Bago Division Myanmar

Area : 39402.9966 sq-km (15214.129 sq-miles)
Population : 5014000
Capital : Bago
Religion : Buddhism, Christianity, Islam

Myanmar Bago Division is the south of the big central plains. Magway Division and Mandalay Division are to Myanmar Bago north, Kayin State, Mon State and gulf of Mottama are to the east, Myanmar Yangon division is to Myanmar Bago Division's south and Ayeyawaddy, Rakhine State are it's west. The southern part of Myanmar Bago has tropical monsoon climate and northern part has a savannah climate. Myanmar Bago Division has moderate temperature whole year round. The average annual rainfall of Myanmar Bago is 132.36 inches. Pyay and other town have less rain. Evergreen forests grow at the end of the eastern hilly Myanmar Bago region and the southern end of the Myanmar Bago Mountain Range. The cultivation of summer paddy is being extended in addition to the cultivation of monsoon paddy in Myanmar Bago. Other major crops and plants are sugarcane, maize, groundnut, sesamum, sunflower, beans and pulses, cotton, jute, rubber, Myanmar tobacco, tapioca, banana, dhani (Nipa palm) and toddy in Myanmar Bago. Myanmar Bago pagoda and other temples are famous places to visit in Myanmar.

Myanmar Bago Division is an economically strategic region with a network of motor roads and railways. Bago Shwemawdaw Pagoda is one of the most famous reclining Buddha image at Bago in Myanmar. The Kanbawza Thardi Royal Palace of Myanmar Bago Dynasty is not far from Yangon to visit. It has been built as the old Myanmar royal palace of the ancient times of Myanmar.

Myanmar Bago feels like an amusement park of fascinating Myanmar Buddhist religious sites. It's very easy to do a day strip to Bago from Yangon Myanmar, but shuttling from one site to the other makes it difficult to do any of them any justice. It's best to take your time and spend the night in Bago Myanmar. Although there's a lack of quality accommodation there, an early start to visit the Myanmar sites is probably the best idea. Bago is only about 8 km from Yangon, yet is just far enough off the beaten track to avoid many tourists. Bago Myanmar is like a clogged artery because the high way that passes through; buses slow to disgorge their passengers, and motorcycle and trishaw touts competing for your attention at Bago in Myanmar.

This Myanmar reclining Buddha is so big that from looking up from the bottom steps it's impossible to determine exactly what's ahead of you. The golden slap you see is only the torso. Measuring 55 m long and 16 m high and Myanmar Shwethalyaung Pagoda is 9 m longer than the reclining Buddha at Wat Pho in Bangkok, but still 19 m short of the Myanmar Buddha in Dawei. You'll find the Shwethalyaung to the west of the Yangon Bago road, only a little more than 1 km to the Yangon side of Myanmar train station. A sign on the platform in front of the image gives the measurements of each body part the little finger alone extends 3.05m. The Shwethalyaung is reputed to be one of the most lifelike of all Myanmar reclining Buddhas. Myanmar Burmese people say the images represents Myanmar Buddha in a relaxing mode instead of parinibbana (death) since the eyes are wide open and the feet lie slightly splayed rather than parallel. Myanmar Bago Shwethalyaung Buddha is originally built of brick and stucco in 994 by the Mon King Migadepa II, Myanmar Bago pagoda Shwethalyaung was allowed to deteriorate and was then restored several times before the bestruction of Myanmar Bago in 1757. Bago town was so completely ravaged that huge Myanmar Buddha was totally lost and overgrown by jungle. Myanmar Bago Shwethalyaung Buddha was not found until the British era of the 1880s when an Indian contractor, digging in a large earth mound for fill to be used in the construction of Myanmar railway line rediscovered the image. Restoration began in 1881 and the present iron and steel tazaung, a product of a Calcutta engineering company, was completed in 1903. The 1903s saw another flurry of renovation activity, as a mosaic was added to the great pillow on which the Buddha's head rests, and Italian marble was laid along the platform at Bago Myanmar.

