Description of the attraction
One of the largest temples in Bagan - the Dhammayanga sanctuary - was supposed to be a more magnificent copy of the Ananga temple, but was never completed. The temple is shrouded in many rumors. Locals try to visit it less often and do not even like to just walk past it. Probably, this is the only temple in the archaeological zone of Bagan, near which there is no spontaneous market. Here tourists are not bothered by beggars and local children, there are no horse-drawn carriages ready to take a traveler anywhere in the city.
The construction of the Buddhist Dhammayanga temple was sponsored by King Naratu (1167-1170), who thus sought to make amends to the Buddha. And she was great: they say that he seized the throne of Bagan, having brutally dealt with his father and brother, and then tortured his wife, a princess from Sri Lanka, forbidding her to perform the religious rites of her homeland. And during the construction of the Dhammayanga temple, he personally supervised the workers, walking around the construction site with a knife and trying to slip it between the bricks. If there was a gap between the bricks, the mason was deprived of his hand. The verdict was carried out right there - on special stone platforms. They have survived to our time behind the Dhammayanga sanctuary.
King Naratu was punished for his atrocities: he was killed right in the temple, according to one version, the soldiers of the king of Sri Lanka, who avenged his daughter, according to the other - Sinhalese robbers. After the death of the king, the construction of the temple was not continued. The passage to the inner halls of the sanctuary is not available. Only the terraces of the temple and the adjacent territory are open for inspection. At the western entrance to the sanctuary, there are two sculptures of the Buddha.
