Hmyaw-taw-mu Pagoda Skip to main content

Hmyaw-taw-mu Pagoda

The hillock on which Myawtawmu pagoda stands, is 100 feet high and two furlongs away from the palace site. Although the original donor was not known exactly, the year of renovation of king Min Pha Laung, must be recorded. The place on which Myawtawmu pagoda stands, is a plateau. The brick wall was made around the plateau and the entrance has porches. The brick stairway is an access to climb the top of the mountain. Kwansee entrance gate can be seen if one views from that place. In Mraukoo period, the soldiers who came back from the war, had to enter the city from only that entrance gate.

he pagoda was called Myawtawmu pagoda because the women used to wait for the returning of their husbands, soldiers, to homes from that place. And, it was also the place the women prayed to Buddha by donating light for the victory of the war of their husbands.

In the reign of king Min Kha Maung, a zone officer had to live with his family near Myawtawmu pagoda while he was performing his duties at Ponnawtaung fort. Thus, he had to go to the western province for the war. His wife waited for his coming by staying from Myawtawmu pagoda. She called a soldier to follow her as a guard. One day, the zone officer’s wife donated light and flowers to Buddha going to Myawtawmu pagoda together with the soldier. In that time, the zone officer arrived back home from the war at sunset and when he asked the home maid, he knew that his wife went to Myawtawmu pagoda. He went to Myawtawmu pagoda riding the horse because he was so eager to meet his wife. When he got to the pagoda, he found that his wife was sitting together with the soldier in front of the Buddha image and contemplating the arttibutes of Buddha after she had donated light to Buddha image. As the zone officer was so angry at her with misapprehension, he killed his wife and the soldier in the cave without making any enquiry. One week later, his home maid explained him, therefore, he knew reality about his wife. He felt full of remorse, so he built a pagoda near the pagoda in which he killed his wife in order to salvage his sin. Thus, the unfinished pagoda can still be seen until now as there was no donor to continue building the pagoda. The pagoda in which he killed his wife, had already ruined owing to the treasure hunters.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Byala, a Rakhine National Emblem

by Dr Saw Mra Aung January 04, 2015   T he ceremony to mark the 40th anniversary Rakhine State Day and to provide the Rakhine State with electricity from the national grid line was celebrated on a grand scale in the Vesali Sports Grounds in Sittwe under the auspices of the Rakhine State Government on the 15th December. The ceremony was televised live and I was transported with rapturous joy to see the people of Rakhine State wreathed in the smiles resulting from the feeling that electricity would be available to them at the rate of 35 kyats per unit, which was many times cheaper than that they had incurred in the past. Sharing this happiness with them, I , putting aside my work, spent the whole evening enjoying the Rakhine traditional dances performed with the accompaniment of the songs sung by nation-famous and local vocalists televised.  Out of the dances, it was the Byala Dance with the accompaniment of a song composed about Byala that intrigued me most. Altho

An ancient Arakan silver coin found in Ramree Township

An ancient Arakan silver coin was found at Ko-ran-taung hill in Ramree Township, Arakan when a villager was digging a hole on the ground at the hill. I can't read the script on the coin. However,according my understanding, I guess the writting - Shwe-nann--tha-khon Candavijayaraja (ေရႊနန္းသခင္ စႏၵဝိယဇရာဇာ). The name 'Candavijaya (စႏၵဝိဇယ)' is very sure even though others not sure. King Candavijayaraja ruled Mrauk-U kingdom for twenty-one years - from 1710 A.D up to 1731 A.D. Around Arakan, many coins were found with the name of that king. So, it is most possible that the coin (in photo) recently found in Ramree Township was made by the King Candavijayaraja (စႏၵဝိဇယရာဇာ). Photo - Rakha Maung http://mrauku.blogspot.com/

Parapaw Pagoda

King Maha Thu Ri Ya Tine San Dra founded Vesali in AD 327. His chief queen was Thu Pa Bar Day Vi, the Sakkya clan of Kapilawat kingdom. One day, the queen spoke to the king humbly that she wanted to make obeisance to Thakkyamuni Buddha image which was worshipped by the ancestors of Kapilawat kingdom in belief. The king sent his ministers to Kapilawat kingdom to convey the Buddha image to Vesali. Thakkyamuni Buddha image carried by the sailing ship to Vesali, fell into the water at Waykhanaungtheinzeetount because the sailing ship wrecked due to the storm. In such time, it has said that Waykhanaung was 120 feet in depth. However they dived into the water to look for it, they didn’t find the image. When the ministers arrived at the palace, they told the king that the Buddha image had fallen into the water. When the queen heard that news, she contracted with the psychological disease because she wanted to make obeisance to the Buddha image intensely. And then, king Maha Tine San Dra made