golden mrauk oo
TRANSCRIPT
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By Douglas Long
It is nearly impossible to think about the ancient
ruins o Mrauk U without comparing them to
Bagan. Bagan is bigger, grander and more amous, but Mrauk U is
more mysterious and remote, and thereore less crowded. While
Bagan is a location as well as an experience, Mrauk U is both o
these plus a journey, a destination book-ended by 65-kilometre
boat trips away rom Sittwe on the coast o Rakhine State and
back again. Getting there is part o the adventure.
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Founded around 1430, Mrauk U is quite a bit
younger than Bagan, which entered its goldenera around the 11th century AD. Mrauk U was the
last capital o the Rakhine kingdom, preceded
by royal cities such as Dhanyawaddy, Vesali and
Launggret. The latter was ounded in 1251 andserved as the capital until 1406, when it was
invaded by the king o Inwa. For the next 24
years, armies rom central Myanmar, Inwa and
Bago battled nearly constantly or control o the
city, and it traded hands a number o times.
Following the 1406 invasion, the Rakhine King
Minsawmon had been orced to ee to Bengal.In 1429 he attacked Launggret and won it backonce and or all. According to legend, a series
o bad omens prompted him to seek another
site or the capital with the help o astrologers.Historians say the king was simply dissatisfed
with the geographical vulnerability o Launggret,
which sat in the middle o a plain. He is said to
have chosen Mrauk U because o its location ina valley surrounded by deensible mountains.
Mrauk U was the Rakhine capital rom 1430 to
1785, during which time it gained great wealth as
a duty-ree port that attracted large numbers omerchants rom near and ar, including westerncountries such as the Netherlands, Portugal and
According to legend, a series o bad
omens prompted King Minsawmonto seek another site or the capital
with the help o astrologers.
Kothaung Pagoda
Spain. King Minbin (1531-1553) built a large
naval eet with modern cannon to patrol 1600
kilometres o coastal territory. Chronicles romthe period claim the number o ships reached
10,000. In addition to deensive walls that werebuilt to join higher natural points, a network
o moats was dug to supply resh water, and
or transportation and deence. In 1623 the
Rakhine became even more ormidable whenJapanese samurai came to Mrauk U to serve
as royal guards.
Much o this history and more can be digestedat the Rakhine State Cultural Museum in Sittwe.
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While it is possible leave or Mrauk U by boat
shortly ater arriving at the airport, the museum
and other sights around town make it worth
staying or at least one night.
My travel companion and I opted to linger,
checking out the Jama Mosque, Lokananda
Paya and the markets flled with products
imported rom neighbouring Bangladesh. In late
aternoon we hired a trishaw to take us to the
Point, an arrow o land where the Kaladan River
ows into the Bay o Bengal. Along the way, wepassed groups o locals strumming guitars by
the road, playing ootball and repairing boats
The remote mysteries o Mrauk U
Rakhine State Cultural Museum in Sittwe
The winding hallways are lined with Buddha
fgures and lead to the cave-like central
chamber with the main Buddha image.
on the tidal ats, and pulling fshing nets in
rom the shallows. We reached the Point just intime to enjoy a drink while watching the sunset.
Waves crashed on the rocks where black crabsscuttled. When darkness ell, red lights came
on in the fshing boats o the coast. When the
beauty o the sea became too much to bear,
we walked back down the road to Gisspanadi
Restaurant, deservedly amous or its resh
seaood dishes.
Our boat or Mrauk U let at 7:15am the nextmorning. Like the locals, we huddled in our sling
chairs against the chilly December morning asthe erry pulled away rom the dock and into
the wide river. Relative warmth came pretty
quickly though, and ater a couple hours I was
able to snap photos without my hands shakingtoo badly rom the cold. The river narrowed and
twisted as we passed a series o picturesque
towns Po Knarr Kyaun (overlooked by a hilltop
pagoda), Set Tharr (a small town with a long
pier) and Pya Te (a big town with a short pier)
on our way to Mrauk U.
We reached our destination just past 1:00pm,
giving us time to explore a bit beore dark. The
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The remote mysteries o Mrauk U
Sunset at the Point in Sittwe
distances in Mrauk U are not as great as those
in Bagan, so we took o on oot, heading northto the pagodas closest to our hotel.
