Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
TEMPLE FESTIVALS
The following are Bagan's major temple festivals or paya pwe, listed in order of
their celebration through the year. At them all expect religious chanting around the
clock, religious paraphernalia stalls and music and drama performances.
ingyut (September/October).
mon (October/November).
the full moon of Pyatho (December/January) is Bagan's biggest festival, when hun-
dreds of monks come to collect alms from thousands of merit-seeking locals.
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Nyaung U Area
The main site in this area is the superb Shwezigon Paya.
Shwezigon Paya
BUDDHIST TEMPLE
At the west end of Nyaung U, this big, beautiful
zedi
is the town's main religious site,
and is most famous for its link with the 37
nat
. Lit up impressively at dusk the gilded
zedi
sits on three rising terraces. Enamelled plaques in panels around the base of the
zedi
illustrate scenes from the Jataka. At the cardinal points, facing the terrace stairways, are
four shrines, each of which houses a 13ft (4m)-high bronze standing buddha. Gupta-in-
spired and cast in 1102, these are Bagan's largest surviving bronze buddhas.
A 4-inch (10cm) circular indentation in a stone slab, before the upwards-heading east-
ern steps, was filled with water to allow former Myanmar monarchs to look at the reflec-
tion of the
hti
without tipping their heads backwards (which might have caused them to
lose their crowns).
The most important site here is the small yellow compound called 37 Nat (in English)
on the southeast side of the site. Inside are figures of all the 37 pre-Buddhist
nat
that
were officially endorsed by Bamar monarchy in a compromising gesture towards a pub-
lic reluctant to give up all their beliefs for Buddhism. Ask around if the compound is
