Kalyani Ordination Hall | |
---|---|
ကလျာဏီသိမ် | |
Religion | |
Affiliation | Buddhism |
Sect | Theravada Buddhism |
Region | Bago Region |
Year consecrated | 24 November 1476 9th waxing of Nadaw 838 ME |
Location | |
Municipality | Bago |
Country | Myanmar |
Geographic coordinates | 17°19′59″N 96°27′52″E / 17.333145°N 96.464378°E |
Architecture | |
Founder | Dhammazedi |
Completed | 22 November 1476[note 1] 7th waxing of Nadaw 838 ME |
Kalyāṇī Ordination Hall (Burmese: ကလျာဏီသိမ်, Pali: Kalyāṇī Sīmā) is a Buddhist ordination hall located in Bago, Myanmar. The ordination hall is a major pilgrimage site,[1] and houses the Kalyani Inscriptions, a set of 10 sandstone pillars inscribed in Pali and Mon in 1480.[2][3] The inscriptions are important records of Theravada Buddhist history and of that era.[3]
The ordination hall was first built by King Dhammazedi of the Hanthawaddy Kingdom in 1476 to re-ordain the kingdom's Buddhist monks, in an effort to purify the kingdom's Sangha, which had undergone several internal schisms.[4] To this end, in 1476, Dhammazedi sent 22 senior monks and their disciples to Sri Lanka, where they were re-ordained at the Kelaniya Raja Maha Vihara.[4] After the monks had returned, Dhammazedi built the Kalyani Ordination Hall, which derives its name from the Kelani River in Sri Lanka.[5][4] The construction of the first Kalyani Ordination Hall spurred construction of similarly-named Kalyani Ordination Halls; throughout the Hanthawaddy Kingdom, 9 large ones and 107 small ones were constructed.[5]
The ordination hall was destroyed several times. Portuguese explorers burnt the structure in 1599, and King Alaungpaya destroyed the hall during his invasion of Bago in 1757.[4][6] The ordination hall was also destroyed by fires and earthquakes, including an earthquake in 1930 that levelled the structure completely.[6] The extant ordination hall was reconstructed in 1954.[4]