Myanmar Wonderland

Myanmar Wonderland

U Thaw Kaung

Cover Design by APK

Published by TODAY PUBLISHING HOUSE Ltd. at Smashwords

Copyright December 2003 TODAY PUBLISHING HOUSE Ltd.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other except for brief quotations, not to exceed 400 words, without the prior permission of the publisher.

First Edition December 2003

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Myanmar Wonderland

A collection of 38 short essays on places of historical interest and scenic beauty in Myanmar. They were originally written for TODAY monthly magazine and the Myanmar Perspectives, which was mainly an Internet online magazine which ceased publication about eight years ago.

The essays were primarily not written as a tourist guide but more to provide background information to historical sites like Bagan, old Pyu ruined cities like Beikthano (Vishnu City), Thayekhittaya (Srikhetra), Bago (Pegu), the first seven buildings of Mandalay, and a little known old Mon pagoda in Yangon. A longer essay is on the Inlay region and the industrious Intha people is included.

The essays also show the unspoilt beauty of nature in resorts like Ngapali, Kalaw and some other places now opened up to foreign visitors for the first time.

The author, Dr. Thaw Kaung, is a 1st class honours in English graduate from Rangoon University with a Postgraduate Diploma in Librarianship from London University. He was Chief Librarian of the Universities' Central Library and the Yangon University Library from 1959-1997, and has been a Member of the Myanmar Historical Commission since 1998. He has been honoured with a Life Achievement Award in Literature, the Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize and the Myanmar honorary Sithu title. He was also awarded a Doctor of Letters (Honoris Causa) from the University of Western Sydney in 1999.

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CONTENTS

Foreword

Preface

A Time to Visit Myanmar

Beikthano, Vishnu City: An Ancient Pyu Centre

Pyay and Thayekhittaya: Twin Capitals of Ancient Myanmar

Myinkaba, Bagan: Its Legends and Historic Pagoda

Some of King Anawrahta’s Pagoda

The Lawkananda Pagoda at Bagan

King Kyansittha’s Pagodas at Bagan

Innwa, the Renowned Capital

Sagaing, the Ancient Capital

Taungoo, the Capital of a Famous Myanmar Dyanasty

Shwebo, the First Capital of the Last Dynasty

Amarapura and the Immortal Beauty of Lake Taung-tha-man

The First Seven Structures of Mandalay

Monywa and Places of Interest Nearby

Sale, and Ancient Myanmar Town Steeped in Cultural Heritage

Taungdwingyi and Old Town where Writers Flourished

Mrauk-U, the Ancient Capital of Rakkhine State

Land of the Great Image Revisited

The Two Maha Muni Shrines of Myanmar

Offering of Thin-bok Swoon, a Rakkhine Buddhist Festival

Bago: Ancient City with Renewed Splendour

Bago as seen by Early European Travellers

Mawlamyine: The Old and the New

Chaung Thar Beach: A New Seaside Resort

Kanthayar, the New Pleasant Beach Resort

Ngapali Beach & Thandwe

Ngwe Hsaung, the New Myanmar Beach Resort

In Search of Rama: a visit to Tha-Khut-ta-ne

Lagunbyee Old Town and Discovery of the First Ceramic Kiln

Taunggyi, Capital of the Shan State

Kyaing Tong, a New Tourist Town in the Shan State

Hsipaw on the Road to China

Picturesque Inle Lake and its Unique Intha Lake-Dwellers

Mongla: a Tourist Attraction on the Myanmar-China Border

Pindaya and its Ancient Caves

Thandaung, a Peaceful Hill Resort in the Kayin State

Thanlyin-Kyauktan Area: An Old Port and the New

Kyaik Waing

FOREWORD

Myanmar Wonderland is a collection of essays written over a period of about twelve years for the Myanmar Perspectives and TODAY, two popular local monthly magazines. Unfortunately, Myanmar Perspectives ceased publication several years ago.

Now with the opening up of our country, with Myanmar coming into the lime-light, emerging from the cold of isolation, I have collected these essays to publish as a book which I hope will be of use to visitors who want some background information on places they might be visiting.

It is an ecletic collection because I have written mainly about places I have enjoyed visiting, some on the usual tourist itinerary, some far off the beaten track in places which are only now being opened up to foreign travellers.

For me Myanmar has always been a wonderland, a fascinating place where I was fortunate to be born, to grow up, where during a busy working life of over four decades as an university librarian and an amateur historian and writer, I have been able to travel to some enchanting regions all over my homeland. Like Alice I have seen some wonderful, unexpected sights, sometimes in a topsy-turvy manner.

The people of our country with over a hundred ethnic tribes, with their colourful costumes, fun festivals, unusual food, all have a common trait. They are always warm and friendly and welcome visitors with simple, disarming charm. The people, like most of the countryside in her natural beauty of lovely beaches, forested snowcapped mountains, fertile plains long, large rivers with winding creeks of the delta, are still unspoilt by the progress and speed of the modern world.

