Thanbodhay Temple
Thanbodhay is a first phrase of Buddhist praying mean May I pray uncountable Buddha. Thanbodhay Temple which is 8 miles from Monywa is house of 582,000 Buddha images built in the year 1939 after a venerable Buddhist monk back from Indonesia.
The colorful model temple was built model on Borobudur temple of Indonesia. The long walkway from entrance to main shrine of temple, there are many columns with big standing Buddha images, huge sitting Buddha images and very tiny Buddha images.
Many altars with elegance plinth and unique decoration of stucco floral pattern. Each altar rarely mentioned the name of artist and his native place name. The interior walls and columns of the temples are decorated with numerous tiny Buddha images.
Outside of the main temple huge pillars are decorated with colorful fruit trails made of stucco: branches of banana, papaya, mangoes, watermelon.The columns of the temples are decorated with numerous tiny Buddha images.
There is tower only men are allowed to go up for panorama over main temple and around. At the base there are niches with stucco statues narrate about life history of Gautama Buddha. Close to that tower there is a column, the monk statue on the top and a group of royal family with the king at the base which narrate lovely story of supernatural power of the monk.
Nuns live at the monastery near by the main temple come every morning for cleaning compound and refresh flower for offering.
Lion statues are widely known as guards of Pagoda in Myanmar and use to place at the entrance of the pagoda. There are two elephant statues at the entrance of Thanbodhay temple.
There are many other buildings: some are wooden bungalows, some are colonial buildings are used as guest houses during Thanbodhay pagoda festival that use to fall in November.
