Bagan (Pagan)
| Age |
: |
founded in 1044 AD
|
| Temperature |
: |
Min 10°C - Max 43°C
|
| Location
|
: |
Latitude 21° 10' N,
Longitude 94° 51' E. |
The main tourist destination in Myanmar is Bagan,
capital of the first Myanmar Empire; one of the
richest archaeological sites in South-east Asia.
Situated on the eastern bank of the Ayeyawaddy
River. The Magic of Bagan has inspired visitors to
Myanmar for nearly 1000 years. Bagan covers an area
of 42sq.km containing over 2000 well-preserved
pagodas and temples of the 11th-13th century.
About Bagan
 The town of Bagan (formerly spelled as "Pagan"),
central Myanmar (Burma), situated on the left bank
of the Ayeyarwaddy River and approximately 90 miles
(145 km) southwest of Mandalay. The site of an old
capital city of Myanmar, Pagan is a pilgrimage
centre and contains ancient Buddhist shrines that
have been restored and redecorated and are in
current use. Ruins of other shrines and pagodas
cover a wide area. An earthquake on July 8, 1975,
severely damaged more than half of the important
structures and irreparably destroyed many of them.
The whole of the Buphaya Pagoda, for nine centuries
a landmark for river-boatmen, tumbled into the
Ayeyarwaddy and was carried off by the waters. The
village also has a school for lacquerware, for which
the region is noted.
Pagan's importance lies in its heritage rather
than its present. It was first built probably in AD
849 and, from the 11th century to the end of the
13th, was the capital of a region roughly the size
of modern Myanmar. In 1287 it was overrun by the
Mongols during their wide-ranging conquests, and it
never recovered its position, though a little
desultory building continued on Buddhist shrines.
Among these pagodas, there are four most famous
pagodas which has the special features as follows :
Dhu = Dhammayan (The thickest)
Nyan = Thabinnyu
(The Omniscient)
Anu = Ananda (The most sculptural )
Thakho = Shwezigon (The most powerful)
 Old Pagan was a walled city, its western flank
resting on the Ayeyarwaddy River. It was the focus
of a network of high roads by means of which its
rulers could command a large region of fertile
plains and could dominate other major Myanmar
dynastic cities, such as Pegu. From the port of
Thiripyissaya, further down the river, important
overseas trade was conducted with India, Ceylon, and
other regions of Southeast Asia. The walls of the
old city, within which lies a substantial area of
the modern town, probably originally contained only
royal, aristocratic, religious, and administrative
buildings. The populace is thought to have lived
outside in homes of light construction closely
resembling those occupied by the present-day
inhabitants.
The walled city, whose moats were fed by the
Ayeyarwaddy , was thus a sacred dynastic fortress.
The circuit of its walls and river frontage is some
2.5 miles (4 km), and there is evidence that perhaps
as much as a third of the old city has been washed
away by the river. Because building was principally
in brick, decoration was carried out in carved
brick, in stucco, and in terra-cotta. The earliest
surviving structure is probably the 10th-century Nat
Hlaung Gyaung. The shrines that stand by the Sarabha
Gate in the eastern wall, although later than the
wall they adjoin, are also early. These are shrines
of protecting nats--the traditional spirit deities
of the animist ethnic Burmans.
 Between about 500 and 950, people of the Burman
ethnic group had been infiltrating from the north
into a region occupied by other peoples; these
people already had been converted to Indian
religion, especially the Mahayana Buddhism of Bihar
and Bengal. Under King Anawrahta (reigned 1044-77),
the ethnic Burmans finally conquered the other
peoples of the region, including a people called the
Mon, who were previously dominant in the south. They
transported the Mon royal family and their scholars
and craftsmen to Pagan, making it the capital and
centre of an official, fundamentalist form of
Hinayana (Theravada) Buddhism adopted from Ceylon
(Sri Lanka), about 1056. This initiated the period
of Pagan's greatness, which was sustained at first
by Mon artistic traditions. The enormous number of
monasteries and shrines built and maintained during
the next 200 years was made possible both by the
great wealth of the royal exchequer and by the large
number of slaves, skilled and unskilled, whose
working lives were dedicated to the support of each
institution. The city became one of the most
important centres of Buddhist learning.
More information on Bagan
|
