Mahabodhi

Site common name	Mahabodhi
Type of artwork	Architecture
Province/City	Bagan
State	Mandalay
Country	Myanmar
Geographic Coordinates Decimal degree	Lat : 21.173056 Long : 94.860556

History of production	Mahabodhi is the imitation of the great temple at Bodhgaya in India, the site of enlightenment. This temple was constructed during the reign of King Nantaungmaya.
Art	As this temple is the imitation of the great temple at Bodhgaya, the plan is also laid in accordance with the prototype. The plan of Mahabodhi was designed in the two-chambered scheme with the front room for the Buddha image and the rear one for the Bodhi tree. The body of the temple is designed in the form of Jagatī platform supporting quincunx Śikhara temples which is called in Indian term as Pañcāyatana scheme. The Śikhasra spire is designed with trapezoid contour, similar to Bodhgaya’s Śikhara in Indian art. This uniqueness attests the attempt of the replication of Bodhagaya temple in India. The spire of Mahabodhi at Pagan, therefore is totally different from the normal curvilinear-contoured Śikhara in other Pagan temple.
Period	Historical Period
Art period	Pagan
Age	10th-12th century A.D.
Religion	Buddhism
Sect	Theravada
Religion and belief	The replication of the great temple of enlightenment is iconographically significant. This means that Pagan people attempted to establish the sacredness of the site of enlightenment, which was also believed to be the centre of Majjhimapadesa and the navel of the earth in accordance with Theravāda Buddhism, at Pagan.

Type of License	Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND)
Rights	Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre
Date of record creation	2015-02-00
Record creator	Chedha Tingsanchali