Kanbawzathadi Golden Palace, Bago

Kanbawzathadi Golden Palace, Bago.

Kanbawzathadi Golden Palace, also written Kambowzathadi and Kanbawza Thadi, was formerly the home of Bago's greatest monarch, King Bayinnaung. King Bayinnaung's name is also written as Bayingnaung and Bayintnaung, and in Thailand, he is known as Bhueng Noreng.

King Bayinnaung was a monarch who had grand visions for himself. He established the 2nd Myanmar Empire, which stretched from the borders of India to parts of Thailand and Laos, and was one of the most popular Myanmar kings. The Kanbawzathadi Palace was built in 1553, two years into his reign, to the south of the Shwemawdaw Pagoda.

Excavations at Kanbawzathadi were started on 25th April 1990. The Archaeological Department excavated six mounds, which revealed the brick foundations and plinths of the old palace. Teak pillars, some with inscriptions, were also found. The Settaw Saung, one of the main rooms of the palace, the Lion Throne Room and the Bee Throne Room have been rebuilt.

Restoration of the Kanbawzathadi was completed in mid 2003. This included greening and beautifying of the Kanbawzathadi palace site, arrangements of the statues, sculptures and paintings to be kept at the Archaeological Museum to be built and preparations for displaying the Mingala coach drawn by 16 horses during King Bayinnaung's time.

King Bayinnaung appeared in the chronicles of other kingdoms, most notably Ayutthaya's, as King Bayinnaung once ransacked the kingdom, and took away all their white elephants. Having now owned 11 white elephants, King Bayinnaung considers that it is divine confirmation of his greatness. The next thing he wanted was the sacred tooth relic of the Buddha. If he could get hold of that, it would assure his place in history as the greatest king of all time. He would be greater even then King Anawrahta of Bagan, who had to make do with a copy of the Sacred Tooth Relic (refer to Anawrahta's Shwezigon Pagoda)

By chance King Bayinnaung's reign in Bago coincided with the rise of Portuguese power in South and Southeast Asia. The Portuguese troops had just attacked the Buddhist Kingdom of Jaffna in Sri Lanka, and they made off with a large booty included what they thought was the sacred tooth relic. It was inlaid in gold and adorned with precious stones. In 1561, in a rather interesting ceremony at the Portuguese enclave of Goa (also written Gõa), the tooth was presented to Don Constantino da Bragança, the Portuguese viceroy.

When King Bayinnaung heard of this news, he offered an enoumous sum of money to Da Bragança for the tooth. Da Bragança thought he was going to make a lucrative deal, but he met great resistance from the Archbishop of Gõa, who considered the tooth idolatry, and wanted it destroyed. Afraid of the ever-menacing threat of the Inquisition, Da Bragança had no choice but to destroy it. On a porch overlooking the river, and in the presence of a large crowd of people, Da Bragança had the tooth brought out, and using a mortar, personally crushed the tooth to powder, casting it into the river.

King Bayinnaung's despair was brief, however, as it soon come to light that the tooth destroyed by Da Bragança was a decoy. The real tooth soon reappeared in the court of the King of Colombo. Once again King Bayinnaung sent a delegation to hunt it down. They managed to negotiate for the tooth as well as the king's daughter. When the delegation returned to Lower Burma in 1576, King Bayinnaung threw a great reception for them. Indeed it was his greatest day.

King Bayinnaung declared, "King Anawrahta only got a replica of the tooth, King Alaungsithu went all the way to China to look for it, but was unsuccessful, but this tooth has been granted to me because of my piety and wisdom."

It was not long before the vian king learned that the tooth in his possession was also a decoy, and that the most sacred tooth relic, the Tooth of Kandy had never left Sri Lanka. But he chose to ignore the report, and proceeded to lock away the tooth and an alms bowl with supposed superpowers, in the Mahazedi Pagoda, near the Shwethalyaung Buddha statue.

The sacred tooth only stayed in the Mahazedi Pagoda for 33 years. In 1599, King Anaukhpetlun conquered Bago, and he insisted in having the tooth tranferred to his capital, Toungoo. The tooth was moved there in 1610. Not long after, King Thalun moved the Burmese capital to Inwa, and built the Kaunghmudaw Pagoda near Sagaing to house the tooth and alm bowl. And there they stayed until today.

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