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INVENTORY OF MONUMENTS AT


PAGAN


INVENTAIRE DES MONUMENTS


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Pierre Pichard


Volume One
Monuments 1 - 255


KISCADALE EFEO UNESCO


The ideas and opinions expressed in this book are
those of the author and do not necessarily
represent the views of UNESCO.


Les idées et les opinions exprimées dans cet
ouvrage sont celles de I’auteur et ne reflétent pas
nécessairement les vues de I'UNESCO.


First Published in 1992 by the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
7, Place de Fontenoy

75700 Paris, France


and by


Paul Strachan, Kiscadale (Ltd.)
Gartmore, Stirlingshire, FK8 3RJ
Scotland


UNESCO wishes to express its appreciation to the
Ecole frangaise d’Extréme-Orient (22, avenue du
President Wilson, 75116 Paris) whose invaluable
work has made this Inventory possible.


Designed and typeset by
Francoise Boudignon and Pierre Pichard


All photographs by the author, unless
otherwise indicated


Printed by Colorcraft in Hong Kong
© UNESCO 1992


ISBN (UNESCO ) 92-3-102795-6
ISBN (KISCADALE ) 1 870838 01 7


CONTENTS


Preface Vil
Acknowledgements IX
Abbreviations X
Introduction

English 3

Frangais 11

(ego 19
Conventions and Terminology 30
Monuments 1 to 255 61


Tabular Index


English 391
Frangais 394
[e§eo 397
Tables 401
Alphabetical List of Monuments 408


Maps 411


PREFACE


Pagan, erstwhile capital of Burma* (1044-1287), has more than once been likened to a
resplendent jewel in its magical setting on a bend in the Ayeyawadi River which flows from
the northern highlands of the country down to the Andaman Sea.

The quality of permanence conferred on the site by the awesome presence of over 2000
Buddhist monuments was shattered when a huge earthquake occurred on 8 July 1975. Few
of the exquisite relics of that venerable past were left unscathed.

The damage sustained was so appalling that the shock left the population of Myanmar
initially with a sense of numbness and dismay. Yet, as might be expected of so creative a
people, this feeling of distress was very soon overtaken by a proper concern for the recovery
and reconstruction of what many regard as a pivotal emblem of national unity. The cultural
and religious importance of Pagan for the population of Myanmar led the authorities to set up
an advisory board of experts from a wide range of the nation’s departments and institutions
including the Department of Archaeology, the Construction Corporation, the Yangon Institute
of Technology and the Department of Religious Affairs. The Government allocated a special
budget to the restoration work, and donations flowed in from grass-roots level throughout the
country. Some of the most urgently needed equipment was provided in the form of supplies,
photogrammetric records and funds, notably from the French, German and Japanese
Governments.

It was soon apparent that the task exceeded the possibilities and resources available in
the country and the Government accordingly appealed to UNESCO for help. The Organization
responded by sending a consultant architect-restorer, Mr Pierre Pichard, who is the author
of the present work. Since 1980, three UNESCO projects, financed by UNDP, have
contributed to the surveying, restoration and rehabilitation of the Pagan monuments.
Operations began with the selection of a number of buildings as pilot projects for the
identification of appropriate ways to brace these in the event of future earthquakes. In the
same context, local teams were formed by the Department of Archaeology and were trained
by UNESCO consultants. A programme of research for the preservation of stucco work, wall
paintings and brickwork was also instituted and many outstanding works have been saved.

There has long been a need for a comprehensive inventory of architectural riches on the
site, and it was therefore decided to publish between 1992 and 1997 anine-volume collection
of richly illustrated descriptions of the Pagan monuments. The high quality of this first volume,
with its breadth of scope and exemplary attention to detail, will provide scholars and
researchers now and in the future with an invaluable work of reference.

My thanks are due to all those who have contributed to this work, and in particular to Mr
Pierre Pichard, the Myanmar Department of Archaeology, the Ecole francaise d’Extréme
Orient and UNDP. When completed, the nine volumes will stand as an admirable achievement
of scholarship in the service of our common cultural heritage.


