the Bagaya Kyaung monastery, entirely built in teak, characterized by wooden beams and panels inlaid and decorated with figures of gods and myths, Bagan, Myanmar; Shutterstock ID 1119025109; your: Sloane Tucker; gl: 65050; netsuite: Online Editorial; full: POI
1119025109

Shutterstock / RudiErnst

Bagaya Kyaung

Top choice in Myanmar (Burma)


This lovely 1834 teak monastery is Inwa’s most memorable individual attraction. It's supported on 267 teak posts, the largest 60ft high and 9ft in circumference, creating a cool and dark prayer hall that feels genuinely aged. Stained timbers are inscribed with repeating peacock and lotus-flower motifs. Despite the constant flow of visitors, this remains a living monastery, with globes hung above the little school section to assist in the novices’ geography lessons. Beware of protruding floorboard nails.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Myanmar (Burma) attractions

1. Row of Stupa Ruins

0.14 MILES

These crumbling ruins are ill-tended (though they're popular as a play spot for local kids). The brickwork suggests Bagan-period origins, but we were…

2. Inwa Archaeological Museum

0.37 MILES

This airy two-hall museum is mostly full of 19th-century marble buddha statues with their gold leaf rubbed off. More interesting is the giant 18th-century…

3. Shwezigon Paya

0.42 MILES

This golden stupa rises photogenically above the overgrown southwestern corner of Inwa's city walls. The best view is from across the moat, especially in…

4. Yedanasimi Paya

0.44 MILES

This small but photogenic ensemble brings together three sitting buddhas and a handful of old brick stupas shaded by a giant flame tree.

5. Daw Gyan

0.48 MILES

Within the green patchwork of paddies that forms a quilt over Inwa, a small temple perches on a tiny artificial island. This is Daw Gyan, a collection of…

6. Nogatataphu Paya

0.56 MILES

One of the biggest stupas in the Inwa area, gold-topped Nogatataphu dominates the village 'skyline'.

7. Le-htat-gyi Paya

0.79 MILES

The once-huge Le-htat-gyi Paya resembles a smaller version of Mingun Paya. It has been dangerously fissured by earthquakes, but retains a fair amount of…

8. Sinkyone Fortress

0.8 MILES

This is one of outer Mandalay's trio of 19th-century fortresses that failed to prevent the British conquest in 1885. Two cannons and the moated square…

  • placement: superzone
  • path: Destinations/POIs/superzone
  • possible size: [970, 250], [970, 90], [728, 90], [1, 1],
  • targeting:
    {
      "url": "myanmar-burma/inwa/attractions/bagaya-kyaung/a/poi-sig/1369344/1335733",
      "destination": "Myanmar-(Burma)",
      "continent": "Asia",
      "country": "Myanmar-(Burma)",
      "position": "superzone"
    }