Beikthano-myo

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Map of the main Pyu sites in Myanmar

Beikthano-myo ( Burmese ဗိဿနိုး ; BGN / PCGN : bithano; city ​​of Vishnu ) is a ruined city ​​in today's Myanmar (Burma). It is one of the most important places of the Pyu , who lived here in the first millennium AD.

Location and general

Beikthano-myo is located about 20 km west of the city of Taungdwingyi in what is now the Magwe Division . The city has a rectangular shape and was surrounded on all sides by a brick wall, some of which is still two meters high today. In the center of the city there was a large palace complex or citadel . Excavations showed that the entire urban area was covered by stupas , Buddhist monasteries, houses of the dead and other buildings. These were mostly built from bricks, while the residential buildings were made of wood and accordingly left little traces.

There were hardly any inscriptions or Buddha images on the site , so it is probably one of the earliest Pyu sites, which flourished from the first to the fifth century. Figures in particular may have been taken to other places when leaving the city. Other important finds are numerous urns, some of which have been deposited in temples. The city plays an important role in Burmese legends and myths.

The site was dug from 1959 to 1962. The investigations focused on 25 brick structures, which have been numbered as KKG1-KKG25.

Monastery (KKG2), the monk cells

KKG1 was a multi-room death house with urns buried in the floor. KKG2-4 was probably a monastery complex, which consisted of the monastery with a long common room and the monk cells, a stupa and a shrine. KKG5 was found within the palace precinct and it is believed that this is the throne room, which was built in brick, while the residential buildings of the palace were probably made of wood. There was a particularly large amount of imported ceramics here. Another interesting building was KKG11, which is another house of the dead. The hall is particularly large at 25 by 15 meters and it has been suggested that some kings were buried here. The hall was supported by pillars. The urns in the floor were mostly found in groups of three (king, queen and concubine?).

The founding legend

The legend of the city's foundation is handed down in the Glass Palace Chronicle . A queen abandoned her two sons because they were blind . The children were found by the witch and ogre, Sandmukhi. Before she could molest them, soldiers caught the witch. She pleaded for mercy and promised to give the children sight , which she did. The princes went to Yahthemoyo, where the elder married Princess Badayee. He became king of the Pyu. One of their successors was Duttabaung, who was to found Sri Ksetra .

The witch who was now released had a daughter named Panthwar from the other of the two princes. When the older brother died, the younger became king of Pyu and married Princess Badayee. The witch then fled with her daughter. A hermit who saw them said that the witch had kidnapped a child. He chased the witch away and raised the child. When she grew up, Vishnu appeared and built a city for the young woman in which she could rule over a kingdom. The city was given two names: Panthwar-myo ( City of Panthwar ) and Beikthano-myo.

King Duttabaung of Sri Kresta heard of the city's wealth and went to war against it. Panthwar, however, had a magic gong that beat the armies. However, King Duttabaung was able to destroy the gong and conquered the city. He married Princess Panthwar, who took revenge on him and destroyed his third divine eye.

Together with other ruin sites in Myanmar, Beikthano-myo was proposed as a World Heritage Site in 1996 and, at the 38th session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee on June 22, 2014, together with Halin and Sri Ksetra , was added to the World Heritage List under the name Historic Cities of the Pyu .

Coordinates: 20 ° 0 ′ 0 ″  N , 95 ° 23 ′ 0 ″  E

literature

  • Aung Thaw: Report on the excavations at Beikthano , Rangoon 1968
  • Hans-Dietrich Kahlke : excavations all over the world , Leipzig, Jena, Berlin 1972, 199-208

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Unesco website: Pyu Cities: Beikthano-Myo, Halin, Tharay-Khit-taya (Sri Ksetra) (no longer directly accessible on July 6, 2014)
  2. Myanmar's first site inscribed to World Heritage List June 22, 2014, UNESCO , accessed July 6, 2014.