kingdom for generation, of 49 successor kings after him who ruled and reigned for 354 years.

Mrauk U is the only site in Myanmar where there is an assemblage of many stone buildings.

The Rakhing king Minzawmon founded Mrauk-U in1433. A Deutsch man who visited Mrauk-U in the 16th century described it as one of the richest cities in Asia, and compared with Amsterdam and London in size and prosperity. Tour highlight include Kothaung Temple; it is the thousand of small Buddha bas-reliefs on the walls of which make the temple so interesting, Sakyamanaung Stupa, the bells reverts to a layered circular shape which is mounted a decorative umbrella, Mahabodi Shwegu Stupa; scenes from Jataka line (the past lives of Buddha have 550 Stories.) the inner side of the passage, and Pitakateik; Buddhist library, the monument's most distinguishing features are its five tiered roofline and beautifully.

Topography

Andaw Pagoda

Location

Structure

King Minrazagyi rebuilt this Paya in 1596, formerly constructed in 1521 by King Minhlaraza, to enshrine a tooth relic brought from Sri Lanka by King Minbin. While Shittaung features three square passages inside the temple, Andaw Thein has two passages around an eight side pillar, which supports the roof.

Shitthaung Temple

Location

History

Htukkanthein Temple

The pagoda entrance on the east side, closer to the south-east corner, leads to a long vaulted passage which spirals up in two tiers till it reaches the central chamber. The superstructure, a bell-shaped dome on receding terraces, is similar to the one on Shitthaung, but here a tall square arch is provided on the east side to admit light into the central chamber. The inner chambers and passages of the temple are constructed with well fitting and cemented stones. The pagoda is well-known for the stone sculptures in the vaulted passages, es­pecially the figures of seated ladies, with different styles of coiffure, in the manner of offering lotus buds to the Buddha. Traditionally it is said that there are sixty-four kinds of hairstyle and all the figures are of the wives of noblemen. Besides, on both sides of the entire passage, niches of 1½ feet broad, 1 foot deep, and 2 feet high are dug at regular intervals of 20 feet in the wall and each contains a stone image of the Buddha in sitting posture. There are one hundred and forty-six niches along the passage.

Koethaung Pagoda

Pitakataik

The little library or Pitaka-taik, the Repository for the Buddhist scriptures was built in 1591 also by king Min Phalaung. It measures only 14 feet from east to west, 10 feet from north to south and is only 9 feet in height. Built entirely of stone there are lovely designs on the outer walls making it look like a tiny jeweled casket shaped like a blooming lotus. There were 48 libraries in Mrauk-U but only this one is preserved, though it is sometimes obscured by thickets of bushes and partly covered by moss and weeds which flourish in the 200" of annual rainfall in the region. This library is reputed to have housed 30 sets of the Buddhist Tipitaka which King Narapatigyi (1638-1645) received from Sri Lanka. Unfortunately it acquired an unpleasant appellation due to its dark windowless interior. It is now known as Chin-kite library, Chin-kite meaning mosquito-bite. The Rakhine people say that Chin-kite is a Myanmar mispronunciation of the Rakhine word Khraung kaik, the name of the city wall which is close to the north of the library. If you have difficulty in finding this library ask for the Htupayon Pagoda as it is just north of this pagoda.

Fully day sightseeing in Mrauk U. Tour highlights are Koethaing broken Temple, with Bud-Ral-Gree, build in mid-16th century, the Pitakataik Library (A-New-Mar image), Laungbanpyauk Pagoda, Yadana Mannaung, Sakaya Mannaung Pagodas and Laymyetnha, the first pagoda erected in Mrauk U in 1430. Early morning enjoy sunrise view of Mrauk U from the top of Mrauk U hill. After breakfast visit Mrauk U market and walk for Lay-Nyuntaung village, you will enjoy crossing the log bridges, the hill pass, fruit gardens and the paddy fields, continue to the tattooed villages by boat. Return back to Sun-Oe village by boat, where the cart is waiting for drive to hotel.

Laymyetnha Pagoda

The central tower is circular and has the shape of a dome, with a circumference of 80 feet at the base and is 70 feet high. There are 28 Buddha images as mentioned in the Sambuddha scripture.

Shwe Daung Pagoda

Mrauk U Archaeological Museum

Mrauk-U is an ancient city in the Rakhine State, which is situated in the western part of the Union of Myanmar. Mrauk-U is also a place where cultural heritages have flourished for many years.

The Rakhine State is close to the Bay of Bengal and the coastal region is full of rocks and reefs and may be that is why so many stone-sculptures can be seen as ancient cultural crafts in the Rakhine region.

The state opened the Archaeological Museum in Mrauk-U; so that everyone interested in the cultural artifacts and ancient relics are find then in one place. In the Museum, a stone Wunti God Image of 15th century A.D in Mrauk-U period and a part of stone pillars from Zeti of 8th century in Watha Li period are shown.

Moreover, the pieces of a stone Vishno Image of 15th century in Mrauk-U period can also be seen at the Museum.The Wetha Li coins from 4th to 8th century, the votine tablets and the motifs of stone-sculptures from Mrauk-U period can also be seen at the museum.The household appliances in Mrauk-U period, a glazed pot of 15th century from Mrauk-U period and the glazed floor tiles from Mrauk-U palace excavation site are also exhibited.

You can also find stone-sculptures such as God of Earth,Godness, Wathoundarei and Wathoundara at the museum.There is a replica of Ananda Sandra stone inscription carved in Danyawaddy alphabets from the 8th century. The inscription tells us about Watha Li King Ananda Sandra and his ancestors with 65 verses.

Moreover, the stone inscription of purain-Ah Song-Taung (AD-1430), Wara-Dhamma-Yar-Zar stone inscription (AD-1618) and An-Taw-Thein stone inscription (AD-1596) are also there to be studied.So, we invite you to pay a visit to “Mrauk-U Archaeological Museum” where all ancient cultural heritages and stone-sculptures in Rakhine State are shown in one place.