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Published: November 8th 2005
Buddha statue in Amarapura
This wonderful Buddha statue is inside the Mahagandhayon Monastery just before the U Bein BridgeThere are several locations of interest around Mandalay which can easily be reached in a one-day trip and we of course wanted to see as many of them as possible. We visited four small cities of historical importance, of which three had been capitals of the Burmese kingdom in former centuries.
Historical background
Sagaing became the second Burmese capital around 1315 after the fall of Bagan. Its period of importance was short, for in 1364 the founder's grandson moved his capital across the river to Ava. From 1760 to 1764 Sagaing was once again the capital. Moving entire capitals is a tradition in Burma; the most important Burmese town of the northern Ayeyarwady (formerly known as the Irrawaddy) valley had for a long time been the town of
Ava, founded in 1364. But in 1782 the town was packed up and moved about 8 kilometres to the northeast, to
Amarapura. In 1823 the entire capital was dismantled again and rebuilt in Ava. But 15 years later Ava was damaged by an earthquake, and the capital was therefore packed up again and once more transferred to Amarapura. This was not of duration either, as only 16 years later the entire town was
U Bein Bridge
In order to reach Amarapura one has to cross the lake Taungthaman over a bridge which is supposed to be the longest teak bridge in the world moved again, this time 12 kilometres to the northeast to the present Mandalay. At the time of King Mindon (ca. 1857) a transfer of the capital not only meant leaving an old town and erecting a new town in a different place. As all secular buildings of that time, including the royal palaces, were built from wood, a transfer of the capital meant the complete dismantling of the houses of the old settlement, which then were loaded on carts and the backs of elephants to be reconstructed at the place chosen for the new town. Although
Mingun has never been a capital, unlike Ava, Amarapura and Sagaing, it holds its own as home to two world-record superlatives, so it is definitely worth visiting as well.
We encountered some problems concerning the different names, to start with Myanmar, which was formerly called Burma. In 1989, the military junta officially changed the English version of its name from Burma to Myanmar (along with changes in the English versions of many place names in the country, such as Ava to Inwa). The renaming proved to be politically controversial, seen by some as being less inclusive of minorities, most of them feel represented
Watchtower at Lake Taungthaman
Among others, this is a view from the famous teak bridge in Amarapura, which we found lovely in the term ‘Burma’ and not so much in ‘Myanmar’. Unfortunately for the travellers, many guidebooks and leaflets make the situation even more confusing due to the lack of consistency, and we may also be inconsistent in our blogs. But we will try to either stick to one form or to give the second name in brackets, anyway it is the same place.
Our way around the cities
Although we love riding bicycles wherever possible we could not visit the royal cities around Mandalay because the trip would be too strenuous. So we were obliged to resort to another means of transport and chose one of the numerous blue taxis waiting in front of the hotels, which resemble actually more a pickup than a car. We shared one of them with a young French couple to make the tour to Amarapura, Sagaing and Inwa (Ava). For the whole trip we paid $10 for the four of us, but later on we learnt that you may get the taxi also for $7 if you are a tough negotiator. The first former capital that the taxi took us to was
Amarapura, on the left bank of the Ayeyarwady River 11 km to
Fishing boats
The lake has a rich fauna including many ducks the south of Mandalay. The city was founded only in 1783 as a new capital and its name means ‘City of Immortality’, but due to the strange habit of moving capitals, little remains of the old city, as the palace buildings were dismantled and the city walls were pulled down for use as building materials for roads and railways. The allegedly most impressive sight is the U Bein Bridge crossing the Taungthaman Lake, the longest teak bridge in the world (1.2 km) and about two centuries old. We found the bridge quite nice but not as stunning as everybody wants to make you believe, the surroundings are indeed beautiful, a nice lake full of fishing boats and birds. On the other side of the bridge we entered the village, crossed several minor pagodas and passed many kids waving frenetically at us, until we came to the Kyauktawgyi Pagoda, a huge and rather unimpressive building from the outside, but remarkable for its wall paintings depicting many religious buildings and scenes from contemporary Burmese life. After this visit we crossed the bridge again, constantly accompanied by people selling all kinds of souvenirs, and entered a monastery that we did not find especially
Tourist boat at U Bein Bridge
Nice boat waiting for the tourists who do not want to walk the 1.2 km long bridge twice interesting. We found out that we were too late for the sight of numerous Buddhist monks having their last meal of the day around 10:30 a.m. at a refectory and were quite angry about our taxi driver who knew about it and could have informed us, so that we would have visited this place first. Other people from our guesthouse in Mandalay, who had been there in time, told us though that it had been very touristy and thereby losing some of its atmosphere, which appeased us a bit. Nevertheless we were not satisfied with our taxi driver, all he was interested in was to earn a maximum amount of money by taking us to as many shops as possible hoping for hefty commissions, thank God we managed to limit the number of factories/shops to two.
