Maha Aung Mye Bonzan Monastery, Inwa City, Myanmar

Maha Aung Mye Bonzan Monastery In Ancient City Of Inwa, Myanmar

7/7/2017

My travel buddy of the day Yan, whom I met at the hostel I was staying in.

Maha Aung Mye Bonzan Monastery is a beautiful architecture located in an ancient imperial capital called Inwa in Myanmar (Burma). Inwa or Ava (Burmese: အင်းဝ) was the capital of Burma for nearly 360 years and the name means ‘the mouth of the Lake’, reflecting its geographical location. Queen Nanmadaw Me Nu, chief wife of King Bagyidaw, built the The Maha Aung Mye Bonzan Monastery during the Konbaung Dynasty in 1818. The monastery was used as the residence of the Royal Abbots during this dynasty, which was also the last dynasty in Burmese history. Unlike other monasteries at the time, which were built with wood, the architecture of Maha Aung Mye Bonzan Monastery was built with bricks. During the hot summers, monasteries that were built with wood can easily catch fire from the hot sun. The choice of using bricks to build the Maha Aung Mye Bonzan Monastery made the building less prone to fire and easier to perserve. The rare choice of building material however did not alter much of the style of the monastery. Like the wooden monasteries, this brick monastery was built in a similar style, with multi tiered roof. The stucco ornamentations were also carved out to the ones similar to the wooden monasteries at the time.

The interior of Maha Aung Mye Bonzan Monastery.

I visited the monastery during a late morning till noontime, which was a mistake timewise! (Again! Read my Shwedagon visit to find out why.) When visiting any temples or monastery in Myanmar, one must be barefooted. The floor was burning hot and my feet got a little burned with blisters. I had to quickly hop up the stairs and get inside of the monastery to save my feet from getting burned. Compare to the outside of the monastery, inside of the building was very cool. I think there must have been 10 degrees difference between the indoor and the outdoors. It took great patience and perseverance to get some good photos outdoor because of the hot weather. I was so thankful for my travel buddy, Yan whom I met the night before at my hostel for braving the fiery burning floor with me. (Oh yes, I was traveling alone and I happened to meet a girl from my hometown, Hong Kong, so we decided to travel together.) Despite the challenging hot weather, I still had a good time visiting the Maha Aung Mye Bonzan Monastery. I enjoyed looking at the intricate designs of the architecture and learning more about its stories and history. One funny thing about my visit was that people mistaken me as a local Burmese girl since I was wearing traditional Burmese dress. Some spoke to me in Burmese and was surprised that I couldn't respond. Anyways I hope you like the photos of Maha Aung Mye Bonzan Monastery.

As for now, Happy Jetsetting! ✈