Page 309 - The Rough Guide to Myanmar (Burma)

MINGUN Mandalay and around 307
Mingun
• Entrance to the village costs K5000 with the MInGUn
Sagaing-Mingun Combination Ticket (see box opposite) Hsinbyume
Pagoda
The village of MINGUN would be
largely unknown today were it not for
King Bodawpaya, who in 1790 chose Ayeyarwady River
it as the site of the gigantic Mingun
Pagoda, intended to be the world’s
largest stupa, although all that was
completed by the time of his death, Mingun Buddhist
29 years later, was the bottom Mingun Home for the aged
portion – a stupendous cube of Bell
bricks on top of a huge terrace. Mingun
The village is around 10km northwest Sayadaw
of Mandalay on the opposite side of Memorial
the Ayeyarwady (most visitors arrive 7
by boat from the city), with a trip
here offering a mix of historical Chinthe
attractions, a taste of rural life and an Mingun Pagoda
interesting river excursion all rolled
into one. The vast flocks of tourists
who descend on the place when the
government ferries arrive in the Settaya Pagoda
morning have somewhat dented its N
former sylvan charms, admittedly, but Ticket booth
visit after midday – either by road or Pondaw Pagoda
on the afternoon MRGR ferry (see
p.309) – and you’ll have the place
largely to yourself. Ayeyarwady River
EaTInG
Pondaw Pagoda The Garden Café 1 2
Point
• Daily 24hr • Free Boat
On your right just before you reach 0 200 jetty
the ticket booth and enter the village, metres
look out for the small Pondaw Sagaing (18km)
Pagoda, a scale model of what the Mingun Pagoda was intended to look like when
finished. The model gives a striking sense of how absurdly huge the actual stupa
would have been had it ever been completed, with even the gargantuan base of the
monument (which did get built) dwarfed by the huge stupa (which didn’t) sitting
on top of it.
Settaya Pagoda
• Daily 24hr • Free
Just north of the ticket booth is the Settaya Pagoda, a bright-white cube in quasi Bagan
style, with steps leading down to the river beside it. Inside is a representation of the
Buddha’s footprint, a metre-long indentation decorated with shells on the toes and a
flower on the heel.

Mingun chinthe
Standing opposite the steps up to the Mingun Pagoda is a pair of huge, semi-ruined
chinthe – the mythical creatures, part lion with a hint of dragon, which can be found
symbolically guarding the gates of pagodas across the country. The two here were
constructed on an appropriately grand scale, given the size of the shrine they protect,
and are still impressively huge, despite having lost their heads.

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