While nobody had asked for a ticket in Amarapura, they did so in
Sagaing and we had to pay $3 entrance fee per person, which also gave us the right to visit the city of Mingun. This city is situated 21km south-west of Mandalay on the west bank of the Ayeyarwaddy River. Crossing the British-built 16 span Ava Bridge we immediately saw the
Cute kids
Still waving frenetically, but we fear that it won't take long until they will start begging for candies and pens hilltops, where over 600 monasteries for monks and nuns are located for Buddhist studies and meditation making the city a religious and monastic centre. Once again we were reminded of Peter’s words that Buddhism is also a fitness program, we had to climb numerous steps to the top of a hill where the pagodas are usually built. To be honest, we were not particularly impressed, there was again a lot of gold and numerous glittering glass pieces. Probably it was too hot and we were slowly getting tired and hungry. We firmly asked our driver to take us to a local restaurant for lunch but he turned a deaf ear to our implorations and we ended up beside the river where all the other tourists went. It is not mainly this fact that disturbed us but that the meal was really execrable and furthermore far too expensive. This was the moment when we started doubting whether the trip was really worth the money and wished there were more possibilities for individual travellers to organise something on their own.
But we had paid and were determined to go on and make the best of it, maybe the following destinations would
Kyauktawgyi Pagoda
Built in 1847 on the model of a well-known temple at Bagan be more promising. Next to the restaurant we took a small ferry to cross the Ayeyarwady River in order to proceed to
Inwa, formerly called Ava, which due to its historical importance promised fascinating sights. On the other side of the river we had not yet reached any monument, we were obliged to take a horse cart (Kyats 2,500 ≈ $2). Everything was organised to the last detail and we really did not feel like independent travellers but more like part of a tour group, which were abundant all over the places. Once again we could not show a ticket, it would have been the same as for Mandalay’s most important monuments. We wondered whether we should pay the required $10 per person, as we had already seen most of Mandalay’s pagodas and monasteries. We decided to do as if we did not know of anything, dumb tourists that we were, and managed to visit Inwa’s monuments paying a minor sum in Kyats and were not officially registered by the guard, so we suppose he put the money into his own pocket. We did not mind that, better than to give Dollars to the military junta. The first monument where
Mural in the Kyauktawgyi Pagoda
The walls in the east and south porches are adorned with paintings depicting many religious buildings we stopped was the Grand Bargaya Monastery from the end of the 16th century made completely of teak wood. We saw an absolutely breath-taking building decorated with carvings, floral arabesques, ornamentation of curved figurines and reliefs of birds and animals as well as large teak doors also beautifully designed with sculptures and reliefs. After this visit the horse-cart went on to the 27 meter high leaning Watch Tower, the only remains of the former palace; the most fascinating feature of this sight were the impressive views from its top. Here we encountered really obnoxious souvenir sellers, most of them cute-looking girls who followed us everywhere, from the base to the top of the tower, and when we still did not buy, even to the next monument. We were again reminded that the biggest tourist groups in Myanmar are French, the girls knew their French slogan by heart: “C’est joli, c’est pas cher, c’est local” - it’s pretty, inexpensive and of local production. We were quite amused and pulled their legs but they only went on pestering us, especially Stephan. The numerous tour groups make life difficult for backpackers, they are willing to pay any price and have no clue about
Buddha footprint in the Kyauktawgyi Pagoda
An ever recurring motive to be found in numerous pagodas and monasteries all over Myanmar the real value. So as a matter of principle every price starts at $10 (≈ Kyats 13,000), but Stephan managed to negotiate one bronze statue down to Kyats 4,000 after long and very tough bargaining. The girls did not even let us visit the Maha Aung Mye Bon Zan Monastery in peace! Anyway, the building from the beginning of the 19th century was empty inside and far more interesting from the exterior, being a brick-and-stucco monastery. Monasteries were normally built of wood and were prone to deterioration from the elements or destruction by fire, and its masonry construction has ensured its survival. When we visited it, the day was already far advanced and the evening sun made the huge building appear almost golden in colour. We arrived back in Mandalay exhausted after a long and eventful day that we had spent under the blazing sun and in diverse means of transport. Unfortunately, at the end we no longer fully appreciated the architectural gems we had before us, having seen too many pagodas and monasteries in one single day.
