The Tharrawaddy Min Bell ( my, သာယာဝတီမင်း ခေါင်းလောင်းတော်), also known as the Maha Tissada Gandha Bell, is a large
bell
A bell is a directly struck idiophone percussion instrument. Most bells have the shape of a hollow cup that when struck vibrates in a single strong strike tone, with its sides forming an efficient resonator. The strike may be made by an inter ...
located at the
Shwedagon Pagoda
The Shwedagon Pagoda (, ); mnw, ကျာ်ဒဂုၚ်; officially named ''Shwedagon Zedi Daw'' ( my, ရွှေတိဂုံစေတီတော်, , ) and also known as the Great Dagon Pagoda and the Golden Pagoda is a gilded stupa ...
in
Yangon
Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government ...
,
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 ...
(Burma). It was donated in 1841 by
King Tharrawaddy, of
Konbaung Dynasty
The Konbaung dynasty ( my, ကုန်းဘောင်ခေတ်, ), also known as Third Burmese Empire (တတိယမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်) and formerly known as the Alompra dynasty (အလောင်းဘ ...
. The official
Pali
Pali () is a Middle Indo-Aryan liturgical language native to the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist ''Pāli Canon'' or ''Tipiṭaka'' as well as the sacred language of ''Theravāda'' Buddhism ...
name of the bell is Maha Tissada Gandha, which means "Great Three-toned Sweet Sound".
History
On 24 September 1841 (10th waxing of
Thadingyut
Thadingyut ( my, သီတင်းကျွတ်) is the seventh month of the traditional Burmese calendar.
Myanmar term "thadin" (သီတင်း) means the Buddhist Lent (Vassa), which spans the three preceding lunar months and is the tradi ...
1203
ME), King Tharrawaddy commissioned a 42-ton bell called the Maha Tissada Gandha ("great three-toned sweet sound") Bell and 20 kilograms (44 lbs) of gold plating to the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon.
Tabodwe
Tabodwe ( my, တပို့တွဲ) is the eleventh month of the traditional Burmese calendar.
Festivals and observances
*Full moon of Tabodwe
**Harvest Festival ()
**Mon National Day
Rakhine tug of war festival, Yatha Hswe Pwe.
*Pagoda fes ...
1203 ME).[
]
Current status
The bell is housed in a pavilion, located on the northeast side of the pagoda's middle terrace.
See also
*List of heaviest bells
Following is a list of the heaviest bells known to have been cast, and the period of time during which they held that title.
Heaviest functioning bell in the world
The title of heaviest functioning bell in the world has been held chronologicall ...
References
{{Coord, 16, 47, 54, N, 96, 8, 58, E, region:MM_type:landmark, display=title
Individual bells in Myanmar
Pitched percussion instruments
Buddhism in Myanmar
Burmese culture
Buddhist art
1842 works