Bago Region is an administrative region of Myanmar, located in the southern central part of the country. It is bordered by Magway Region and Mandalay Region to the north; Kayin State, Mon State and the Gulf of Martaban to the east; Yangon Region to the south and Ayeyarwady Region and Rakhine State to the west.
Located about 5 miles to the east of the busy trade town Pyay which can be comfortably reached from Yangon in 5 hours by car travelling along 179 mile Yangon-Pyay highway, Thayekhittaya is the ancient capital that ruled in the area from the 5th to 9th centuries. Before flourishing Pagan empire era with four capitals and succession of 55 kings, this kingdom was where the Pagan pyu-bamars inherited the civilization of Buddhism. Thayekhittaya is the name in Myanmarization and its original name is Srik-shetra in Pali which means “The Fortunate Field.
About 8km east of the Aung San statue in the neighbouring Myanmar village of Hmawza, this Myanmar ancient site known to Pali-Sanskrit scholars as Sri Ksetra is an enormous Pyu city that ruled in the area from the 5th to 9th centuries AD. Local legend links its origin to the mythical Myanmar King Dattabaung, who supposedly worked with ogres and other Myanmar supernatural creatures to build the “magical city” in 443BC. The earliest Pali inscriptions found here date to the 5th or 6th centuries. Sight seeing thayekhittaya means taking a three or four hour ox-cart loop to spaced-out Myanmar temples. It can’t rival Bagan in terms of majesty, but lack of tourists and real peeks into local Myanmar farming communities are serious bonuses.