Shwemawdaw Paya in Myanmar stands northeast of Myanmar train station. You can't miss this Myanmar stupa, as its height of 114 m dominates Bago town. The Shwemawdaw Myanmar paya is said to be over 1000 years old and was originally build by the Mon King to the height os 23m to enshrine two hairs of Buddha. In 825 Myanmar Shwemawdaw Paya was raised to 25m and then to 27m in 840. In 982 a sacred tooth was added to the collection in 1385 another tooth was added and this Myanmar stupa was rebuilt to a towering 84m. In 1492, the year Columbus sailed the Atlantic, a wind blew over the hti (umbrella like pinnacle) Hti Roe in Burmese and new one was raised. Myanmar King Bodawpaya, in the reconstruction of Myanmar Bago after the ravages of Myanmar king Alaungpaya, rebuilt the stupa to 91m in 1796, but from that point it has had a rather chequered career. A new Hti Roe was added in 1882, but a major earthquake in 1912 brought it down. Shwemawdaw Myanmar stupa was repaired, but in 1917 major quake again brought it down and caused serious damage in Myanmar. Again it was repaired, but in 1930 the biggest earthquake of them all completely leveled Shwemawdaw stupa and for the next years only the huge earth mound of the base remained.

Reconstruction of the Myanmar Shwemawdaw Paya commenced in 1952 and was completed in 1954, when Shwemawdaw paya reaches its present height. The glittering golden top of the stupa reaches 14m higher than Shwedagon in Yangon. At the northeastern corner of the stupa, a huge section of the Hti tipped by the 1917 earthquake has been mounted into the structure of the stupa. It is a sobering reminder of the power of such Myanmar geological disturbances.

Like the Shwedagon pagoda in Yangon, Shwemawdaw Myanmar stupa is reached by a covered walkway lined with stalls some with interesting collections of antique bits and pieces. Along the sides of the walkway a collection of rather faded and dusty paintings illustrates the terrible effects of the 1930 earthquake and shows the subsequent rebuilding of this mighty stupa in Myanmar Bago.

The original site of Hanthawady, which surrounded a former Mon place, was excavated just south of the huge shwemawdaw Paya in Myanmar Bago. Walled in the Mon style, the square city measured 1.8 km along each side and has 20 gates. The palace compound in the centre, known as Kanbawzathadi, housed Myanmar King Bayinnaung from 1553 to 1599 and covered 82 hectares. About 26 hectares of this area have been excavated. The small, well stocked, octagon shaped museum displays Mon, Siamese and Myanmar Bagan style buddhas; clay tobacco pipes; glazed tiles and pots; bronze weights and scales; pieces of the original teak stockade; and weaponry.

Located behind the Myanmar Bago Shwemawdaw pagoda, this shrine has good views over Myanmar Bago town from the roofed platform on the hilltop. According to Myanmar legend, this Myanmar Bago pagoda was the one point rising from the sea when the mythological bird landed here. A stature of the bird, looking rather like the figures on opium weights, tops the hill. This Myanmar stupa was built by U Khanti, the Burmese hermit monk who was also the architect of Myanmar Mandalay Hill. You can walk to it by taking the steps down the other side of the Shwemawdaw Paya from the main entrance.

There's something uncannily impressive about these four seated Myanmar Buddhas with regal gazes that seem to see all, about 1.5 km out of bago just off the Yangon road. Built in 1476 by Myanmar King Dhammazedi, it consists of four 30 m high sitting Myanmar Buddhas placed back to back around a huge, square pillar. According to Myanmar legend, four Mon sisters were connected with the construction of the Myanmar buddhas; it was said that if any of them should marry, one of the Myanmar buddhas would collapse. One of the four buddhas disintegrated in the 1930 earthquake, leaving only a brick outline. It has since been fully restored in Myanmar.

