Defulin introduces you to Yangon Norman Monastery
Jun 07,2023 | Defulin Teak
Hello everyone, today it's time to introduce you to the ancient architecture built of teak wood. The ancient building that we are going to introduce today comes from Myanmar and it is - Norman Monastery in Yangon.
Yangon Norman Monastery, locally known as Norman Kyaung Kyi Htaik, was built in 1852 in the then Mingalatangni township of Yangon and made a significant contribution to the educational and religious development of the area. The two-story building is made of teak wood as the main material, which contains 58 100-foot-long and 50-foot-wide teak wood columns as support.

The Norman Monastery was built at the end of the Second Anglo-Burmese War and on the eve of the enthronement of King Mindon by a British engineer as a boarding school for the training of Christian missionaries. However, Yangon at that time was still undeveloped and basically a vast forest with many dangerous wild animals, and Pazun, where the Norman Monastery was located, was a gathering place for tigers, and the lives of the students and teachers living in the school were greatly threatened. In addition, the nearby cemetery also emitted the unbearable stench of burnt bodies. Therefore, the principal and trainees at that time requested to move to Insein.

And in 1885, after the exile of the King of the Sibyls, a wealthy Burmese businessman auctioned off the monastery for 20,000 rupees and three years later gave it to a monk in Monywa, Upper Burma, who converted the Norman Monastery into a monastery, which has since been known as the Yangon Monastery. Later, through the combined efforts of this wealthy Burmese businessman and other donors, the monastery was expanded twice, in 1889 and 1917, to its present size.

During the colonial period, the brightly lit Norman Monastery was a local landmark, and the residential facade was lined with corrugated iron to protect it from fire, which protected the monastery from war and thus played an important role in protecting and promoting Buddhism. Today, the monastery is still inhabited by more than 30 monks, guarding the monastery's former time. And due to the strong natural properties of teak, the interior design of this monastery, such as the teak staircase, is still intact. But unfortunately, due to years of disrepair, the baptism of war and human destruction, some of the buildings of this monastery have also become ruins, so those who are interested in enjoying it should hurry up!
