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Bagan architecture

One of the great manifestations of Hindu-Buddhist architecture in Southeast Asia

Shortly after the Irrawaddy River, the so-called "mother" of Burma which traverses the centre of the country from north to south, has been joined by the Chindwin, it describes a large bend and changes its course from southwest to south. On the left bank of this bend there is a vast arid expanse centred on Pagan, a former capital of Burma surrounded by moats and walls, and also including the neighbouring villages of Nyaung-U, Wetkyi-in, Taungby, Myinkaba, Thiripyitsaya and Minnanthu. This constitutes a single enormous historical site that was covered with several thousand exemplars of Hindu-Buddhist architecture.

Thatbyinnyu Temple

The tallest temple in Bagan

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Together with Hindu-Javanese and Khmer art, the architecture of Pagan constitutes one of the three great manifestations of Hindu-Buddhist architecture in Southeast Asia, this is especially so at Pagan where structural techniques such as barrel vaults and pointed arches are not to be seen in Java and Cambodia.
Although wider spans were not successful the use of staggering vaults, barrel vaults and pointed arches gave to Bagan architecs the possibilities to upwardly direct the buildings unlike the low, narrow, dark interiors of the corbelled arches of Angkor and Indian temples.
The pointed arch is the greatest technological achievement of Bagan architects, not used in India and China the pointed arch was independently discovered in the lower part of Myanmar and improved here in Bagan.

Shwezigon

Defined as the most national of all burma's pagodas

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Two are the types of architectural structures found in Bagan: the solid pagoda (stupa) and the temple.
The cave temple (gu or pahto) is the most dominant type of religious architecture. It is so called because the interior spaces recall the rock hewn caves of Buddhist India. The little light that filters in through the latticed windows creates a dim, mysterious architectural space very much suffused with philosophical connotations and religious nuances. As one enters the corridors from outside, one is struck by blindness. Only as one settles down, emerge the cloudy visibility of the interior dark corridors with the Buddha statues and elaborate frescos depicting Jatakas, recalling the interiors of the cave temples of Ajanta.

Dhammayan Gyi temple

noted for its massiveness and powerful shape its shape is like an Egyptian pyramid.

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The pagoda, (in Burmese zeidi or zedi, paya) is a solid brick mass, traditionally covered in stucco, almost pyramidal with a bell-shaped dome placed on receding terraces which rises to a tapering gilded peak and a jeweled finial topped with a sacred parasol-shaped decoration (hti). The tinkling of the bells moved by the breeze inspire the meditation. Another stupa type rarely found at Pagan called “Gourd Stupa” has a bulbous profile and dome that the Burmese see as gourd-like and is considered to be Pyu in origin.
Both the stupa and the temples at Pagan are generally built in red bricks and covered in stucco, although most of the buildings that can be seen today have been cleared form the stucco.

Htilominlo temple

a double-storeyed temple facing east

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A large quantity of ancient murals are still preserved at Bagan. Absent in Java and Cambodia mural paintings may be seen as no more than decorations of the interiors of the temples.
Sculptures are mosltly limited in the statues of Buddha inside the temples. Mostly of conventional quality they represent the Buddha in one single predominant 'mudra' with little variations in style.

Thambula temple

Mural paintings

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Jatakas, the Buddhist moral stories based on the life of historical Buddha, are represented in glazed terracotta plaques used to adorn the exteriors of pagoda and temples. These constitute a variety of applied fine art distinctive of Burmese Hindu-Buddhist architecture, and they rival the reliefs of Borobudur and Loro Jonggrang in Java and of Angkor Wat and the Bayon in Cambodia.

The Mingala Zedi

Well-preserved glazed Jataka plaques

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Thatbyinnyu Temple

Shwezigon

Dhammayan Gyi temple

Htilominlo temple

Thambula temple

The Mingala Zedi

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