Kyunpin Monastery - Sagaing

အရမ်းကောင်းမွန်တဲ့ နေရာပါ

Difficult access road Far from town.

Very silent place for meditation

This is a great Meditation Center located 42 km North of Mandalay. It can be reached by boat, but it takes a long time and river transportation is more and more replaced by road transportation. If you want to drive, cycle or walk there, you must go through Sagaing from where there are two possible roads. Road number 3 is the most direct road, but you can also go through Sagaing. There are signboards before the turn to Kanphyu. Make sure you check Sayadaw U Jatila's schedule before you get there. There's no real point in going there if Sayadaw is out of the country. Sayadaw also supports education in the nearby village of Kanphyu through the Irrawaddy Education Project.

Had a life changing 10 day Vipassana retreat at Kyunpin. It is nice and peaceful place for meditation. Far away from the rush of the cities.

Lovely insight meditation center with English support on site. Its probably best to call, as they received our email and responded that they had had no internet for 2 weeks. Try to give some advance notice of your planned arrival day and expected time of stay. It also seems that if you just showed up, it would be no problem. We visited the last week in May, 2016. The weather was warm but not unbearable. We specifically chose this monastery over the Goenka 10 day Vipassana meditation centers because at Kyunpin they include walking meditation and interviews with experienced monks who can help guide your practice. Also, due to our schedule, we appreciated the "come and stay for as long as you'd like" option. Note that there is a dress code (shoulders, knees, belly always covered: white top, dark brown longi, black or white pants also acceptable). How to get there via boat: First, have your hotel call Kyunpin and write down the monastery and village name in English and Burmese. My partner and I went to the tourist jetty at 6am and were initially told that we could take a private boat for 35,000 just or wait until 9am to take a group boat for 5,000. We sat down to wait and then another man directed us to a boat carrying people and goods that left a few minutes after we boarded; cost was 1,000 for the 5-6 hr journey. Bring earplugs and something to eat/drink- maybe something to sit on (canvas/plastic sack, blanket) if you care about that. We were directed when to get off and the people in the village pointed the way to the monastery. The afternoon that we arrived, we met with an English-speaking lady monk, filled out one form, and then had a very generous lunch. After this we were given our private rooms (mosquito net, blanket, toilet and shower included) with our own large container of drinking water, where we rested until the evening. Met with the lady monk again and prepared ourselves to begin meditating the next day. The daily schedule and meditator guidelines are on the website. We stayed for 7 days and had transformative experiences.

We can get to this place by road or boat. My experience is to get here by car/taxi and return by boat. The Monastery is on the bank of a river, so it is quite convenient, quiet and very good for intensive retreat. Thank you!