This Sacred hall of ordination was originally constructed in 1476 by Myanmar King Dhammazedi, the famous alchemist Myanmar king and son of Myanmar Queen Shinsawpu. It stands beside the road enroute from the triain station to the shwethalyaung in Myanmar Bago. Maha Kalyani Sima was the first of 397 similar sima, Myanmar king Dhammazedi built around Myanmar country, copying plans brought back from Sri Lanka. Philip De Brito, the renegade Portuguese adventurer, burnt it down in 1599 during his period of plunder, and during the sacking of Bago in 1757 it was destroyed once again. Subsenquently, it suffered from fires or quakes on the number of occasions before being leveled by the disastrous 1954 in Myanmar Bago. Next to the hall are 10 large tabltes with inscriptions in Pali and Mon. the hall itself features rows of tented arches around the outside, with an impressive separate cloister and marble floors in side. Niches along the inside upper walls contain 28 standing Myanmar Buddha images.

A little beyond Myanmar Mahazedi, this Myanmar Shwegugale zedi has dark go around the circumference of the cylindrical superstructure. The monument dates to 1494 and the reign of Myanmar king Byinnya Yan. Inside are 64 seated Myanmar Buddha figures. From here you can take a short cut back to the corner in the road, just before the shwethalyaung Myanmar Bago pagoda.

In Myanmar, Pyay is quiet, stupa-studded Myanmar Ayeyarwaddy river side town, 294km north of Yangon Myanmar. Pyay is at the cross roads for bumpy bus rides west to Ngapali Beach in Myanmar, and less bumpy bus rides north to Bagan main Myanmar tourist place. Over the years it's practically seen more archaeologists than travelers, due to the much-excavated ancient Pyu capital of Myanmar Thayekhittaya, 8km east. But Pyay can fill a good day, with the ruins, hilltop Myanmar pagodas the famous, lt at night, and a spectacled Buddha south town. Locals alternate the town's pronunciation between "pyay" and "pyi". The Brits, apparently, couldn't deal with the confusion so called it Prome in Myanmar.

The current town site became an important trading centre during the Bagan era. The Mon controlled it when Burmese king Alaungpaya conquered it in 1754. Pyay boomed, along with the British Irrawaddy Flotilla Company in the 1890s. Today it's an important cargo town in Myanmar, set at a transshipment point between northern and southern Myanmar.

Shwesandaw Paya is set on top a hill in the centre of Pyay Myanmar, the stunning Shwedandaw paya is not only Pyay's biggest point of interest, but one of the country's biggest Buddhist pilgrimage sites in Myanmar. Just over 1m taller than the Myanmar main zedi at Yangon's Shwedagon call it Shwe-D Myanmar Shwesandaw stupa follows the classic Myanmar Burma design seen at Bagan's Shwezigon.

Myanmar Legend goes that it was built by a couple of Myanmar merchants in 589BC and that Myanmar golden zedi houses four strands of the Buddha's hair.

Atop the zedi are two hti, unusal for Myanmar. The lower, bigger one dates from Pyay's days as a Mon city. The higher, smaller one was added by Myanmar Alaungpaya as a symbol of peace between the Burmese and Mon, after brutally capturing the city in 1754.

In the southwest corner of the complex, the Sacred Tooth Hall is said to house an original tooth from the Myanmar Buddha. It's in the golden bell behind the glass. The locks come off once a year for the November full-moon Myanmar estivities.

The panoramic views from the Myanmar pagoda are pretty great too. To the east, you'll see the Sehtatgyi Paya, a giant seated Buddha watching over the Shwesandaw eye-to-eye.

The smaller Myanmar gold stupa on the highest hill southeast of Shwesandaw is the Wunchataung Paya, where people can say "sorry" for misdeeds. They get the best view of Shwesandaw and mountains across the river while they're at it. You can reach it via Sethatgyi Rd, east of the Shwesandaw Paya in Myanmar Bago.

