| Summary: |
The article explores the relationship of a local tradition of nine Shwe-gu or “golden caves” and the 11 khayaing of Kyaukse, the rice fields that supplied Bagan. Drawing on survey and ongoing work at the Ta Mok khayaing Shwe-gu-gyi, we profile a local specificity essential to and yet far from the courts of 11th–17th century Bagan, Pinya and Inwa. In its multiple encasements of images and architecture, the Ta Mok Shwe-gu-gyi records a transition from the visual complexity of Bagan period gu to the more iconic structures of the Pinya and Inwa eras. |
