Bagan known in many names as: Paukkan, Tanpadipa, Arimaddanapura lies on banks of east Ayeyarwaddy River in Central Myanmar. Altogether 2217 of pagodas, stupas, images and ancient Buddhist temples and 892 brick piles of various sizes and shapes still exist to date in Bagan.
According to ancient history, King Thamokedrit first established Bagan by in AD 107 and during the reign of the 42^nd king, King Ahnawyahta in AD 1044-1077, it was established as the 1st Myanmar Empire and Bagan is renowned as the first Bagan State.

In reality, Bagan known as the first Myanmar Empire has changed the place of the kingdam four times. The moat you are seeing now, the city walls and old kingdom were built in AD 849 by 34th King Pyinpya and it was the 4th Bagan Palace. There are four types of structures in ancient Bagan era, such as caves, stupas, brick temple and tunnel. Artistic works were of ten Myanma traditional arts and crafts such as painting, art of stone sculpture, art of making decorative work in relief with stucco, art of making items cast or wrought from bronze, copper of brass, wood carving, making lacquer ware and craft of a mason.

In Bagan, the most outstanding artistic work was the architecture. Massive stupas like the Shwezeegon and the Dhammayazaka and their fantastic architectural works, well shaped pagodas like Mingala stupa and simple architectural works of Shwegugyi Pagoda and double storey or triple storey stupas like Htilo Minlo and Thabyenyu temples and pagodas and the decorative works of Annanda pagoda are so very outstanding.

Rich in invaluable priceless Myanmar ancient heritages, the stupas and pagodas of ancient Bagan are now being renovated to its original shapes by Ministry of Culture and Department of Archeology to preserve the Myanma Culture and to keep alive the cultural heritage of the days of yore.

To date, altogether 1120 pagodas and 457 pagodas on brick piles are being renovated and rebuilt in their original style and 99 have been rebuilt and renovated and renovation work is still in progress for 36 old pagodas and 15 pagodas on brick piles.

Among the renovation and preservation of ancient cultural edifices by the Department of Archeology the most outstanding endeavor was the cleansing of paintings inside the cave pagodas by chemical and it involved very detailed and precise cleansing work. To clean the paintings on the wall by chemical means had to be carried out step-by-step. First dust and dirt were cleaned using chemicals and for the concrete underneath to be more firm and to gain more strength, primal mixture had to be injected and lime layers had to be unpeeled and cleaning had to be done in detail. Then, preventive paintings are being carried out.

U Kyi Lin

In this Nagayone Pagoda, in cleaning the wall paintings using chemical liquid may take at least five years and at the most seven years. As the wall paintings were done several years ago, they all were ruined. So the renovation may take time.

Bagan Kings and the people build and donate the pagodas and stupas as religious edifices are with Myanma traditional works of arts and that was why all the ancient building, pagodas and edifices are full of Myanma heritage thus it proves Myanmar’s traditional culture and Myanmars love for donation and Myanmars piety.

Therefore, Bagan region where the 1st Myanma Empire came into being and where ancient Myanma cultural heritages live is a place every Myanmar citizen are proud of and it is also Myanma’s pride and property to show the world and boost our cultural heritages born from this Bagan region.