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Sagaing and Inwa

The old capitals of Myanmar

Sagaing
After the fall of Bagan, capital of the First Burmese Empire, Sagaing became the capital of the kingdom for a short period until 1364 when the new capital was established in Inwa. Inwa remained the capital of the Burmese kingdom for nearly 400 years until when it was destroyed by the earthquake of 1838 and the seat of the kingdom was moved to Amarapura in 1841. Eventually Amarapura became a part of southern Mandalay.
Sagaing hill lies 21 km southwest of Mandalay on the banks of the Irrawaddy river, and it is famous for the over 600 temples, monasteries and religious retreats.
On the way we stopped at Shwe-kyet-kay a pagoda on a steep bank of the river close to the two parallel bridges linking Sagaing and Amarapura. This location offers a view of the hill of Sagaing and the two bridges.
Our first stop is the Sitagu International Buddhist Academy built in 1994 with the architecture inspired by the stupa at Sanchi India. After our taxi driver drive took us up to the to the hill top to Umin Thounzeh (the 30 Caves), a colourful crescent-shaped colonnade within which there are 45 Buddha images.
After we visited Soon U Ponya Shin Paya ‘early offering shrine’, the most important of the temples on the hill. Its central 97ft-high gilded stupa was originally built in 1312. A giant Buddha statue sits inside a large room with the walls and ceilings covered with shiny blue-green tiles, partly gilded columns. A large balcony commands a lovely view of the surrounding countryside, with its many white and gold pagodas, and the Irrawaddy River.

Sagaing

The Umin Thounzeh Pagoda

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Inwa
Driving from Sagaing soon after the Inwa bridge that crosses the Irrawaddy River there is a branch road that leads to small harbour where you can cross the Myittha river with motor boat. Inwa was built on the island flanked by the Ayeyarwady and Myitnge rivers and separated by a deep canal cut between them. Our horse cart pick us up from river and spend the next 3 hours travelling around the backwaters of the former royal city. Our route was more or less like this, the first tract followed the southern canal and walls that surround the old city. The king’s palace no longer exists but the ruins of the massive walls and moat can still be seen. We passed the heavily restored south gate and soon after we reached on the left the Daw Gyan Pagoda Complex a group of ruined brick stupas, in the distance the golden spire of Shwedigon stupa rising above the palm-speckled horizon tucked into the southwest corner of Inwa's moated central old city. Further West we reached the small but photogenic ensemble of the Yedanasini Paya with a sitting Buddha and a handful of old brick stupas shaded by a giant flame tree. Closeby a group of wite washed stupas with a Buddha statue protected by a naga.
Continuing eastwards after a village made of simple houses we stopped to the massive walls of the Hsin Gyon Fort built in 1874 on the Irrawaddy river banks.

Inwa

the Yedanasini Paya

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At this point we returned back southwest to reach the Bagaya Kyaung wooden monastery (1953). Built on teak wooden post the monastery has a three-tiered roof hall and one seven-tiered roof hall on the eastern side and accessed with four brick stairs. The entire building is decorated with carvings, floral arabesques and reliefs of birds and animals, the teak doors are also beautifully decorated with sculptures and reliefs. After the visit to the monastery our horse cart directed finally to the old town passing trough the western gate of the remains of the citywalls. The 30 m high Nan Myint Watch Tower is the only building that remains of the royal palace of King Bagyidaw destroyed during the earthquake of 1838. Today inside the old city walls farms, villages and ruined pagodas are all mixed together. Particularly interesting is the masonry monastery Maha Aung Myay Bon Zan (Maha Aungmye Bonzan) built with brick and stucco in imitation of traditional wooden styles. This monastery is one of the finest specimens of Myanmar architecture from the 19th century Konbaung Period. Its architecture imitates the architecture of wooden monasteries with multiple roofs and a prayer hall with a seven-tiered superstructure. Beside there is the Htilaingshin (Htilainshin) Pagoda, which dates back to the Pagan period.
Our horse cart tour finished at about 16:30 just on time to go to Amarapura for the sunset at the U Bein Bridge.

Inwa

The Maha Aungmye Bonzan Monastery

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This rickety teak bridge is claimed to be the longest teak bridge in the world that spans shallow Taunthaman Lake. Constructed in 1849 it has constantly been in use. At some points there were drawbridges built to allow the royal barges and war boats to go under the bridge in the old days.

U Bein Bridge

This rickety teak bridge is claimed to be the longest teak bridge in the world.

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