Page 220 - The Rough Guide to Myanmar (Burma)

218 BAGAN AND AROUND BAGAN
5 shikhara-style towers. Fine stucco decoration and glazed Jataka panels can be seen
around the stupa terraces, which are also studded with an unusual number of dragon-
mouthed waterspouts.

Around Minnanthu
The cluster of low-key monuments between the Bagan Viewing Tower and the small
village of MINNANTHU isn’t the most exciting in Bagan, although it’s the quietest area
within the Archeological Zone and you’ll most likely have many of the temples here
largely to yourself. Small examples of late-period architecture predominate, with some
superb murals.
Nandamannya Paya and around
• 1km north of Minnanthu • Daily 8am–6pm (if the temple’s locked, ask at the Payathonzu Paya for someone to let you in)
The modest Nandamannya Paya, built in 1248 during the reign of Kyazwa, is of
interest mainly for its murals – they’re some of Bagan’s most famous. These include
a fine painting of the birth of the Buddha showing Prince Siddhartha emerging from
the hip of his mother, Queen Maya, and a well-known depiction of the Temptation of
Mara, in which scantily clad nymphs attempt vainly to rouse the Buddha from his
meditation (face the shrine’s Buddha statue and the Mara mural is behind you in the
left corner at around waist height, while the birth of the Buddha is on your right, to
the left side of the window).
Behind the Nandamannya look out for the odd little Kyat Kan Kyaung, a modern
monastic building placed in a large hole in the ground in order to minimize outside
distraction.

Thambula Paya
• 200m south of the Nandamannya Paya • Daily 8am–6pm (If the temple’s locked, ask at the Payathonzu Paya for
someone to let you in)
Similar in appearance to the nearby Nandamannya, the pretty little late-style Thambula
Paya (1255) is home to another superb tranche of murals – and for once the airy
interior, with its high ceilings and tall pointed arches, is sufficiently light that you
probably won’t need a torch to see them. A profusion of densely detailed paintings
covers virtually every surface, and includes floral decorations, miniature mosaic-pattern
Buddhas and, in the west portico and elsewhere, several intricately painted inscriptions.
The murals in the north porch are especially fine, and look out too for the unusual
painting of a boat race inside the south porch.
Payathonzu Paya
• 300m south of the Thambula Paya • Daily 8am–6pm
A true curiosity, the unique Payathonzu Paya (“Temple of Three Buddhas”) comprises
three identical small, tower-topped shrines joined together in a line and connected by
a single corridor. The shrines house some of Bagan’s most unusual murals, which are
light enough to see without a torch. Entrance is via the middle shrine; this and the shrine
to your left (the eastern shrine) are richly decorated with unusual paintings showing
a pronounced Mahayana or possibly even Tantric Buddhist influence, with many-armed
figures, embracing couples, strange mythological animals and (in the eastern shrine)
a small picture of a three-headed Brahma. At the opposite end of the temple, the walls
of the western shrine are entirely bare, suggesting that the temple wasn’t finished.
Leimyethna Paya
• 200m south of the Payathonzu Paya • Daily 8am–6pm
Sitting on a platform reached by a rustic stairway roofed in corrugated iron, the
Leimyethna Paya (“Temple of the Four Faces”) is a fine late-period temple, built in 1223