Golden Mrauk Oo

8/14/2019 Golden Mrauk Oo

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By Douglas Long

It is nearly impossible to think about the ancient

ruins o Mrauk U without comparing them to

Bagan. Bagan is bigger, grander and more amous, but Mrauk U is

more mysterious and remote, and thereore less crowded. While

Bagan is a location as well as an experience, Mrauk U is both o

these plus a journey, a destination book-ended by 65-kilometre

boat trips away rom Sittwe on the coast o Rakhine State and

back again. Getting there is part o the adventure.


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Founded around 1430, Mrauk U is quite a bit

younger than Bagan, which entered its goldenera around the 11th century AD. Mrauk U was the

last capital o the Rakhine kingdom, preceded

by royal cities such as Dhanyawaddy, Vesali and

Launggret. The latter was ounded in 1251 andserved as the capital until 1406, when it was

invaded by the king o Inwa. For the next 24

years, armies rom central Myanmar, Inwa and

Bago battled nearly constantly or control o the

city, and it traded hands a number o times.

Following the 1406 invasion, the Rakhine King

Minsawmon had been orced to ee to Bengal.In 1429 he attacked Launggret and won it backonce and or all. According to legend, a series

o bad omens prompted him to seek another

site or the capital with the help o astrologers.Historians say the king was simply dissatisfed

with the geographical vulnerability o Launggret,

which sat in the middle o a plain. He is said to

have chosen Mrauk U because o its location ina valley surrounded by deensible mountains.

Mrauk U was the Rakhine capital rom 1430 to

1785, during which time it gained great wealth as

a duty-ree port that attracted large numbers omerchants rom near and ar, including westerncountries such as the Netherlands, Portugal and

According to legend, a series o bad

omens prompted King Minsawmonto seek another site or the capital

with the help o astrologers.

Kothaung Pagoda

Spain. King Minbin (1531-1553) built a large

naval eet with modern cannon to patrol 1600

kilometres o coastal territory. Chronicles romthe period claim the number o ships reached

10,000. In addition to deensive walls that werebuilt to join higher natural points, a network

o moats was dug to supply resh water, and

or transportation and deence. In 1623 the

Rakhine became even more ormidable whenJapanese samurai came to Mrauk U to serve

as royal guards.

Much o this history and more can be digestedat the Rakhine State Cultural Museum in Sittwe.


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While it is possible leave or Mrauk U by boat

shortly ater arriving at the airport, the museum

and other sights around town make it worth

staying or at least one night.

My travel companion and I opted to linger,

checking out the Jama Mosque, Lokananda

Paya and the markets flled with products

imported rom neighbouring Bangladesh. In late

aternoon we hired a trishaw to take us to the

Point, an arrow o land where the Kaladan River

ows into the Bay o Bengal. Along the way, wepassed groups o locals strumming guitars by

the road, playing ootball and repairing boats

The remote mysteries o Mrauk U

Rakhine State Cultural Museum in Sittwe

The winding hallways are lined with Buddha

fgures and lead to the cave-like central

chamber with the main Buddha image.

on the tidal ats, and pulling fshing nets in

rom the shallows. We reached the Point just intime to enjoy a drink while watching the sunset.

Waves crashed on the rocks where black crabsscuttled. When darkness ell, red lights came

on in the fshing boats o the coast. When the

beauty o the sea became too much to bear,

we walked back down the road to Gisspanadi

Restaurant, deservedly amous or its resh

seaood dishes.

Our boat or Mrauk U let at 7:15am the nextmorning. Like the locals, we huddled in our sling

chairs against the chilly December morning asthe erry pulled away rom the dock and into

the wide river. Relative warmth came pretty

quickly though, and ater a couple hours I was

able to snap photos without my hands shakingtoo badly rom the cold. The river narrowed and

twisted as we passed a series o picturesque

towns Po Knarr Kyaun (overlooked by a hilltop

pagoda), Set Tharr (a small town with a long

pier) and Pya Te (a big town with a short pier)

on our way to Mrauk U.

We reached our destination just past 1:00pm,

giving us time to explore a bit beore dark. The


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Sunset at the Point in Sittwe

distances in Mrauk U are not as great as those

in Bagan, so we took o on oot, heading northto the pagodas closest to our hotel.

