Land Marks

LANDMARKS

Mandalay Palace

7 Major Monuments

Royal palace
The city walls and moat
The Atumashi or Incomparable monastery
The Kuthodaw pagoda (Maha Loka Marazina)
The Thudhamma Zayats
Pitakataik or The Library for Buddhist scriptures

Moat & City Walls

The fortified city is surrounded by moat. The moat and city walls are in the form of square. There are twelve gates, three on each side and surmounted by Pyathats or pavilions of wood. Together with a pyathat at each comer of the wall and 32 smaller intermediate payathatt, there are totally 48 pyathats on the city walls. The pyathats are made of wood and decorated by floral patterns. Commemorating the 2400th year of Buddhist religion, each side of the city wall is made 600 tar long and so total length is 2400 tar altogether. (One tar is equal to eleven feet and one inch).

Golden Royal Palace

Royal palace comprises the main audience Hall and one hundred chambers, including Eastern Royal chamber and lesser chambers for queens. The chambers are different in use. The important meeting and receiving of foreign envoys were held in Eastern Zetawun chamber. The morning session of court ceremony was held in Sanu chamber, and in the glass palace dwelt the King. Thihathana or Lion Throne stood at the centre of Mye -nan Pya-that or Grand spire and the ceremonies of worshipping to the kings were held there.

Mandalay’s Attractions

Mandalay Hill

It is advisable for a visitor form far away lands to climb up the Mandalay Hill if he want to fully enjoy the scenic beauty of Mandalay. The hill , 774 feet high above sea level, located in the North east of Mandalay is one of the spots from where the panorama of city and it surroundings can be seen. As Mandalay Hill has been installed escalator and constructed a motor way up the hill, it is always crowded with the visitors who want to enjoy the breath-taking beauty of the sunsetting.

Form the top of the hill , a visitor can look over far and wide the silver windings of the mighty Ayeyarwady and the pagoda sprinkled Sagaing Yetkansintaung hill and Ruby land of Mogok in the north, jagged ShanYoma mountain ranges and Kywenapha hill in the east and the whole scene of the city in the south.

Kuthotaw Pagoda

The world's biggest book is located in Upper Myanmar, right here in Mandalay. At the foot of Mandalay Hill stands the Ma Ha Lo Ka Ma RA Jin Pagoda, founded by King Mindon. It is popularly called the Kuthodaw Pagoda and the biggest book is within its enclosure. The page of the book are made of marble and it can also be as good as new for well over a century. The text is the Pitaka of the Buddhists and it has been open to the public since it was completed on 4th May 1868.

Its distinctive feature is the collection of 729 stone slabs on which are inscribed the tripitaka or the whole of the Buddhist scripture. It can be referred as the biggest book in the wold. It is also recognized as the masterpiece of stone carving in Myanmar.

Mahamuni Pagoda

As MahaMuni Buddha image was brought from Rakhine in 1784, it is 70 years earlier than Mandalay, it was cast of alloy. The image in the usual sitting posture is 12 feet 7 inches high. Its throne is 7 feet high. Although the body has for long been lavishly gilded, the head and the body are still well-proportioned.

Within the precinct are six bronze figures, two of men, three of lions and one of a three headed elephant (Aye-yar-wun) which were brought from Rahine at the same time Maha Muni image was conveyed. These bronze figures belong to Khmer style of art from Kampuchae. They were more than one thousand years old. They were taken by King Sinbyushin of Hanthawady (alias Bayinnaung) from Thailand and later, during the reign of king Nga Su Dayaka, were brought to Rakhine.

U Bein's Bridge

South of Mandalay is the famous U Bein Bridge, constructed totally from Teak. During the Dry season the bridge crosses dry land. U Bein was the mayor at the time of moving the city from Innwa to Amarapura and he wisely salvaged materials from the deserted Innwa Palace to build this long footbridge.

The bridge is 1.2 km. Boat trips around the lake are a popular pastime with visitors. South of the Patodawgyi Pagoda the shallow Taungthaman Lake is crossed by a huge teak bridge. During the dry season the bridge crosses dry land. U Bein was the "mayor" at the time of the shift from Inwa and he wisely salvaged material from the deserted Inwa Palace to build this km long footbridge. It has stood the test of time for two centuries.

Atumashi Monastery

Incomparable Monastery

To the south of Kuthodaw, lies the Maha Atulaweiyan monastery, which was built at the same time Mandalay was founded. It is mostly called "Atumashi Monastery" or "Incomparable Monastery".

It is notable in masonry work with elaborate stucco carving and it is recognized as the most beautiful monument in Mandalay. The whole building was burnt in 1892 and now it is being reconstructed.

Shwe Nan Daw Monastery

After the death of Kin Mindon, Shwe Nan Daw Monastery was built by King Thibaw on 12th October, 1878, mainly of materials obtained by dismantling the apartment of King Mindon.

Due to the World War II, the finest wooden monasteries are rare to find in Mandalay. The most typical of ancient monasteries are Shwe Nan Daw Monastery and Shwe In Bin Monastery. Shwe In Bin which lies in De Wun quarter, was built by U Set Shwin in 1899.

The Maha Atula Veyan ( Atumashi) Monastery

It is situated within the precinct of the Maha Atula Vizaya YarmaTaik, at the foot of the Mandalay Hil, and it was donated after a libation ceremony, King Mindon in the month of Kason, M.E 1240. The old monastery with 246 pillars of teak was burnt in M.E 1254_quite a loss to Myanmar cultural architectural heritage. The original structure of the Monastery was restored faithfully on 1-1-95, and was completed and opened on 18-8-96. The tourists visiting Mandalay never fail to go and view the Maha Atula Veyan ( Atumashi) Monastery.

