Ananda Temple

Ananda is the largest, most important and graceful. It was built with a cross-shaped floor plan, giving it the interior proportions of a church. This bold whitewashed temple contrasts with the other mostly redbrick versions, with ornate trimmings and fancy spires setting it clearly apart. The spires were recently layered with gold leaf and glow majestically at sunset. Inside is a beautiful golden standing Buddha and next door, a small chapel with some fine old murals.

According to the Glass Palace Chronicle, the Ananda Temple was inspired by the visit to Kyansittha’s palace of eight Indian monks, who arrived one morning begging for alms. They told the king they had once lived in the legendary Nandamula cave temple in the Himalaya Mountain. Kyansittha, always fascinated by Buddhist tales, invited the monks to return to his palace daily during the rainy season to tell him more about this imaginary province. By virtue of their meditation, the monks were able to make the mythical landscape appear before Kyansittha’s eyes – and the king, overwhelmed, immediately opted to build a replica of this snow-covered cave on the hot, dry plain of central Myanmar.

When the great temple was completed, Kyansittha is said to have been so awe-struck by its unique style that he personally executed the architect by Brahmin ritual to assure that the temple could not be duplicated, thereby sealing its permanence and importance.

In the niches facing the four cardinal points are four 9 ½ meter (31 foot) tall teak Buddha images which represent the four Buddhas of this world-cycle. Each is dimly lit from the slits in the sanctuary roof, giving one the impression that they not only are hovering, but are striving upward. Gautama, the most recent Buddha, faces west; Kakusandha faces north, Konagamana east and Kassapa south. The north and south facing statues are originals, but those facing east and west are later copies. The originals were destroyed by temple robbers.

Terra-Cotta Jataka

This roof above the central superstructure consists of five successively diminishing terraces. There are 389 terra-cotta glazed tiles here illustrating the last 10 Jataka tales. Together with those inside the temple and at its base, these tiles represent the largest collection of terra-cotta tiles at any Bagan temple.

The temple’s beehive-like crown, capped by a golden stupa which reaches 51 meters above the ground, rises from the tiered roof. Smaller pagodas, copies of the central spire, are at the roof’s four corners, there bearing witness to a measured Buddhist harmony as well as creating the impression of a mountainous Himalayan landscape.

Proof of this temple’s purpose as a place of meditation and learning can be found within Ananda’s labyrinthian corridors. Each of the four main halls contains the same 16 Buddha images as the other three, enabling four groups of Buddhist students to undergo their instruction simultaneously.

From these halls, facing the vestibules containing the large Buddhas, one can continue into the center corridor where 80 reliefs illustrate the life of the Bodhisattva from his birth until his enlightenment. On the west-facing porch are two Buddha footprints, each divided into 108 parts as dictated by ancient texts.

Nearby are two statues of particular interest. One represents Kyansittha, the Ananda Temple’s founding father, and the other, Shin Arahan. By the time the Buddhist primate died in 1115 at the age of 81, he had served four kings.

The most important time of year at the Ananda Temple is January, when the annual temple festival is held. This is a joyous, colorful spectacle. The corridors and vestibules of the temple, while normally lined with small stalls, are especially lively. In recent years, the Ananda Temple Festival has become even more exuberant, if that is possible: since the 1975 earthquake, renovation and repair of the Ananda Temple has been financed entirely through Buddhist generosity.