* Now Myanmar Federico Mayor
Director-General


of UNESCO
VII


Acknowledgements


Numerous persons and institutions have given the most generous help in preparing this
Inventory.


- Department of Archaeology (Ministry of Planning and Finance), Yangon and Pagan
- United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Yangon

- United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Paris
and Bangkok.

- Ecole frangaise d’Extréme-Orient (EFEO), Paris and Pondicherry

- Kiscadale Publications, Gartmore.


- U Aung Kyaing (Pagan): general assistance throughout the field work.

- U Bo Kay (Pagan): epigraphical references.

- U Maung Maung and Mg. Win Tun Aung (Pagan): assistance to measurement of
monuments and preparation of drawings.

- U Nyunt Han and U Than Swe (Yangon): support to the project and administrative
assistance.

- L. Dorairaj and Ganesa Maréchal (Pondicherry): completion of drawings.

- S. Natarajan and G. Ravindran (Pondicherry): processing and printing of
photographs.

- U Myo Nyunt and U Ye Myint (Yangon): assistance to drawings.

- Tilman Frash (Heidelberg): final check of epigraphical references.

- Denise Bernot (Paris), Louise Pichard (Rouen) and Paul Strachan (Gartmore):
advise on transcription of monument names.

- John Okell (SOAS, London): use of Avalaser fonts.

- John Sanday (Kathmandu): first correction of English texts.

- Christian Manhart (UNESCO): decisive support to the project.

- Frangoise Boudignon (Paris): assistance on field work and publication.

- U Thaw Kaung and Mg. Myat Thaw Kaung: help with the typesetting of Myanmar.


lam extremely grateful to all of them, and to the people of Pagan for their constant help
and genuine interest in my activities.


Pierre Pichard
Pondicherry, 1992


Abbreviations


AD Anno Domini
ASB Archaeological Survey of Burma
ASI Archaeological Survey of India
BE Burmese Era
BBHC_ Bulletin of the Burma Historical Commission, Rangoon, 1960-63
BEFEO Bulletin de |'Ecole Frangaise d'Extréme-Orient, Hanoi-Paris, 1901- .
Dept. Department of Archaeology
Const. Corp. Construction Corporation (Public Works after 1990)
JBRS__ Journal of the Burma Research Society, Rangoon, 1910-79
JBRS-50/2 __ Journal of the Burma Research Society, Fiftieth Anniversary Publications,
Vol. 2, Rangoon, 1960
Listed 1921 Monument included in the Amended List of Ancient Monuments in Burma,
Rangoon, 1921
Listed 1972 Monument included in the cq cuxé sacsooma5ap ooqé [List of Ancient
Monuments in the care of the Department of Archaeology], Rangoon, 1972


YIT Yangon Institute of Technology


Epigraphical references


EM E Mauna, Selection from the Inscriptions of Pagan, Rangoon University 1958.
1B Luce, G.H. and Pe Maun Tin, /nscriptions of Burma, Portfolios | to V,
Rangoon University, Oriental Studies Publications, nos. 2-6, O.U.P., 1933-56.

List A List of Inscriptions found in Burma, Part 1, Government Press, Rangoon,

1921.
OBI-| Nyein Maunc, Old Burmese Inscriptions from BE 474 to BE 600, Archaeology
Department, Rangoon, 1972.
OBI-Il_ Nyein Maunc, Old Burmese Inscriptions from BE 600 to BE 622, Archaeology
Department, Rangoon, 1982.
OBI-IIl_ Nyein Maunc, Old Burmese Inscriptions from BE 622 to BE 699, Archaeology
Department, Rangoon, 1983.
OBI-IV__Nyein Mauna, Old Burmese Inscriptions from BE 700 to BE 799 Archaeology
Department, Rangoon.
OBI-V__Nyein Mauna, Old Burmese Inscriptions from BE 800 to BE 998, Archaeology
Department, Rangoon.
PPA Inscriptions of Pagan, Pinya and Ava, Government Press, Rangoon, 1892.
PPA/tn Tun Nyein, Inscriptions of Pagan, Pinya and Ava: translation with notes,
Government Press, Rangoon, 1899.