Even now after my over 75 years living in this wonderland, I am still finding unexpected beauty in her nooks and corners. Although I have lived abroad for several months to several years at a time, Myanmar is the land I love and always come back to.

I hope you will enjoy seeing this wonderful land and get some insight from my essays about places you visit, or which you intend to go to eventually.

Myanmar will cast a spell with her charm and warm friendliness and invite you to visit this wonderland again and again

Thaw Kaung

Yangon, 18th January, 2013

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PREFACE

Myanmar Wonderland is an anthology of essays on some attractive tourist destinations in a country rich in both natural and human cultural heritage that is the Republic of the Union of Myanmar.

A geographical entity of 261,228 square miles in size, with long stretches of land and sea fronts, fed by fresh waters from springs, falls, pools, lakes, streams and rivers, lofty mountain ranges, some with snow-capped summits, offshooting from the Himalayan system, forested hill ranges and large sea beaches along the coast, the country has beautiful landscape of Nature. Besides its flora, fauna, fossil and minerals provide a boundless field of resources for scientists to explore.

Within the frame of this Nature's creation a civilization of some antiquity emerged and developed passing through stages of human evolution and progress from anthropoid primate through Stone, Bronze and Iron Ages to modern times, leaving behind remains of human settlements in the form of dwelling caves, city states, dynastic kingdoms with several monuments in various degrees of preservation. An ancient city Bagan in Central Myanmar alone can boast of over three thousand old buildings within an area of 16 square miles, let alone other similar centres of culture throughout the country.

It is indeed a wonderland, and the essays compiled in this book described places of historical interest and scenic beauty in the Tourist column of a magazine Myanmar Perspectives which is issued in monthly electronic media as well as in quarterly printed media.

The author of these essays, Dr. Thaw Kaung, is a librarian by profession and a graduate in English literature. His wide reading and travelling at home and abroad has given him the inspiration to write. Being an old colleague of us, as he is a member of the Myanmar Historical Commission and a member of the Editorial Board of the above-mentioned magazine, he is always with us whenever we take yearly trips to the nooks and corners of the country to gather information and gain knowledge and experience. Reading his essays one finds in them an attractive easy style and one feels being carried away on an armchair travel to the places he vividly describes and savours a foretaste of them before one actually visits them.

Dr. Khin Maung Nyunt

Former The Chief Editor

Myanmar Perspectives

Ret: Director-General of Archaeology

And at present Part-time Member,

Myanmar Historical Commission

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A TIME TO VISIT MYANMAR

Now that the darks monsoon clouds of the last four months from June to September are all gone, the pleasantest season for visiting Myanmar is here. Especially from November to February the weather is at its best in our country; the rains are over, the temperatures are cool, the sky is a clear bright blue and this is the best time to travel.

There is a large range of places to visit, from the high snow-capped mountains of the Kachin State to the beautiful unspoilt, sandy beaches of the Rakkhine (Arakan) and Taninthayi (Tenasserim) coasts in the south. There is a range of scenery from the tropical forests to the cool temperate region as Myanmar lies between latitudes 09:32'N and 28:7'N. The main tourist areas are in central Myanmar where you can visit the ancient historical sites of Bagan (11th to 13th century), Innwa (Ava), Sagaing, Amarapura and Mandalay (14th to 19th century). If you are interested in natural scenic beauty you should go to the Inle Lake, visit Taunggyi the capital of the Shan State and also the ancient caves of Pindaya nearby in the region.

Historical Sites

The Pyu people established the earliest civilization in Myanmar. From about the 1st century AD to the 5th at Beikthano (Vishnu City) and also at Thayekhittaya (Srikhetra) near Pyay (Prome) from about the 5th to 9th centuries. In Srikhetra the remains of the massive walls, the round stupas and some hollow Buddhist temples can still be seen. There is also a site museum where the huge burial urns, terracotta plaques and other artifacts of Pyu civilization can be studied.

The Mon people also left Buddhist religious edifices of their civilization, which flourished in lower Myanmar from about the 10th to the 11th centuries. You can visit Bago (Pegu) which is only one and a half hours' drive from Yangon. It was once the capital of the Mons and Myanmars for several centuries. Bago was known as Hanthawadi (Hamsavati) and it was the renowned capital of the famous Myanmar King Bayinnaung who in the mid-16th century extended the Myanmar Kingdom to what is now Chiang Mai and parts of Northern Thailand and Laos. King Bayinnaung's palace Kanbawza Thadi is being reconstructed and visitors can see the regal splendour of what was once the centre of the largest empire in mainland Southeast Asia.

