Shwenandaw Monastery

Interesting facts

King Mindon died inside this building in 1878, while it was still his private apartment within the Mandalay palace.

Thibaw's workmen began taking the apartment apart on 10 October 1878 and had it reassembled outside the palace walls by 31 October.

The Lawka Nat figures carved on its panels are a Burmese form of Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion.

Many of the carved scenes illustrate the Jataka tales, stories of the Buddha's previous lives, and some inside still carry traces of gilding.

The gold leaf that once covered the outside has weathered away over more than a century of tropical rain and sun, exposing the bare teak.

The monastery is part of the Wooden Monasteries of the Konbaung Period, placed on Myanmar's UNESCO tentative list in 1996.

In 2014 the World Monuments Fund laser-scanned the entire building to create a three-dimensional digital model for its conservation.

The conservation project also trained local craftsmen in traditional teak carpentry, building skills for other historic wooden structures in Myanmar.

Why it is worth it

Shwenandaw Monastery is a building made entirely of teak and covered, walls and roofs alike, in carving: tiers of roofs and panels crowded with scenes from Buddhist myth and figures such as the guardian spirit Lawka Nat, all worked in dark teak. Its name means "Golden Palace Monastery", and it is the last major survivor of the royal palace of the Burmese kings at Mandalay.

The building began life as royal apartments. It formed part of the palace of King Mindon at Amarapura before being moved to Mandalay, where it stood in the northern section of the Hmannan, the Glass Palace, as part of the king's private quarters. In 1878 his son and successor, King Thibaw, had it dismantled and re-erected outside the palace walls as a monastery dedicated to his father's memory, on a plot beside the Atumashi Monastery near the foot of Mandalay Hill. According to tradition Thibaw believed the apartment was haunted by his father's spirit; the reconstruction was finished within weeks, at a recorded cost of 120,000 rupees. It is said that Thibaw himself used the building for meditation, and the couch he sat on is still pointed out. In its royal days the whole structure was heavily gilded and decorated with glass mosaic.

Mandalay itself was founded in 1857 by King Mindon as the new royal capital of the Konbaung dynasty, laid out at the foot of Mandalay Hill to fulfil a prophecy of a great Buddhist city on that spot. The palace citadel later became a Japanese supply depot in the Second World War and was burned to the ground by Allied bombing, which is why this one relocated teak building, saved by Thibaw's decision to move it, is today the only major original structure of the royal palace still standing.

Getting there

Shwenandaw Monastery stands in Mandalay, north-east of the old palace walls near the foot of Mandalay Hill, about 4 km from the city centre. Mandalay International Airport (MDL) is about 36 km to the south.

Shwenandaw Monastery

Interesting facts

Why it is worth it

Getting there

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