Mandalay

Mandalay (22 November, 2003)


Mandalay is a guide to get to know and plan your visit to Mandalay, the second largest city in Myanmar. This city is the capital of Upper Burma. It is located 600 km north of Yangon, on the banks of the Ayeyarwady River. Mandalay has slightly over 800,000 inhabitants. It is the capital of Upper Burma that was immortalized in Rudyard Kipling's The Road to Mandalay, the 1887 poem that refers to the Ayeyarwady. In a country where the cities are a thousand years old or more, Mandalay is surprisingly young in comparison - "just" over 150 years old.

Sights in Mandalay

Mandalay Hill at sunset (22 November 2003)

History of Mandalay

Mandalay was founded by King Mindom in 1857. He did so to fulfill an ancient Buddhist prophecy (and as often happens with monarchs, to his own glory). There was a legend that Gautama Buddha visited Mandalay Hill with his disciple Ananda, and proclaimed that 2400 years after his death, a great city for Buddhist teaching will be founded at the foot of the hill.

The ever pious Mindon thought he could achieve enlightenment by making true of that prophecy. So, in 1861, Mindon disposed of his half-brother Pagan Min as the Konbaung king. Taking over the throne, he moved his capital - literally uprooting most of his palace as well as 150,000 of his subjects - from Amarapura 20 km away, and move them to Mandalay. Here, he built his Royal Palace at the foot of Mandalay Hill and worked towards realising the "Golden City" of Buddhist teachings.

Souvenir sellers at Shwenandaw Kyaung Monastery, Mandalay (22 November 2003)


King Mindon's dream, unfortunately, came to a fast ending after he died in 1878. Taking over the reign was the tyrannic King Thibaw and his imperious wife Supyalat. During their terror reign, they liquidated many of their own friends and relatives to prevent any challenge to their rule. There was a smallpox epidemic. On the advise of astrologers, they had many of their own subjects and foreigners killed. Their excesses resulted in an invasion by the British, and they occupied Upper Burma in 1885. Mandalay, with all its beautiful palaces, became known by the now unknown name of Fort Dufferin.

Mandalay handicrafts (22 November 2003)

Getting there

By Plane
The Mandalay International Airport is located 45 km from the city center. You can reach Mandalay by taxi for approximately US$8.00, and pay US$6.00 for the return journey. There are mostly domestic flights as the airport has limited number of international flights, including twice weekly from Chiang Mai and three times a week from Kunming.

By Train
Most visitors from Yangon arrives in Mandalay by train. This is usually an overnight 15-hour journey that allows you to enjoy the beauty of the Myanmar countryside. The Dagon Mann Express overnight train costs US$50.00 and is the most comfortable option by train.

Pilgrims approaching the Mahamuni Buddha (22 November 2003)

Getting around

Taxis are relatively inexpensive in Mandalay. You might want to hire one to help you explore the many sights in and around the city. If you plan to explore only the sights within the city center, you can even hire a bicycle. Apart from the main roads, which are full of cyclists, the tourist places are often low in traffic.

Young fan vendor at Atumashi Kyaung Monastery, Mandalay

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About this website

Dear visitor, thank you so much for reading this page. My name is Timothy Tye and my hobby is to find out about places, write about them and share the information with you on this website. I have been writing this site since 5 January 2003. Originally (from 2003 until 2009, the site was called AsiaExplorers. I changed the name to Penang Travel Tips in 2009, even though I describe more than just Penang but everywhere I go (I often need to tell people that "Penang Travel Tips" is not just information about Penang, but information written in Penang), especially places in Malaysia and Singapore, and in all the years since 2003, I have described over 20,000 places.

While I try my best to provide you information as accurate as I can get it to be, I do apologize for any errors and for outdated information which I am unaware. Nevertheless, I hope that what I have described here will be useful to you.