Your base for exploring this tourist attraction is the heritage city of Mandalay. For travel information about Mandalay, go to Mandalay Travel Guide. To prepare for a trip to Myanmar, read also the Myanmar Travel Guide. Looking for budget accommodation there? Use AsiaExplorers Budget Accommodation Guide, the no-frills website to cover your budget accommodation needs.
Sagaing Hills, located 21km southwest of Mandalay, is regarded as the living centre of Buddhist faith in Myanmar. In the hills and valleys around Sagaing are around 600 monasteries, temples, stupas and caves dedicated to Buddhism. Today, there are still 5000 monks living in this arcadian landscape of stairways and colonnades. The bigger temples and pagodas break the tree line of the verdant hills and are easily seen from the Ayeyarwady River.
Panorama of Saging Hills with the Ayeyarwady River in the background.
Sagaing was the capital of an independent Shan kingdom around 1315 after the fall of Bagan. However, its period as capital was short, because the founder's grandson, Thado Minbya, moved his capital across the river to Inwa in 1364. For another brief period, from 1760 to 1764, Sagaing was again the capital. Today, Sagaing is well known as a Buddhist meditation centre and Myanmar people all over the country visit it for the purpose of religious retreat.
Mandalay and its surroundings
Mandalay was the capital of the old Burmese kingdom. There are lots of sights within Mandalay as well as in the cities nearby that are worth visiting. Click enter to view.
