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This Pitakattaik or Library is supposed to be the library which King Anawrahta (1044-1077) built to house the thirty sets of the Tipitaka which he brought back from Thaton on the 32 white elephants of Manuha, the deposed king.
The Library is square in plan, measuring 51 feet on each side, and is arranged much like a temple, with a central cell surrounded by a processional corridor. The three doorways in the east and the three perforated windows on each of the other sides provide only dim lighting for the interior. King Bodawpaya (1781-1819) carried out repairs on the Library in 1783, and the spire surmounting the five multiple roofs and the peacock-like finials in plaster carving at the roof corners are the results of those repairs. Many of the monasteries of Bagan, especially the large teaching monasteries, had a library attached to them. The Pitaka, written on palm leaf and housed in the library in wooden chests, were themselves a costly item. A donor in 1273 built a monastery with a library for 2300 ticals of silver; to it he presented a set of the Pitaka which cost him 3,000ticals of silver. Reference 1. Ancient Pagodas in Myanmar Vol I , Jan 2003, by Myat Min Hlaing |
