Sri Ksetra Museum and Beyond
Along time ago, just east of the city of Pyay (Prome), the ancient capitol city of Sri Ksetra has been sitting half buried by time, weather and evolution. Artifacts have been discovered dating back consistently between the 4th and 9th century A.D. when Sri Ksetra was a flourishing capitol and an important stop on the trade routes in all directions. Radiocarbon testing has also found some areas to have been active within the social network of the Pyu to date back into early B.C. The people that lived in this walled city of approximately 5.5 square miles fortified by high brick walls, irrigation systems, a fortified kings’ palace grounds, and thousands of acres of cultivatable land were called the Pyu. Since basic excavation and rehabilitation have been done as early as 1927 and as late as 2007, this city hasn’t met its global educational potential.
So far archeologists have linked the city of Sri Ksetra with two other Pyu cities of minimally smaller square mileage, Halin and Beikthano. Sri Ksetra is approximately 170 miles to the northwest of Rangoon. The area is dry in the summers and when the monsoon season comes, the Pyu engineered ways of containing water mainly for agriculture and consumption in reservoirs, connected irrigation systems, water banks and other ingenious ways. Locals are still using some of the causeways and city grounds for cultivation.
A tour around the city walls and through one of the nine gates discovered leads you into a long forgotten way of life influenced primarily by Buddhism, . There have been numerous finds of solid palm-leaf with both Pyu language and Pali. Some of them are on exhibit in the museum before the Sri Ksetra exterior walls. These palm leaf scriptures have and will aid further in the development and evolution of languages in the region.
The Shikhittaya Site Museum itself has collected a thorough assortment of artifacts with good explanations and dates in Burmese, English, and some French. Some of what they couldn’t display is set in large photos and details.
The curator is a woman with good English skills and lots of knowledge of Sri Krestra.
If you are going to Burma/ Myanmar you should go back in time and see this place. It’s not even half excavated and it’s a wonder. I have no idea of future plans for the site but it’s important to find out how big the network really is.
There were large burial urns discovered with Pyu inscriptions, the cover stone of the relic chamber of cetis design, Pyu Buddha images, Brahman gods and goddesses, figurines of different gods, gold and silver plates, Vishnu Lakshmi stone reliefs, iron nails one meter long, silver coins, Pyu beads and many other cultural artifacts.
Back outside the museum on the Sri Krestra city grounds and beyond, there are 5th century Cetis, the largest being Bawbawgyi at 153’ with a walk-in opening when not under refurbishment.
In the 5th century King Duttabung built 9 Cetis within the city walls. These are different in shape than most of the pagodas in Bagan.
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