Bagan

Bagan, bordering to the east bank of the mighty Ayeyarwady - 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.

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 traveller 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).

Bagan Panorama

Bagan Panorama View

Bagan Pagoda Golden Dome                                         Bagan golden Pagoda

Bagan Pagoda Buddha                                                    Bagan Gubyaukgyi Pagoda Window

Bagan Pagodas late afternoon                                     Bagan Pagodas and Oxcart

Bagan River Boat Pagoda                                              Bagan Women fill the pots with water

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.
Bagan Videos are here
 

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 Pagoda on the Ayeyarwady - Irrawaddy River

Ayeyarwady - Irrawaddy river in the dry zone of Central Myanmar. 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 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 TharÈkhittaya. 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.
 

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 temple are the numerous glazed terracotta tiles (left page top) 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 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

The reason is very very simple 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.
Bagan Author - Photographer - Moviemaker and friend

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 !
 

 all at e-books