Bagan (Pagan) is unique in the world; an historic city whose Buddhist pagodas, temples and monasteries can still be seen today testifying to the artistic and architectural achievements of the Myanmar people.

A newly built museum displays the wonders of Bagan, the lovely fresco paintings, statues and images and various types of ancient craft: ceramic wares, gold, silver, bronze images and sculptures.

There are now many world class hotels and smaller inns and guest houses in Bagan and the town of Nyaung Oo nearby, where the airport is located. Air Mandalay and Yangon Airways, which are private, have daily flights; so also the government Myanmar Airways.

In recent years the railway line has been extended to Bagan and you can now go by train from either Yangon or Mandalay.

A pleasant, relaxing way to reach Bagan is by steamer, going down stream on the Ayeyawaddy from Mandalay, a daytrip which is filled with lovely views all along the way, where you can see typical Myanmar villages and towns on the banks of the great river which is the lifeline of Myanmar people.

In Bagan itself you should visit the great pagodas like the Shwezigon, the Ananda and Thatpyinnyu as well as some of the smaller gu phaya (the hollow temples) like the Gubyaukgyi, Manuha, Nan Phaya at Myinkaba, and also the lovely Abeyadana named after a beloved and beautiful queen of King Kyansittha.

The Royal Library, Pitaka Taik, is near the Shwegugyi pagoda; this was the place, which housed the earliest Buddhist scriptures, the Tipitaka taken from the Mon country of Thaton by King Anawrahta in A.D.1057.

Apart from the Buddhist temples you can also visit some of the villages around Bagan to see the local people making handicrafts. The best lacquerware is made in this area and you can buy lovely bowls, small tables, boxes and so on at cheap prices.

Professor Tun Aung Chain in Glimpses of Glorious Bagan has written of the wonder and the glory of Bagan which was also called Arimaddanapu, the City which Crushes its Enemies. He writes, Time has been a relentraless enemy, but linger a while among these monuments... linger, and dimly at first, then with increasing clarity comes a realization of the glory that was Bagan.

The past decade has seen the most extensive renovation and restoration works at Bagan than ever before; many pagodas rebuilt, roads widened and made ready to receive visitors from far and wide.

You should include Mandalay, the last Royal Capital of Myanmar, in your itinerary. It is only about 20 minutes by plane from Bagan.

With Mandalay as the centre you can spend a few days exploring this picturesque area. Visit Amarapura on the shores of the large, placid Lake Taungthaman. It was the capital city immediately before Mandalay. Amarapura, the Immortal, is the place of the traditional weavers in silk and cotton. You can see the local hand-looms and buy at reasonable prices lovely silk material with traditional Myanmar patterns and designs. If there is time you should walk across the almost mile-long U Pein wooden bridge to visit the Kyauktawgyi pagoda with colourful murals of scenes from the Myanmar kings' time. You can also go up by road to the Sagaing Hills.

From Mandalay also you can go on a day trip to Innwa (Ava), crossing the Myitnge River by boat ferry. At one time Myanmar was known in the west as the Kingdom of Ava, and powerful Myanmar Kings made it their capital four times between A.D.1364 and 1841. You should visit the brick monastery called Maha Aung Mye Bonzan, built by Queen Me Nu in A.D.1818, and climb up the Nanmyin watch tower to get a birds' eye view of the ancient site.

In Mandalay you can visit the newly reconstructed palace of Kings Mindon and Thibaw. You should go up by car to the top of Mandalay Hill to see the sunset. There is also the famous Maha Muni (Rakkhine) Buddha image housed in an interesting temple.

Another ancient historical site which is now open to tourists is in the Rakkhine (Arakan) State. According to the inscriptions there was a Hindunised dynasty ruling at Waythali (Vaisali) as early as the 2nd century B.C. The Rakkhine people established their towns from the middle of the 10th century, contemporary to the Bagan Period in central Myanmar. Powerful Rakkhine kings founded Mrauk-U (Myohaung) in A.D.1443 and it was the capital until 1785. This is a very interesting site and you can go there now flying by plane to Sittway, the present capital of Rakkhine State, and from there travelling by boat up the lovely Kaladan River. At Mrauk-U you can still see the massive fortress-like Buddhist edifices; pagodas, ordination hall, library, monastery and so on. There is also a site museum where visitors can study the early Rakkhine civilization.

Picturesque Places

There are many places of scenic beauty in Myanmar which are especially beautiful after the monsoon rains because the trees and plants are all clothed in fine greenery.

Inle Lake, the 70 miles of tranquil, clear waters on the Shan Plateau, has often been described as outrageously picturesque. The weather is always cool and pleasant. If you travel across the lake's clear waters on a fast boat fitted with outboard motors, you can enjoy the scenery of the surrounding forest-clad hills, the lake and its shores dotted with Intha villages where you can see silk-weaving and other traditional crafts. The Inthas are the only people in the world who row their long boats with their legs while standing upright, with the paddle hooked on one foot.

