Gubyaukgyi Temple (Myinkaba)
Gubyaukgyi Temple | |
---|---|
Religion | |
Affiliation | Theravada Buddhism |
Location | |
Country | Myanmar |
Geographic coordinates | 21°09′26″N 94°51′39″E / 21.15722°N 94.86083°E |
Architecture | |
Founder | Prince Yazakumar |
Completed | 1113 |
The Gubyaukgyi (alt. Kubyauk-gyi) temple, located just south of
Physical Description
The style of the temple includes both Mon[2] and Indian[1] elements. In the case of the latter, the temple's towers are built in the Indian Shikhara style.[4] The temple has a square base, shaped like a Kalatha pot, with a curvilinear roof.[5] The interior of the temple contains a large, perimeter vestibule that connects to a small shrine room, a temple entrance leading to the vestibule, and an interior hallway leading to the shrine room.[1] Both the shrine room and the entrance to the temple are on the east side of the building.[1][6]
The temple has 11 large, perforated, Pyu-style windows, which let in very little light.
In the interior above these windows are terraces with small
History
Construction
A popular retelling of the temple's construction goes as follows. Several decades before the construction of Gubyaukgyi, the wife of King Kyansittha, Queen Thanbula, became pregnant. At the time, the king had no son, and as such no direct heir to the throne. When the king learned of the queen's pregnancy, he asked her to leave the royal court. Upon leaving the court, he gave her a valuable ring. He told the queen that, if the baby were a boy, she would be welcomed back to the court, and would return the ring. If the baby were a girl, she was told she could sell the ring and should not return to the court.[2]
The baby was a boy, Prince Yazakumar. However, by the time the queen returned to the king with their son, he had already promised his daughter's son, Alaungsithu, that he would be the heir to the kingdom. To compensate Yazakumar for his losing the chance to inherit the throne, the king gave him a large amount of land. Yazakumar sold much of this land, and with the proceeds built Gubyaukgyi, out of appreciation for his father.[2] To build the temple, Yazakumar employed three villages of slaves.[4]
Background Behind Mon Style of Temple
Around 1054 AD, the Burmese monarch and founder of the
Damage and Restoration
A 1982 UNESCO report concerning the conservation of 16 Bagan temples and monuments revealed a number of issues relating to the physical condition of Gubyaukgyi. On the exterior, the original cornice was lost, and in its place black algae and lichens had developed. A blue green lichen was further found lower on the exterior. Meanwhile, multiple areas of stucco were in danger of detachment. Interiorly, the entrance hallway had undergone extensive damage from earthquakes. The researchers also discovered insect damage and areas where the consolidant polyvinyl acetate had been applied to stabilize flaking paint.[8]
Due to these issues, a 1984 joint UNESCO/
3D Documentation
The
The other 11 monuments documented by the Zamani Project are; Kyauk-ku-umin (154); Tha-peik-hmauk-gu-hpaya (744); Sula-mani-gu-hpaya (Sulamani)(748) 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).
Textured 3D models, panorama tours, elevations, sections and plans of some of those structures are available on www.zamaniproject.org.
A video of the textured 3D model of the Kubyaub-gyi Temple was also created.
Murals
Jātakas
The Gubyaukgyi temple has 547 well-preserved paintings depicting various Jātakas originated entirely from Sri Lanka depicting the island's historical chronicles - Mahavensa. Temple built in 1113 by Prince Rajakumar, son of King Kyansittha who painted a large number of episodes from the Mahavamsa on the Gubyaukgyi temple walls. These include panels depicting Arahant Mahinda, and King Devanmpiyatissa, the national hero Dutugamunu and his elephant Kandula as well as Prince Gamini sending women's attire to his father for refusing to fight for the freedom of the country. The invader Elara is depicted in true Mahavamsa style as a just and fair king. His bell of justice is shown together with the calf that wore it - a story known to every child in contemporary Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka's historical events depicted on the walls end with the great Sri Lankan King Vijayabahu - the contemporary of Rajakumar. Among them the stories of Buddha's previous lives as seen by Sri Lankans at that time. Each of these paintings has an ink caption written in Old Mon; in fact, Gubyaukgyi's murals with their accompanying captions are the most complete collection of Jātakas in Old Mon in the world.[7] Each panel in the mural measures 1' 5" by 1' 5".[5] The Jātaka panels begin on the third row of paintings on the eastern, outer wall of the vestibule, to one's immediate left as one enters the temple's entrance (the left as one enters). They then wrap around (south to west to north to east) seven times, ending on the ninth row of paintings on the outer wall. Unlike Jātaka paintings seen in other Bagan temples, such as the Ananda Temple, Gubyaukgyi's are unnumbered; the paintings' good condition and detailed captions have made identification simple, however.[12]
Bengali Influence on Textiles in Temple Paintings
One of King Kyansittha's wives,
The patterns seen on the textiles depicted in Gubyaukgyi's murals show Bengali influence. Textiles can be found in the temple's paintings in multiple contexts: on cushions Buddha is leaning on, in the form of fabrics spread below Buddha's throne, in pavilions under which Buddha is seated, and as garments worn by disciplines of Buddha.[12]
Scholar Claudine Bautze-Picron has found three primary similarities between the stylistic motifs on textiles in Gubyaukgyi's paintings and those popular in contemporaneous Bengal. First is prominent use of repeated patterns of geometric shapes, such as circles, squares, diamonds, and hexagons, which can be seen in the garb of some of Buddha's royal disciples. The second similarity is striped patterns, especially around deities' legs. Finally, textiles seen in the temple's murals use the motif of scrolls extended like arabesques into repeated circles.[12]
References
- ^ a b c d e "Gubyaukgyi Temple (Myinkaba)". 2012.
- ^ a b c d e "Gubyaukgyi Temple (Myinkaba)". 2001.
- ^ a b "Gubyaukgyi". Lonely Planet. Retrieved 6 March 2015.
- ^ a b Gunther, Michael. "Myinkaba Gubyaukgyi".
- ^ a b c d e "Gu Byauk Gyi (Myinkaba)". Bagan Myanmar. 2010. Retrieved 6 March 2015.
- ^ "Gubyaukgyi Temple (Myinkaba)".
- ^ JSTOR 3248766.
- ^ Paul Schwartzbaum (1982). Conservation of the Mural Paintings and Stuccoes at Pagan (PDF) (Report). United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco). Retrieved 9 March 2015.
- ^ CR hub: preserving Bagan temple by Zamani Project, retrieved 2019-09-26
- ^ "Site - Bagan". zamaniproject.org. Retrieved 2019-09-27.
- ^ "Laser Scanning for Heritage Conservation - Bagan, Myanmar -". lidarnews.com. 2017-07-01. Retrieved 2019-09-26.
- ^ a b c d Luce, Gordon; Ba Shin, Bohmu (1961). Pagan Myinkaba Kubyauk-gyi temple of Rājakumār (1113 A.D.) and the Old Mon writings on its walls. Yangon, Myanmar: Burma Historical Commission.