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Of all religious edifices buil by King Kyansittha, Ananda Phaya near Tharapa Gate Bagan east excels in architecture and decorative art works-35 foot high teak doors with intricate wood carvings, marble statues, murals and glazed figures, the four facades with the four tall (31-foot)images o the four Buddhas that had already been in this world o Buddha.
On the western facade, beside the statue of Buddha, is a statue of Shin Arahan who had brought Theravada Buddhist to Bagan, and the statue of King Kyansittha. In the main tazaung on that facade, an enlarged likeness of a pair of footprints of Buddha complete with 108 characters as written in the Pali treatises.  Diagram showing the ingenious method of fixing
the huge wooden-leaves inside the Ananda Temple Gleaming white and golden in the bright sunlight, the Ananda commemorates in its name one of the attributes of the Buddha, his Infinite Wisdom Anandapyinnya in Myanmar Language, Anantapanna in Pali.
The Great Renunciation of Price Siddhattha
The story is told in the chronicles that once eight saints came to the court of Kyansittha (1084-1113) from Mount Gandhamadana-in Indian myth, one of the four mountains enclosing the central region of the world and the home of healing herbs. The King. Full of faith, gave them a monastery and offered them food every day during the three months of Lent. In wonderment and curiosity, Kyansittha expressed a desire to see the Nandamula grotto which was in Mount Gandhamadana. And the eight saints, through their powers, conjured up Nandamula grotto before Kyansittha, and it was this which he took a model to build the Ananda.
Sandstone carving of Maya and her retinue
The Ananda, completed in 1090, is Kyansittha’s masterpiece and the crowning achievement of the Early Style of temple architecture. The plan is that of a Greek cross, with the arms formed by porticoes radiating from a central square block. The proportions are majestic. Each side of the central square measures 175 feet, while the overall length of each axis is 290 feet. The main block is 35 feet high, and above it rise two tiers of sloping roofs, followed by four receding terraces which form a base feet high, their faces wonderfully illumined by light filtering in from dormer windows above. The four images represent the Buddhas of the present world cycle who have already attained Enlightenment; in the north, Kakusandha; in the east, Konagamana; in the south, Kassapa; and in the west, Gotama. The images of Kakusandha in the north and Kassapa in the south are original and contemporaneous with the building, while the remaining two are replacements of originals which were destroyed. Before the image of Gotama in the western alcove are two figures kneeling in obeisance, Shin Arahan on the left, King Kyansittha on the right, a tableau recalling the words of Kyansittha’s Shwezigon inscription:
The Buddha Kakusandha standing
“A Lord Mahathera who possesses virtue, who is the charioteer of the Law, the King shall make his right-hand man, shall make him his spiritual teacher. In the presence of the Lord Mahathera, abounding in wirtue, who is the charioteer of the Law also, ‘Together with my Lord will I cleanse the religion of the Lord Buddha’, thus shall the King say.”
The Ananda seems like a magic cave full of wonders. The corridors are honeycombed with niches which hold small stone images of the Buddha in various postures. Particularly noteworthy is a series of eighty reliefs in the two lower tiers of niches in the outer corridor which depict the Final Life of the Buddha from his birth as Prince Siddhattha to his Enlightenment. There is also a vast collection of green glazed terracotta plaques in the Ananda, the largest assembled in a single building. The plaques ornamenting the ground storey celebrate Buddha’s victory over Mara, the Evil One, and his army-the plaques of the western side depict the hideous monsters of Mara’s army while those on the estern side show the devas, with auspicious symbols in their hands, jubiland over Buddha’s victory over Mara. The plaques in the lower terraces depict the Lesser Lives of the Jatakas, each Jataka being represented by one scene, with a legend in Mon. The 389 plaques of the four upper terraces provide a fuller portrayal of the ten Major Lives of the Jatakas ending with Vessantara.
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