Burmese people

An average Buddhist.


If he had the means, took on himself the responsibility of supporting the Religion. Building Buddhist pagodas and temples, both solid and hollow, monasteries of both bricks and of wood, and others like the alms house, the rest house, the library, the reservoir etc. were taken as contributory towards the long life of the Religion until the end of the 5,000 years after the Mahaparinibbana

Although Bagan and its environs is full of brick ruins, we gather from the inscriptions that there were more wooden buildings in olden times. Our primary concern here is to recount how these Buddhist stupas and temples were made, as described by the donors themselves.



a beautiful renovated Buddhist temple
magnificent old Bagan Temple
Bagan Temple Buildings Sulamani
A person in 1192 selected a site just beside the reservoir at Amana this Temple Buildings and enclosed it with ut-ti piu so tantuin - a wall entirely of bricks, for the construction of a big and pleasant monastery. Another donor spent 10,000 ticals of silver on building a monastery, a hollow-pagoda and a wall around them. An inscription of 1248 mentions that the wall alone cost 432.25 ticals of silver. 

Bagan Monastery at Sale

It must have been a fairly large enclosure wall as the establishment contained two monasteries, a library and a hollow pagoda with four gates. Some of the enclosure walls were circular but usually they were rectangular or square as they are referred to as tantuin 4 myaknha- four sided walls, complete with tatirkha muk - doors and gateways. These enclosures are essential not only to distinguish a holy Buddhist place from its surroundings but also to protect the temples from fire.
Temple with fire proof walls 

Some built fire proof walls around, maybe they remembered that the whole city burned to ashes in 1225 and therefore the decided that if he founded an establishment it ought to have adequate protection from fire. Some builder built fantail, double enclosures. The inner one was for the shrines and the outer one was usually for building monasteries. In one case as much as twenty boarding houses were built for students and some Buddhist Shrines.
a very old solid pagoda

Sometimes a Banyan tree which had been grown from a seed imported from the sacred place in India would be planted. It was very popular do get them from Bodh Gaya it would be enclosed in a magnificent wall  There were also walls made from stone. 

not much has changedWithin the waof a hollow or solid-pagoda, although there were exceptions when it was made as a promenade to an adjoining monastery since walking to and fro seems to be the only physical exercise befitting a gentle monk. Asawat's wife, a staunch Buddhist when temples and some shrines attached to her monastery in 1236, said that she used bricks from two kilns at the cost of 60 ticals of silver in addition to 22 ticals for caning themll a platform, was made as the foundation 

For bringing in timber, probably for roofing, she spent 6 ticals more. in the case of a platform for a hollow-pagoda, we have several instances where it is mentioned that the platform is made in the shape of a kalaka pot. Perhaps this refers to the plinth molding of the platform wall.




Phowintaung Cave Pagodas

On such a Pagoda platform was built a ka, which is derivative of Pali guha meaning a cave, and therefore it is a hollow-pagoda made in imitation of a natural cave. Some had four gateways and thus acquired the name ket 4 myaknha Inside a four sided ka there were always four images of the Lords placed back-to-back in the centre, representing the four Buddhas of

Four Temple Buddhas

woodcarved jataka story scene
this present kappa. The central block, around which the images wem placed, was the relic chamber where sariradhitu- the bodily relics, were enshrined. The walls of the ka would be painted either with khlyu pan - floral designs, or charrpu- pictures of the Lord or with scenes from the Jataka. 
local made umbrellas
One record says that as many as 14,619 Buddhas were painted on the wall. A ka thus painted would be known as ka prok -the variegated cave. Athwat - the spires, of these ka were usually made from copper and gilded. Above the athwat were the MT - umbrellas, sometimes made of donated gold and studded with gems.
Bagan Pagoda at Irrawaddy
At the Irrawaddy River

A stupa is another form of pagoda, but solid in structure to build one a ceti, firstly a platform would be made in much the same manner as for erection of a ka. The following extract from an inscription dated 1227 gives a rough idea of what son of relics were enshrined. 
Author Professor Than Tun.



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