| Abstract: |
Rakhiine State, located in the western part of Myanmar, has rich cultural heritage in the form of ancient cities where the remains of city walls, religious buildings, palatial buildings lying underneath the ground and the traces of old moat can still be seen. The stone sculptures of Buddhist and Hindu deities, stone inscriptions, and many archaeological objects were buried underneath the ground for thousands of years. When Burma was annexed under the British rule in 1885 British Superintending archaeologists and government epigraphists conducted field exploration at Rakhine ancient cities Vesali and Dhanya wady and recorded their finds in the Indian Archaeological Survey Annual Reports. After independence of Myanmar, the Department of Archaeology conducted archaeological excavations at Vesali and Dhanyawady in two phases, the first from 1979 to 1984 and second from 2000 to 2004. In this paper the results and findings at Vesali and Dhanyawady by archaeological excavations are presented.
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