The Pyi Gyi Mon Royal Barge

The Pyi Gyi Mon Royal Barge was the type of water vessel taken by the kings of the olden days while touring the country and in celebrating the Annual waterway Parade. Remarkably, it was on this royal barge that the Maha Muni Buddha Image, carried reverently by King Bodawpaya, the founder of the Royal Kingdom of Amarapura, was carried reverently from Amarapura to the Present site in Mandalay along the Nadi Chaung. The scenic beauty of Mandalay is added to by the pleasant panoramic view of the Mandalay Kan Taw Gyi where the Mye Padetha Island and the Pyi Gyi Mon Royal Barge are located. The Mandlay Kan taw Gyi Circular Road, 7.1km Long, adorning the beauty of the lake, is connected with the Mandalay-Sagaing road to the east and with the eight lane motorway to the west. Mandalay City Development Committee has been taking measures to make a clean pleasant lake, like the moat and to green the surrounding of the lake. There is the city boundary Strand Road close to the west of the Mandalay Kan Taw Gyi Lake.

The World Biggest Book

Adapted from a book of the same name by the venerable Myanmar writer, Ludu Daw Ahmar who lives in Mandalay. She is almost 80 years old, bright of eye and full of stories of her beloved country.

When asked how big a book have you ever seen... my answer would be: the book I call the biggest has 730 leaves or 1460 pages each measuring three and a half feet wide, five feet long and five inches thick. Certainly these pages could not be bound together. Each leaf is put upright on a stand of its own and all these stands occupy a square compound of thirteen acres.

You may think that the letters covering these pages are proportionally big. No. In an ordinary book of Royal Octavo size set in great primer type of letters, the text of our book would take thirty eight volumes of approximately 400 pages each.

Once monks assembled to read incessantly in relays all that was written in that book and it took them 150 days. If a man spent eight hours daily to read it, he could be occupied for four hundred and fifty days.

Perhaps you would say at that moment, Daw Amar, that's too much of an exaggeration. If the book that you are talking of had dimensions as you said, it would be the biggest book in the world. Now tell me where it is. My answer is: The book is real. But to look for it you don't have to go to China where the population is largest and the civilization most ancient, nor to Egypt where immense pyramids and huge colossus stand, not to Rome of the coliseum fame. The world's biggest book is located here, in Upper Myanmar, right here in Mandalay. At the foot of Mandalay Hill stands the Ma Ha Lo Ka Ra Jin Pagoda, founded by King Mindon. It is popularly called the Kuthodaw Pagoda and the biggest book is within its enclosure. We played hide and seek or chased among the 'leaves" of that book when we were young. Later when we were old enough to become religious we lighted candles atop each standing page of this book as light offerings to the Buddha's Dharma (teachings). We also contributed handsomely towards the fund for giving concrete bases to the cave like structures, sheltering each page of the book.

The pages of the book are made of marble and it can also be called the world's heaviest book. Being marble, it has remained as good as new for well over a century. The text is the Pitaka of the Buddhists and it has been open to the public since it was completed on 4th May 1868.....

The person responsible for the text was King Mindon, the founder of Mandalay. He became King in 1852 and after eight years of reign he made the book because he wanted to make a "meritorious deed which has never been done before by any king."

The King believed that the stone copy of the Pitaka would last as long as the world exists. (a Myanmar expression for long life. ) We understand that the king wanted to have the copy available for a whole period of Sasana or five thousand years, reckoned from the time of the Buddha's death in 544BC until AD 4456.

A committee of monks was formed to look after the project which was to be engraved, entirely free of mistakes. Senior monks were assigned to supervise the making of the stone copy.

The marble came from a quarry at Sagaing Hill, 32 kilometres from Mandalay. First crude shapes of the slabs were cut and carried to the foot of the hill by the hill by the Kalamak Stream. The slabs waited there until there was a rise in the water level, when they were put on boats and floated down to Mandalay on the Ayerwaddy. At Mandalay they were brought to the palace enclosure to be smoothed and prepared for engraving.

On each surface of the stone the text was written and checked. There was of course another checking after the inscription was done after which the chiseled letters were filled with gold ink.

When the text was engraved on the stone surface, a first rate scribe spent three days to draw in the words on both the obverse and reverse sides. After having the copy checked, the chisel man was called in to carve out the letters. Expert craftsmen could finish fifteen to sixteen lines a day while an average man could manage only ten lines. There are 80 to 100 lines on each side.

To judge the workmanship of the letter carving, a wax impression is taken of some chiseled letters. If the edges are found to be smooth and the width and depth of the lines are even, the work is pronounced perfect. The work on the stone Pitaka was done in a big workshop near the palace. The work was begun on the 14th October 1860 and was completed on 4th May 1868. The whole project took seven years, sic months and twenty days.

Thirty years after the " stone Pitaka " was completed, the "paper Pitaka" or Pitaka in book form was made for the first time. Mr. Phillip H Ripley of the Han Tha Waddy Press was the pioneer of this work. One volume of this book (Royal Octavo size ) had four hundred pages and there were 38 volumes in the complete set. At first there was a public opinion against the Pitaka in book form. The people felt that a printed book would cheapen the deep religious significance of the Pitaka. After much discussion and delay, the book was finally put to print about 1900. Each page was checked carefully for mistakes and when it was finally printed, Ripley could claim that his books were "true copies of the Pitaka inscribed on stone by King Mindon. " The old gentleman took enormous pains to ensure there were no mistakes His books met with great success and were distributed to the many countries where Theravada Buddhism prevailed. Later other printers followed suite, although Ripley's version had established the standard for all time.

This is all I have to say of the World's Biggest Book".... The world's biggest book can be visited at the bottom of Mandalay Hill.