The "short" version, from the LP and other sources: Mrauk U (meaning, bizarrely, Monkey Egg) was the last great Rakhine capital for 354 years, from 1430 to 1784, when it was one of the richest cities in Asia. In its heyday, it served as a free port, trading with the Middle East, Asia, Holland, Portugal and Spain. The Portuguese Jesuit priest, A. Farinha, who visited in the 17th century, called it ‘a second Venice’ while other visitors compared it to London or Amsterdam. Little remains of the European quarter, Daingyi Phat (about 3 miles south of Mrauk U’s current centre), other than ruins and a Hindu temple.
The Mrauk U dynasty was much feared by the peoples of the Indian subcontinent and central Myanmar. Japanese Christians fleeing persecution in Nagasaki were hired as bodyguards for the king. At Mrauk U’s peak, King Mon Bar Gri (1531–53) created a naval fleet of some 10,000 war boats that dominated the Bay of Bengal and Gulf of Martaban. Many of Mrauk U’s finest temples (Shittaung, Dukkanthein, Laymyetnha and Shwetaung) were built during his reign. Mrauk U was a successor to three earlier kingdoms in the area: Dhanyawady (3325 BCE to 4th cent. AD); Wethali (4th to 11th centuries AD), the remains of which are still visible to the north; and Lemro (11th to 15th centuries AD). All four kingdoms blended elements of Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism with Hinduism and Islam. In the late 18th century, the Konbaung dynasty asserted its power over the region and Mrauk U was integrated into the Burmese kingdoms centered on Mandalay. After the First Anglo-Burmese War of 1824–26, the British Raj annexed Rakhine and set up its administrative headquarters in Sittwe, thus turning Mrauk U into a political backwater virtually overnight.
There are some legendary versions as well, one being that the "Monkey Egg" name derived from the finding of a monkey guarding the golden egg of a peahen during the construction of the palace. And Mr. MG had several footnotes of his own regarding the main temples, more entertaining than the LP's version.
We first visited the one with the most Buddha images (90,000), Ko Thaung, built in 1553 by King Phalaung, son of King Mong Bar Gri (who built Mrauk U's most prominent temple - more on that to come).
King Phalaung constructed the temple in six months after a royal astrologer told him he needed to build it there to regain his failing health. He used a lot of inferior materials, and the pagoda suffered as a result.
Yet, like many of the Mrauk U temples, Ko Thaung has the appearance of a fort...
which led to the misconception for many years that the structures actually were forts. My guess: the heavy construction stems from the fact that most of the Mrauk U pagodas are made of carved stone, whereas those in Bagan and elsewhere are mostly made of brick.
What the fortress-like exteriors conceal, however, is a series of concentric passageways (even a spiral in one case) that contain fine stone carvings, surprising lighting uses, and countless photo ops.
Mr. MG playing his flute occasionally was a nice addition.
Our second temple, near by, was Pisie, built by King Kawliya of the Parein dynasty in 1123 ad, and topped by a Buddha image with piercing marble eyes, shared by four other Buddhas on surrounding porches.
Mr. MG again played his flute as we rounded the first ring of corridors.
Next was the Phara Oak pagoda, with 27 Buddha statutes around its base, using the Buddhist love of the number 9 (and its divisibles and multiples).
There was a nice natural lighting effect (like a spotlight) on the central Buddha figure.
Unlike Bagan, where whole communities were moved to clear space for the temples, Mrauk U's, along with the palace and city wall, are scattered about the town. So in our touring we passed an oxen cart wheel shop and I asked to visit it.
They were repairing a wheel, the really old-fashioned way.
Next site was the Sakya Manaung pagoda, built in 1629 to commemorate the successful reigns of the royal Sakya clan.
The entrance was guarded by two ogres...
and the huge lower terrace, with a dramatic walkway design...
contained 12 satellite pagodas.
The plinth (base level) looks like the flowering of lotus (upturned points), an image associated with the birth of Buddhism.
