34 SMITHSONIAN.COM | December 2019
N SEMI- DARKNESS, I MAKE MY WAY
down a tunnel-like corridor, treading barefoot on the cold stone fl oor.
Fifty fi gurines of the Buddha, fi ve feet tall and remarkably lifelike, fl ank
one side of the vaulted chamber, eyes cast downward in contemplation,
each painted face subtly individuated—broad or slender noses, smiles
or frowns, chins pointed or rounded. A shaft of natural light at the far end
of the passage softly illuminates their serene expressions, broad chests
and graceful hands. Across the corridor sit
hundreds of Buddha miniatures, each sheathed
in gilt, resting on black obsidian bases that tee-
ter on two tiers of sandstone. I turn a corner
and enter a second gallery; it’s decorated with
bas-reliefs of water buff aloes, elephants, horses,
jackals and peacocks. A giant sculpted serpent
eternally slithers along the base of the wall.
I’m deep inside a magnifi cent Buddhist
temple in the ruined city of Mrauk U in west-
ern Myanmar (formerly Burma), in embattled
Rakhine State. Beginning around 1535, a thou-
sand workers labored for a year to construct
the thick, nearly windowless walls, cutting
massive sandstone blocks and fi tting them
together so skillfully without mortar that they
still hold together.
It is said that Man Pa, king of ancient Arakan
for nearly 20 years , erected the temple to cele-
brate a naval victory over a Portuguese armada
and a military campaign against cities across
the Bay of Bengal. He adorned the roof with 27
bell-like stupas, or domed Buddhist shrines,
enclosed the inner sanctuary in a maze of cor-
ridors, and crammed the complex with 80,000
representations of the Buddha in various in-
carnations. These include real and imaginary
animals; bodhisattvas, human beings delaying
entry to nirvana in order to alleviate the suf-
fering of others; demigods; protective spirits;
and scenes from the Jataka tales, ancient al-
legories from the Indian subcontinent, built
around the past lives of the Buddha. Lording
over the panoply is a colorful painted-stone re-
lief of Man Pa himself, a slender, godlike fi gure
wearing a gilded robe and three-tiered golden
crown shaped like a pagoda. He stands bal-
anced atop an elephant, surrounded by adoring