Page 128 - The Rough Guide to Myanmar (Burma)

126 The DelTa anD wesTern MyanMar Mrauk u and around
Mrauk U has always had a peculiar allure, and nowadays it pulls in a steadily growing
number of foreign visitors, despite the difficulty of reaching the place or the recent
troubles in Rakhine – the town has frequently been off-limits in recent years due to
local unrest. Few who make the effort to get here ever regret it, even though the town
is now increasingly entering the mainstream and losing much of its final-frontier allure
– a new airport and railway line are planned, while there are also rumours that the
government plans to evict inhabitants from their old houses among the temples
2 (as happened in Old Bagan) in order to develop it as a tourist attraction.
Around Mrauk U, interesting day-trips along the Lemro River offer a rare
opportunity to visit Chin villages and see some of the famous last tattooed ladies who
live there, while the slight remains of the former Arakanese capitals of Dhanyawadi
and Waithali can also be seen.

Central Mrauk U
For all its historical significance, the centre of Mrauk U still looks like the archetypal
one-horse Burmese country town, with its busy market, potholed streets, makeshift
shops and rustic cafés lined up along dusty Minbar Gyi Road, which is usually as busy
as Mrauk U ever gets. In complete contrast is the expansive, largely empty swathe of
land just to the east, which formerly housed Mrauk U’s magnificent, but now entirely
vanished, royal palace.
The Palace and Archeological Museum
/ • Palace Daily 24hr • Free • Museum Tues–Sun 9.30am–4.30pm • $5
There’s not much left of the original Palace complex, right in the middle of town, apart
from its impressively long walls arranged in three concentric squares around a trio of
successively rising terraces – the actual palace would have stood on the highest terrace
at the centre, which now provides good views over the site. The original royal residence
is thought to have been commissioned by King Min Saw Mon in around 1430 (some
sources say it wasn’t constructed until the mid-1500s) and rebuilt at least twice
subsequently, providing a home for 49 kings over a period of 350 years – although the
magnificent wooden palace building itself was destroyed when the city was sacked by
the forces of the Konbaung dynasty in 1784.

EXPLORING MRAUK U’S TEMPLES
The two main groups of temples are to the north and east of the centre; most are open
daily 7am–5.30pm (although actual opening and closing times of individual temples are very
flexible and seem to be largely up to the gatekeeper), with entry covered by a single ticket
(k5000). Tourists are stopped as they arrive in town off the ferry or bus and sold the ticket, but
if you slip through they are also issued at the Shittaung Paya (although ticket checks at other
temples were virtually nonexistent at the time of writing).
While Mrauk u is often described as the “new Bagan”, comparisons are somewhat misleading.
aside from the “big three” temples – Shittaung, Htukkanthein and Kothaung – Mrauk u
doesn’t really have Bagan’s landmark monuments and must-see sights, and in some ways
rather than ticking off temples it’s more fun just to cycle or walk at random among the thickly
wooded, stupa-studded hills.
Many visitors are surprised at just how much, and, more to the point, just how
unsympathetically, many of the temples have been restored. The Htukkanthein has an ugly
cement roof and there are numerous examples of Buddha statues with cement ears
amateurishly stuck back on. That said, most visitors do actually prefer Mrauk u to Bagan.
Easily the best introduction to ancient arakan and Mrauk u is Pamela Gutman’s Burma’s Lost
Kingdoms: splendours of Arakan, although it’s difficult to come by. Famous Monuments of Mrauk
U by Myar aung (k5000) is widely available locally, but is mainly gibberish.

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