Photo Gallery

Minochantha Stupa Group (built c. 1112)

The small Minochantha (also Minochanta) group features the stupa erected under orders of King Kyansittha, who had fallen seriously ill around 1112 AD. A Ceylonese king had sent Kyansittha nine relics of the Buddha as a tribute. According to the marker on the site, the king enshrined the relics in a stupa and said "I am quite old enough, with this meritorious deed may I be free from diseases, may I live a longer life. May the sasana [the Buddhist movement] be flourished. Thus this stupa was named as Min-O-Chantha." Alas, the king died the following year.

The complex is on a raised platform with a small modern wooden shrine along its western face and impressive stupas, guarded by chinthe, the half-lion and half dragon from Hindu-Buddhist mythology. The Minochantha contains an iconographic portrayal of the “Five Sacred Lords” (or hpaya-nga-zu), the five Buddhas of that bhadrakalpa (period).

From the rear of the platform there is a wonderful lookout over part of the vast Bagan plain and its numerous stupas and temples, including those of the magnificent Ananda and Thatbinnyu. From this single, and low, vista, I was able to count 54 separate structures.

Bagan Monument numbers 1924-1930.

Text by Robert D. Fiala, Concordia University, Nebraska