Kyauk Sa Ga Gyi Phaya (ကျောက်စကားကြီးဘုရား)

Burmese. ‘Stone Pagoda of the Great Words’. Name of a brick Buddhist temple in Bagan, which is built in a style reminiscent of the early Bagan Cave Style architecture, known as gu. It consists of an inner shrine with an northern portico and houses a large Buddha image seated in the bhumisparsa pose. The brick image is surrounded by an ambulatory, i.e. an outer hallway that forms a continuous passage way around the sanctum, and starts through a doorway on either side of the Buddha image. The inner walls of the ambulatory have small niches with Buddha images and other religious statues, whereas the outer walls of the hallway, which also make up the temple's main outer walls, have some lattice-style perforated stone windows that, while allowing sunlight in, at the same time keep out most of the daytime's heat. At the top of the temple is a sikhara-style tower. Kyauk Sa Ga Gyi Phaya is located adjacent to the Lawkananda Monastery, which is opposite of the Lawkananda Zedi (fig.). See MAP. 回