Things to do
7-
Ananda Temple
Completed around 1105 and whitewashed since, this temple holds four standing Buddha images in teak and gilt, each nearly 10m tall, facing out from a square plan with corridors lit by hidden shafts. Two of the four are original. A festival fills the grounds in December or January, and the terracotta plaques along the base repay a slow circuit.
-
Bagan Archaeological Zone
A UNESCO listing since 2019 covers the whole plain: more than three thousand surviving monuments, eight villages and the palace sites, managed as one zone with a ticket checked at the airport, the jetty and the main roads. Viewing mounds and terraces replaced temple climbing after the ban. Sunrise balloon flights operate in the cool season and book out early.
-
Dhammayangyi Temple
Massive and unfinished, the largest temple on the plain was built by Narathu in the 1160s, its brickwork fitted so tightly that a needle will not pass between courses. Inner corridors were bricked up in antiquity and the reason for it remains unknown. Bats occupy the passages, the interior stays cool through the day, and its bulk is visible from most of the plain.
-
Mount Popa
An extinct volcano about 50km southeast of Bagan gives its name to two places: the peak itself and Taung Kalat, a monastery on a rock plug reached by 777 covered steps. Nat spirits are venerated at the shrine below and macaques crowd the stairway. Bare stone gets hot by midday, so an early start helps, and offerings to the nats are expected.
-
Shwezigon Pagoda
Gilded and prototypical, the stupa at Nyaung U set the pattern for Burmese pagodas: a bell on three receding terraces, finished under Kyansittha around 1102. It remains an active pilgrimage site, with relics, shoe removal from the outer gate and a long covered bazaar approach. Late afternoon light suits the gold, and the platform is a working one.
-
Sulamani Temple
Brick and stucco carving survives here better than on most of the plain, along with interior murals from the eighteenth century painted over original work of the 1180s. A two-storey plan with receding terraces gives it a stepped profile. Fewer visitors reach it than the temples near the road, and morning light through the window slots is what the murals need.
-
Thatbyinnyu Temple
Rising about 60m above Old Bagan, the tallest structure on the plain dates from the 1140s and stacks two storeys of shrine over a base of monastic quarters. Earthquake damage closed the upper levels, and repairs continue. A small pagoda alongside was built from bricks counted off during construction, one set aside for every ten thousand laid.
