Page 147 - The Rough Guide to Myanmar (Burma)

Bago SoutheaStern MyanMar 145
BAGO ARCHEOLOGICAL ZONE TICKET
Entrance to the Shwemawdaw Pagoda, Kanbawzathadi Palace, Shwethalyaung Reclining Buddha
and Kyaik Pun is covered by the Bago Archeological Zone ticket, which costs K10,000 and is
valid for a week from purchase. While you can see all these sights from the street, you won’t be
able to get up close without stumping up the cash – and it’s particularly worthwhile at
Shwemawdaw Pagoda. Tickets can be purchased at any of the sights covered here.

Kanbawzathadi Palace
• Myintawtar Rd, 400m south of Shwemawdaw • Daily 9.30am–4pm • Entry covered by the
Bago Archeological Zone 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. The palace lay in ruins for four centuries, until it was excavated and
restored in the mid-1990s under General Khin Nyunt’s sponsorship.
Today, the poorly maintained concrete throne halls are photogenic enough from 3
a distance, but give little sense of the original scale of the palace buildings. More
interesting are the jagged remains of the original teakwood columns, sent to
Bayinnaung from around the country, and a few artefacts discovered during the
excavation that are housed in a small archeological museum on the same site.

Mwei Paya
• Off Shwetaungyoe Rd, 1.5km south of Hintha Gon Paya • Daily during daylight hours • Free
One of Bago’s less orthodox religious sites, Mwei Paya, also known as the Snake
Monastery, is home to a venerable Burmese python. Estimated to be an incredible
120 years old, the 5m-long, tree-trunk-thick 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 funded the rapid expansion
of the monastery, which also hosts exciting nat ceremonies on full moon days.
Some 300m to the north of the monastery is the hilltop Shwe Taung Yoe Pagoda,
or Sunset Pagoda, which is 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 (see p.376), and today around five hundred remain.
The monastery is best known for its 11am lunchtimes, where busloads of Thai tourists
descend to give packets of instant noodles as alms to a long line of straight-faced
monks. The whole spectacle of watching the monks filing past and then eating their
lunch is rather surreal.

Shwethalyaung Reclining Buddha
• Mahazedi Pagoda Rd • Daily 5am–dusk • Entry fee covered by the Bago Archeological Zone ticket; camera
fee K300
The tenth-century Shwethalyaung Reclining Buddha lies 2km west of the town
centre. 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 an ornate pillow on the eve of his

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