Tirtha Atlas

The sacred geography of the Indic world — every site mapped, dated, storied, and cited.

3031 sites15 countries4 traditions30 centuries
High medieval · Buddhist · Myanmar

Phaung Daw U Pagoda

Ywama, Inle Lake, Shan State · 20.4744°, 96.8903°

Gautama Buddha (gilded Buddha images)Pagan
Sacred since
1000 CE
first attestation / structure
Standing structure
dating unrecorded
Pagan

History & significance

A Theravada pagoda at Ywama on Inle Lake in Shan State whose Burmese name means 'principal royal barge pagoda'. It houses gilded Buddha images believed to have been brought to the lake by King Alaungsithu of the Pagan dynasty in the 12th century.

Sthala katha — the traditional account

What follows is the temple’s own traditional account, transmitted through liturgy and local memory. It is recorded here as tradition, not as attested history.

On a windy day in the 1960s the barge carrying the images capsized and one image was lost in the lake; when the party returned to the monastery, the missing image was said to be sitting back in its place.

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Sources

coordinates: wikipedia-2026-08-28 · sources retrieved 2026-08-26 · dynasty page: Pagan