We then spent a good bit of the morning at the Shithaung Pagoda, Mrauk U's most noteworthy. It was built by the great King Mong Bar Gri, mentioned above, with outstanding construction that has withstood the earthquakes that have harmed other temples. It contains 80,000 images, second only to the one his son built (our first-visited).
The many bell-shaped proximate stupas intentionally look like the bells that are wrung in the temples to mark good deeds.
Like the other temples, Shitaung has concentric corridors, the outermost formed by the bell-shaped stupas.
There are stone relief carvings among the stupas, many with distinctly Hindu images (Rakine borders Bangladesh, and like it, was once part of India) like this Ganesh...
and even a pornographic one, reminiscent of those at Kajurahoh in India.
Mr. MG's version: A king who was disturbed that his power and his kingdom were declining while that of a hermit in a nearby forest was increasing, granted his daughter's wish to visit the hermit. She went to the hermit, seduced him (see the carving), and the power shift reversed. There's a lesson in there somewhere, I guess, although its connection to the pilgrims' fondling of a certain part of the hermit's anatomy (now prohibited by a screen), escapes me.
The inner corridors are full of clever, naturally-lit, photo ops (pre-cameras of course)...
and walls covered with thousands of wonderful carvings...
including the 80,000 Buddhas...
musicians...
dancers...
and the Byala...
the mythical animal depicted throughout the region, that combines
features of nine creatures: crest of the dragon or elephant trunk, deer's eyes, rhino's horn, parrot's tongue, body of a "toe" said to inhabit the Himalayas, yak's tail or peacock's tail, elephant's ears or horse's ears, lions paws, head and mane or "karawak" bird's mane, and tiger's canine teeth. I guess there's a way to count them that comes out nine. The belief is that the person who keeps the figure usually enjoys material benefits and promotion of income (thus their popularity at hotels, restaurants and other commercial ventures).
The innermost chamber is accessed by a narrow opening through a marvelous relief carving.
Next was the Andaw Paya, first built in 1521...
with an octagonal shape that is reflected in the internal concentric corridors, lined with Buddha images.
The center of the roof is supported by an octagonal pillar containing robed Buddha images.
Then, on to the Dukkanthein Paya, whose exterior really looked like a bunker...
(those are drains, not guns), but whose interior was a square spiral, that went around three times...
before reaching the center, where the main Buddha image chamber was brightly illuminated by natural light.
We had to retrace our steps from the center, and thus took a little more time to appreciate the lighting on the images along the corridor...
and to notice the back-to-back Buddhas between corridors.
There also were images of people of the time, including this woman with a child...
and this corner figure, who suffered a bit from his/her location.
Note that the three sections of the carved figure, are actually carved as part of three blocks that form that part of the corner.
And then we stopped for lunch - at a really good fish and seafood place, after which we returned to the hotel to wait out the midday heat. Can't imagine what it's like in the summer (March, April, May) - must be miserable. By the way, there are only three seasons, winter (Nov to Feb), summer, and rainy season (June to October).
At about 4:00 we went to the Sandar Muni Monastery...
which is renowned for a beloved ancient Buddha image...
that had been saved from British confiscation (and melting down for ammunition), by encasing it in cement. The story goes that it was discovered in the 1990s when a farmer found a marble eye on the ground.
For a change of subject, we next visited Lut-se-kan lake...
actually a moat, with a water gate...
that was lowered to release a flood into lower lying areas around the city walls to trap unsuspecting enemy attackers.
Overlooking the lake (in the background) was a pagoda, Zina Mar Aung,
that had particular interest for me, because of its guinea pig images...
in the foreground, stylized - requires a little imagination.
The guinea pig is the animal for folks, like me (and The Buddha), born on a Friday, who are philosophical. I knew there was some reason I ended up as an undergrad philosophy major (other than that it was a path of least resistance).
We finished what may have been the fullest day of the trip with a walk to a sunset spot, enjoying some nice scenes along the way...
There were some kids bucket bathing to end the day...
and a fine sunset...
including another flute solo from Mr. MG. He requires no coaxing.
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Amazing !
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to go