SIP Pe Maunc Tin ano Luce, G.H., Selections from the Inscriptions of Pagan,
University of Rangoon, Oriental Studies Publications 1, British Burma Press,
Rangoon, 1928.

UB-I Inscriptions collected from Upper Burma, Government Press, Rangoon, UB-//
Vol. |, 1900 - Vol. Il, 1903.


INTRODUCTION


iy i bey | AS: 7 eee 8 a


Temples 150 Eik-taw-gyi, 147 Tha-kya-muni and 146 Shwe-thabeik on the river bank, from south


INTRODUCTION


The need for an inventory of Pagan monuments has been sorely felt for a long time: already
in the fifteenth century, according to chronicles, King Mohnyin of Ava ordered them to be
counted and found their number to exceed 4,000.

The archaeological site, where the capital of the first Myanmar kingdom was located from
1044 to 1287 AD, is well known for having more than 2,000 Buddhist brick monuments
scattered over it. All domestic buildings, from houses to palaces and monastic outbuildings,
were built of wood and bamboo and no sign of them remains today. The archaeological area,
measuring 13 km by 6 km, stretches along the left bank of the Ayeyawadi River which has
always been Myanmar’s vital artery. Pagan itself, till recently a mere village amongst others,
distinguished only by its moat and its brick city wall, is located on the bend where the
Ayeyawadi River turns southwards again after flowing south-westwards from the upper
country.

Numerous books and articles have been published in Myanmar as well as in other
countries on Pagan architecture, but until now all these studies have, understandably
enough, limited their selection to the most famous and venerated monuments. Only a handful
of them have been the subject of monographs : the Ananda Temple’, the Loka-hteik-pan
Temple?, the Kubyauk-gyi Temples in Myinkaba® and in Wetkyi-in*. Old Burma-Early Pagan
by G.H. Luce® is without doubt the most comprehensive study on Pagan but, as its title
suggests, it deals only with the first half of the Pagan period and does not include the
numerous monuments built after 1165 AD. The Pictorial Guide to Pagan® provides photographs
of forty-seven monuments with a short note on each of them. A Research Guide to Pagan (in
Myanmar), by U Bo Kay’, contains descriptions of more than one hundred monuments but
without either plans or photographs. Lastly, the lavishly illustrated monograph on Pagan by
Paul Strachan® describes seventy-five monuments.

Articles on Pagan published in various magazines or scholarly bulletins usually feature


1 DUROISELLE, Charles. The Ananda Temple at Pagan, AS|- Memoirs No. 56., New Delhi, 1937.

BA SHIN and LUCE, G.H. The Lokahteikpan, Early Burmese Culture in a Pagan Temple, Rangoon,

1962.

3 LUCE, G.H., and BA SHIN. ‘Pagan Myinkaba Kubyauk-gyi of Rajakumar (1113 AD) and the Old Mon
writings on its walls’, in BHHC Il, 1961, pp. 277-416.

4 BA SHIN, LUCE, G.H., et al. ‘Pagan, Wetkyi-in Kubyauk-gyi, an early Burmese Temple with Ink

Glosses’, in Artibus Asiae, XXXIll, 1971, pp. 194-200.

LUCE, G.H. Old Burma-Early Pagan , 3 volumes, Artibus Asiae, Ascona and Locust Valley, 1969.

LU PE WIN. Pictorial Guide to Pagan, Rangoon,1954, and several reprints.

BO KAY. 9629602093006 :a3§ [Research Guide to Pagan], Rangoon, 1981.

STRACHAN, Paul. Pagan, Art and Architecture of Old Burma , Arran, 1989.


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Inventory of Monuments at Pagan


panoramic photographs of the site preceding historical or architectural descriptions of the
principal monuments, and when they do include architectural drawings, these nearly always
consist of already frequently published small-scale plans of Ananda or That-byin-nyu
Temples.

