Fodor's Expert Review Shwenandaw Monastery

King Mindon built this intricately carved structure in the mid-19th century as his apartment and then died there in 1878. His son Thebaw believed his father's ghost was still in the building, refused to live there, and had it taken down and moved outside the citadel walls and turned into a monastery. In doing so, he unknowingly saved it from pillaging by the British (1885) and certain ruin during the WWII Japanese invasion. At its inception, the building was more regal than it is today because gold plating and the exterior glass mosaics are now gone, but the interior remains in quite good shape.