Page 197 - The Rough Guide to Myanmar (Burma)

Yangon to Bagan Central MyanMar 195
much disappeared, although you can still see the collapsed, earth-covered remains of
the original brick city walls on either side. Just past the gate, outside the walls, is the
narrow Rahanda Cave Pagoda, with a triangular, brick-vaulted roof and eight small,
seated Buddhas looking back towards the city inside the walls.
Continuing southeast around the outside of the walls brings you to the (probably)
fifth-century Bawbawgyi Stupa, the most impressive of Thayekhittaya’s three giant
stupas and one of the oldest Buddhist monuments in the country – and indeed
anywhere else in Southeast Asia. Standing 46m tall with almost sheer sides and a
flattish top, it looks quite unlike any other such structure in Myanmar, although it
bears a passing resemblance to the famous Dhamek Stupa at Sarnath in India, from
where inspiration for this prototypical Burmese stupa may have come.
A couple of minutes further east is the tenth-century Bei Bei Pagoda. Dating from the
twilight years of Sri Ksetra, this diminutive square brick shrine shows clear evidence of
the emerging Bagan style, with characteristic flamed-shaped door pediments and the
remains of a tall stupa. Just south of here is another small brick shrine, the Lay Myet
Hna, its walls held together in a cage of big red girders.
Re-entering the walls and heading north, you’ll reach the small eighth-century East
Zegu Pagoda, with its four entrances (all now bricked up) and heavily moulded brick
doorways and pilasters, although the original roof has now been replaced by a large
concrete daub. One final hop north brings you to the Payahtaung Pagoda, just east
of the museum. Dating from the tenth or eleventh century, this is the largest and finest
of Thayekhittaya’s shrines: a big square brick box, each of its four sides penetrated by
a solitary undersized door. A mini-stupa sits on one corner of the roof next to three 4
superimposed terraces, which look as if they once supported a rooftop stupa-spire.

Shwemyethman Pagoda
• Regular pick-ups run from Pyay to Shwedaung
A popular half-day trip from Pyay (or an easy stop on the journey to or from Yangon)
is to the Shwemyethman Pagoda in the town of Shwedaung, 15km south of Pyay on the
Yangon highway. The temple is famous for its bespectacled Buddha: a huge seated image
wearing a natty pair of round spectacles and bearing a faint but unmistakable
resemblance to John Lennon. One theory holds that the statue was first equipped with
eyewear by King Duttabaung in the fourth century after he went blind – whereupon the
monarch promptly regained his sight. However, as glasses weren’t invented until eight
hundred years later, this seems a rather unlikely story. Another theory is that the glasses
were added to the statue to provoke local interest in the Buddhist faith (although the
statue’s original spectacles were stolen long ago and the image now wears modern
replacements). Whatever its origins, the statue is believed to have the power to cure poor
eyesight and other ocular diseases – a case near the statue is full of glasses discarded by
visitors who claim to have had perfect vision restored during a visit to the temple.
Akauk Taung

A fun and off-beat half-day adventure from Pyay takes you to Akauk Taung (“Tax
Hill”), where generations of tax collectors, when not taxing boats carrying cargo down
the Ayeyarwady River, filled their time carving dozens of Buddha images into the cliff
faces above the sluggish river waters. Most of the carvings were made around the
mid-nineteenth century, but there are a few much newer ones as well – and you have to
wonder at the dexterity needed to create such delicate art on the fragile-looking cliffs.
As interesting as the carvings are, many find the journey there just as much of a
highlight. You have to hire one of the traditional riverboats in Htonbo (for K15,000
per person) and float downstream to the cliffs where the carvings are. The trip takes
about an hour on average, and you can scramble out at one point to make a short,
sharp climb up the slope to a small pagoda, which offers good river views.

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