Myanmar’s Cave of Ten Thousand Buddhas Lives Up to Its Name
Myanmar’s Cave of Ten Thousand Buddhas Lives Up to Its Name - Centuries of devotion line the walls..
Near the hot and humid city of Hpa-An in Myanmar, in an ancient hillside cave, a constellation of sacred figures undulate, often in irregular rows, across every nook and cranny. They are Buddhas of different sizes, many made of terracotta a few inches tall. The shallow shelter also holds a 32-foot-tall Buddha and many others, in various standing, sitting, or reclining poses.
One common name of this archaeological pilgrimage site—also known as the Kawgoon or Kawgun Cave Temple—should come as no surprise: the Cave of the Ten Thousand Buddhas. Richard Carnac Temple,
a British writer and amateur anthropologist, visited this kaleidoscope of devotion in 1894: “Everywhere on the floor, overhead, in the jutting points, and on the stalactite festoons on the roof, are crowded together images of Gaudama, the offerings of successive ages. Some are perfectly gilded, others incrusted with calcareous matter, some fallen, yet sound, others mouldered, others just erected. Some of these are of stupendous size, some not larger than one’s finger, and some of all the intermediate sizes; marble, stone, wood, brick, and clay … A ship of 500 tons could not carry away the half of them.” It’s good he didn’t follow that last thought to its logical conclusion.
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The origins of the cave temple are not clear, but historian Nai Maung Toe has speculated, on the basis of its inscriptions, that the site dates as far back as the 6th or 7th century. In the language of the Mon, a major ethnic group in Myanmar, they state that a Mon queen commissioned a Buddhist statue to be built at the site, where she had taken refuge during a war. Over the centuries, more statues and Buddhist art were added, the styles evolving, including the earthen votive tablets covering the cavern walls and adjoining limestone cliffs.
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https://www.atlasobscura.com/article...n-cave-buddhas
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