Our frst encounter was with Shittaung Pagoda(Shrine o 80,000 Images), named or the number
o religious images placed inside by its builder,King Minbin. The central stupa, surrounded bynearly 30 smaller shrines, has thick walls that
lend a dark, eerie atmosphere to the interior. The
winding hallways are lined with Buddha fgures
and lead to the cave-like central chamber withthe main Buddha image. Also at the shrine is
the three-metre-high Shittaung Pillar, broughtto the site rom Vesali by King Minbin in 1535.
Three sides are inscribed with Sanskrit-language
chronicles o Rakhine history.
Northeast o Shittaung is the octagonal
Andaw Paya, said to contain a Buddha tooth
relic brought by King Minbin rom Sri Lanka.Outside, we could hear monks chanting in a
nearby monastery and children shouting and
playing in the adjacent village.
Ater a stop at the solid-brick Ratanabon Pagoda,
we walked through a small valley on a dirt track
that we shared with villagers carrying wood, aswell as with wandering gangs o goats, cattle
The winding hallways are lined with Buddha
fgures and lead to the cave-like central
chamber with the main Buddha image.
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and dogs. Despite the company, we basked
in the late aternoon serenity o the place aswe wandered past the awkwardly leaning
Laungbyanpauk Paya, with its glazed tiles o
red, yellow, blue and green, and the tiny PitakaTaik, built in 1591 as a repository or the books
o the Buddhist canon.
From the valley oor we scampered up a
hillside to check out Mahabodhi Shwegu and
Ratanasanraway Pagoda beore descending toa smoky village o barking dogs and children
shouting Bye bye! as we approached. On thear side was the 55-metre-high Ratanamanaung
Pagoda, to the east o which was Laykhinpyin
feld, once used as a training ground or Rakhine
soldier archers. With the day and our strength
waning, we bushwhacked to another hilltop
to watch the sun go down. Local women sang,laughed and waved to us rom the bottom o
the hill. The bats that itted across the darkening
sky looking or insects to eat reminded us that
we were hungry too, so we climbed back downand set out in search o dinner.
The next day we opted to rely on our eet once
again, even though we had much greater distancesto travel. There was Laymyetnha Paya, with its
small, circular hallway around a central Buddha,
The remote mysteries o Mrauk U
To the east o Ratanamanaung Pagoda was
Laykhinpyin feld, once used as a training
ground or Rakhine soldier archers.
Thousand o Buddha images line the passageways o Kothaung Pagoda
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The remote mysteries o Mrauk U
Still waters refect the pagodas and sky o Mrauk U.
ollowed by Dukkanthein Paya, whose layout is
based on a creepy spiralling hallway lined with146 Buddha alcoves that allows a smattering osunlight to pass through and illuminate even
the innermost chamber.
We wandered ootpaths through small villagesand past jungle monasteries on our way to gilded
Sakyamanaung Paya, and then ollowed a wider
dirt road or the long trek to Kothaung Pagoda
(Shrine o 90,000 Images), the biggest in MraukU. It was built by King Mintaikkha, son o King
Minbin, in 1553 to outdo his athers Shittaungpagoda by 10,000 images. Some say thats why
it was ound in such a state o disrepair, having
been struck by lighting or the disrespect KingMintaikkha had shown to his ather.
The last stop on our agenda was the old palacearea. Theres not much let except the 3.5-metre-
high sandstone walls, which are impressiveenough. Also on the site is an archaeological
museum displaying arteacts rom the Vesali,
Launggret and Mrauk U periods. But where
the magnifcently lacquered and gilded teak
residence o kings and queens once stood is
now a weed-covered lawn pocked with pits
dug by archaeologists working to uncover the
lost glories o the past.
Ater dark on our last evening beore headingback to Sittwe, we went or a walk outside o
town. Out there, past where the streetlightsended, twinkling stars and ashing freies
competed to be the main source o light. We
could see almost nothing, but we could hear
disembodied voices singing, laughing and
shouting rom a nearby village. Despite the loss
o the ancient palace and other monuments to
the ravages o time, it was easy to imagine thatthe nights would have sounded pretty much
the same hundreds o years ago, when Mrauk
U was at the height o its power.