Shwezigon Pagoda

The Shwezigon Pagoda is the golden bell that set the pattern for Burmese stupas. It stands at Nyaung-U, at the northern edge of the plain of Bagan, and was begun around 1059–1060 by King Anawrahta, founder of the Pagan kingdom, and finished under his son Kyansittha; most accounts give its completion as 1102. Its solid, bell-shaped dome on stepped square terraces became the prototype repeated in countless later pagodas across the country.

The stupa rises about 49 metres above a series of square terraces, its dome and spire clad in gold. Tradition holds that it enshrines relics of the Buddha – a bone and a tooth, the latter said to have come from Sri Lanka. Around the lower terraces run glazed terracotta plaques illustrating the Jataka tales, the stories of the Buddha's previous lives. Four standing bronze Buddhas stand in shrines around the stupa, and chinthe, the leonine guardians of Burmese temples, flank the approaches. A stone pillar carries inscriptions in the Mon language set up by Kyansittha.

Shwezigon also records a meeting of beliefs. In its outer shrines the court gathered images of the 37 nats, the spirits of the older Burmese religion, placing them under the protection of Buddhism – a compromise that shaped Myanmar's popular faith. After the 1975 earthquake the dome was covered with copper plates and later regilded, while the lower terraces keep their original form.

Getting there

The pagoda stands in Nyaung-U, about 2 km from the town centre and a few kilometres from Old Bagan. Nyaung-U Airport (NYU), served by domestic flights, is about 3 km from the town; the nearest international airport is Mandalay (MDL), about 126 km away.