Page 148 - The Rough Guide to Myanmar (Burma)

146 SoutheaStern MyanMar Bago
MOE YUN GYI WILDLIFE SANCTUARY
a protected lake and wetland, the Moe Yun Gyi Wildlife Sanctuary ($1) is about a
45-minute drive north of central Bago. Its position on north–south migratory routes means
that, between around october and March, it attracts masses of overwintering waders and
waterbirds escaping the icy Siberian winter. as a result, it’s regarded as one of the top birding
sites in Myanmar. around 125 species have been recorded here, including sarus cranes and
swamp hens, masses of herons, egrets, darters and cormorants, as well as a variety of gulls.
Birdwatching boat trips ($20–30 per hour for one or two people) can be organized from the
low-key Moe Yun Gyi Resort (T052 70113, Wfacebook.com/moeyungyiresort), which overlooks
the lake and is just north of the village of Pyinbongyi. The resort also has quite overpriced
accommodation ($90) in houseboats on the fringes of the lake, and there’s a café, restaurant
and karaoke bar.

enlightenment. The statue was abandoned after King Alaungpaya sacked Bago in
3 1757, and lay forgotten in the jungle until British railway contractors rediscovered
it 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’s easy to overlook this dilapidated monastery on your way to the other sights west
of town, but Maha Kalyani Sima is the site of Myanmar’s first ordination hall. Built
in 1476 by King Dhammazedi, the hall commemorated the return of 22 monks he
had sent to Sri Lanka, the orthodox home of Theravada Buddhism, in the hope of
reinvigorating the country’s sangha (monastic 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 pagoda 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, Bayinnaung regally dismissed the tooth’s sceptics and today
it is a venerated relic in Sagaing’s Kaunghmudaw Paya (see p.306).

Kyaik Pun
• Kyaik Pun Rd • Daily 8am–dusk • Entry fee covered by the Bago Archeological Zone 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 predecessors, all shown at the moment of their enlightenment, in

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