Dhammayazika pagoda, Myanmar (Burma)

Address

Dhammayazika pagoda, Myanmar (Burma)

Thuntekan, Bagan

Myanmar (Burma)

Moolavar

Buddha

Introduction

Dhammayazika pagodaisLocated in a remote area of the Bagan plains is the magnificent Dhammayazika Pagoda. The pagoda was built by King Narapatisithu towards the end of the 12^th century to enshrine a number of sacred Buddhist relics given to him by the King of Sri Lanka.

The Dhammayazika is a brick structure, surrounded by five smaller structures that each enshrines an image of one of the five Buddhas of the current Kalpa. The pagoda is topped by a very large, impressive bell shaped fully gilded dome. The dome with horizontal concentric rings is beautifully decorated with several motifs, including lotus buds.

Puranic Significance

The gold stupa of the Dhammayazika Pagoda certainly stands out, especially at sunrise and sunset. Until the 1990s when it was restored, it was basically deserted. The renovations included a gleaming gold finish for the massive stupa. They also destroyed some of the original stucco work, very little of which now survives.

Dhammayazika Pagoda lies in the eastern part of the Bagan plain, and it was completed in 1198–despite its massive size, it took only two years to build and consumed an estimated 6 million bricks. Unusually, its footprint is 5-sided, with each side representing one of the five principal Buddha’s: the historical Gautama Buddha, his three predecessors, and the Buddha of the Future, Metteyya.

Where most of the Bagan monuments have a square floor plan, the Dhammayazika has a pentagonal layout. There is an entrance on each of its five sides. The five sided floor plan was intended to include veneration of the Maitreya Buddha, the future Buddha yet to appear on earth.

Most of the large Bagan monuments with a square floor plan have a statue of the Buddha on each of the four sides of the structure, one for each of the four previous Buddhas that have reached nirvana, the Kassapa Buddha, the Kakusandha Buddha, the Konagamana Buddha and the Gautama Buddha.

On each of the five sides of the Dhammayazika pagoda is a smaller structure enshrining an image of the Buddha. Besides images of the four previous Buddhas, the fifth structure holds an image of the Maitreya Buddha, the future Buddha. The five structures are topped with a shikhara (a tower like structure similar to that on the Ananda temple) and a gilded hti, an ornamental spire shaped as an umbrella.

The three receding terraces that form the base of the dome contain glazed terracotta plaques with depictions of the 547 Jataka tales, the stories about the previous lives of the Buddha. Some of the beautiful plaques have weathered badly and are in a bad state. The walkway towards the temple’s entrance is lined with vendors selling souvenirs and local products. A brick stairway leads up to the large, arched and intricately decorated entrance gate. The Dhammayazika pagoda is set in a garden like environment with flowers and trees, in the otherwise mostly dry and often barren plains of Bagan.