Bagan vaulted temples (gu)
Templos abovedados de Bagan (gu)
- Date
- c. 1050-1280 · confidence medium
- Place
- Bagan, Mandalay Region, Myanmar
- Credited to
- Builders of Bagan
- Field
- Tools
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Brick temples with a cella covered by vaults and arches in the proper sense, whose interior is lit by windows and circumambulated through corridors, such as the Ananda (1105). They made it possible to create hollow, open spaces for worship in a region without stone.
It is debated whether Bagan introduced the true arch or whether it already existed in Pyu and Mon buildings; the dating of each temple is generally approximate (1050-1280) and the Ananda is assigned to 1105 by tradition and inscriptions.
What it led to
- thousands of Bagan temples and pagodas (World Heritage, 2019)
- the gu temples of Theravada worship
- vaulted brick architecture of mainland Southeast Asia