Māravijaya Buddha ( my, မာရဝိဇယဗုဒ္ဓရုပ်ပွားတော်) is a marble statue of the Buddha being constructed in

Dekkhinathiri Township Dekkhinathiri Township ( my, ဒက္ခိဏသီရိမြို့နယ်) is one of Naypyidaw Union Territory's eight townships, located south of Mandalay Region in Burma. The township is home to Maravijaya Buddha, the world's largest Bu ...

Naypyidaw Naypyidaw, officially spelled Nay Pyi Taw (; ), is the capital and third-largest city of Myanmar. The city is located at the centre of the Naypyidaw Union Territory. It is unusual among Myanmar's cities, as it is an entirely planned city outs ...

, the national capital of

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

. The statue, which features the bhumiphassa mudra, will become the world's largest marble Buddha statue upon its completion. The statue weighs 2,100 tons, built using marble quarried from Sagyin, near Mandalay. Construction of the Buddha was announced in state-run newspapers in the aftermath of the

2021 Myanmar coup d'état A coup d'état in Myanmar began on the morning of 1 February 2021, when democratically elected members of the country's ruling party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), were deposed by the Tatmadaw—Myanmar's military—which then veste ...

. The project has been criticised for being a "vanity project" of

Min Aung Hlaing Min Aung Hlaing ( my, မင်းအောင်လှိုင် abbreviated: MAL ; born 3 July 1956) also known as Alaungsithu is a Burmese politician and army general who has ruled Myanmar as the chairman of the State Administration Coun ...

, the junta's leader, and seen as a way for him to gain public legitimacy, as a protector and promoter of Buddhism. Previous military juntas have constructed similar temples, including the marble Kyauktawgyi Buddha in Yangon. Min Aung Hlaing specifically constructed a new road to visit the construction site, in order to bypass Naypyidaw Prison, which is also on Naypyidaw Ring Road. In March 2023, the Buddha's image was reportedly seen "crying," as stripes appeared beneath the statue's eyes, prompting the junta to cover its face and bar visitors and photographs of the statue. Ongoing construction has been overseen by allies of the military junta,

Ashin Chekinda Ashin Chekinda ( my, အရှင်ဆေကိန္ဒ; also known as Dhammadūta Ashin Chekinda) is a Theravada Buddhist monk from Myanmar (Burma). Following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, Ashin Chekinda's public profile has increased, due ...

and

Sitagu Sayadaw Ashin Nyanissara ( my, ဉာဏိဿရ; ) best known as Sitagu Sayadaw (), is a Burmese meditation teacher and prolific Buddhist scholar. He is also the founder of Sitagu International Buddhist Academy. His work as a teacher began in 1977 a ...

. State-run media has also been used to solicit donations from the public for the ongoing project, which is estimated to cost .

References

{{Buddhist sites in Myanmar Buildings and structures in Naypyidaw Buddhist pilgrimage sites in Myanmar Buddhist relics