The Bagan Pitakataik ( my, ပိဋကတ်တိုက်) is a library in
Bagan
Bagan (, ; formerly Pagan) is an ancient city and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Mandalay Region of Myanmar. From the 9th to 13th centuries, the city was the capital of the Bagan Kingdom, the first kingdom that unified the regions that wou ...
. Pitakataik means "library of Buddhist Scriptures". The library in Bagan was created after a conquest of
Thaton
Thaton (; mnw, သဓီု ) is a town in Mon State, in southern Myanmar on the Tenasserim plains. Thaton lies along the National Highway 8 and is also connected by the National Road 85. It is 230 km south east of Yangon and 70 km n ...
, where
Anawratha
Anawrahta Minsaw ( my, အနော်ရထာ မင်းစော, ; 11 May 1014 – 11 April 1077) was the founder of the Pagan Empire. Considered the father of the Burmese nation, Anawrahta turned a small principality in the dry zone ...
seized 30 elephant-loads of Buddhist scripture. He then built a library in 1058 to house these documents. He used a style known as "Gu" which is an early Bagan Cave Style. The material was light-sensitive so the building had limited windows decorated with
''chinthe'' imaged on each side. There are three windows on each side. There are three doors which are all on one side (front). The library is square-shaped with each side measuring long.
It was restored in 1738 by
King Bodawpaya of the
Konbaung Dynasty
The Konbaung dynasty ( my, ကုန်းဘောင်ခေတ်, ), also known as Third Burmese Empire (တတိယမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်) and formerly known as the Alompra dynasty (အလောင်းဘ ...
. The architecture of this library is notable because of its square shape, perforated stone windows and the plaster carvings that are on the roof which are examples of
Myanmar architecture
The architecture of Myanmar (formerly known as Burma), in Southeast Asia, includes architectural styles which reflect the influence of neighboring and Western nations and modernization. The country's most prominent buildings include Buddhist pago ...
.
See also
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Tipiṭaka
The Pāli Canon is the standard collection of scriptures in the Theravada Buddhist tradition, as preserved in the Pāli language. It is the most complete extant early Buddhist canon. It derives mainly from the Tamrashatiya school.
During t ...
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Pitakataik ''Pitakataik'' ( my, ပိဋကတ်တိုက်; also spelt ''bidagat taik'' and ''pitaka taik'') is a library of Buddhist scriptures, including the Tipiṭaka, found in Buddhist societies in modern-day Myanmar (Burma).
History
The ''pitaka ...
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Pitakataik (Mandalay)
Pitakataik ( my, ပိဋကတ်တိုက်; also Pitaka-taik) was the royal library in Mandalay, commissioned by King Mindon Min in 1857 during the founding of Mandalay as a royal capital. The library was one of 7 structures built to mark ...
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Tripiṭaka tablets at Kuthodaw Pagoda
Stone tablets inscribed with the ''Tripiṭaka'' (and other Buddhist texts) stand upright in the grounds of the Kuthodaw Pagoda ( means 'royal merit') at the foot of Mandalay Hill in Mandalay, Myanmar (Burma). The work was commissioned by King ...
References
Ancient Bagan
External links
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{{Authority control
Bagan
Buildings and structures in Mandalay Region
Libraries in Myanmar
Buddhist libraries