Shwedagon Pagoda
‘It is always a delight to one’s eye to gaze upon its glittering spire, always a fairy study of artistic enchantment; but perhaps if it has a moment when it seems clothed with peculiar and almost ethereal, mystic attraction, it is in the early morning light, when the air has been bathed by dewdrops and is of crystal clearness, and when that scorching Eastern sun has only just begun to send forth his burning rays. I would say go and gaze on the pagoda at the awakening hour, standing there on the last spur of the Pegu Hills, and framed by a luxuriant tropical of foliage.’
G T Gascoigne, 1896
Towering over the city of Yangon is the gold-encrusted Shwedagon Pagoda – Kipling’s ‘Winking Wonder’ – the biggest Buddhist temple of its kind in the world. Heed Miss Gascoigne’s advice and admire this wonderful structure in the early morning or perhaps at twilight. Or simply afar from the Royal Lake. To fully appreciate the wondrous splendour of the Shwedagon, visit twice or three times would be better.
Believed to have been constructed in 585BC, the Shwedagon was originally a mere 27ft high, but was brought up to its present height of 326 ft in the 15th Century by Shin Sawbu, queen of Pegu. It commands veneration and worship not solely because it dates back 2,500 years, but because of the authenticity of its origin which finds support in Buddhist scriptures. It is thought that two Burmese traders, Tapussa and Bhallika of the Mon Kingdom of Okkala, who had journeyed to India by sea, met the Buddha and received a gift or eight hairs from his own hands. On their return, their sacred gift was enshrined by King Okkalapa in a golden pagoda on the Theninguttara Hill, the most natural location for a temple. It is believed that the sacred relics of the three preceding Buddhas, which had been enshrined on this hill – a staff, a water dipper (filter) and a bathing garment (or portion of a robe) – were excavated and re-consecrated or re-enshrined along with the new relics, in effect giving the pagoda a fourfold religious significance. Kings, queens and commoners have, through the ages, bestowed gold, silver and a myriad of other gifts to embellish the pagoda. The gold-plating and the precious stones (rubies, sapphires and topaz) in the diamond bud and the vane and hti run into many millions of kyat.
There are four approached to the Shwedagon with ascending flights of steps from all the four quarters: north, south, east and west, lined with vendors offering flowers, gold leaf, candles, books and an assortment of souvenirs. Entering via the western approach from the U Wisara Road, you will find on reaching the platform a figure of the founder King Okkalapa himself on the wall towards the west-northwest corner.
The base of the pagoda is 2ft 3in high with a perimeter of 1,420ft. On the platform are 64 smaller pagodas with four large ones right in the centre of the four cardinal points. There are chinthe (lion-like sentinels), innumerable shrines, tazaung (prayer pavilions) and zayats (resthouses built on sacred land/wayside resthouses for travellers). The platform itself is paved with marble and, whichever way you turn, you will find superb woodcarvings, floral designs, mosaic-wrought pillars along with numerous Buddha images, cast in alabaster and brass. There are the famous bells: the Maha Ghanta (Great Voice) Bell, 7ft high, 6ft 8 in wide, 1ft thick and weighing 16 tons, a gift by
Singu Min in 1778, and the Mahatisadda Ghanta (Great Sweet Sound) Bell which weights 40 tons, is 8 ?ft high, 7ft 8in wide and 1ft thick. This was a gift for King Tharawaddy in 1841 and is the second largest bell in the land.
Entering by the southern stairway, you find two huge chinthe, 30ft high, and statues of ogres. Once on the main platform looking up, you will see three terraces. Above three terraces, you notice the Khaung Laung Pone, a bell-like shape which has a circumference of 442ft at the base and 192ft at the top, reaching a height of 70ft 4in. Then comes the inverted begging bowl (thabeik hmauk) bearing a decorative ring of flowers trailing down, the twisted turban (baung yit) which
takes you another 41ft above; the lotus flower 31ft 5in high; the banana bud 52ft 11in high, the hti (umbrella) going up another 33ft (a donation of King Mindon), above that the pennant-shaped vane borne aloft and reaching towards the 76-carat diamond bud on top, a globe of gold, studded with precious stones. The weight of the gold and silver weather vane 1,100, and the number on the diamond orb 4,350.
‘Hail, Mother! Do they call me rich in trade?
Little care I, but hear me the shorn priest drone,
And watch my silk-clad lovers, man by maid,
Laugh ‘neath my Shwe Dagon.’
Kipling

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