Page 391 - The Rough Guide to Myanmar (Burma)

Burmese architecture CONTEXTS 389
Burmese architecture

Few countries are as abundantly endowed with religious architecture as
Myanmar, from the thousands of ancient brick temples blanketing the plains
of Bagan through to the huge gilded pagodas rising up above the bustling
modern streets of Yangon, Mandalay, Bago, Pyay, Mawlamyine and pretty
much every other city in the country. By contrast, relatively little secular
architecture survives from the past, excepting the magnificent European-
style colonial streetscapes of Yangon (see box, p.63).

Temple names
Temple names in Myanmar can be confusing. Buddhist temples are generally named
using either the English pagoda or its Burmese equivalent, paya, with the two words
being used more or less interchangeably – the Shwedagon in Yangon, for example, is
widely referred to as both the Shwedagon Pagoda and Shwedagon Paya. In Bagan the
word pahto is also sometimes used, generally when referring to “hollow” temples such
as the Ananda or Sulamani, rather than solid stupas. Bagan’s hollow temples can also
sometimes be identified by the fact that they have the word gu (meaning “cave”) in
their name – the Gubyaukgyi, Alotawpyi-gu-hpaya and Shwegugyi temples, for
example. The Burmese word for stupa is zedi, as in Bagan’s Mingalazedi and elsewhere.

Pagoda architecture
The sheer number and size of Buddhist pagodas in Myanmar owes much to the
Burmese obsession with merit-making – doing good works in this life in order to secure
a favourable rebirth in one’s future reincarnations. The rulers and nobles of Bagan
virtually bankrupted their own kingdom thanks to their obsession with temple-
building, while modern rulers have also left a string of pagodas in their wake, including
Ne Win and Than Shwe, who sought to atone for their lifetimes of greed, repression
and murder by raising (respectively) the Maha Wizaya Pagoda in Yangon and the huge
Uppatasanti Pagoda in Naypyitaw. Such edifices also serve as notable memorials to
their creators, handily combining religious good works and self-glorification in a single
architectural package.
The vast majority of Burmese pagodas remain very much living places of worship
rather than historic monuments. Many date back hundreds of years, although most
have been repeatedly refurbished, remodelled – and sometimes completely rebuilt
– many times over the centuries, making it difficult to get a sense of the antiquity of
the country’s major shrines. Even many of the seemingly ancient-looking temples at
Bagan have actually been reconstructed over the past few decades according to local
aesthetic whim rather than sound archeological principles, which is why UNESCO has
so far refused to inscribe it on the list of global World Heritage Sites. The general sense
of timelessness is also exacerbated by the fact that new pagodas being constructed today
are essentially not that much different in style from those erected a thousand years ago,
tradition rather than innovation being of the essence.
Parts of a pagoda
The typical Buddhist pagoda follows a basic plan that you’ll see repeated all over the
country. The vast majority are arranged around a central stupa; these are usually solid,
although there are a few hollow modern pagodas with shrines inside (notable examples

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