Sule Pagoda

Sule Pagoda sits in the middle of a busy roundabout in Kyauktada Township, the commercial heart of downtown Yangon, Myanmar. Local tradition holds that the stupa is more than 2,000 years old and predates even the Shwedagon, and it is said to enshrine a hair relic of the Buddha. The Mon name is associated with Kyaik Athok, and the pagoda is also called Sularama. When the British took over Lower Burma in 1852, engineers under Alexander Fraser laid out a rectangular street grid for the new city and deliberately fixed the pagoda as its central point, so that the main avenues measure their distances from it. The stupa is octagonal at the base rather than circular, a notable architectural feature, and rises about 46 metres, tapering to a gilded spire. Shops were built into the lower perimeter in the colonial era and many remain, so the monument is surrounded at ground level by small stalls selling flowers, religious items and astrologers' services. Inside the compound visitors find shrines with seated Buddha images, planetary posts for the days of the week, and areas for water-pouring and merit-making. The pagoda also stands opposite Maha Bandula Park, the Independence Monument and the colonial-era City Hall and High Court, so it works as the natural starting point for a walking tour of the downtown heritage district. Sule Pagoda has long been a gathering point for political expression: the area was a focus of student protests and mass demonstrations during the 1988 uprising and again in the 2007 Saffron Revolution. As a working religious site, the interpretation is devotional rather than museum-style, and visitors move clockwise around the stupa. Gold leaf and regilding are maintained by donations. Visitors must take off shoes and socks, dress modestly and speak quietly. The entrance fee is modest, and many walking tours of downtown Yangon begin or end here, using the roundabout location to orient the colonial street grid around the stupa.