Kaba Aye Pagoda

Kaba Aye Pagoda, whose name means World Peace, stands in Mayangone Township in northern Yangon, on Kaba Aye Pagoda Road. It was built between 1952 and 1954 on the initiative of Prime Minister U Nu for the Sixth Buddhist Council, known as the Chattha Sangayana, which met from 1954 to 1956 and brought together monks from Theravada countries to recite and verify the Pali scriptures. The pagoda was the symbolic centrepiece of the project and was meant to express the hope for peace after the upheavals of the Second World War and the first years of independence. The stupa is a modern structure, about 34 metres tall with a base circumference of a similar size, and its form follows the traditional bell shape topped with a golden hti. Inside the hollow shrine is a large Buddha image seated in a hall, with relics of the Buddha's chief disciples Sariputta and Moggallana enshrined as a gift from India. The associated Maha Pasana Guha, a man-made cave about 139 metres long and built for the council, is located beside the pagoda, and it was used as the assembly hall for the recitation of the scriptures. The complex also contains a hall with a collection of Buddha images, a pagoda library, the World Institute for Buddhist Learning, and a pavilion with a large bell. The site is administered as a religious precinct rather than a museum, so interpretation is mainly through the architecture, inscriptions and the cave hall. It stands in a quieter, leafier part of the city than downtown, and local worshippers visit on full-moon days and holidays. Together with the cave, it forms a coherent record of the Buddhist revival promoted by the state in the 1950s and is regularly maintained with offerings and periodic regilding.