Dhammayazaka Pagoda

Updated April 16, 2024

## Dhammayazaka Pagoda (Dhammayazika Pagoda) in Bagan: what makes this five-sided stupa worth the detour

Dhammayazaka Pagoda—more commonly spelled Dhammayazika Pagoda—is a late-Bagan–period Buddhist monument best known for something you don’t see every day on the temple plains: a five-sided (pentagonal) layout built around a circular, brick stupa. It sits in/near Pwasaw village, east of the main concentration of Old Bagan monuments.

If you’ve already visited Bagan’s “big hitters,” this is the kind of site that rewards a second layer of curiosity: the geometry, the iconography choices, and the narrative program on the terraces are unusually legible if you slow down and look carefully.

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## Quick facts you can rely on

– Name: Dhammayazika Pagoda (often rendered as Dhammayazaka in some travel listings)
– Where it is: Pwasaw village, east of Bagan (Mandalay Region, Myanmar)
– When it was built: 1196, during the reign of King Narapatisithu
– Materials & form: brick, circular design with three terraces
– What to look for: terracotta tiles illustrating scenes from the Jataka tales (stories of the Buddha’s previous lives)

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## Why the architecture matters (and how to “read” it on site)

### A rare five-part plan in a landscape dominated by fours
Most Bagan monuments you’ll encounter are organized around four cardinal directions—four entrances, four directional shrines, four-face logic. Dhammayazika breaks that pattern: its plan expresses fivefold rotational symmetry (C5) and is described as the oldest known building with that kind of five-point rotational symmetry.

On the ground, the geometry shows up as:
– A circular center (the stupa core)
– A surrounding pentagonal perimeter
– Five outward projections that function as shrines/chapels rather than the more typical four

This isn’t just clever math. In Theravada Buddhist visual culture, “extra” directional logic often signals a specific doctrinal or devotional emphasis—here it’s explicit.

### The “fifth” shrine and the future Buddha
The design enables five shrines instead of four, and the fifth shrine is dedicated to Maitreya, the future Buddha.

That’s a powerful choice in a merit-making landscape like Bagan: it folds anticipation and future renewal into a monument already dense with storytelling and iconography.

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## The terraces: your best “slow travel” payoff

### Terracotta Jataka plaques (don’t rush this)
Dhammayazika’s three terraces are specifically noted for terracotta tiles illustrating Jataka scenes.

On-site, this means you can treat the monument like a visual archive:
– Scan systematically terrace by terrace
– Look for repeated narrative motifs (animals, royal figures, moral tests)
– Notice how stories are sequenced around the structure—Bagan-era artisans often assumed viewers would move, pause, and move again

Even if you can’t identify every scene, the density of narrative tells you what the monument was designed to do: teach, remind, and reinforce merit through repeated encounter.

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## Context: where it sits in Bagan’s bigger story

Bagan’s temple plain is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, officially inscribed in 2019. World Heritage Centre

Dhammayazika belongs to the late 12th-century phase of Bagan’s monumental output—still confident in scale and craft, but increasingly experimental in design choices, as seen in this five-sided plan.

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## Practical visiting notes (kept strictly to what’s stable)

### Navigation and expectations
– Expect it to be east of the densest Old Bagan cluster, in the Pwasaw area.
– Because it’s not one of the most central “first-day” stops, many visitors reach it later—often when they’re ready to explore beyond the headline temples.

### Respectful, inclusive site etiquette
This is a living Buddhist landscape as well as an archaeological one. A few grounded basics apply almost everywhere in Myanmar’s religious sites:
– Dress modestly (covered shoulders/knees)
– Keep voices low in shrine spaces
– Avoid touching fragile plaques or relief surfaces

### Safety and “outdated data” flag
Access rules, conservation restrictions, and wider travel conditions in Myanmar can change. I can’t verify today’s on-the-ground access, ticketing policies, or security situation for your specific route from the sources above—so treat any third-party “opening hours” listings as non-authoritative and double-check locally or via current official advisories before you go.

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## What to photograph (if you’re building a memory, not just a gallery)

If you want images that actually explain the site later:
– A wide shot that captures the circular core + one shrine projection
– A “corner” perspective that makes the pentagonal logic obvious
– Close-ups of terracotta Jataka plaques to document the storytelling program

Those three categories will give you a set that’s more than scenic—it’s interpretive.

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## Bottom line: why Dhammayazaka belongs on your Bagan short list
Dhammayazaka/Dhammayazika isn’t famous because it’s the biggest or the most photographed. It earns attention because it’s structurally unusual, iconographically intentional, and rich in narrative surface detail—a place where you can see how late-12th-century Bagan builders pushed beyond the standard four-direction template into something more conceptually ambitious.

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