Le temple Shitthaung à Myohaung, dépositaire des traditions de l'Arakan

Arakan, adjacent to Bangladesh, lies on the West coast of Union of Myanmar. Before being annexed by the Burmese in 1784, Arakan had been an independent kingdom with a prestigious past. The last capital Myauk-U (1430-1784), named Myohaung (old city) by the British, still has numerous beautiful temples, very interesting by their shapes, general arrangements and decoration. The most well-known is the Shitthaung temple which is situated in the northern part of Myohaung not too far from the old walls of the enclosure of the royal palace. The Shitthaung temple, founded in 1535 by the king Min Ba Gyi, was edified on a huge substructure and therefore resembles a fortress of stone and brick. It is a rectangular construction surrounded, on three sides, by little stupa and sculptured slabs. The inside part can be divided in two main sections: the entrance hall and the shrine. The large entrance hall is decorated with many Buddha statues and, on the ceiling, rary paintings can be seen depicting the glorious past of Arakan. The shrine is a compact square in stone with, in its middle, a little cella sheltering a colossal sitting Buddha, and surrounded by two vaulted and blind galleries. One gallery holds the twenty-eight statues of the past Buddha and the other several hundred of sitting Buddha. Another gallery (an ambulatory) surround the shrine; the walls of which are sculptured with six tiers of figures or scenes in low or high relief. Human beings, gods, animals, scenes of the daily life, local legends, previous lifes of the Buddha are represented. At the four corners, a taller divinity in a relief more protuberant seems to be a "lokapala" guarding the shrine. The Shitthaung temple was restored by the Archaeological Survey of Burma around 1922 and since has been kept in a good state of preservation.Gatellier Marie. Le temple Shitthaung à Myohaung, dépositaire des traditions de l'Arakan. In: Arts asiatiques, tome 48, 1993. pp. 110-126