You can take an elevator up to the Shwesandaw platform from the northwest side, but it's not really that big of a hike up. The northern stairway is lined with Myanmar shops.

There's a K200 fee for "small cameras" K500 for "big cameras" or video cameras.

This towering Myanmar pagoda stands on the road to Thayekhittaya, about 1.5km east of the Myanmar bus station in Pyay. Payagyi Paya served as one of the four corners that bounded that Myanmar ancient town, its breasts like structure is slightly swollen, with some vegetation growing out of cracks in the exposed bricks. Three terraces encircle it from its base; "ladies" are not allowed on the upper one. The modern hti is lit up at night.

It history is linked with the nearby Thayekhittaya and most likely dates from the 5th or 6th century AD. Nearby stand a couple of lofty teak trees, safe from woodcutters' axes as they occupy sacred ground in Myanmar.

About 8km east of the Aung San statue in the neighbouring Myanmar village of Hmawza, this Myanmar ancient site known to Pali-Sanskrit scholars as Sri Ksetra is an enormous Pyu city that ruled in the area from the 5th to 9th centuries AD. Local legend links its origin to the mythical Myanmar King Dattabaung, who supposedly worked with ogres and other Myanmar supernatural creatures to build the "magical city" in 443BC. The earliest Pali inscriptions found here date to the 5th or 6th centuries. Sight seeing thayekhittaya means taking a three or four hour ox-cart loop to spaced-out Myanmar temples. It can't rival Bagan in terms of majesty, but lack of tourists and real peeks into local Myanmar farming communities are serious bonuses.

Taungoo in Myanmar is once the centre of one of the most powerful post Bagan kingdoms, is today worth a stop less for Myanmar historic reasons and more for convenience and comfort. The area is one of the few places where coffee is grown in Myanmar Bago, and the only places in Myanmar country where the antiquated steam engines are repaired.

Virtually nothing visibly Myanmar historic remains to indicate its former15th to 16th century glory. Today it's simply a typical central Myanmar, when someone receives unexpected good fortune they are likened to betel lover receiving a paid trip to Taungoo Myanmar.

Shwesandaw Paya is situated in the centre of Myanmar taungoo town, west of the main road, this is Taungoo's grandest pilgrimage spot in Taungoo Myanmar. The central Myanmar stupa, a standard issue bell shape, is gilded an dates to 1597; local Myanmar legend says an earlier Myanmar stupa on the site was built centuries before and contains sacred-hair relics. A pavilion on the western side of the stupa contains a 3.6m bronze, Mandalay-style sitting Buddha, given to the paya in 1912 by a retired civil servant who donated his body weight in bronze and silver for the casting of the image. He died three years after the casting age 72; his ashes are interred behind the image. Another pavilion in the northwestern corner of the compound houses a garish reclining Myanmar Buddha surrounded by devas and monastic disciples. Glass cabinets along the wall display small, mostly modern, religious object and Buddhas donated by the faithful. Among the other tazaung is one that displays sculptures of the seven Myanmar Taungoo kings, a small Kuan Yin pavilion to placate the Chinese, a Myanmar nat shrine with images of Sarawati and her attendants, and a Shin Upagot shrine.

Though not as well known as Shwesandaw, this is the most interesting of the three Myanmar famous zedi in town. A brick pahto beneath the stupa features glass mosaic arches, paintings taungoo Myanmar kings and a huge, bronze and silver-faced sitting Buddha in royal attire. The image is surrounded by planet Buddhas for specific planets, corresponding to the days of the week, andan arrangement usually reserved for stupas. Smaller Myanmar Buddhas, some of them old, are displayed in glass cases in the same building. Opposite the large sitting image, against a couple of pillars, are two Chinese bronze goddess statues, one sitting on an elephant, the other on a Fu dog.

A small Myanmar museum on the grounds contain bronze images of Erawan, a standing Buddha captured from Thailand by Myanmar King Bayinnaung and the two British cannons dated 1897.