A Handy Myanmar Temple Hopping Cheat Sheet
For visitors not born to Myanmar's Buddhism-infused culture, the country's temples can inspire awe and confusion in equal measure. Why all the gold? What's with the Buddha statues? Wait, there's more than one Buddha?
While it'll take years to even cover the basics of Buddhism and Myanma culture in any reasonable way, we hope the briefing below will shed some light on the arcane logic that informs why Myanmar's temples are built the way they are.
At best, you'll gain some insight into the fervently-held Buddhist faith of Myanmar's people. At worst, you could pick up a few facts you can quote to impress attractive fellow backpackers of the opposite sex!
The press materials call Bagan "the land of ten thousand temples". Shwedagon Pagoda is commonly also described as a "golden temple". But the Myanma do not use the word "temple" the way Westerners do. A "temple" is where one worships, but devout Buddhists do not "worship" at a temple, as Buddha is not a God!
To get away from the word "temple" with all its baggage, let's use the words that the Myanma use instead. You'll find two kinds of Buddhist "temple" in Myanmar, the paya or stupa (read About.com's archaeology expert explain a Buddhist stupa) and the ku or a hollow building. Instead of a place for worship, both paya and ku are places for reflection on the Buddha's teachings and example.
A paya is a bulbous or conical structure that rises up from a central platform. Paya generally contain a relic chamber housing a legendary item from one of the past Buddhas (commonly a hair, a fingernail, or a personal accessory). The paya is solid, and visitors cannot enter within. In Bagan, the Bue Paya is a good example.
A ku, on the other hand, is a structure with one or more entrances to an interior chamber, usually containing a likeness of the Buddha. Before the onset of tourists, ku were places for monks or other ascetics to meditate or study in. The Ananda temple in Bagan is one such ku.
An aside: the Buddha may not be a God, but he is definitely not to be taken lightly when in Myanmar. Read this article: Traveling in Myanmar? Respect the Buddha... or Else.
The gold coating most Buddhist temples in Myanmar is the real thing. The Myanma believe gold represents purity and nobility, an appropriate metal to represent their Buddhist cultural aspiration towards Nirvana.
Gold covers Myanmar's holiest sites. In Yangon, 60 tons of gold plates make up Shwedagon Pagoda's outer skin; the Kyaiktiyo rock has been transformed into a giant gold boulder through the assiduous application of gold leaf over the ages; and many of Bagan's most sacred paya gleam golden in the sunlight, most notably Shwezigon, Lawka Nanda and Bue Paya.
Devout Buddhists make merit by adding a tiny bit of gold leaf to a statue of the Buddha; you can do this yourself at Shwedagon (yours truly pictured here) and even in far-flung areas like Pindaya Cave. Gold leaf is still manufactured for this purpose in a district of Mandalay where gold-beating artisans pound gold wire into leaf. The resulting gold leaf is a delicate tissue only three microns thick; devotees transfer it from backing paper directly onto the statue.
Look at the tops of many paya in Myanmar and you'll see a golden ornament called a hti (Myanma for "umbrella"). The hti at Shwedagon is the most famous example, not to mention the most expensive; the military government that installed it in 1999 hung the hti with hundreds of bells and almost 80,000 pieces of jewelry donated by devotees.
The top of the hti is covered in over 4,300 diamonds; a separate windvane attachment sports over 2,500 diamonds and other precious stones. Sitting on top of the whole assembly is a 76-carat diamond. As it is exposed to the elements, the hti is easily damaged, requiring repairs every ten years or so, and a complete replacement every few hundred years. (The previous hti topping Shwedagon dates back to the 19th century, and can still be seen in a corner off the side of the pagoda.)
Some larger Buddhist structures have not one, but four giant Buddha statues facing the cardinal directions. These depict Gautama Buddha (the founder of Buddhism) along with three other Buddhas who preceded him.
Following Theravada Buddhist belief, the Myanma believe that four Buddhas came to enlightenment within this kalpa (epoch), with a fifth coming in the future. (Read this list of Buddhas from About.com's Buddhism expert.)
Smaller temples tend to be devoted to one Buddha, mainly Gautama Buddha, represented as a single statue. Larger temples allow devotion to four Buddhas, like the Sula Manni temple in Bagan pictured here. The exception is the Dhammayazika stupa, a five-sided paya that features alcoves for the four past and single future Buddha.
