Ananda Temple, with its name taken from one of the traits of the Buddha, “the Infinite Wisdom”, is an unquestionable must-see in Bagan as the biggest and best preserved of Bagan temples. It stands out among the most surviving perfect works of art of the Mon architecture modeling. Legend says that King Kyanzittha assembled this temple around 1090 and he had built the similarity of Nandamula grotto, a perpetual home of the saint in Mount Gandhamadana, India. You can see a mixture of the Early Bagan period construction modeling and the opening of the Middle period. You will additionally see the extraordinarily perplexing structure of the Ananda Temple.

Ananda Temple is similar to a magic cave brimming over with wonders and implicit the form of simple hallway. The ground arrangement of the structure has the central square with four gabled porticoes just as anticipating out from each one face of the square. In this manner, it is the ideal Greek cross, each one doorway is crowned with a stupa finial. Inside the temple, one can wonder about the astounding effect of ventilation and lighting. The corridors running parallel inside the main block of the temple are honeycombed with niches in which little sand stones of Buddha images are set. Especially notable is an arrangement of eighty reliefs in the external corridor portraying the last life of the Buddha from his birth to his enlightenment.

The main block has a tall curved alcove on each of its four sides; each has four standing astonishingly elegant Buddha images, 31 feet high. The base and the terrace of the lofty temple are enriched with 554 coated tiles demonstrating jataka scenes (biographies of the Buddha) to be derived from Mon writings.

Ananda temple festival falls on the full moon of Pyatho (more often than not in between December and January, following the Lunar Calendar). The celebration pulls in a huge number of local people from close and far. During the three days of the festival, a thousand monks will chant day and night.