4 Million Pagodas

Really 4 Million Pagodas?
Some name Myanmar as the Land of Pagodas. Why?
According to the writings in Myanmar history, 4 million pagodas were built in Bagan. Is that a fact or a legendary tale? It is contradictory to many, especially when there goes a saying "hlae win yoe than ta nyan nyan, Bagan payar paung". That saying can be decoded that there were exactly 4,445,633 pagodas in Bagan. Here are the

YES es and NO s:

• Howsoever goes the saying, archaeologists today can find only the traces or existence of over 5000 pagodas.

• Historical records also mentioned that Bagan soldiers had to destroy so many small pagodas as the main source of brick supply, in order to build forts and surrounding walls, which were urgently needed when Chinese and Mongols attacked. Bagan soldiers must have destroyed the pagodas of the unimportant, avoiding those built by kings and the powerful. Those pagodas built by the laymen were so small that, so so much were destroyed for building the forts and walls.

• In Myanmar language, "phayar" means not only pagoda. It usually stands for temples and Buddha images or statues as well. This brings another question. Did they count all Buddha images and statues in Bagan too?

• Archaelogists have not found any record of surveys or census of how many pagodas existed in Bagan. Could that be a joke or a lie? A folk tale tells us another story. Once a Myanmar king inquired his counselors about the number of pagodas in Bagan. One of his counsellors, knowing that it was almost impossible to count all pagodas in Bagan, he just made up a story just to satisfy the king and to gain some credit, which later known to the people as "hlae win yoe than ta nyan nyan, Bagan payar paung".

• There really was the alchemist Buddhist monk called Shin Itsa Gawna. A temple built by Shin Itsa Gawna still exist in the northeastern part of Bagan today. Stories tells us that he is the one who made them possible to build 4 million pagodas! Please see the story of this miracle monk Shin Itsa Gawna. Miracle Monk: Shin Itsa Gawna Shin Itsa Gawna was said to be one of the most influential person in Bagan Kingdom. He is the monk who turned the population to riches by Alchemy (the study of prolongation of life and transmutation of base metals into gold). King of Bagan supported Shin Itsa Gawna until the king's treasure ran out with no satisfactory results. As the legends goes, the king accused the monk a lier, and punished him by taking out his both eyes. Monk Gawna got upset and decided to abandon Alchemy. He threw away all his work into the toilet well, and there things brightened up and exploded. He knew that was it! He made it. He finally made that dutlone (a magic wand metal ball). But both of his eyes were gone. He sent his men to a market to find any eye they can get from butchers. His men got a cow's eye and a goat's eye. The monk put them into his eye pits, rubbed with the Dutlone which he treated with Alchemy. He could see again! Monk Gawna was happy. The king was happy. The country was happy. The legend continues that Shin Itsa Gawna announced to the city of Bagan to collect any pieces of metal into pots and pans in every front yard. He went around the city of Bagan to every home, turning all pieces of metal into gold! This is how Shin Itsa Gawna made everyone in Bagan rich. That's how the story goes. No one can confirm whether this was true or not. But we can see statues of Buddha with 1 small eye and 1 big eye, which are said to be made in memory of Shin Itsa Gawna, the miracle monk.