Myanmar is a country in the Southeast Asia, with an area of 676,578 km². The Myanmar economy is not as developed as its neighbors in the region and was once classified as a low-economic country. However, this country has many indigenous cultures such as Buddhism and Bamar. In traditional Myanmar villages, temples are the center of cultural life. The monks are respected and burmese people always show respect to them. Myanmar is a Buddhist country, or also being known as a country of famous Myanmar sites including golden pagodas. The pagoda has a unique architecture with many high towers gilded with many sets of bible and impressive Buddha statues. Besides the temples, Myanmar also has many unique statues which bring out the features of a Buddhist country.
As a country with more than a million pagodas, obviously Myanmar has several million Buddha statues. Visiting Myanmar, tourists will be able to contemplate many statues; each of them symbolizes a particular meaning in Buddhism. Getting to Myanmar, visitors will find that this country is known as the land of golden pagodas with many interesting tales and legends about the Buddha statues. All of them have unique characteristics that cannot be seen anywhere else.
The next is Monywa Buddha statue. Monywa is a city in central Myanmar with many outstanding Myanmar sites for tourism. It is located on the banks of Chindwin River. In the east of the city, there is a place called Po Khaung Taung, where you can see Monywa Buddha statue – the largest statue in the world. The length of this Lying Statue is up to a huge number – 90 meters, and 130 meters high. Monywa Buddha was made in 1991 and completely empty inside. Therefore, visitors can walk from the top to the foot of the Buddha.
Shwedagon Pagoda is located in Yangon. It is also a famous Buddhist temple in this country. It is considered to be the oldest temple in Myanmar and is over 2,600 years old. The temple keeps four treasures of Buddha. Getting to Burma, it must be a very good chance for you to discover the interesting features of Burmese religion. They are the Buddha cane of Kakusandha, the water filter of Konagamana Buddha, a piece of shirt of Kassapa Buddha and eight hairpieces of Gautama Buddha. Shwe- means gold and Dagon is the old name of Yangon. In this temple, there is a precious jade statue but it is removed and the Myanmar people are not interested in it. Therefore, this statue was named “The rejected Buddha statue”. The reason is that this statue was donated by a general in the military group and its face looks like the face of this general.
Near the Shwedagon Pagoda, there is another famous Myanmar sites, Chaukhtatgyi Paya Temple, which has a giant Lying Buddha statue. This statue describes a Buddha statue opening his eyes to the see the world. This Buddha statue has glitter blue eyes. The crystal eyes were made by Myanmar’s most famous crystal and glass manufacturing company.
Not far from the pagoda, there is another pagoda with a great sitting Buddha named Ngadatkyi Paya Pagoda. It is also an attractive Myanmar tourist sites. Especially, the Buddha statue wears a “shirt” made of gold, with shoulder straps and shields cover. It looks like a golden armor. This statue was also offered by the military corporation. Thus, Myanmar people called it “the Buddha statue wearing armor”.
Mandalay has a famous temple called Mahamuni Buddha Temple. This temple is well-known for a golden statue, which is covered by a scabrous layer like toad’s skin. The Buddha Statue is worshiped because it is a description of the Buddha’s life. This statue was made when he was still alive. According to legends, when the Buddha visited the city of Dhaniyawani in Arakan, King Sanda Thuriya asked the Buddha for creating a statue. After finishing, the Buddha breathed into the statue. So it is said to be the living statue of the Great Buddha. Burmese and Buddhists all over the world love to visit this Myanmar sites and put golden pieces on the statue (except for the face), which makes the statues look like a scabrous golden block. Today this gilded layer is thicker than 15cm.
Around the area of Inle Lake in Shan State, Phaung Dau OO Temple is famous for five statues of Buddha that look like golden blocks. Originally, that five statues are also like the others. Then, Buddhist believers have put gold leaves all over on them. Due to that, the Buddha statues these days have became five blocks of gold. In October, there is a festival to pick up these five statues in the boat resembling the Hinthong bird-shaped boat in Yangon. There are many Myanmar tourist sitesmention this as an outstanding traditional festival of the country. The activity goes around the lake clockwise. Then, the boat stops in a big village. The statue was moved to the temple of this village for the local people to worship overnight and continue on the next day.
Manuha Temple is one of the oldest temple in Bagan. It was built in 1067 by prisoner King Manuha of Mon. In the past, King Manuha of Thaton acquired the Tripitaka sacred Buddhist scriptures. King Anawrahta demanded that King Manuha had to return it but he disagreed. Then King Anawrahta pulled the army to invade and captured King Manuha and brought to a prison in Bagan. Manuha was allowed to build a temple to lead a religious life. He built the temple called after his name there. The temple expressed the grievance for his imprisonment. It would be a great experience if you spend your time for adventure Myanmar in this temple. In the temple, there are three sitting statues and one lying statue. All the statues were detained in narrow rooms like cells. Particularly, the statue of Buddha, who was imprisoned but still smiling, was said to be in the mood of King Manuha saying that only when he died would he be released from captivity.
Myanmar is a country with millions of temples. Almost all Burmese people are Buddhists, so the Buddha statues here are all unique and have their own beauty. You should visit Myanmar – a country dominated by Buddhism once to contemplate the beautiful Myanmar sites with unique Buddha statues and cultural features that no where else has.
