Dhanyawadi
| Dhanyawadi | |||
|---|---|---|---|
|
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| Coordinates | 20 ° 52 ' N , 93 ° 4' E | ||
| Basic data | |||
| Country | Myanmar | ||
| Tanintharyi region | |||
| ISO 3166-2 | MM-05 | ||
Dhanyawadi (from Sanskrit dhannavati , "blessed with grain") was a city in the Rakhine state in western Myanmar . It existed from about the 5th to the 8th century.
Dhanyawadi is located about 130 km northeast of Sittwe between the Kaladan and Thare Chaung rivers in the middle of a hilly landscape. The landscape can be reached by bus from Mrauk U after a two-hour journey. Until the 1950s Dhanyawadi could also be reached by boat on the Thare Chaung, but water pollution and silting of the canal to the city make this impossible today.
Today the city is mostly in ruins; there are only the buildings around the Mahamuni temple and the facilities for meditation as the only signs of civilization here. The Mahamuni image, which was venerated here until the 18th century, is now in Mandalay .
history
Dhanyawadi was the capital of the first kingdom of Arakan , the Dhanyawadi Empire. It owed its relative wealth to trade with the east (pre- Pagan Burma, China, the Mon ) and the west ( India , Bengal and Persia ).
The city had a city wall about 10 km long , within which another walled area was intended for the royal family. Remnants of both systems can still be seen.
Dhanyawadi is the most Indianized of the four kingdoms of Arakan. Although legend has it that the first empire existed before Buddha , i.e. before the 6th century BC. No usable archaeological traces from this time were found.
Another legend says that Buddha himself found his way into the city. The nobles donated their riches, gold and silver, to create an image of the Buddha. And Buddha himself put seven drops of his sweat into the melt on his chest. This enabled the Mahamuni image to preach the teachings of the Buddha after it was finished.
In 1785 Arakan fell to the Burmese. They tried to bring the image to their capital, Amarapura, at the time. The sources from old Burma and from Arakan contradict each other about the related process. The Arakanese claim that the image simply disappeared in the temple or during the Burmese transport. According to Burmese sources, the Mahamuni image came to Amarapura and was later brought to Mandalay. However, some contemporary Burmese experts now assume that the image actually did not leave the Arakan at the time.
See also
- Mrauk U , capital of the Arakan Empire from the 15th to 18th centuries
literature
- Charles Higham : Encyclopedia of Ancient Asian Civilizations . Facts on Files, New York 2004, ISBN 0-8160-4640-9 .
- Maurice Collis: The Land of the Great Image: being experiences of Friar Manrique in Arakan . (New York 1943) Asian Educational Services, New Delhi 1995, ISBN 8120610237 .