Dilapidated Temples Overseas Temples

Tamote Shinpin Shwegugyi Temple, Myanmar

lightuptemple June 17, 2023June 17, 20230

Address

Tamote Shinpin Shwegugyi Temple, Myanmar
Kyaukse, Mandalay Region

Myanmar (Burma)

Moolavar

Buddha

Introduction

The Tamote Shinpin Shwegugyi Temple is a Buddhist temple in Kyaukse, Mandalay Region, Myanmar. It was originally built by King Anawrahta of Pagan, and the second storey added by King Narapatisithu, and both were encased inside a huge stupa built by King Uzana of the Pinya dynasty. It was one of nine pagodas outside the ancient city that denoted the extent of the Bagan Empire. The temple had a pagoda on top was discovered to be hiding another pagoda inside, which in turn encased a two-storey temple. The temple is located about northwest of Kyaukse on the road leading to the town of Tada-U. It is near Kyaung Pangon and Nyaung Pin Sauk villages.

Puranic Significance

The first one-storey temple was built by King Anawrahta in the 11th century, and his grandson King Narapatisithu made it with double storey cave temple decorated Jataka stories on the upper terrace in the 12th century, and finally the whole was encased in the 14th century by King Uzana, and further protected by nature. Over the years this became hidden underneath a hill, which in 1915 was topped by a new stupa. In 1993 some traces of an ancient brick structure were detected at the foot of the hill, but permission to excavate was only granted in 2008 due to concerns that doing so would damage the encasing stupa.

In 2015, the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Culture designated Tamote Shinpin Shwegugyi Temple as an ancient heritage site of Myanmar.