Gerard Dockery says:
Myinkaba Kubyauk-gyi Temple (dedicated 1113)
Designated Monument # 1323 by UNESCO.
The Kubyauk-gyi temple is the earliest datable monument at Bagan, built in the year 1113 by Prince Yazakumar, the son of King Kyansittha (r. 1084-1112/13). It is located on the north side of Myinkaba village, adjacent to the Myazedi stupa (monument #1320), a larger monument built in the 19th century over the ruins of a much older stupa. Most of our knowledge about the temple is due to Prince Yazakumar's foresight in erecting a stele commemorating his sponsorship. Written in four languages: pali, mon, pyu, and Burmese, it ranks not only as a valuable historical record but also as a kind of Rosetta stone as it permitted linguists to decipher the Pyu language for the first time. It also represents the first known instance of Burmese used as a written language.
Prince Yazakumar: Sponsor of the Myinkaba Kubyauk-gyi
Yazakumar himself is a colorful figure. Born around the year 1078, he was the son of King Kyansittha and Thanbula (also known as Trilokavatamsika). The child was conceived while Kyansittha (then known as Prince Htihlaingshin) was living in exile near present-day Saigaing due to an affair with his father's young queen, Manisanda. Though Thanbula and Kyansittha married, the Prince returned to the capital alone in the year 1077 upon the death of his father, not realizing that Thanbula had become pregnant. At Bagan, the Prince resumed his affair with Manisanda, which aroused the wrath of his brother, now crowned as King Saw Lu (r. 1077-1084). Kyansittha was again sent into exile, this time to the deep south near present-day Yangon. After biding his time there for several years, Kyansittha was recalled to Bagan by Saw Lu, who called upon his assistance in putting down a rebellion by Yamankan, the governor of Pegu and the childhood friend of Saw Lu. In the battles that followed, Saw Lu was captured and Kyansittha attempted to rescue him. In the confusion, Saw Lu believed Kyansittha had come to kill him, and Kyansittha was forced to depart empty-handed while Yamankan had Saw Lu put to death. Kyansittha eventually overcame Yamankan in battle after raising an army, marching on Bagan and taking the throne for himself in April 1084. After his long adventures, Kyansittha had forgotten about his former bride Thanbula and had no knowledge of any son by her.
At some point during this reign, Thanbula learned that Kyansittha had become King. She departed for the capital with her son, the young prince Yazakumar, and sought and audience with Kyansittha. In the meantime, the King had promised the throne to his grandson, the future King Alaungsithu. The King was astonished when Thanbula showed up with his son, as Thanbula had saved a ring the king had given her so that she was able to prove her identity. Rather than change the rules of succession so that his natural-born son could succeed him, the King made Yazakumar the lord of Arakan, a position of considerable importance but little political authority. While some might have chafed under this state of affairs, the Prince remained devoted to his parents and more interested in religious and cultural pursuits than yearning for power.
Later in Kyansittha's reign, the king was stricken with a long illness. Realizing his father was near death, Prince Yazakumar decided to build a temple to "make merit" for his father to ensure a good rebirth in a future life. From this genesis the Kubyauk-gyi was conceived. The prince sponsored the temple's construction and provided for its upkeep by endowing it with three villages of slaves, recorded by name as Sakmunalon, Rapay, and Henbuiw villages, all part of his late mother's estate. Yazakumar warned in the inscription that anyone who did violence to the slaves would risk being unable to meet Metteyya, the Buddha of the Future, in future-rebirths. He also installed a 'golden Buddha' within the temple sanctum, an image that was likely plundered long ago. However, Stadtner notes that it may still be present at the Kubyauk-gyi, perhaps buried within the temple towers (the practice originated as a means of enhancing the temple's merit-making effects, not necessarily as a precaution against theft).
