Mandalay on the Irrawaddy River

Myanmar was previously Burma and. Mandalay is a city and the former royal capital located in northern Myanmar. The city sits on the Irrawaddy River. To get an awesome view of the city and surrounding area people climb up to the summit of Mandalay Hill.

Climb up Mandalay Hill and see the city spread out in front of you. This 760 ft. hill has covered stairways that will lead you upwards. The most popular climb is from the southern side. People especially enjoy going up to the summit at sunset. The climb takes around thirty minutes. The hill has two southern stairways.

One of them begins between two giant chinthe (half-lion, half-dragon guardian deities) with a total of 1729 steps. An alternative is the southeastern stairway. These two routes converge and then the climb takes you to a shrine building with a large standing Buddha with outstretched arms pointing towards the royal palace.

At the foot of Mandalay Hill, you’ll find Kuthodaw Paya, a religious complex that is home to the world’s largest book. it houses the complete text of the Tripitaka (Theravada Buddhism’s most sacred text) inscribed on 729 marble slabs, each enshrined in its own stupa and arranged in rows around the grounds.

Visitors go to Mahamuni Paya to see the 13 ft. tall seated Buddha about 2000 years old. Through the centuries male devotees have applied votary gold leaf to this statue and it now has a 6 in. layer of pure gold.

In 1784 this statue was seized from Mrauk U by the Burmese army of King Bodawpaya. The story of how this statue was dragged back to Mandalay has been retold in a series of 1950s paintings displayed in a picture gallery across the pagoda’s inner courtyard to the northeast of the Buddha image. The central shrine has a multi-tiered golden roof, and long concrete passageways that lead in each cardinal direction. Some stalls sell all kinds of religious trinkets. The western passage has marble workshops where Buddha statues are crafted.

A great place for quiet meditation is Shwe In Bin Kyaung. This lovely carved teak monastery was commissioned in 1895 by a pair of wealthy Chinese jade merchants. The central building stands on tree-trunk poles and the interior is quite majestic. There are detailed engravings on the balustrades and roof cornices.

Mandalay Palace was reconstructed in the 1990s. This royal palace has more than 40 timbered buildings which were built to resemble the original ones from the 1850s. To get great views climb up the spiral, timber-walled watchtower. One of the most striking structures is a multi-layered pyramid of gilt filigree above the main throne room. The westernmost building has a minor culture museum that exhibits things like King Thibaw’s glass-pillared four-poster bed. Access to the palace is through the East gate. Visitors must keep to the palace loop road from which you can see but not approach the tomb of King Mindon, a large drum tower, sheds that contain more than 600 stone inscription slabs, and a small airplane sitting on some rocks in the trees.

Climb up Yankin Hill to get awesome views of greater Mandalay’s rice-field setting and the Shan foothills. The ten-minute climb up the covered stairway can bring an encounter with some domesticated stags. The pagoda walkways turn south along the ridge top and then down into a rocky cleft where devotees like to splash water on goldfish statues found at the feet of a Buddha statue.

Shwenandaw Kyaung is a teak monastery temple with carved panels. The interior has gilded Jataka scenes (past-life stories of the Buddha). This building was once part of the Mandalay Palace complex as the royal apartment of King Mindon, who died in it in 1875. The story behind the move of the building is that his successor King Thibaw couldn’t live with Mindon’s ghost so he had the building dismantled and taken out of the palace complex. It was then reassembled outside of the fortress walls and converted into a monastery in 1880

Head for the Jade Market to see craftsmen cutting and polishing jade. You can then take a refreshing break in the Unison Teahouse.

For a great shopping experience go to Zay Cho Market. This is one of the main marketplaces in Mandalay and here you can get almost anything like silk, cotton clothing, sticky cakes, pickled tea leaves, velvet slippers, silverware, lacquerware, jewelry, gems and so much more.

U Bein Bridge is more than two centuries old. It is the world’s longest teak bridge spanning Taungthaman Lake in Mandalay’s Amarapura township. Amarapura was once a separate city and an ancient capital of Myanmar.