The site is on flat marshy land, surrounded by paddy fields, and northeast of the place in the centre of the Mrauk-U. Tradition has it that the Koe-Thaung was struck by lighting because the king attempted to build a pagoda of 90,000 images to out do his father's Shite-Thaung Shrine of 80,000 images.

Local archaeologists have speculated that because the ground on which the shrine was built not adequately drained before building commenced, the foundations subsided and the super-structure collapsed, or that the stones used in its construction, brought to Mrauk-U from the coast, was not weathered adequately and that salt which was leached from it permeated the motor of the brickwork, causing it to subside.

The Koe-Thaung is square in plan, measuring about seventy-seven meters on each side. The outer body of the shrine comprised five receding terraces each ornamented with to 108 small pagodas, its central image was approached via a two-tiered stairway on the east side. The first tier reaches a wide open platform from which two ambulatory passages, similar in concept to those of the Shitthaung and Htukkant-Thein, can be entered. These passages were originally vaulted, and enough remains to allow us to observe the technique. These passage ways are connected with further passages in the middle of the north, west and south sides. The second tier of the entrance stair-way leads to an upper platform having at its centre a large stone Buddha image seated on an ornate throne. Behind this image is an octagonal brick stupa which would have contained the holy relics enshrined when the pagoda was built.

The sculptures on the wall of the passageways depict nothing but identical seated Buddhas, in relief or in the round. All are seated cross legged, right over left, with the right hand touching the ground in the attitude called bhumisparsa mudra, which represents Buddha calling the earth to the witness his victory over the temptations of the demon Mara, the personification of the world desire. Their placement has been determined by Arakanese numerology. Whether large, small or in relief, their grouping are all connected with the number nine in this shrine of 90,000 images. For instance, in the excavated southeast section of the outer passage there are nine life sized Buddhas, each sitting on waisted throne divided into three sections horizontally and three sections vertically, nine in all. Behind each of the images is a stepped niche where smaller images, also in round, are found. No doubt these too were originally placed in groups associated with the number nine in between each of these are panels of bas-relief. According to Arakanese numerological practice at the time, forty five can have the value of five plus four; nine.

These Buddhas are flatter in their treatment and more stylized than those at the shrine immediately preceding the Koe-Thaung perhaps reflecting the haste in which the building was undertaken. The chronicle relates that this took only six months, which may be slight exaggeration.

They may be classified as belonging to the Sri Lanka influenced middle Mrauk-U style; massive in conception, broad shouldered, and with bulging chest with prominent nipples. Their head are bent slightly forward, and the faces have a somewhat abstract quality. The eyebrows are joined, heavy eyelids are half closed, and the lips are full. The long ear lobe sometimes reaches almost to the shoulders. There are differences in the shape of the hair, which finished in the rounded or square top-knot. Garments are thin, and scarily delineated, and Buddha's robe passes over the right shoulder leaving the left bare. Many sculptors would have been needed to produce the thousands of images required for the shrine, and some are very obviously better executed than others.


Guardians & Worshippers

Some images discovered do not represent Buddha. At the outer entrances to the cross sections of the passages are various types of door guardians facing each cardinal point. Almost the life-sized and standing pairs on either side of the door, they are dressed as warriors. Some carry shields; some blow conch shells, as if in a royal or religious ceremony or precession. Some have quite a ferocious aspect, to deter malignant spirits. One type is different: short, squat figures with large heads and knees and elbow bent outwards they may represent demons. Inside the entrances are figures of worshippers, hands joined together in prayer, who war court costume and may portray royalty and aristocracy.

The terraces were covered with terracotta tiles glazed in the Middle Eastern manner, with floral and geometric design in blues, greens and pinks over a white background. Some of these motifs are Sassanid in origin, while others belong to the repertoire of auspicious symbols common to India and Southeast Asia, and include the conch shell and the lotus. The use of glazed tiles decorated in this way introduced from Islamic Bengal, and ultimately derives from the Middle East.

Originally, the interior was covered by a terracotta-tiled roof supported by massive wooden pillars. Wide holes the pillars left after they rotted away are found at the exterior corners of each of the terraces and on either side of the entrance stairway. No tree of this stature remains in Arakan today, but the Augustinian monk, Frair Sebastian Manrique, who visited Arakan in the seventeenth century recorded that the palace buildings had great wooden pillars of such length and symmetry that one is astonished that trees so lofty can exist'… While the shape of the roof is difficult to determine on the present evidence, it is possible that the smaller stupas on the ten terraces reflect the form of the shrine as a whole, a square base surmounted by a rounded dome with slightly upturned eaves.


Heritage area

The archaeology of Arakan has been neglected until recently. However in 1996 Mrauk-U and its environs were declared a Heritage Area and substantial sum of money was allocated to the restoration of the major monuments. The Koe-Thaung was first of these projects to be undertaken. This has provided a boost to the local economy, as the hundreds of the laborers on the site receive the highest daily rate of pay in Mrauk-U. Local stonemasons have been employed to cut and replaced missing stone blocks from the entrance stairway, which will make the shrine more accessible both to the devotees and the tourists.

Photogram metric recording before excavation has not been made. The exacting anastylosis mythology, where each stone is carefully recorded before restoration begins, successfully used in Thailand and Indonesia, is not being used here.

Remote-sensing equipment is not available to the excavator. For instance, the meticulous survey work undertaken in Vogon by M. Pierre and the Ecole Franclised's Extreme Orient under UNESCO and UNDP auspices is unfortunately not being repeated here. One hope that international support for the restoration of Mrauk-U will eventually be forthcoming and that this important cross-road of world cultures will become better known and understood.