Shwedagon Pagoda

Shwedagon Pagoda stands on Singuttara Hill in Dagon Township, Yangon, and is the most revered Buddhist monument in Myanmar. Tradition places its origin some 2,600 years ago, when two merchant brothers from Okkalapa are said to have received eight hairs from the Buddha and enshrined them on the hill alongside relics of three earlier Buddhas. Historians generally date the first stupa to the Mon period between the 6th and 10th centuries, and the monument grew through successive royal gifts. In the 15th century Queen Shinsawbu of Hanthawaddy raised it to about 40 metres and donated gold equal to her own weight. After an earthquake in 1768 toppled the finial, King Hsinbyushin of the Konbaung dynasty rebuilt it to its present height of roughly 99 metres, and King Mindon later donated a new jewelled hti, or umbrella crown, in 1871. The central stupa is plated in gold leaf and topped with thousands of diamonds and rubies. It is ringed by 64 smaller stupas, four main covered stairways, and shrine halls filled with Buddha images in marble, bronze and lacquer. Visitors circulate clockwise around the platform and pause at planetary posts corresponding to the day of the week on which a person was born, pouring water over the Buddha image and animal guardian of that day. The Maha Gandha bell, cast in 1779, and the Singu Min bell, taken by British forces in 1825 and recovered from the Yangon River, are among the named objects on the terrace. The British occupied the hilltop for military use from 1852 until 1929, and the platform was damaged by fire in 1931 and again by an earthquake in 1930. Trustees maintain the gold plating through donations and periodic regilding, and the site remains an active place of worship rather than a museum, with no curated route. On 26 August 1988 Aung San Suu Kyi addressed a large crowd at the western entrance, which fixed the pagoda in the political memory of the modern country.