As for Kyansittha, the old king lived long enough to attend the temple's dedication, concluding the ceremony with the words "thaddu, thaddu" ("Well done, well done"), a phrase still used in reference to meritorious deeds. The king died soon after, and Alaungsithu took the throne as planned. Yazakumar apparently remained loyal to the King's grandson, spending the remainder of his life distributing wealth to benefit his parents' merit. The date of his death is not known.
Strachan classifies the years 850-1120 as the "Early Period" of Burmese art and architecture, placing the Kubyauk-gyi at the tail end of this first flowering of Bagan culture. By this time, King Kyansittha was the dynasty's eleventh historically verifiable ruler, the first being King Pyinba who founded Bagan in the year 849. As Bagan had already existed by nearly three centuries by Kyansittha's era, its "Early Period" culture was considerably advanced, and a number of Buddhist temples—from which Yazakumar certainly derived inspiration—were already standing on the plains of Bagan. For instance, the plan of the temple bears considerable resemblance to the nearby Abe-ya-dana-hpaya and Naga-yon-hpaya temples, constructed only a few decades earlier. All three temples comprise two main components: a square sanctuary space and a smaller antechamber attached to the front of the temple. Within the sanctuary space, a continuous ambulatory runs around the central core containing a single small room (4.34 x 4.84 m) for the primary Buddha image.
According to Strachan, the temple's chief architectural innovation was the inclusion for the first time of an upper-level shrine, heralding later temples such as the That-binnyu which did away with the lower level shrine entirely. At the Kubyauk-gyi, the upper level shrine is located at the juncture of the entrance hall and the sanctuary; from the front and side elevations it is barely noteworthy, with a small sikhara-like spire on the roof (now damaged) and a small east-facing entrance. The shrine was accessible from the ground via a staircase located in the south-facing window of the entrance hall (the stairway is now closed to visitors).
Among its peers, the Kubyauk-gyi stands out for the quality of its detail. The kirtimukha friezes, rendered in stucco on the exterior, are among the finest in Bagan for a temple of this early date. Likewise, the mural paintings on the interior show a rich variety of themes and are in good condition. Restored with the assistance of the U.N.D.P., the paintings are of such importance that visitors are forbidden to take any photos inside the building (generally, a wise precaution as flash photography easily damages the pigments, though unfortunately long-exposure photography with ambient light is also proscribed).
Though Prince Yazakumar was not a painter, he maintained an ardent interest in the translation of Ceylonese manuscripts, which had begun to arrive in Bagan during his lifetime. The themes reflected in the paintings chosen for the Kubyauk-gyi show a clear preference for the Ceylonese works, written in pali, which comprised the core texts of the Theravada Buddhist canon: the Sutta Pitaka (discourses and sermons of the Buddha), the Abhidhamma Pitaka (book of metaphysical philosophy) and the Vinaya Pitaka (rules for the monastic order of the sangha). The prince was also apparently keenly interested in the history of Buddhism and its connection to the present situation in Ceylon, and by extension, to that of Bagan as well. For instance, painted glosses in the temple show that the prince was aware of the Mahavamsa and the Culavamsa, two chronicles of Ceylon, which recorded the history of Buddhism on that island up through the contemporary rule of Vijayabahu of Ceylon (1055-1114). Strachan notes the importance of this in forming the identity of the Bagan people, stating that "A historically aware civilisation is one that, having established suzerainty over territory, seeks to place itself as heir to a chronological process" (Strachan, p. 73).
The subject matter of the paintings chosen for the Kubyauk-gyi were primarily from the three canonical works of the Pali Canon noted above, especially the jataka tales of the Buddha's past lives, which were part of the Khuddaka Nikaya, a section within the Sutta Pitaka. All 547 jataka tales are shown with a single vignette from each, captioned in mon writing to identify each. There are also numerous scenes from the bodawin (life of the historical Buddha).
'Asian Historical architecture'
Gerard Dockery says:
Nan-hpaya Temple (also spelled Nanpaya) (11th century)
Designated Monument # 1239 by UNESCO.