Our frst encounter was with Shittaung Pagoda(Shrine o 80,000 Images), named or the number

o religious images placed inside by its builder,King Minbin. The central stupa, surrounded bynearly 30 smaller shrines, has thick walls that

lend a dark, eerie atmosphere to the interior. The

winding hallways are lined with Buddha fgures

and lead to the cave-like central chamber withthe main Buddha image. Also at the shrine is

the three-metre-high Shittaung Pillar, broughtto the site rom Vesali by King Minbin in 1535.

Three sides are inscribed with Sanskrit-language

chronicles o Rakhine history.

Northeast o Shittaung is the octagonal

Andaw Paya, said to contain a Buddha tooth

relic brought by King Minbin rom Sri Lanka.Outside, we could hear monks chanting in a

nearby monastery and children shouting and

playing in the adjacent village.

Ater a stop at the solid-brick Ratanabon Pagoda,

we walked through a small valley on a dirt track

that we shared with villagers carrying wood, aswell as with wandering gangs o goats, cattle

The winding hallways are lined with Buddha

fgures and lead to the cave-like central

chamber with the main Buddha image.


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and dogs. Despite the company, we basked

in the late aternoon serenity o the place aswe wandered past the awkwardly leaning

Laungbyanpauk Paya, with its glazed tiles o

red, yellow, blue and green, and the tiny PitakaTaik, built in 1591 as a repository or the books

o the Buddhist canon.

From the valley oor we scampered up a

hillside to check out Mahabodhi Shwegu and

Ratanasanraway Pagoda beore descending toa smoky village o barking dogs and children

shouting Bye bye! as we approached. On thear side was the 55-metre-high Ratanamanaung

Pagoda, to the east o which was Laykhinpyin

feld, once used as a training ground or Rakhine

soldier archers. With the day and our strength

waning, we bushwhacked to another hilltop

to watch the sun go down. Local women sang,laughed and waved to us rom the bottom o

the hill. The bats that itted across the darkening

sky looking or insects to eat reminded us that

we were hungry too, so we climbed back downand set out in search o dinner.

The next day we opted to rely on our eet once

again, even though we had much greater distancesto travel. There was Laymyetnha Paya, with its

small, circular hallway around a central Buddha,


To the east o Ratanamanaung Pagoda was

Laykhinpyin feld, once used as a training

ground or Rakhine soldier archers.

Thousand o Buddha images line the passageways o Kothaung Pagoda


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Still waters refect the pagodas and sky o Mrauk U.

ollowed by Dukkanthein Paya, whose layout is

based on a creepy spiralling hallway lined with146 Buddha alcoves that allows a smattering osunlight to pass through and illuminate even

the innermost chamber.

We wandered ootpaths through small villagesand past jungle monasteries on our way to gilded

Sakyamanaung Paya, and then ollowed a wider

dirt road or the long trek to Kothaung Pagoda

(Shrine o 90,000 Images), the biggest in MraukU. It was built by King Mintaikkha, son o King

Minbin, in 1553 to outdo his athers Shittaungpagoda by 10,000 images. Some say thats why

it was ound in such a state o disrepair, having

been struck by lighting or the disrespect KingMintaikkha had shown to his ather.

The last stop on our agenda was the old palacearea. Theres not much let except the 3.5-metre-

high sandstone walls, which are impressiveenough. Also on the site is an archaeological

museum displaying arteacts rom the Vesali,

Launggret and Mrauk U periods. But where

the magnifcently lacquered and gilded teak

residence o kings and queens once stood is

now a weed-covered lawn pocked with pits

dug by archaeologists working to uncover the

lost glories o the past.

Ater dark on our last evening beore headingback to Sittwe, we went or a walk outside o

town. Out there, past where the streetlightsended, twinkling stars and ashing freies

competed to be the main source o light. We

could see almost nothing, but we could hear

disembodied voices singing, laughing and

shouting rom a nearby village. Despite the loss

o the ancient palace and other monuments to

the ravages o time, it was easy to imagine thatthe nights would have sounded pretty much

the same hundreds o years ago, when Mrauk

U was at the height o its power.

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Golden Mrauk Oo