Visiting Shwedagon Pagoda – Yangons iconic buddhist centre

On April 12, the start of Thingyan the Water Festival and New Year’s celebrations we decided it was time to finally visit Yangon’s most prominent feature, the Shwedagon Pagoda. After taking of the shoes at the gate of the South Entrance we started walking up the marble stairs leading to the main platform. At the entrance we were welcomed by a charming elderly tourist guide who offered to show us the Pagoda in a 1h-tour. Once we settled the price of the service we started our tour in the hot sun of the late morning and Damien explained us the history of Shwedagon Pagoda, which, in a nutshell, can be summarized as follows:
 

According to the legend, two merchants from Yangon, Tapussa and Bhallika, travelled to India some 2500 years ago where they met Gautama Buddha (who had attained enlightenment throught six years of meditation without food and water) and offered him rice and honey. Having obtained eight hairs from him as a blessing, they returned to Yangon. On their journey they gave away 4 pieces of hair to Kings they met on the way. Back in Yangon, they were welcomed back by King Okkalapa, to whom they gave the remaining 4 of Buddhas hairs. When the king opened the box, all 8 pieces of hair were there again, floating in the air and glowing in all colors. Jewelry was raining from the sky, the deaf could hear again and the sick were cured. Together with relicts from 3 former Buddhas, King Okkalapa then enshrined the hair in the Shwedagon Pagoda, which originally amounted to a height of 10m. 

Until today, several of the reigning Kings and Queens enlarged the Pagoda to a present height of 99m and a weight of 14 t, of which roughly 1t are pure gold. The top of the main Stupa is covered with over 100’000 diamonds, rubies, sapphires including a 76-carat apex diamond. On the main platform 64 smaller pagodas as well as countless shrines and donated temples surround the main pagoda. A very impressive location!

Gate at south entrance to the Shwedagon Pagoda 

 south entrance stairway from the outside, main stupa in the background

 posing for a picture with damien, our tour guide

 Flo gets introduced to buddhist praying

 Lara honours a buddha with leaf gold

 The western part of the platform of Shwedagon Pagoda

 The impressive 99m main stupa..

 ...and its top part featuring over 4'000 small bells and over 100'000 pieces of jewelry

 Lying buddha (= ready for audience)

 The Maha Gandha bell story: This bell, donated by King Singu Min 1778, was stolen as a throphy by the Brits after the anglo-burmese war in 1825. During the theft, it fell into Yangon river and the Brits were unable to recover it. The Burmese however managed to lift it up by attaching bamboo until sufficient buoyancy was achieved. After its recovery the bell was placed in the very spot it can be found today.

For the Buddhists the day you were born is very important and largely defines what kind of person you are. At Shwedagon Pagoda, each of the 8 days of the week (wednesday am and pm are two separate days) has its own corner. Pouring three cups of water on the buddha in "your" corner will honour budda, his teaching and the monks and will bring you peace, happiness, prosperity and you will meet good people.

 

 Lara and the Buddha in the tuesday corner.

 Damien showing us the old buddhist scripture that all monks need to master.

After a few hours on the platform we went back home to spend the hot afternoon indoors. At 20:00 we then returned to the Shwedagon Pagoda to see what it was like to be there at nighttime. The place was pretty crowded with locals (both monks and “regulars”) but to our surprise we did not see any other foreigners and we were thus asked a few times to pose for a picture. It was very nice to talk to the charming locals, who barely dared to ask us if it would be ok to take a picture. 

Compared to the visit during the day, the warm shining of the omnipresent gold, the meditative chanting of the monks and the occasional ringing of bells by Buddhist visitors (ringing the bell three times is proof of a good deed you conducted and is believed to bring happiness) created a positive, calm, friendly and overall magic atmosphere we very much enjoyed. When leaving Shwedagon Pagoda, we were both very glad that this was not our last visit to this beautiful place and that we’re already looking forward to showing it to anyone visiting us in Yangon.