According to Strachan, the Nan-hpaya is likely one of the first free-standing 'cave' type temples at Bagan. Built during the reign of King Anawrahta (r. 1044-1077), the founder of the Bagan Empire, it is startlingly sophisticated for such an early work. It is one of only two surviving temples built with stone facing instead of brick, and its interior includes stone relief carvings similar in technique, though not in style, to those of the Khmer empire. That neither of these traditions subsequently flourished is a mystery—apart from one other instance (the Kyaukku-umin temple) no other religious structures were faced with stone, and bas-relief carving with interlocking blocks was subsequently abandoned. The mystery all the more deepens as it is not even clear whether the Nan-hpaya was a Buddhist temple at all.
Today, the Nan-hpaya is located in the southern outskirts of Myinkaba village, just a hundred meters southwest of the Man-nu-ha-paya temple (built later). It is located a few dozen meters west of the roadway, such that the surrounding trees make for a peaceful and relatively quiet experience for the visitor. When entering the temple (after passing a number of resident cats who lounge around the gate) the east-facing temple comes into view. Longitudinal in plan, the temple comprises a square sanctum to the rear joined to a rectangular entrance hall projecting to the east. The remnants of a missing porch and pediment are evident on the east facade. The roof is relatively low with three shallow terraces ringed by crennelations, topped with a squat sikhara, probably the first of its type at Bagan.
As mentioned above, the Nan-hpaya is virtually unique for its use of stonework as a facing material. The artisans first built a core of brick that provided structural support, then added carved sandstone cladding which may have either been carved in situ or chiseled off-site. About 70% of the cladding remains, though the carvings on the sikhara are particularly damaged with only the east-facing facade largely intact. The quality of the workmanship is such that only the barest minimum of mortar is used; most of the bricks fit together like tightly nested puzzle pieces. Strachan notes that traces of polychromed ornament and gilding were found on the exterior, suggesting the stone was once painted; if so, the experience of the temple in Anawrahta's day would have been quite different from its present appearance. Of the exterior stonework, the most interesting specimens are the pilasters at each of the corners which feature kirtimukha faces framed by V-shaped motifs surrounded by vegetation. Along the base of the walls runs a continuous dado frieze comprising hamsa (geese, associated with Brahma) inside swirls of foliage. The windows—three on each side of the sanctum, and one on each side of the entrance hall—are crowned with cusped arches standing over kalasa pots, an Indian motif, representing fecundity and luxuriance. The ends of each of the arches are decorated with highly articulated makara, a legendary crocodile-like creature. All of these decorative motifs would grow to become a familiar presence in the Bagan architectural tradition, though artisans preferred to render them in stucco instead of stone.
The entrance hall to the temple is today empty and undramatic. There are no niches for statuary as are found at slightly later temples such as the Nagayon-hpaya. Faint traces of mural painting are visible, but all are faded to such a degree that they are of little interest. "Ghost marks" from temporary scaffolding used to buttress the walls in the late 20th century is also visible. A short corridor on the west wall, covered by barrel vaulting, leads to the sanctum.
The sanctum departs from what would become the usual design technique at Bagan—instead of a square cell housing one or more Buddha images, the core instead features four large piers supporting a roof formed of interlocking arches, connected to the outer walls by half-barrel vaults. At the center of the ensemble is a raised dais of uncertain age, suggesting that a single large statue once stood here. Most likely this was a standing Buddha image, but it may have also been a set of four Buddhas seated back-to-back in the manner of the upstairs shrine at Kyazin temple (No. 1219), a motif also common throughout Myanmar and Thailand. The statue (or statues) would have been illuminated by four skylights high in the sikhara. Stadtner notes that these "enter the sanctum like laser beams" (Stadtner, p. 179) and the visual effect is certainly compelling as the shafts of light change orientation throughout the day.
