Mandalay Palace was first built by King Mindon when he shifted his capital from Amarapura in AD 1861, to fulfill an old prophecy. It was built of teak wood on raised brick plinth, gilded with gold and vermillion. This square-shaped palace wall is quarter mile long on each sides. There are 12 gates, 3 on each side. The bricks wall is 25 feet high. It was the official capital and royal palace of the last Myanmar King Thipaw, until British captured him in 1885 and took him to India. Some buildings including wooden pavilions (see later) are original but most of the palace was burnt down in WW2 and has been rebuilt as a replica using modern materials.
We decided to do a walk to the famous Buddha statue, which took us around a lot of the wall of the palace, however instead of being 4km away, the walk took us over 2 hours in the midday heat!!! Got some good picture though. Maha Myat Muni Buddha, is a 4 m-high seated image, cast in bronze and weighs 6.5 tons. It is believed to have been casted in 1AD. Women are not permitted up to the central alter, Andre thought that was great! The crown is decorated with precious diamonds, rubies, and sapphires. This Buddha image is highly venerated, as it is said to be made in front of Buddha himself, and thus its face is most revered. The image is completely covered with 15 cm-thick gold.
Shwenandaw Kyaung, the only surviving part of the original Mandalay Palace, built out of wood. It was moved following King Mindon’s death. It is now a working Monastery and Andre walked around with a Monk for an hour while the Monk practised his English.
This is how they make the gold leaf that is put on Buddha, temples and pagodas. The gold is first rolled and then it is beaten by hand, from standing position with mallets, for a total of seven hours. In the end the gold leaf is in a 5cm square and very thin. It is bought by the worshipers who pay 200 Kyat for one square which is about 20 US cents. It is then stuck on the Buddha statue to bring good luck / fortune for the person.
Some scenes from outside Mandalay Palace looking over the moat to Mandalay Hill.
This is a photo of the guard station outside the palace, our motorbike drivers did not want to get any closer!
The world’s largest book, known as Kuthodaw is a 13-acre field of 729 pieces of stone inscriptions, documenting the whole Buddhist Bible on marble slabs.
Biggest book 2
Mandalay Hill or Su Tuang Pyai Pagoda
The last photos are of a wooden Buddha, made out of one piece of wood (can’t remember if it was Teak or Bodhista tree) then it was time to leave, there was a downpour on the morning we left so we had to get a few shots of the streets flooding (and this is dry season!) and a few shots of the bus station, had to be seen to be believed!
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