Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
represented here, but foremost among them is
Bago Medaw
, a local Mon
nat
depicted as a
woman wearing a buffalo skull.
Kanbawzathadi Palace
Myintawtar Rd,400msouthofShwemawdaw •Daily9am-5pm•EntryfeecoveredbytheBagoArcheological
Zone K10,000 ticket
Built in 1553 at the heart of King Bayinnaung's Bago, the original
Kanbawzathadi Palace
survived for less than fifty years before it was looted and razed by Rakhine troops in 1599.
Thepalacelayinruinsforfourcenturies,untilitwasexcavatedandrestoredinthemid-1990s
under General Khin Nyunt's sponsorship.
Today, the poorly maintained concrete throne halls are photogenic enough from a distance,
but give little sense of the original scale of the palace buildings. More interesting are the
jagged remains ofthe original teakwood columns, sent to Bayinnaung from around the coun-
try,and a few artefacts discovered during the excavation that are housed in a small
archeolo-
gical museum
on the same site.
Snake Monastery and around
Off Shwetaungyoe Rd, 1.5km south of Hintha Gon Paya • Daily during daylight hours • Free
One of Bago's less orthodox religious sites,
Snake Monastery
, also known locally as Mwei
Paya, is home to a venerable Burmese python. Estimated to be an incredible 120 years old,
the 5m-long female snake is believed to be the reincarnation of an abbot from a monastery
in Hsipaw, who now divides her time between sleeping (or meditating, depending on your
view) and eating chickens. The banknotes tucked by followers into her scaly folds have fun-
ded the rapid expansion of the monastery, which also hosts exciting
nat ceremonies
on full
moon days.
Some300mtothenorthofthemonasteryisthehilltop
ShweTaungYoePagoda
,orSunset
Pagoda, worth visiting for its great views over Bago.
Kyakhat Waing Kyaung
100m north of the market • Daily 7am-noon • Free
Sandwiched between the northwest corner of the moat and the Bago River,
Kyakhat Waing
Kyaung
is Bago's biggest monastery. It formerly housed 1200 monks, though many were
forced to return to their home communities after the crackdown that followed 2007's
Saffron
Revolution
andtodayaroundfivehundredremain. Themonastery isbestknownforits11am
lunchtimes
, where busloads of Thai tourists descend to give packets of instant noodles as
alms to a long line of straight-faced monks.
Shwethalyaung Reclining Buddha
Mahazedi Pagoda Rd • Daily 5am-dusk • Entry fee covered by the Bago Archeological Zone K10,000 ticket;
camera fee K300