The inward-facing sides of each of the piers is decorated with the temple's most outstanding feature: bas reliefs in stone of the god Brahma, each depicted with the four heads (three are actually shown, but the fourth is understood to be hidden behind the others). These images would have been challenging for local artisans, as each was incised on interlocking stone bricks, a technique common to the contemporary Khmer empire at Angkor but virtually unknown at Bagan. The technical difficultly of creating these images on an unfamiliar stone medium suggests that foreign craftsmen may have had a hand in the execution. Strachan notes that "a convincing argument has been presented to suggest that this stone work was the work of emigrant artists from Bengal" (Strachan, p. 47). On the other hand, he points out that the physiognomy of the deities (and those on the exterior) are quite similar to the local population, suggesting the work was locally derived. In either case, the artisans—whoever they were—never performed the same feat again (as far as we know), as all later works at Bagan were rendered in stucco or painted straightaway.
Each of the Brahma images is shown seated on a bed of lotus leaves with one knee bent upward, arms upraised with flowering plants grasped in both hands. Around him are fronds of vegetation which burst forth from the bottom of the image and frame both sides of his body. Above the image is a kirtimukha frieze, and more kirtimukha with the usual V-shaped motifs adorn the corners. The presence of so many Brahma images, and the lack of Buddhist iconography, has led the scholar Taw Sein Ko to suggest that the Nan-hpaya may have been a Hindu temple. However, both Strachan and Stadtner disagree. Strachan in particular notes that "...Brahma, the god, who has been met earlier at the Nat-hlaung-kyaung, was a well known deity to the Pyus and Old Mons. Always, Brahma is secondary to Buddha; it would be a grave mistake to suggest that the Nanhpaya was a Brahmanic temple." (Strachan, p. 48).
In the final analysis, the Nan-hpaya is in many ways an anomaly, though it contains numerous motifs which proved durable throughout Bagan's subsequent history. We are fortunate that this early and an unusual example of Bagan creativity survives to the present day.
'Asian Historical Architecture'
Gerard Dockery says:
Pahto Hamya Temple (built late 11th, early 12th century) (also, Patho-hta-mya)
Designated Monument # 1605 by UNESCO.
The Pahto Thamya is a large two story temple located just inside the old city wall near the modernistic Bagan Archaeological Museum (visible in the background of the 1st accompanying photograph). It is near the presumed site of the old palace and immediately to the west of Thatbyinnyu. Its central shrine is a bit over 23 ft (7.1 m) x 28 ft (8.6 m). There is a large porch extending outward on the east side. The crenellated terraces include a 12-sided terrace and three upper square terraces. There are four roof shrines with seated Buddhas on the terraces. The 12-sided bulbous dome with 12 vertical bands issuing from naga heads is topped by a 12-sided block and onion shaped sikhara, or spire. The spire was destroyed by the 1975 earthquake but restored in 1976 and 1984, then again damaged in the 2016 quake. Flat square blocks at the top of the first level doubtless carried replicas, mini stupas, of the central spire as do many other Bagan temples.
The interior is a series of square forms in the hall, shrine room and in other parts. Some stucco moldings remain. The numerous mural paintings in the ambulatory are among the earliest of Bagan paintings, although most are in rather poor condition. There is also a large image of the Buddha. Thamya also contains one of the first upper temple shrines, a feature that was to become common in the middle period of Bagan architecture.
The important historian of Bagan's architecture, Paul Strachan, writes extensively and caringly about Pahto Thamya which he calls "an architecture that is balanced and self-confident" and one that set the stage for further architectural refinement. He also suggests that Pahto Thamya was a "supreme symbol of the advance of the Theravada Buddhist faith at Pagan..."
Text by Professor Robert D. Fiala of Concordia University, Nebraska, USA.
'Asian Historical Architecture'
Gerard Dockery says:
In the same temple-crowded central area, the Pahtothamya (or Thamya Pahto) was probably built during the reign of Kyansittha (1084-1113), although it is popularly held to be one of five temples built by the non-historical king Taungthugyi (931-964). The interior of this single-storey building is dimly lit, typical of the early type of Pyu-influenced temples with their small, perforated stone windows. In its vertical superstructure and lotus-bud sikhara, however, the monument is clearly beginning to move forward from the Early period.