Photographs (the most complete collection of which is at the Department of Archaeology,
Yangon) constitute the only surviving documentation on the actual shape and details of the
buildings prior to the damage wrought by the earthquake of 8 July 1975. However, the existing
collections are not complete, not having been systematically assembled, and once again give
priority to the most important monuments. The case is similar in respect of architectural
records and drawings: photogrammetric recording was carried out on 16 monuments by the
French IGN (Institut géographique national), and further monuments have been surveyed
each year since 1982 by the photogrammetric unit of Yangon Institute of Technology. Based
on field surveys implemented between 1963 and 1976, a portfolio? published in 1986 includes
an exhaustive record of the That-byin-nyu Temple (plan of each level, elevations, sections
and details) and some drawings from fifteen other renowned monuments.

These major monuments, however, are not as a rule the most significant. Because they
have always been important places of worship and pilgrimage for the Myanmar people, with
monks gathering and collecting public donations, they have also been regularly maintained
and periodically renovated, except during periods of great disturbance (there are numerous
inscriptions, from the thirteenth century to the present day, which celebrate the installation
of a new image of Buddha, the fitting of a new finial on top of a monument, the repair of
masonry following an earthquake, etc.), and occasionally altered and whitewashed. Whatever
the importance of monuments such as Shwe-zigon or Ananda on the Pagan skyline, and in
the study of epigraphy and iconography, it must be acknowledged that an immense number
of secondary monuments, some of which are in fair condition and others more or less
dilapidated, provide a more reliable archaeological record of the Pagan period. Yet, apart
from a few exceptions, these ‘secondary’ monuments have never been studied, recorded or
systematically photographed.

Furthermore, a comparative study of all these monuments bears witness to the creativity
of Myanmar architects. It has been said that no two monuments are identical in Pagan, and
this is probably correct; the present inventory shows that the differences are not a matter of
afew centimetres in size or slight variations in decorative patterns, but actually result in most
cases from the genuine diversity of the architectural design.

The chief distinction of the Pagan monuments traditionally lies between temples and
stupas; temples have an accessible interior space, sometimes complex (entrance hall,
ambulatory corridor, shrine, etc.), housing one or more images of the Buddha; stupas are
solid monuments around which people can walk but which have no access to the interior.
Concealed in the core of the masonry however are small cavities sheltering relics or precious
consecrated objects ritually deposited at the time of construction: a stupa, therefore, is a


° DEPARTMENT OF HIGHER EDUCATION (Rangoon University). Traditional Burmese Architecture,
Rangoon, 1986.


Introduction


reliquary. These stupas usually appear as bellshaped domes resting on receding terraces,
sometimes accessible by exterior stairways and crowned by conical spires.

Temples, whose central shape consists more or less of a cube topped by tiered terraces,
are classically crowned by a square tower with a curved profile, which in Pagan is known as
a sikhara, an analogy with the towers of Orissan temples. Even this distinction between
temple and stupa is not always so evident. In the first place, numerous temples culminate in
the dome and spire of a stupa rather than a sikhara and, as some stupas are erected ona
cube-like masonry base (e.g. 38), the resulting external shape tends to be rather similar.
Secondly, a stupa may have one or more niches sheltering images of the Buddha and, again,
some temples built on a circular plan are very much like stupas save for the presence of one
or several porches (e.g. 164). In this inventory, every monument with a defined accessible
inner space, indicated from the outside by a porch, is classified as a temple. Inversely,
monuments where niches, even if rather large in size with external pilasters and a pediment,
are inaccessible to people are classified as stupas. This distinction is admittedly arbitrary and
ambiguous in borderline cases (temples with independent shrines and without corridor, e.g.
263, 1588), and does not take account of the specific Myanmar vocabulary which is quite
abundant but too often imprecise.

Among the temples and monasteries, well-known designs display either a central shrine
under a cloister vault, or a central solid core surrounded by a barrel-vaulted corridor with a
Buddha image in a niche on each side of the core. As previously noted the corridor may also
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