Shwedagon Pagoda Architecture

Shwedagon Pagoda Architecture

There has been a pagoda on this site for at least 2500 years. The first one apparently was 8.2 meters tall whereas today it stands very tall and proud at nearer to 110 meters. It is a clear landmark on the Yangon skyline and very clearly a very important symbol to the people. The pagoda is covered with real gold and 4531 diamonds the biggest one being 72 carats and it is so noticeable that it is real gold and diamonds as it glistens like a shiny treasure in the sky. Having seen quite a number of temples, pagodas and stupas in the last few months this is by far the biggest and shiniest of them all. The photos don’t really do it justice either by way of size or sparkle.

The large pagoda is in the centre of the complex with stations for each day of the week so you can make an offering for the day you were born. I was born on a Sunday (the child that is born on the sabbath day is bonny and bright good and gay, just in case anyone had forgotten!) but neither of my friends were sure what day they were born on so we didn’t bother with that.

There are numerous buildings in another circle around the edge with a large space in-between for walking around. Lots of the outside buildings are designed for sitting in with large Buddha statues at one end and seem to alternate between places of worship and general social gathering areas. Or simply places to take shelter from the weather. During our trip the weather alternated from extremely hot sun to total monsoon like down pours so these areas were a godsend. And as I said earlier it was a joy to sit around and watch people going about their usual lives and entering into conversations with all sorts of people.

 

 

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