Top 10 Interesting Facts about Bagan Archaeological Museum

Bagan Archaeological Museum in Bagan, Myanmar by Christophe95 – Wikimedia Commons

Top 10 Interesting Facts about Bagan Archaeological Museum

Bagan Archaeological Museum is located in Bagan in Myanmar. It was established in 1904 near the Ananda Temple and was reconstructed in 1938. In the Second World War, the artifacts were buried on the earth to avoid destruction. 

In 1952, when Myanmar became independent, the Ministry of Culture started managing the museum. The three-story museum houses a number of rare Bagan period objects including the original Myazedi inscriptions, and the Rosetta stone of Burma.

Here are some interesting facts about Bagan Archaeological Museum.

1. Bagan was the first archaeology museum of its kind

In 1902, Taw Sein Ko, head of the Department of Inscriptions and Stones, now the Department of Archaeology,  collected ancient stone inscriptions and artifacts from around Bagan. 

To display them, a small museum was built in 1904 to the north of the Ananda Temple, where ancient stone inscriptions were displayed.

2. Buddha images and other cultural objects were displayed at the Bagan Archaeological Museum

Bagan Archaeological Museum in Bagan, Myanmar by Christophe95 – Wikimedia Commons

A small oblong one-storey brick building of 60 feet by 30 feet in which some ancient stone inscriptions, Buddha images, and other cultural objects collected from the Bagan area were haphazardly displayed. 

After some years as a large number of new art objects and antiquities were added, the museum looked like an overstocked storehouse.

3. The Museum first opened on April 17, 1998

On October 14, 1994, the chairman of the National Peace and Development Council, General Than Shwe, who visited Bagan region, guided the construction of a large museum in Bagan. 

The museum opened on April 17, 1998. At the time of the construction of the building, the previous eight-point museum was kept, and the office of the Department of Archeology next to it was dismantled.

4. The museum has many display rooms

The Bagan Archaeological Museum in Bagan, Myanmar by David Stanley – Wikimedia Commons

On the ground floor, there is a fully decorated air-con hall large enough to hold international conferences, symposiums, seminars, or meetings. On this floor is the display room for objects of visual arts of the Bagan Period such as terra cotta, stucco works, wood carvings, stone sculptures, metal works, lacquer works, and the showroom exhibiting models of 55 different coiffeurs used by fashionable court ladies of the Bagan Period.

The display room in which originals, replicas, and ink copies of Bagan stone inscriptions and other forms of epigraphy, the gallery where paintings by famous Myanmar artists of today depicting the social life and military might of ancient Bagan, as well as copies of frescoes on walls and ceilings of ancient temples, and the display room in which models of Bagan monuments of architectural and artistic wonder.

5. The display rooms in the Museum exhibit different religious themes

The exhibits are Buddha statues and images of various makes, postures, and styles providing us with some knowledge of Buddhist iconography. 

In the room of Buddhist Art are displayed objects of all visual Buddhist arts. Viewers of these objects may well appreciate the depth and extent of Buddhist influence on Myanmar culture.

Paintings by artists of today and murals by master painters of Bagan’s time on display in the gallery all represent Bagan pagodas and monuments or depict Buddhist stories, jatakas.

6. Tourists enjoy a panoramic view of the pagoda land of Bagan from the Museum

Bagan Archaeological Museum by Mayor mt – Wikimedia Commons

The flat roof of the whole building from where pilgrims, visitors, and tourists can enjoy a panoramic view of the entire pagoda land of Bagan. 

Here they get to patiently wait for the right moment to watch the large orange-colored globe gradually sinking behind the Tantkyi Taung hill range on the west bank of the mighty Ayeyarwady River.

7. The statue in the Bagan Museum represents the hero King Pyusawhti

A big bronze statue stands in the center of the round-about lawn in front of the museum’s portico. The statue represents the hero king Pyusawhti, the third king in the Bagan dynasty of 55 kings. Legend has it that he conquered the five enemies who had been molesting Bagan by slaying them with his mighty bow and arrows. 

The enemies were the big bird, the big boar, the big tiger, the big flying squirrel, and the wild weed bu gourd. The Bupaya Pagoda standing on the brink of the Ayeyawaddy River at Bagan is attributed to Pyusawhti. It stands on the site where the hero king finally eradicated the troublesome weed.

8. The Museum opens daily except on Mondays and public holidays

Bagan Archaeological Museum by Clay Gilliland – Wikimedia Commons

Bagan Archaeological Museum is situated on the south of Gawdaw Palin Pagoda, in Old Bagan. 

It is open daily from 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., except on Mondays and public holidays.

9. The Museum has bronze statues of four famous Kings of Bagan

When entering the museum, you will be welcomed by bronze statues of four famous Kings of Bagan, Anawyahta, Kyansitthar, Alaungsithu, and Kyaswa.

There is a large three-dimensional mural painting of the Bagan Archaeological Site.

10. The Yaza Kuma stone inscription is displayed in the Bagan Archaeological Museum

In the center of the octagonal structure, Yaza Kuma stone inscription which is a very important source of Bagan history is exhibited. Its four faces are inscribed with the four different languages: Pyu, Mon, Myanmar, and Pali.