Shwedagon Pagoda

Interesting facts

The Great Bell of Dhammazedi, cast in 1484 for the pagoda from roughly 294 tonnes of metal, is often described as the largest bell ever made.

In 1608 the Portuguese adventurer Filipe de Brito rolled that bell downhill to melt into cannon, but it sank where the Bago and Yangon rivers meet.

Despite repeated searches since the 1980s, including sonar surveys, the Dhammazedi bell has never been recovered from the river mud.

The 23-tonne Maha Gandha bell of 1779 also fell into the river when the British tried to ship it away; divers raised it using bamboo poles.

The 42-tonne Tharrawaddy bell, donated in 1841, was finished with about 20 kg of gold plating.

Yangon's zoning rules cap buildings at 127 metres above sea level, about 75% of the pagoda's height, so that it remains dominant on the skyline.

Rudyard Kipling saw the pagoda in 1889 and described it as a golden mystery that blazed in the sun above the horizon.

An earthquake in October 1970 knocked the shaft of the crowning hti out of alignment, and extensive repairs were needed to straighten it.

On 26 August 1988 Aung San Suu Kyi addressed a crowd of some 500,000 people beside the pagoda during the pro-democracy uprising.

The pagoda's platform has long been a political stage: students planned the 1920 University Boycott here, and General Aung San held a mass meeting here in January 1946.

Why it is worth it

The golden stupa of Shwedagon crowns Singuttara Hill in the middle of Yangon and dominates the whole city. The spire itself is about 112 metres tall, and with the hill beneath it its tip stands some 170 metres above sea level. It is the most sacred Buddhist site in Myanmar. Tradition holds that two merchant brothers, Tapussa and Bhallika, met the Buddha and received eight of his hairs, with instructions for enshrining them, and that the stupa was founded to hold those relics along with objects of earlier Buddhas. The legend puts its beginnings more than 2,500 years ago; the first firm historical record is of 1362, when King Binnya U raised it to about 18 metres.

The stupa has been heightened, gilded and rebuilt many times since. Queen Shin Sawbu, who ruled in the fifteenth century, raised it to around 40 metres and covered it in gold. An earthquake in 1768 brought down the top, and King Hsinbyushin rebuilt it to essentially its present height. The gold is refreshed by donations to this day. At the very tip the hti, the umbrella-shaped crown, is set with 5,448 diamonds and 2,317 rubies and finished with a single diamond of about 76 carats, far too high to see but part of the stupa's meaning.

What makes a visit memorable is the platform around the base, a wide terrace crowded with smaller stupas, shrines, pavilions and images. Around the foot of the stupa are the planetary posts, eight shrines for the days of the week, with Wednesday split into morning and afternoon where devotees perform blessing rituals at the post of the day on which they were born. The terrace is busiest and most beautiful at dusk, when the gold changes colour with the setting sun. The site also carries a violent history: a 300-tonne bronze bell given in 1485 was lost in the river during Portuguese plunder in 1608, and British troops occupied and fortified the pagoda from 1852 to 1929.

Getting there

Shwedagon stands on Singuttara Hill about 1.0 km from central Yangon. Yangon International Airport (RGN) is 12.2 km away. Four covered stairways guarded by great leogryphs climb the hill from each side; the eastern and southern approaches are lined with stalls selling flowers, gold leaf and offerings.

Shwedagon Pagoda

Interesting facts

Why it is worth it

Getting there

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