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| 0686 Bagan Archaeological Area and Monuments |
Posted on 19.06.2013, 14.02.2017
Capital of the Kingdom of Pagan (the first kingdom which unified the regions that would later constitute modern Myanmar) from the 9th to 13th centuries, Bagan is considered by many as equal in attraction to Angkor Wat in Cambodia. During the kingdom's height, over 10,000 Buddhist temples, pagodas and monasteries were constructed here, of which the remains of over 2500 still survive to the present day. Several of these monuments are still higly venerated by the population, and attract numerous pilgrims and devotees from all over the country, particularly at festival times, but also many tourists.
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| 2951 Ananda Temple in Bagan |
The Bagan temples falls into one of two broad categories: the stupa-style solid temples and the gu-style hollow temples. The original Indic design of the stupas (zeidi or zedi in Burmese) was gradually modified first in Pyu city states, and then in Bagan, where they developed a longer, cylindrical form, become the prototypes for later Burmese stupas in terms of symbolism, form and design, building techniques and even materials. In contrast to the stupas, the hollow gu-style temple is a structure used for meditation, devotional worship of the Buddha and other Buddhist rituals.
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