Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The tenth-century
ShwethalyaungRecliningBuddha
lies 2km west of Bago. Built by King
Migadepa in 994 AD to celebrate his conversion to Buddhism (a series of paintings on the
back of the statue tells the full story), the 55m-long statue shows Buddha resting his head on
anornatepillowontheeveofhisenlightenment.ThestatuewasabandonedafterAlaungpaya
sacked Bago in 1756, lying forgotten and overgrown with jungle until it was rediscovered by
British railway contractors in 1880.
Like many of Bago's religious buildings, few traces of Shwethalyaung's antiquity remain,
and the site is covered with a rather obtrusive canopy. Photographers may prefer to walk a
few minutes south to the similarly proportioned
Myathalyaung Reclining Buddha
, built in
2002, which remains uncovered.
Maha Kalyani Sima
Shwethalyaung Rd • Daily 5am-dusk • Free
It'seasy to overlook this dilapidated monastery onyourway to the other sights west oftown,
but
Maha Kalyani Sima
is the site of Myanmar's first
ordination hall
. Built in 1476 by
KingDhammazedi,thehallcelebratesthereturnof22monkshehadsenttoSriLanka,theor-
thodox home of Theravada Buddhism, in hope of reinvigorating his country's
sangha
(mon-
astic community). Find your way to the rear of the scruffy monastery buildings and you'll
discover ten stone tablets with inscriptions in Pali and Mon, which describe the early history
of Buddhism in the region. Like most of Bago's historic buildings, the hall has been rebuilt
several times, with its latest incarnation reopened in 1953 by U Nu, then Prime Minister of
Burma.
Mahazedi Pagoda
Mahazedi Pagoda Rd • Daily 5am-dusk • Free; camera fee K300
On the western edge of Bago, white and gold
Mahazedi Pagoda
is one of the most striking
religious buildings in Bago, with steep whitewashed staircases leading to the base of the pa-
goda itself (although it's a men-only zone beyond the main terrace), and a few attractive
shrines nearby. King Bayinnaung built the original structure in 1561 and he enshrined a
fake tooth relic thought to be the sacred Tooth of Kandy in Sri Lanka here in the 1570s.
When it was later discovered to have been an ox bone fake sent by the king of Kotte, Bay-
innaung regally dismissed the tooth's sceptics and today it is a venerated relic in Sagaing's
Kyaik Pun
Kyaik Pun Rd • Daily 8am-dusk • Entry fee covered by the Bago Archeological Zone K10,000 ticket; camera
fee K300
Around 4km south of the railway station, just west of the main Yangon road,
Kyaik Pun
consists of four 30m-high Buddhas representing Siddhartha Gautama and his three prede-
cessors, all shown at the moment of their enlightenment, in
bhumisparsha
mudra with one
