Page 287 - The Rough Guide to Myanmar (Burma)

MANDALAY PALACE MANDALAY AND AROUND 285
dramatically to life during Mandalay celebrations of the countrywide Thadingyut
festival in October (see box, p.42).

Kuthodaw Pagoda
• Off 12th St • Daily 6am–9pm • Covered by the Mandalay Combination Ticket (see box, p.286)
Southeast of Mandalay Hill, the Kuthodaw Pagoda is home to a remarkable series of
engraved marble slabs which, along with those at the nearby Sandamuni Pagoda
(see below), are collectively referred to as “the world’s biggest book”. Commissioned
by King Mindon in 1857, the 729 slabs, each housed in its own individual mini-stupa,
are intricately carved with the entire fifteen books of the Tripitaka, the canonical works
of the Buddhist religion. It took more than a decade to complete the work and check
for errors; the creation of the complex is described on yet another slab, bringing the
grand total up to 730. The complex was heavily damaged during British rule, with
bricks from the stupas used for military roads, though rebuilding was swift.

Sandamuni Pagoda 7
• Off 12th St • Daily 6am–9pm • Free
Amazingly, even the inscriptions at the Kuthodaw Pagoda are trumped by nearby
Sandamuni Pagoda, which boasts another 1774 slabs engraved with commentaries on
the Tripitaka, created in 1913. Unlike the concentric formations of Kuthodaw, here
they’re arrayed in an almost military-like formation, with long lines of dazzlingly
whitewashed stupas framed against the tree-covered hump of Mandalay Hill. The pagoda
itself dates back to the rule of King Mindon, who commissioned it in 1874 as a memorial
to his younger half-brother, Crown Prince Kanaung, assassinated during an attempted
palace coup in 1866 and buried here, along with three other princes killed in the
rebellion. The complex is also home to the largest solid-iron Buddha in Myanmar
(although covered in gold), commissioned by King Bodawpaya in 1802 and subsequently
brought here by Mindon from Amarapura – despite weighing an estimated 20 tonnes.
Atumashi Kyaung
• Off 14th St • Daily 9am–5pm • Covered by the Mandalay Combination Ticket (see box, p.286)
The Atumashi Kyaung (“Incomparable Monastery”), built by King Mindon in 1857, was
originally one of the glories of Mandalay: a huge teak monastery containing various
treasures including a large lacquered Buddha with a diamond set in its forehead – although
both Buddha and diamond went missing after the British took the city and the entire
building burned down in 1890. The current structure is a 1990s stone reconstruction of
the original, a flamboyant white-and-gold wedding cake of a building topped with an
unusual stepped-platform roof and with a large but disappointingly bare hall inside.
Shwenandaw Kyaung
• Off 14th St • Daily 9am–5pm • Covered by the Mandalay Combination Ticket (see box, p.286)
An extravagant teak construction under a densely stacked four-tiered roof, the
Shwenandaw Kyaung was originally built within the palace walls as a residence for King
Mindon. The building was converted to a monastery and moved to its current site east
of the palace after Mindon died in it, as this was considered bad luck by his son,
Thibaw; this relocation saved it from burning alongside the palace’s other buildings
during World War II. Inside, elegantly carved Jataka stories decorate the raised main
hall, whose atmospheric interior glows a dim gold.

Mandalay Palace
• Entrance on 66th St • Daily 8am–5pm • Covered by the Mandalay Combination Ticket (see box, p.286)
Hogging a huge square of land at the heart of Mandalay are the grounds of the city’s
erstwhile royal palace, constructed by King Mindon almost immediately after