MYANMAR PHOTO DIARY: Oldest Teakwood Monastery, World's Largest Book, and Mandalay Hill

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The Oldest Teakwood Monastery found at the foot of Mandalay Hill. 


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Monks line up the street while they head back to the School-Monastery ahead.
There are many monastery in Mandalay as this was the capital city 
when the education flourished in Myanmar.
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A huge Monastery-School just a walk from the Oldest Teakwood Monastery.

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The Biggest Book in the World is actually a collection of marble tablets 
where the holy scriptures were written by scholar-monks in Pali page by page 
in a huge effort by the king to preserve Buddhism. 

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I admire this huge door with engravings. Must be teakwood too.

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Each page consisting of one marble tablet is housed in this small temple/altar.


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A photograph of a marble tablet. The scripture is written in Pali, 
an ancient Myanmarese language.

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MANDALAY, MYANMAR. The world's largest book stands upright, set in stone, in the grounds of the Kuthodaw pagoda (kuthodaw, "royal merit") at the foot of Mandalay Hill in Mandalay, Myanmar (Burma). It has 730 leaves and 1460 pages; each page is 107 centimetres (3.51 ft) wide, 153 centimetres (5.02 ft) tall and 13 centimetres (5.1 in) thick. Each stone tablet has its own roof and precious gem on top in a small cave-like structure of Sinhalese relic casket type called kyauksa gu (stone inscription cave in Burmese), and they are arranged around a central golden pagoda. (Wikipedia)

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A temple on top of Mandalay Hill where the sunset can be enjoyed 
as well as cozy conversation with the monks who are eager to learn English.

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A view from the top of the hill in Mandalay.

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An awesome, colorful tapestry on the wall.

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Heavily and colorfully decorated walls and pillars can be found
 in this temple on top of Mandalay Hill

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The sunset from the corridors of the temple.

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Pilgrims and tourists alike are anticipating the bright orange ball in the sky.

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