Painting remnants along the interior passages may rate as the earliest surviving murals in Bagan.
Gerard Dockery says:
Mahabodhi Paya (built c. 1250) (Burmese: မဟာဗောဓိကျောင်)
Designated Monument # 1670 by UNESCO.
The Mahabohdi temple, erected during the reign of Nadaungmya (r. 1211-1234), is modeled after the temple of the same name in Bodhgaya, India. The original Mahabodhi had been erected on the place where Siddhartha first attained supreme enlightenment in the 6th century BC. It is a 140 foot (43 m) high brick and whitewashed stucco structure characterized by a large square pyramidal tower and topped by a conical spire and umbrella. Similar Bagan-era structures may be seen about 20 miles (32 km) south of Bagan on the Ayeyarwady; there is also a small copy on the terrace of the Shwedagon in Yangon.
In addition to its pyramidal tower set on a quadrilateral base, the Mahabodhi is almost unique among Bagan structures because its extensive exterior ornamentation. Its numerous niches enclose over 450 Buddha images not only on the tower but also on the corner stupas and to a lesser extent on the exterior walls of the two story base.
The Mahabodhi was badly damaged by the 1975 earthquake. It was repaired between 1976 and 1979 and strengthened in 1991-1992.
Also, compare this temple to these other 'Bodhgaya-style' temples:
Mahabodhi Temple, Bodhgaya, India (the prototype)
Mahabuddha Temple, Patan, Nepal
Wat Chet Yot, Chiang Mai, Thailand
Wat Phra That Nong Bua, Ubon Ratchathani, Thailand
Text by Robert D. Fiala, Concordia University, Nebraska
Asian Historical Architecture
Gerard Dockery says:
Mahabodhi Paya (built c. 1250) (Burmese: မဟာဗောဓိကျောင်)
Designated Monument # 1670 by UNESCO.
The Mahabohdi temple, erected during the reign of Nadaungmya (r. 1211-1234), is modeled after the temple of the same name in Bodhgaya, India. The original Mahabodhi had been erected on the place where Siddhartha first attained supreme enlightenment in the 6th century BC. It is a 140 foot (43 m) high brick and whitewashed stucco structure characterized by a large square pyramidal tower and topped by a conical spire and umbrella. Similar Bagan-era structures may be seen about 20 miles (32 km) south of Bagan on the Ayeyarwady; there is also a small copy on the terrace of the Shwedagon in Yangon.
In addition to its pyramidal tower set on a quadrilateral base, the Mahabodhi is almost unique among Bagan structures because its extensive exterior ornamentation. Its numerous niches enclose over 450 Buddha images not only on the tower but also on the corner stupas and to a lesser extent on the exterior walls of the two story base.
The Mahabodhi was badly damaged by the 1975 earthquake. It was repaired between 1976 and 1979 and strengthened in 1991-1992.
'Asian Historical Architecture'
Gerard Dockery says:
The Payathonzu Temple (Burmese: ဘုရားသုံးဆူ [pʰəjá θóʊɰ̃ zù]; literally 'Temple of Three Buddhas') is a Buddhist temple located in the village of Minnanthu (southeast of Bagan) in Burma. It is unique in the sense that the temple consists of three temples conjoined through narrow passages. The structure dates from the latter part of the 13th century. The interior of the temple contains frescoes, believed to be Mahayana and Tantric in style. However, it only applies to the decorative elements, and may have been added by skilled workers from northern India or Nepal. The temple was not completed. The temple was renovated after being damaged by a 2016 earthquake, with the completion of the three stupas atop the temple, which are lighter in colour.