Many Buddhist ku (hollow temples) feature animals in their artwork, but their presence is hardly ornamental. Many of these animals represent the closest thing that Buddhist literature has to parables: the Buddha's Jataka Tales. These 547 stories were originally found in the Sutta-Pitaka of the Pali Canon, a gathering of scriptures that partially form the basis for Theravada Buddhist thought.
"They are presented [in the Pali Canon] as the record of the Buddha's past lives," explains About.com's Buddhism expert Barbara O'Brien. "Through the centuries these stories have been much more than fairy tales. They were, and are, taken very seriously for their moral and spiritual teachings. Like all great myths, the stories are as much about ourselves as they are about the Buddha."
Like most artwork in Buddhist temples, the illustrations of the Jataka Tales may serve as an aid to meditation. With 547 Jataka Tales to cover and not a lot of real estate, temple artisans tended to devote a single panel to each tale - the story of the four harmonious friends, for example, gets one panel in Lay Met Hna (pictured here).
The Buddha is not God, but it's easy to understand why Westerners misinterpret him as such; in every Myanmar paya and ku you'll find an endless number of images and symbols that reference the Gautama Buddha's life, teachings and death. They exist not to deify the Buddha, but to remind the viewer that the Buddha was human, too.
Some of the most common images include:
Buddha's birth.The Buddha was born in a flowering orchard, just as his mother - Queen Maya - reached out to touch the blossoms. Often pictured alongside Queen Maya is her sister (and later stepmother of the young Gautama) Pajapati, holding the Queen for support.
Buddha's teachings. Highlights from the Buddha's life and path to enlightenment often grace temples in Myanmar. Two temples in Bagan retell these highlights in detail: the Shwezigon paya, where a sculptural tableau stands showing Buddha witnessing the four sights for the first time; the Ananda temple, on the other hand, revisits the Buddha's entire life story in a series of gilded stone relief sculptures (pictured here).
Buddha's death. The reclining Buddha depicts the Gautama Buddha dying after eating a tainted meal. Several reclining Buddha images can be found throughout Bagan, but the biggest in town can be found at the Manuha temple, a serene sculpture that checks all the boxes: head pointing north, body facing west (just like the Buddha himself at the end of his life), and feet positioned side by side.
While it'll take years to even cover the basics of Buddhism and Myanma culture in any reasonable way, we hope the briefing below will shed some light on the arcane logic that informs why Myanmar's temples are built the way they are.
At best, you'll gain some insight into the fervently-held Buddhist faith of Myanmar's people. At worst, you could pick up a few facts you can quote to impress attractive fellow backpackers of the opposite sex!
Two kinds of "temple".
The press materials call Bagan "the land of ten thousand temples". Shwedagon Pagoda is commonly also described as a "golden temple". But the Myanma do not use the word "temple" the way Westerners do. A "temple" is where one worships, but devout Buddhists do not "worship" at a temple, as Buddha is not a God!
To get away from the word "temple" with all its baggage, let's use the words that the Myanma use instead. You'll find two kinds of Buddhist "temple" in Myanmar, the paya or stupa (read About.com's archaeology expert explain a Buddhist stupa) and the ku or a hollow building. Instead of a place for worship, both paya and ku are places for reflection on the Buddha's teachings and example.
A paya is a bulbous or conical structure that rises up from a central platform. Paya generally contain a relic chamber housing a legendary item from one of the past Buddhas (commonly a hair, a fingernail, or a personal accessory). The paya is solid, and visitors cannot enter within. In Bagan, the Bue Paya is a good example.
A ku, on the other hand, is a structure with one or more entrances to an interior chamber, usually containing a likeness of the Buddha. Before the onset of tourists, ku were places for monks or other ascetics to meditate or study in. The Ananda temple in Bagan is one such ku.
An aside: the Buddha may not be a God, but he is definitely not to be taken lightly when in Myanmar. Read this article: Traveling in Myanmar? Respect the Buddha... or Else.
More real gold than Fort Knox.
The gold coating most Buddhist temples in Myanmar is the real thing. The Myanma believe gold represents purity and nobility, an appropriate metal to represent their Buddhist cultural aspiration towards Nirvana.
Gold covers Myanmar's holiest sites. In Yangon, 60 tons of gold plates make up Shwedagon Pagoda's outer skin; the Kyaiktiyo rock has been transformed into a giant gold boulder through the assiduous application of gold leaf over the ages; and many of Bagan's most sacred paya gleam golden in the sunlight, most notably Shwezigon, Lawka Nanda and Bue Paya.
