Myanmar is known as a religious country, outstandingly with Buddhism. Therefore, coming to this country, tourists will have a chance to visit gorgeous and magnificent architecture of famous golden pagodas and temples. Among some cities which are already open for tourism, Bagan is always worth visiting. The tourism services in this city have reached an admirable development.
Along with that, the special structures of temples, monasteries and pagodas in this city are also very outstanding as Myanmar travel highlights. In this article, let us together explore one of the famous temples in Bagan that attracts tremendous tourists nowadays. Its name is Thatbinnyu.
Thatbinnyu Temple is a majestic temple built in Bagan City, Myanmar. It traced back to 1144, the year it was constructed under the order of King Alaungsithu. It is located in the Northeast of the Old Bagan. It is such a great destination as from there, tourists can easily move to the nearby with many other famous place to visit, namely Ananda, Mahabodhi and Gawdawpalin. In other articles, there will be useful rough guide to Myanmar for us so that we can explore more about the beauty and attraction of the places above as other interesting suggestions for tourists once coming to visit Bagan.
With the height of over 60 meters, Thatbinnyu Temple has been known worldwide as one of the highest temples in the country of Golden Pagodas in general, and in Bagan in particular. From many delta areas in Bagan, you can catch the sight of the temple easily despite the far distance. According to reviews for travelling in Burma, it even stands out from the other surrounding religious structures in the region with the height and the gorgeousness.
While Shwezigon pagoda was built in the single-floor construction style, Thatbinnyu is one of two first structures in Bagan to be constructed with the double-floor style. In spite of the difference in construction style, both of them are really attractive and impressive as top Myanmar travel highlights to tourists all over the world.
Religious structures in Bagan are really unique and outstanding with a totally different style, which is presented clearly in many buildings, one of which is Thatbinnyu. After this construction, there are also many others to be built along to form and further develop the architectural style in Bagan. For example, there are structures such as Sulamani, built in 1183; Gawdawpalin, built in the early 13th century and Htilominlo, built in 1211. As Myanmar top attractions, they were all constructed with the multi-floor style for temples or pagodas in Myanmar.
The square-shape background of this temple, Thatbinnyu, is about 58 meters in length. On low ground, there set a structure of the brick coated with stucco. There are three receding terraces on the top and the first storey. In each of the floor corners, there is a small tower to be constructed, which creates a symmetrical structure for the whole temple. The architectural style is not hard to find in other areas in Burma, and one of the features what Myanmar is known for.
According to Jataka tales, there are many giant pagodas in Bagan such as Ananda or Sulamani which have a set of plaques made from glazed terracotta. They use to be parts of the ground and terraces. Although there are still over 500 plaques around the steps of Thatbinnyu Temple, and they are still well-preserved at the moment, there are also many Jataka plaques to be missed with some causes. The plaques can be one of the attractions of the temple in the eyes of visitors for a trip to Myanmar travel highlights. Therefore, the question posed for the local citizens and authorities is to maintain and restore them as much as possible in the near future, so that the original beauty of the temple can be respected.
On the top of the massive structure is a smaller cubic shape where places the main Buddha statue which is decorated in a square. The surrounding is a giant corridor.
The very top of the pagoda was formed by a sikhara tower, which is shorter and smaller compared to the A Nan and it is not gilded as well. On the top of sikhara, there is a gilded hti, which is a decorator in shape of a torch. It was found in almost all temples of Myanmar and in the form of umbrellas. The feature is recorded in almost all best Myanmar books.
All the four sides of the pagoda have a curved entrance forming out from the main construction. In the East of the structure, from Burma travel reviews, there is the main entrance which is longer than three other corridors, which somehow breaks the symmetry of the temple. The protective corridors around is to surround a large number of Buddha statues sitting in the arch on the wall.
Several statues of Nats are worshiped in Burma before Buddhism was introduced in here. Tourists can easily find the statues when walking in the temple.
The temple was badly damaged in the 1975 earthquake. After that, it was restored several years later but still reserved the beauty as one of Myanmar travel highlights. Tourists and local people when visiting the temple are prevented from stepping on the Tobyinnyu steps so that it would not be further damaged.
Not too far from Thatbyinnyu, there is a small temple, whose name is Tally. After constructing Thatbyinnyu, there are a number of bricks left. Obviously, with over 10,000 brick stones for building, there must be redundant and burmese people at that time take advantages of it. They use the leftovers for the construction of another temple and that was Tally. It is also an attractive Burma travel highlight for tourists to drop in when they visit Thatbyinnyu. Like in other beautiful temples or pagodas in the country, Tally is also designed delicately. It is a good idea to spend some times in the temple and take nice shoots of photos for a trip to Myanmar.
On the floor of a monastery near Thatbyinnyu, there are two stone bases which are used to keep a big copper bell, which was left during the time of construction the temple for worshipping King Alaungsithu.
There are so many interesting things to explore in a trip to Myanmar, especially when you spend time on visiting beautiful religious structures such as temples and pagodas. Burma is well-known to be a country of the special structures, and it would be a pity if you cannot spend time walking around the pagodas. Thatbyinnyu temple is one of the options for Myanmar travel highlights when you decide to visit Bagan. With the above instructions and suggestions, hopefully you can have a memorable trip to the place with interesting experiences.