Qualla: Andaw-thein Temple

Andaw-thein Temple: Introduction

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Gerd Eichmann, CC BY-SA 4.0. Somewhere inside the dark stone corridors of Andaw Thein, sealed behind walls that admit almost no light, sits a tooth. It measures three and a quarter inches long, nearly as thick, and it once rested in a golden casket before a thief from a nearby village pried open the relic chamber and made off with the gold. The tooth was recovered. The casket was not. That the relic now sits in a silver replacement tells you something about Mrauk U: precious things endure here, even when the container changes around them.

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Image: Gerd Eichmann | CC BY-SA 4.0

Andaw-thein Temple: Three Kings and a Tooth

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Gerd Eichmann, CC BY-SA 4.0. Andaw Thein's name translates simply as "Tooth Shrine," but the building's history is anything but simple. King Thazata first raised an ordination hall on this site between 1515 and 1521, during the early flowering of the Mrauk U kingdom. Two decades later, King Min Bin restored ...

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Image: Gerd Eichmann | CC BY-SA 4.0

Andaw-thein Temple: A Fortress for the Sacred

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Go-Myanmar, CC BY-SA 3.0. Step inside, and the darkness is immediate. Andaw Thein has almost no openings; no windows admit light or air beyond the main entrance. The effect is deliberate. Built entirely from stone blocks, the temple shares the fortress-like character of its neighbor, the Shite-thaung Temp...

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Image: Go-Myanmar | CC BY-SA 3.0

Andaw-thein Temple: One Hundred and Seventy-Five Buddhas

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Go-Myanmar, CC BY-SA 3.0. The prayer hall alone holds six standing Buddha images in niches flanking the entrance to the main shrine, each displaying a different mudra. Two figures at the entrance combine the Abhaya and Varada gestures, right palms raised outward, left hands mirroring the posture below, re...

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Image: Go-Myanmar | CC BY-SA 3.0

Andaw-thein Temple: Where Hindu Gods Guard a Buddhist Shrine

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Go-Myanmar, CC BY-SA 3.0. The most surprising residents of Andaw Thein are not Buddhist at all. Across eight elaborately carved thrones in the central shrine, reliefs of Ganesh, Shiva, Brahma, and Garuda appear alongside ogres, hamsa birds, sphinxes, and lions. Shiva sits cross-legged holding lotus buds. ...

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Image: Go-Myanmar | CC BY-SA 3.0

Andaw-thein Temple: Stone Against Time

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Go-Myanmar, CC BY-SA 3.0. Mrauk U was once the capital of the Arakan Kingdom, and its temples were built to last. Andaw Thein has survived five centuries of monsoons, wars, earthquakes, and neglect. The same stone-block construction that makes the interior so dark also makes it nearly indestructible. In a...

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Image: Go-Myanmar | CC BY-SA 3.0