Devout Buddhists make merit by adding a tiny bit of gold leaf to a statue of the Buddha; you can do this yourself at Shwedagon (yours truly pictured here) and even in far-flung areas like Pindaya Cave. Gold leaf is still manufactured for this purpose in a district of Mandalay where gold-beating artisans pound gold wire into leaf. The resulting gold leaf is a delicate tissue only three microns thick; devotees transfer it from backing paper directly onto the statue.
The "hti", or umbrella, atop the pagoda.
Look at the tops of many paya in Myanmar and you'll see a golden ornament called a hti (Myanma for "umbrella"). The hti at Shwedagon is the most famous example, not to mention the most expensive; the military government that installed it in 1999 hung the hti with hundreds of bells and almost 80,000 pieces of jewelry donated by devotees.
The top of the hti is covered in over 4,300 diamonds; a separate windvane attachment sports over 2,500 diamonds and other precious stones. Sitting on top of the whole assembly is a 76-carat diamond. As it is exposed to the elements, the hti is easily damaged, requiring repairs every ten years or so, and a complete replacement every few hundred years. (The previous hti topping Shwedagon dates back to the 19th century, and can still be seen in a corner off the side of the pagoda.)
Not one, but four Buddhas.
Some larger Buddhist structures have not one, but four giant Buddha statues facing the cardinal directions. These depict Gautama Buddha (the founder of Buddhism) along with three other Buddhas who preceded him.
Following Theravada Buddhist belief, the Myanma believe that four Buddhas came to enlightenment within this kalpa (epoch), with a fifth coming in the future. (Read this list of Buddhas from About.com's Buddhism expert.)
Smaller temples tend to be devoted to one Buddha, mainly Gautama Buddha, represented as a single statue. Larger temples allow devotion to four Buddhas, like the Sula Manni temple in Bagan pictured here. The exception is the Dhammayazika stupa, a five-sided paya that features alcoves for the four past and single future Buddha.
Animal pictures tell stories of the Buddha's past lives.
Many Buddhist ku (hollow temples) feature animals in their artwork, but their presence is hardly ornamental. Many of these animals represent the closest thing that Buddhist literature has to parables: the Buddha's Jataka Tales. These 547 stories were originally found in the Sutta-Pitaka of the Pali Canon, a gathering of scriptures that partially form the basis for Theravada Buddhist thought.
"They are presented [in the Pali Canon] as the record of the Buddha's past lives," explains About.com's Buddhism expert Barbara O'Brien. "Through the centuries these stories have been much more than fairy tales. They were, and are, taken very seriously for their moral and spiritual teachings. Like all great myths, the stories are as much about ourselves as they are about the Buddha."
Like most artwork in Buddhist temples, the illustrations of the Jataka Tales may serve as an aid to meditation. With 547 Jataka Tales to cover and not a lot of real estate, temple artisans tended to devote a single panel to each tale - the story of the four harmonious friends, for example, gets one panel in Lay Met Hna (pictured here).
The Buddha's life story.
The Buddha is not God, but it's easy to understand why Westerners misinterpret him as such; in every Myanmar paya and ku you'll find an endless number of images and symbols that reference the Gautama Buddha's life, teachings and death. They exist not to deify the Buddha, but to remind the viewer that the Buddha was human, too.
Some of the most common images include:
Buddha's birth.The Buddha was born in a flowering orchard, just as his mother - Queen Maya - reached out to touch the blossoms. Often pictured alongside Queen Maya is her sister (and later stepmother of the young Gautama) Pajapati, holding the Queen for support.
Buddha's teachings. Highlights from the Buddha's life and path to enlightenment often grace temples in Myanmar. Two temples in Bagan retell these highlights in detail: the Shwezigon paya, where a sculptural tableau stands showing Buddha witnessing the four sights for the first time; the Ananda temple, on the other hand, revisits the Buddha's entire life story in a series of gilded stone relief sculptures (pictured here).
Buddha's death. The reclining Buddha depicts the Gautama Buddha dying after eating a tainted meal. Several reclining Buddha images can be found throughout Bagan, but the biggest in town can be found at the Manuha temple, a serene sculpture that checks all the boxes: head pointing north, body facing west (just like the Buddha himself at the end of his life), and feet positioned side by side.
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