Dhanyawadi

Division

Dhanyawadi (from Sanskrit dhannavati, " blessed with grain ") was a town in the Rakhine State in western Myanmar. It was about the 5th to 8th century.

Dhanyawadi is located about 130 km northeast of Sittwe between the rivers Kaladan and Thare Chaung middle of a hilly landscape. You can reach the countryside by bus from Mrauk U from after a two-hour journey. Until the fifties could reach Dhanyawadi by boat on the Thare Chaung, but make this water pollution and siltation of the channel towards the city today impossible.

The city is mostly now in ruins; there are only the buildings around the temple Mahamuni and facilities for meditation as the only sign of civilization here. The revered at this point until the 18th century Mahamuni image is now in Mandalay.

History

Dhanyawadi was the capital of the first Kingdom of Arakan, the empire Dhanyawadi. It owed ​​its relative wealth to the trade with the East (pre- paganisches Burma, China, Mon) and the West (India, Bengal and Persia ).

The city had an approximately 10 km long city wall, within which another umwallter area for the royal family was provided. Both systems are still remnants to be seen.

Dhanyawadi is the most Indianised the four kingdoms of Arakan. Although the first realm of legend is said to have passed by before Buddha, ie before the 6th century BC, they found no useful archaeological evidence from this period.

Another legend has it that the Buddha himself found his way into the city. The nobles donated their riches, gold and silver to create a Buddha image. And Buddha himself has given seven drops of his sweat on the chest inside the melt. This allowed the Mahamuni image to preach the teachings of Buddha after it was finished cast.

1785 fell to the Burmese Arakan. They tried to bring the portrait into her his term capital Amarapura. The sources from the old Burma from Arakan and contradict each other on the related process. The Arakanese say the portrait was simply vanished in the temple or during the Burmese transport. According to sources, the Burmese Mahamuni image has come to Amarapura and brought to Mandalay later. Some contemporary Burmese experts today, however, assume the portrait did not actually leave the Arakan at that time.