Little has changed over the past century. Riverboat, trishaw and foot are still the main methods of transportation; and water buffalo still work in the fields. It is said that Buddha foretold a great city of Buddhism would be founded at the base of this hill. In 1857, King Mindon chose to fulfill the prophecy by establishing a new kingdom. After the British occupied the city in 1885, the fort compound became the colony’s government house and British Club. The Mandalay Museum and Library contain fine examples of Mandalay art and historic palm-leaf manuscripts. The 19th-century Kyauktawgyi Pagoda is famed for its huge seated Buddha carved from a single block of marble. The block from the nearby mines required 10,000 men laboring for 13 days to transport it from a canal to its current site. Sagaing on the right bank of the Ayeyarwady River is widely regarded as the spiritual center of Myanmar. It is crowded with about 600 pagodas, more than 100 meditation centers and monasteries, where at least 3,000 monks live.
