Phowintaung

On a low sandstone hill west of the Chindwin River in central Myanmar, hundreds of small chambers have been cut into the rock, one beside another, many no bigger than a niche and others deep enough to hold rows of seated Buddhas. Inside, the walls and ceilings are painted with geometric patterns, scenes from the Jataka tales of the Buddha's earlier lives and figures of the Buddha himself, so that a walk along the hillside becomes a series of glimpses into small, densely decorated rooms. Estimates of the number of caves vary from several hundred to nearly a thousand, and one count puts the number of Buddha images inside them at around 2,600.

Phowintaung – also written Hpowindaung or Po Win Taung – is a Theravada Buddhist complex. Its name is usually given as "the mountain of solitary meditation", and a few of the caves may have begun as natural hollows. Most were carved by hand as places of devotion and pilgrimage, and the statues and paintings that survive have been dated between the 14th and the 18th centuries, which makes the hill a long record of Burmese religious art from the period after Bagan. Among the most elaborate chambers is a winding 18th-century cave lined with some seventy Buddha figures.

Not everything has come down intact. Theft and vandalism during the 20th century damaged a good part of the statues and paintings, so the condition of the caves varies a great deal from one chamber to the next, from bare rock to walls still covered edge to edge with colour. The pilgrimage tradition here was long tied to a protective female spirit, Po Win Shin Tha, and the hill remains a place of worship as well as a gallery of centuries of devotional craft, with stupas standing among the cave mouths on the slope.

Getting there

The caves are in Yinmabin Township of Sagaing Region, on the west bank of the Chindwin, about 17 km in a straight line from Monywa and around 25 km by road via the bridge over the river. The nearest international airport is Mandalay International (MDL), about 110 km away.