Around Mandalay Hill
There are several other temples and monasteries at the base of Mandalay Hill. The most impressive is probably Shwenandaw Kyaung, a teak structure built within the palace walls as a residence for King Mindon. The building was converted to a monastery and moved to its current site east of the palace after Mindon died in it, as it was considered bad luck by his son, Thibaw; this later saved it from burning alongside the palace’s other buildings.
Close by is Atumashi Kyaung, a temple originally built in the 1850s to house a Buddha statue that went missing – complete with the diamond in its forehead – when the British took the city. The current building is a reconstruction dating back to the 1990s.
Kuthodaw Paya, just north of Atumashi Kyaung, is home to a set of 729 marble slabs inscribed with the Tipitaka (the canon of Theravada Buddhist scriptures), each kept in its own small stupa. Impressive in its sheer scale, the set has been described as the world’s largest book. The nearby Sandamuni Paya has marble slabs with commentaries on the same scriptures, while the centrepiece of the Kyauktawgyi Paya (just west of Sandamuni Paya) is a huge Buddha carved from a single piece of marble. It’s the site of the city’s biggest festival every October.
Gold leaf workshops
Pretty much all of the gold leaf applied to Buddha images by devotees in Myanmar comes from a small area of Mandalay. There are about fifty gold leaf workshops, many of them based in homes, in the blocks around 36th Street, just east of the railway line.
It’s possible to watch the hammerers at work an discover the process of turning a 12g piece of gold into hundreds of sheets, each just 0.0003mm thick. The shops sell gold leaf and a few other souvenirs, but there’s no pressure to buy.
Jade Market
The stalls in the large Jade Market sell mostly to dealers, and it probably isn’t a good idea to make a purchase unless you know what you’re looking for, but it’s a fascinating place to visit. Jade is big business in Myanmar, although trade with the Chinese has declined somewhat since they imposed tough new import tariffs.
The main trading in the market takes place in the morning, but it’s possible to see jade being cut, shaped and polished at any time. You can also see the same being done outside the market itself, on the east side. While in the area, take a look at Shwe In Bin Kyaung, a peaceful, late nineteenth-century teak monastery (89th St 37/38; free).
Mahamuni Paya
The most important Buddhist site in the city, Mahamuni Paya is a large complex south of the centre. At the heart of the pagoda is a 3.8metre-tall Buddha figure, stolen in 1784 from Mrauk U by King Bodawpaya’s army. Male devotees visit to apply gold leaf to the figure; women are not allowed within the inner area and instead hand their gold leaf to a male assistant. The figure itself is said to weigh six tonnes, and the gold leaf covering it adds another two tonnes. At 4am each day crowds gather while the face, pretty much the only part not covered in gold leaf, is washed. If you can get up in time then it’s fascinating to witness.
It’s worth spending some time exploring the complex. Northwest of the main shrine is a cream concrete building containing Hindu figures taken originally from Angkor Wat by the Rakhine, before being appropriated by Bodawpaya at the same time as the large Buddha. Outside the complex, to the southwest, is a dusty and noisy district of stone carving workshops (although the city authorities have threatened to have them moved).