Ananda temple
The Anada temple was constructed in the 11th century as Buddhist temple by King Kyanzittha and restored in 1783, and restored again after the 1975 earthquake. It is located in Bagan, Myanmar. The name Anada Temple is derived from the name of Buddha's cousin. It is modeled after the legendary Nandamula cave in the Himalaya mountains. Soaring to 51 meters, it received its golden gilding in 1990 in commemeration of the 900th anniversary of its construction. Contained within the temple are four great statues of the Buddhas of the four ages. Kakusandha faces north, Konagamana faces east, Kassapa faces south, and Guatama, the most recent Buddha, faces west.
The temple is also home to an annual festival that is held during the month of Pyahto (December to January).
The Ananda temple is a gu cave temple type. It is built in bricks recovered by stucco and it is built as a Mandala figure, consisting on concentric squares centered on the visible axis mundui located in the central pillar. Tiered roofs contain expression of World Mountain the Mount Meru.
The Anada temple consists of single story, built up on the ground flloor, even if the double fenestration gave the impression of a two stories building.
The temple has four entrances, on facing of the four directions. Concentric corridors following a concentric square pattern will bring the devotees by circumambulation to the four shrines facing the 4 orients too. These two circumambulatory corridors encircle the central bock.
Each doorway opens into the entry hall through a short hallway that also connected directly to a shrine consisting of an enormous niches in the central masonry block that occupies the center of the building. Each of the enormous niche sheltered four standing Buddha images (32ft) the tallest in Burma. Inside in the walls of the corridors are eighty slabs in stone dpeciting the events of the life of Buddha Gautama. These sculptures will bring the devotee, step by step, to the spiritual journey towards the salvation path to gain Nirvana.
The base of the outside walls is decorated with glazed terracotta tiles representing the assault of the Army of Mara (the devil), surrounding the entire building for the pilgrims to meditate before entering the temple. The tiered roofs are also decorated with 1,500 glazed plaques depicting the jatakas stories or previous lives of Buddha. Each of these plaques has an inscription identifying the episode.