Gerard Dockery says:
The Payathonzu Temple (Burmese: ဘုရားသုံးဆူ [pʰəjá θóʊɰ̃ zù]; literally 'Temple of Three Buddhas') is a Buddhist temple located in the village of Minnanthu (southeast of Bagan) in Burma. It is unique in the sense that the temple consists of three temples conjoined through narrow passages. The structure dates from the latter part of the 13th century. The interior of the temple contains frescoes, believed to be Mahayana and Tantric in style. However, it only applies to the decorative elements, and may have been added by skilled workers from northern India or Nepal. The temple was not completed. The temple was renovated after being damaged by a 2016 earthquake, with the completion of the three stupas atop the temple, which are lighter in colour
Wikipedia
Gerard Dockery says:
The Gubyaukgyi (alt. Kubyauk-gyi) temple, located just south of Bagan, Myanmar, in Myinkaba Village, is a Buddhist temple built in 1113 AD by Prince Yazakumar, shortly after the death of his father, King Kyansittha of the Pagan Dynasty. The temple is notable for two reasons. First, it contains a large array of well-preserved frescoes on its interior walls, the oldest original paintings to be found in Bagan. All of the frescoes are accompanied by ink captions written in Old Mon, providing one of the earliest examples of the language's use in Myanmar. Second, the temple is located just to the west of the Myazedi Pagoda, at which was found two stone pillars with inscriptions written in four, ancient Southeast Asian languages: Pali, Old Mon, Old Burmese, and Pyu. The inscription on the pillar displayed by the Myazedi Pagoda has been called the Burmese Rosetta Stone, given its significance both historically and linguistically, as a key to cracking the Pyu language.
The style of the temple includes both Mon and Indian elements. In the case of the latter, the temple's towers are built in the Indian Shikhara style. The temple has a square base, shaped like a Kalatha pot, with a curvilinear roof. The interior of the temple contains a large, perimeter vestibule that connects to a small shrine room, a temple entrance leading to the vestibule, and an interior hallway leading to the shrine room. Both the shrine room and the entrance to the temple are on the east side of the building.
The temple has 11 large, perforated, Pyu-style windows, which let in very little light. Nine of the windows are in the outer walls, and two are interior windows. The windows' perforations are shaped in a variety of ways, including as Banyan leaves and swastikas.
In the interior above these windows are terraces with small Buddha figures, backed by intricate, ornamental stucco carvings with floral designs. Other stucco designs that can be seen in Gubyaukgyi include concentric rings and ogre figurines. There are also, in the walls, 34 recesses, each of which used to contain a statue of Buddha. Due to vandalism, however, only 19 of these statues remain.
A popular retelling of the temple's construction goes as follows. Several decades before the construction of Gubyaukgyi, the wife of King Kyansittha, Queen Thanbula, became pregnant. At the time, the king had no son, and as such no direct heir to the throne. When the king learned of the queen's pregnancy, he asked her to leave the royal court. Upon leaving the court, he gave her a valuable ring. He told the queen that, if the baby were a boy, she would be welcomed back to the court, and would return the ring. If the baby were a girl, she was told she could sell the ring and should not return to the court.
The baby was a boy, Prince Yazakumar. However, by the time the queen returned to the king with their son, he had already promised his daughter's son, Alaungsithu, that he would be the heir to the kingdom. To compensate Yazakumar for his losing the chance to inherit the throne, the king gave him a large amount of land. Yazakumar sold much of this land, and with the proceeds built Gubyaukgyi, out of appreciation for his father. To build the temple, Yazakumar employed three villages of slaves.
Gerard Dockery says:
Inn-hpaya Stupa (built c. 12th century?)
Designated Monument # 772 by UNESCO.
The Inn-hpaya is a large brick-masonry stupa located to the north of Dhamma-yan-gyi. It has four large inaccessible octagonal terraces and a conical dome and conical spire. There remain some traces of stucco. The carved brick on the terraces and waistband and the other intricate brickwork conveys and element of elegance. The Inn-hpaya is approximately 115 ft (35 m) wide at its base.
Text by Robert D. Fiala, Concordia University, Nebraska.
Asian Historical Architecture
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