There is a much larger lake in the Kachin State further north, which is now open to tourists. It is called Indawgyi, or the Big Royal Lake. You can travel there by car from either Myitkyina (after flying there) or by train to Hopin and hiring a taxi for the 22-mile journey on rough roads. This place still retains it virgin beauty, and you can see the wild geese and other waterfowl and imbibe the majestic grandeur of nature, admire the natural beauty of the cool, clear waters surrounded by hills in an environment unspoilt by human settlements.

From Inle Lake you can travel to other parts of the Shan State; Taunggyi the principal town, the town of Kyaing Ton (Keng Tung) over 700 years old and right up to the Golden Triangle region.

If you prefer hill resorts, there are two scenic towns to visit: Pyin-Oo-Lwin (Maymyo) near Mandalay and Thandaung near Toungoo. The scenery, especially in spring, is beautiful with a lot of flowers, both wild and cultivated, coffee and tea plantations and mulberry for silkworm rearing.

Pyin-Oo-Lwin has the best public botanical garden in Myanmar where you can see many species of trees and other plants as well as birds. There are also waterfalls and interesting caves to explore in the area.

Seaside Resorts

Myanmar has a long coastline of 1,385 miles from the Naaf River bordering Bangaladesh in the northwest to Kawthaung across the Pachan River bordering Thailand in the south.

The seaside resorts are located on the Rakkhine coast on the shores of the Bay of Bengal and in Taninthayi (Tenasserim) coast of the Andaman Sea. They all face westwards on the Indian Ocean and lovely sunsets can be seen every evening.

The most popular seaside place is Ngapali near Thandwe or Sandoway. The beautiful white, sandy beach-fringed bays are supposed to be reminiscent of Naples. There is a clean and comfortable place to stay at the Strand Ngapali Beach Hotel, which consists of a number of bungalows facing the beach with spacious verandas where you can sit out to enjoy the cool sea breezes. The food is good not only in the government-run hotel but also in little local restaurants and cafes, especially the fresh seafood.

New beach resorts have been developed in recent years on the Rakkhine coast at Chaungtha, Ngwe Hsaung and Kanthayar near Gwa. All three can be reached by car from Yangon in about seven or eight hours' drive, though some parts of the road are still being upgraded.

Kan Tha Ya, 17 miles north of Gwa, the newest resort, is filled with pristine natural scenic beauty. In the tall casuarina trees which are in the hotel compound you can even see wild flocks of parrots.

A visit to Chaung Tha can be combined with a lookaround Pathein (Bassein), a fast developing delta town.

A Time to Visit Myanmar

With the opening up of the country from 1989, Myanmar is welcoming all types of visitors, from businessmen to tourists and backpackers.

With peace returning to the country for the first time during her fifty years of Independence, places formerly not safe for travel are all being opened up to welcome various travellers. Peace agreements have been signed with 19 armed groups and only one main separatist group remains from returning to the legal fold.

Roads, railways, bridges and airports are being built, upgraded and enlarged as never before in our history, making it much easier to travel around in the country.

Hotels, inns, guest houses, restaurants and cafes are also being opened all over the country on an unprecedented scale, bringing modern amenities to travellers.

But the country remains unspoilt, keeping her national identity, upholding her cultural heritage and protecting the environment. Ancient palaces and pagodas are being renovated and rebuilt. Traditional music and dances are encouraged and traditional crafts in wood, silver, gold, brass, ivory and lacquer are being retained and revitalized.

If you were to ask me when you should visit Myanmar, I would say now is the time, before too much development and industrialization make the country so like other urbanized nations that there is nothing new to explore and appreciate.

At present we still retain our uniqueness. The people especially are courteous and friendly and warmly welcome visitors from all over the world.

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BEIKTHANO, VISHNU CITY: AN ANCIENT PYU CENTRE

Beikthano is the Myanmar word for Vishnu, the Hindu God who manifests himself in a chain of divine incarnations or avatars (i.e. descents into temporal order), the two chief incarnations being Rama, the good king whose deeds are recorded in the Ramayana, and Krishna.

Although this ancient site is called Beikthano Myo or Vishnu City, it is not an Indian or Hindu site, but an early Buddhist centre built by the Pyu people of Myanmar. The Pyus were a civilized nation from the early years of the Christian era and have left behind many traces of their predominantly Buddhist culture. Throughout the central plains of the Ayeyawaddy and parts of the Sittaung valley, the Pyus established towns and cities, the principal ones being Thayekhittaya (Srikhetra) near Pyay (Prome), Beikthano and Halin (near Shwebo) in the north.

Of these three principal Pyu sites Beikthano is probably one of the earliest as it flourished from about the first to