Mingun Pahtodawgyi

The Mingun Pahtodawgyi is a gigantic brick stump on the west bank of the Irrawaddy: a solid cube of masonry about 50 metres high, split by deep cracks, that was meant to become the largest stupa in the world. It is often described as the biggest pile of bricks ever raised. Seen from the river, it looks less like a building than a cliff, and its sheer bulk makes the people climbing its flanks look tiny.

The project belonged to King Bodawpaya, who reigned from 1782 to 1819 and was known for his grand and eccentric ambitions. Work began in 1790, and the king set up an observation post on an island in the river to watch the construction himself. Much of the labour came from Arakan: thousands of prisoners of war and deported people were put to work on the monument. A small pagoda nearby, the Pondaw, shows what the finished stupa was supposed to look like; it would have stood around 150 metres tall. The strain on the kingdom was enormous, and a story arose that a prophecy foretold the fall of the country, or in another version the death of the king, on the day the stupa was completed. Construction slowed and stopped altogether when Bodawpaya died, leaving the structure at a third of its planned height. On 23 March 1839 a strong earthquake tore the great fissures that now run down its faces The broken remains of giant chinthe, the lion-like guardian figures of Burmese temples, lie nearby.

To go with his stupa, Bodawpaya also had a giant bronze bell cast between 1808 and 1810. The Mingun Bell weighs about 90 tonnes, or 55,555 viss in the traditional Burmese unit, a number remembered through a mnemonic phrase painted on its surface. It was knocked from its supports by the same earthquake of 1839 and rehung in 1896 by the Irrawaddy Flotilla Company. It remained the heaviest ringing bell in the world until 2000 and has no clapper; it is sounded by striking the rim from outside. A small shrine with a Buddha image is still kept inside the stupa, so the site remains a place of worship as well as a ruin.

Getting there

Mingun lies on the Irrawaddy about 11 km northwest of Mandalay, the nearest city, and is reached by ferry from the Mandalay riverfront. The nearest airport is Mandalay International Airport (MDL), about 39 km away.