Joe Louis visits the Dhammayangyi Temple
Although not on the same scale as Angkor Wat, Dhammayangyi is a huge temple. In fact it is the biggest in Bagan, known as a city of two thousand or so temples. And if the sheer size of the Dhammayangyi Temple wasn’t enough to catch your eye, the brilliant red brickwork will do the trick. The building, shaped in the classic pyramid temple form, stands out for its exceptional masonwork.
And there is a reason for that. As the tourist books and entrepreneurial child guides will tell you, King Narathu had an overbearing management style and accepted only the best quality of work from his bricklayers. Legend has it that if the spacing between two bricks was larger than a pin or a needle, the worker would be killed. Talk about a high pressure job. Fortunately for the mason union, the king himself was murdered before the temple was finished.
When I visited, several parts of the temple were closed off, but the large dark hallways were enough to give a sense of the size. Besides, I think Dhammayangyi is best appreciated from the outside looking in.
See what other bloggers are saying about Dhammayangyi:
“The largest of Bagan temples, Dhammayangyi is also one of the most beautiful, for its architecture and decorations as well as the paintings inside. Built in the second half of the 12th Century (approx. 1167-1170), Dhammayangyi temple displays an exquisite brickwork, by many considered one of the best in Bagan. Certainly, it was one of my favourite Bagan temples, with its fine carvings, the imposing architectural structure and the chromatic effect of the red bricks blending perfectly with the colours of the surrounding landscape.”
–Wild About Travel
