Shite-thaung Temple
Interesting facts
- The temple shelters the Anandacandra pillar, a stone shaft about 3.7 metres tall bearing a Sanskrit royal eulogy from the early 8th century, some 800 years older than the temple.
- Each of the pillar's three inscribed faces is written in a different north Indian script, and the text sets out a long line of earlier Arakanese kings.
- Arakanese chronicles say King Min Bin had the pillar hauled from the older capital of Vesali to his new temple at Mrauk U.
- The pillar inscription records gifts to Buddhist monastic communities in Sri Lanka, early evidence of ties between Arakan and the island.
- Construction began on 9 November 1535, the full moon of the month of Tazaungmon, after Min Bin's armies had marched as far as Dhaka.
- After victories in Bengal, where coins named him sultan, Min Bin saw himself as a cakravartin, a universal ruler; he is recorded as buried at the temple.
- Its imagery deliberately mixes Burmese Buddhism with late Buddhist traditions of northwest India, turning the shrine into a statement of royal and religious power.
- It was built of sandstone, unlike the larger Koe-thaung, the 'Temple of 90,000 Images' raised in 1554–1556 by Min Bin's son Dikkha with stone and brick.
- The temple is one of more than 700 temples and pagodas counted among the ruins of the old Arakanese capital.
Why it is worth it
The Shite-thaung Temple — Shitthaung in standard Burmese — is the great stone fortress-shrine of Mrauk U, the old Arakanese royal capital, and its name means "Temple of 80,000 Buddha Images". From outside it reads as a massive terraced platform crowned by a bell-shaped central stupa, four smaller stupas at its corners and rows of still smaller ones around them. The real marvel is within: three layers of dark, maze-like corridors wrap around the central hall, and their walls are carved with hundreds of figures.
King Min Bin raised the temple in 1535–1536 to commemorate his campaign in Bengal, which is why it is also called the Temple of Victory. It stands on the western face of Pokhaung Hill, north of the royal palace, beside the Andaw-thein Temple, with the fortified ordination hall of Htukkanthein close by. Hundreds of Buddha statues line the central hall, some in their original places and others brought in from nearby excavations. The galleries carry reliefs of Buddhas and bodhisattvas, celestial kings, devas and guardian spirits, the 550 Jataka tales of the Buddha's earlier lives, and scenes of Arakanese life with animals real and mythical; statues of Min Bin and his queens are also preserved inside.
Mrauk U was the capital of the Arakanese kingdom from 1430 until the Burmese conquest of 1784, a city ringed by some 30 km of fortifications and laced with moats and canals that earned it comparisons with Venice; many of its temples and pagodas survive in and around the modern town, several still in use. Monsoon rains have long been the main threat to the stone shrines: when water was found seeping into the central stupa in 2003 and eroding carvings in the chambers, the archaeological department sealed the stupas with concrete, protecting the interior at the cost of the old exterior surface — a decision many Arakanese still regret.
Getting there
The temple is in the archaeological zone of Mrauk U, in northern Rakhine State, Myanmar, under a kilometre from the town centre. The nearest airport is Sittwe Airport (AKY), about 61 km to the southwest.
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From the encyclopaedia
The Shaitthaung Temple, also spelled Shitthaung according to Standard Burmese pronunciation, is a Buddhist temple in Mrauk U. The name means 'Temple of 80,000 Buddha Images', and is also known as the 'Temple of Victory'.
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