The Sulamani Temple ( my, စူဠာမဏိဘုရား, ) is a

Buddhist temple A Buddhist temple or Buddhist monastery is the place of worship for Buddhists, the followers of Buddhism. They include the structures called vihara, chaitya, stupa, wat and pagoda in different regions and languages. Temples in Buddhism represen ...

located in the village of Minnanthu (southwest of

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 ...

) in

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

. The temple is one of the most-frequently visited in Bagan. It was built in 1183 by King

Narapatisithu Narapati Sithu ( my, နရပတိ စည်သူ, ; also Narapatisithu, Sithu II or Cansu II; 1138–1211) was king of Pagan dynasty of Burma (Myanmar) from 1174 to 1211. He is considered the last important king of Pagan. His peaceful and p ...

, and is similar to the

Thatbyinnyu Temple The Thatbyinnyu Temple ( my, သဗ္ဗညု ဘုရား, ; pi, Sabbannu or "the Omniscient") is a Theravadin Buddhist temple in Bagan (Pagan), Myanmar. The temple is recognized as a monument in the Bagan Archeological Area, a UNESCO Wor ...

in design. The Sulamani Temple also shows influence from the

Dhammayangyi Temple Dhammayangyi Temple ( my, ဓမ္မရံကြီးဘုရား, ) is a Buddhist temple located in Bagan, Myanmar. Largest of all the temples in Bagan, the Dhammayan as it is popularly known was built during the reign of King Narathu ( ...

, and was the model for the

Htilominlo Temple Htilominlo Temple ( my, ထီးလိုမင်းလိုဘုရား, ) is a Buddhist temple located in Bagan (formerly Pagan), in Burma/Myanmar, built during the reign of King Htilominlo (also known as Nandaungmya), 1211–1231. Th ...

. Sulamani Temple was restored after the 1975 earthquake, and utilises brick and stone, with frescoes in the interior of the temple. It was rebuilt in 1994.

3D Documentation

The

Zamani Project The Zamani Project is part of the African Cultural Heritage Sites and Landscapes Database. Zamani is a research group at the University of Cape Town, which acquires, models, presents and manages spatial and other data from cultural heritage sites. ...

from the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) ( af, Universiteit van Kaapstad, xh, Yunibesithi ya yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university statu ...

, South Africa, offered its services towards the spatial documentation of monuments in Bagan in response to the destruction of monuments by an earthquake in August 2016. After reconnaissance visit to Bagan and a subsequent meeting at th
UNESCO offices in Bangkok
in February 2017, the Zamani Project documented the Sula-mani-gu-hpaya (Sulamani) Temple, during a field campaign in March 2017. During another 2 field campaigns between 2017–2018, the Zamani Project spatially documented further 11 monuments in Bagan, including Kyauk-ku-umin (154); Kubyauk-gyi ( Gubyaukgyi) (298), Tha-peik-hmauk-gu-hpaya (744); Monument 1053; Sein-nyet-ama (1085); Sein-nyet-nyima (1086); Naga-yon-hpaya (1192); Loka-ok-shaung (1467); Than-daw-kya (1592); Ananda Monastery; and the City Gate of old Bagan (

Tharabha Gate The Tharabha Gate ( my, သရပါ တံခါး, ; also spelled Sarabha or Tharaba) is the only surviving gate of Bagan (Pagan). The gate is located to the east of the old city. Although the Burmese chronicles assert that the city of Bagan w ...

). Textured 3D models, panorama tours, elevations, sections and plans of some of those structures are available o
www.zamaniproject.org

References

* Buddhist temples in Myanmar 12th-century Buddhist temples Bagan Buddhist pilgrimage sites in Myanmar {{Buddhist-temple-stub