Kyaiktiyo Pagoda
Interesting facts
- The forested slopes around the shrine became the Kyaikhtiyo Wildlife Sanctuary in 2001, protecting about 156 square kilometres of evergreen and mixed deciduous forest.
- A bent-toed gecko first collected in the sanctuary in 2001 turned out to be new to science and was named Cyrtodactylus aequalis in 2003.
- Leopards, serows and red gorals are among the key mammals living in the forests below the Golden Rock.
- According to legend, the hermit who received the Buddha's hair was named Taik Tha and kept the relic tucked into the knot of his own hair.
- According to legend, the king who enshrined the relic owed his supernatural powers to his parents, an alchemist and a naga serpent princess.
- The hermit element of the name, ithi, came into Mon from the Pali word for a sage or ascetic seer.
- The Golden Rock is not unique on its mountain: the approach passes many other granite boulders perched in similarly precarious positions.
- A lotus motif painted in gold leaf encircles the base of the boulder where it meets the rock shelf.
- Near the rock stands a circle of gongs around statues of nats, the spirits of Burmese folk religion venerated alongside the Buddha.
- The hermit element of the name, ithi, comes into Mon from the Pali word rishi, meaning a sage or ascetic.
Why it is worth it
Kyaiktiyo, better known as the Golden Rock, is a granite boulder perched on the very edge of a ledge near the summit of Mount Kyaiktiyo in Mon State, southern Myanmar, at about 1,100 metres above sea level. The boulder is roughly 7.6 metres high and some 15 metres around; it rests on a sloping rock shelf with a tiny area of contact, and about half of it overhangs a sheer drop into the valley. On top sits a small stupa about 7 metres tall. Covered in layer upon layer of gold leaf pressed on by pilgrims, the whole mass glows, and it looks permanently on the point of rolling away.
It is one of the three holiest pilgrimage sites in Myanmar, ranked after the Shwedagon and Mahamuni pagodas. Local tradition explains the balance with a relic: the Buddha is said to have given a strand of his hair to a hermit, who asked the king to enshrine it in a rock shaped like his own head, and it is this hair that keeps the boulder in place. The king, in the legend, found the rock on the sea bed and brought it here by boat with the help of the king of the gods; the boat is said to have turned to stone and is venerated as a separate shrine a few hundred metres away. The name itself comes from the Mon language and is usually glossed as "the pagoda on the hermit's head".
Pilgrims come from all over the country, and the atmosphere at the top is devotional rather than touristic. Visitors go barefoot on the upper platform, as at every Burmese pagoda. Men cross a short bridge to press squares of gold leaf onto the rock; women are not permitted to touch it and pray from the terrace. The main season runs from November to March, and candles, chanting and meditation continue through the night. On the full moon of the month of Tabaung, in March, the platform is lit with tens of thousands of candles. The rock changes colour through the day, and sunrise and sunset are the times to see it; in the rainy season it may be only a dark shape in the cloud. Around the shrine a whole village of shops, restaurants and guest houses has grown up along the ridge.
Getting there
The nearest town on the highway is Kyaikto; the base village at the foot of the mountain is Kinpun, about 14 km from Kyaikto, reached by pick-up. From Kinpun, open trucks with bench seats climb the mountain road to the terminus near the summit, from where it is a stiff walk of about 1.2 km to the rock; a cable car also runs from a midway point. The full walk up from Kinpun, about 11 km, takes four to five hours. Yangon International Airport (RGN) is about 120 km away in a straight line and roughly 200 km by road; buses from Yangon and Bago go directly to Kinpun, and trains from Yangon stop at Kyaikto.
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
Kyaiktiyo Pagoda is a well-known Buddhist pilgrimage site in Mon State, Myanmar. It is a small pagoda built on the top of a granite boulder covered with gold leaves pasted on by its male worshippers.
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