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| Bagan's most elegant temple |
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From the old town, southeast of the Tharabar Gate, one can see the Ananda temple, all white and very imposing. The temple is one of the largest and most elegant in Bagan and is not a direct imitation of a North Indian model.
Built around 1080 the temple sits in the compound surrounded by tall enclosure walls, four devotional halls are attached to the main temple body facing the four cardinal directions giving to the temple ground plan the form of a cross.
Ananda temple |
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Double bodied lions, Manukthiha, guard each corner of the temple base, similar statues are also at the corners of the roof terraces. Two statues of dvarapala (door guardian) stand on either side of each of the four entrances.
The main body of the temple is so tall that it can accommodate two levels of the external fenestration windows one above the other producing the illusion of a two storeys building.
Above the sloping roofs made of receding terraces it rises a spire in the form of a corncob, with niches on each face containing Buddha images. Four diminutive replicas of this shikhara are placed at the corners of the roof.
The four entrance corridors traversing the external devotional halls converge to the central core, with two internal corridors that circumambulate the main sanctuary.
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Ananda Temple
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Guarded by door-guardians, wooden doors are at the entrance hall, tall niches cut into the central core are occupied by four 9-meter-high standing Buddha statues, illuminated by the light that shines from a small false shrine located above each entrance hall. The four Buddha statues are Kakusanda (north) in dharmacakra mudra (turning the Wheel of Law), Konagamanda (east) in raradamudra, Kassapa (south) in dharmacakra mudra and Gotama (west) in abhayamudra (reassurance), their mudras appear to be indigenous variations of Indian originals. The two statues of the south and north shrines are the originals constructed from interlocking timber components. Two footprints of the Buddha (Buddhapada) bearing the traditional 108 auspicious marks are located in the western entrance hall.
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In the two circumambulatory corridors, illuminated by the windows of the upper levels, over 1,000 images on as many as seven levels illustrate events from the historical Buddha's life from birth to death some with unusual mudras either Burmese innovations or derived from now-vanished Pyu examples. Unfortunately most of the images can be seen only through a protective wire screen. The mural painting that used to cover the ambulatories are now lost, possibly the Ananda would have been far darker and more mystical in atmosphere than it is today, with light being reflected off the now whitewashed walls.
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Ananda Temple
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