Next day we wanted to see another famous city around Mandalay,
Mingun, located on the western bank of the Ayeyarwaddy River,
Ava bridge leading to Sagain
Famous sixteen span bridge which is well over a km long and was erected by the British approximately 11 km to the north. The easiest way to get there is by boat (Kyats 3,000 return) leaving the jetty at 9 a.m., as we were a bit late we took a taxi there. On the boat we met Luc and Florence again, a French couple from our hotel who had also been on the tour the day before. The boat ride takes one hour and the landscape is not very fascinating, so we chatted with them. Luc already knew Myanmar from a previous trip and he told us many interesting stories.
We knew that the Thadingyut festival (Light Festival) was approaching and that we were lucky to witness it, but Luc made us completely change our plans in order to watch the more impressive Phaung Daw U festival at Lake Inlay. Normally we would have continued by boat to Bagan followed by Lake Inlay. By changing our itinerary we would miss the one day journey on the Ayeyarwady River, but today's boat trip was already giving us some insight into the famous river and its numerous sand banks. In 1790 the construction of a 150 meters high pagoda was started in Mingun, which was meant to become
Sagaing pagoda
We do not know its name, it is simply one of the numerous religious buildings dotting the hills the highest pagoda of the world. But when the king died in 1819 work on the project ceased, so that until today the pagoda remains uncompleted and it is nothing but a huge heap of bricks. Approaching by boat, you slowly come closer and can fully appreciate the ruin’s enormous size and wonder how you would climb it in the blaring sun. On the riverside you are immediately greeted by locals with oxen-carts who ask you if you would like a taxi. Taxi, what taxi? Of course we declined and by far preferred our feet to the uncomfortable looking carts. The Mingun Pagoda was not far and we bravely started the ascension barefoot on steep narrow steps that made us fear to topple over more than once. The sun was burning relentlessly and the bricks wonderfully conserved the heat so that our feet were burning like hell, but we had gained some experience of the kind in India and tried to step on plants whenever available. We also encountered many young men who plucked long and bushy twigs in order to offer them to the tourists so that they may keep cool feet. You would of course have to pay
Gallery at the Sun U Ponya Shin Pagoda
Galleries protect against the sun and the rain, but sometimes they hide the view on the pagoda they are leading to for that special service, which we did not do, but nevertheless we admired their cleverness at earning some money. Luc was wearing a Burmese skirt and we had thought that he was already quite well adapted, until we saw him take it off on top of the pagoda and spread it out for himself and Florence. There was not much to see, so we wandered around a little bit and enjoyed the view. Then we went to see the gigantic bell cast to go with this huge pagoda. The Mingun Bell weighs 90 tons, and is today the largest uncracked bell in the world. We were not really impressed by it at all, it was only very big, so Stephan did not even take a picture. The gigantic stone lions meant to stand at the entrance to the Mingun pagoda caught our attention, though. Another monument in Mingun impressed us much more, the Hsinbyume Pagoda, built in 1816. It is built as a representation of the Sulamani Pagoda which, according to the Buddhist plan of the cosmos stands atop Mount Meru, the sacred mountain in Hindu and Buddhist mythology considered to be the center of the universe and believed to
Sun U Ponya Shin Pagoda in Sagaing
Constructed in 1312, it offers outstanding views over Sagaing, the Ayeyarwady River and a landscape dotted with pagodas be the abode of Brahma and other deities of both religions. The seven wavy terraces around the pagoda represent the seven mountain ranges around Mount Meru. We were really impressed as this pagoda looked unusual and we had not yet seen anything alike. When we went back towards the jetty because the departure time of the boat was approaching, we visited the
Satowya Pagoda with beautiful statues lining the staircase and several interesting works of art inside.
We have seen many interesting pagodas and monasteries, but we would have loved to be more independent and to have more time at the different sights than was granted to us. So in the end we organised everything for ourselves but ended up with the rest of the bunch, which we do not always appreciate. However, we strongly recommend visiting these ancient royal cities.
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David
non-member comment
Nice blog!
Thanks so much for your wonderful photos, properly captioned and described. Enjoyed you diary too.