The Shwezigon Pagoda or Shwezigon Paya ( my-Mymr, ရွှေစည်းခုံဘုရား ) is a
Buddhist
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...
stupa
A stupa ( sa, स्तूप, lit=heap, ) is a mound-like or hemispherical structure containing relics (such as ''śarīra'' – typically the remains of Buddhist monks or nuns) that is used as a place of meditation.
In Buddhism, circumamb ...
located in
Nyaung-U
Nyaung-U ( my, ညောင်ဦးမြို့) is the administrative town of Nyaung-U Township of Nyaung-U District in the Mandalay Region of central Myanmar. It lies on the eastern bank of Ayeyarwaddy River. It is just 4 kilometers away ...
,
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 ...
. A prototype of Burmese
stupa
A stupa ( sa, स्तूप, lit=heap, ) is a mound-like or hemispherical structure containing relics (such as ''śarīra'' – typically the remains of Buddhist monks or nuns) that is used as a place of meditation.
In Buddhism, circumamb ...
s, it consists of a circular
gold leaf
Gold leaf is gold that has been hammered into thin sheets (usually around 0.1 µm thick) by goldbeating and is often used for gilding. Gold leaf is available in a wide variety of karats and shades. The most commonly used gold is 22-kara ...
-gilded stupa surrounded by smaller temples and shrines. Construction of the Shwezigon Pagoda began during the reign of King
Anawrahta
Anawrahta Minsaw ( my, အနော်ရထာ မင်းစော, ; 11 May 1014 – 11 April 1077) was the founder of the Pagan Empire. Considered the father of the Burmese nation, Anawrahta turned a small principality in the dry zone ...
(r. 1044–1077), the founder of the
Pagan Empire
The Kingdom of Pagan ( my, ပုဂံခေတ်, , ; also known as the Pagan Dynasty and the Pagan Empire; also the Bagan Dynasty or Bagan Empire) was the first Burmese kingdom to unify the regions that would later constitute modern-da ...
, in 1059–1060 and was completed in 1102, during the reign of his son King
Kyansittha
Kyansittha ( my, ကျန်စစ်သား, ; also spelt as Kyanzittha or Hti-Hlaing Shin; 1030 – 1112/13) was king of Pagan dynasty of Burma (Myanmar) from 1084 to 1112/13, and is considered one of the greatest Burmese monarchs. He cont ...
. Over the centuries the pagoda had been damaged by many earthquakes and other natural calamities, and has been refurbished several times. In recent renovations it has been covered by more than 30,000 copper plates. However, the lowest level terraces have remained as they were.
This
pagoda
A pagoda is an Asian tiered tower with multiple eaves common to Nepal, India, China, Japan, Korea, Myanmar, Vietnam, and other parts of Asia. Most pagodas were built to have a religious function, most often Buddhist but sometimes Taoist, ...
, a sacred Buddhist religious place, is believed to enshrine a
bone and tooth of Gautama Buddha. The pagoda is in the form of a cone formed by five square terraces with a central solid core. There are footprints below the four standing Buddha statues here. Jataka legends are depicted on glazed terra-cotta tiles set into three rectangular terraces. At the entrance of the pagoda there are large statues of guardians of the temple. There are also four bronze standing statues of Buddha which are stated to be of the current age Buddha. At the outer limits of the pagoda there are 37
nats deified along with an intricately carved wooden sculpture of
Thagyamin
Thagyamin ( my, သိကြားမင်း, ; from Sanskrit ''Śakra'') is the highest-ranking nat (deity) in traditional Burmese Buddhist belief. Considered as the king of Heaven, he is the Burmese adaptation of the Hindu deity Indra.
...
, Burmese version of Indian god
Indra
Indra (; Sanskrit: इन्द्र) is the king of the devas (god-like deities) and Svarga (heaven) in Hindu mythology. He is associated with the sky, lightning, weather, thunder, storms, rains, river flows, and war. volumes/ref> I ...
. Within the compound of the Shwezigon Pagoda there is a stone pillar containing
Mon language
The Mon language (, mnw, ဘာသာမန်, links=no, (Mon-Thai ဘာသာမည်) ; my, မွန်ဘာသာ; th, ภาษามอญ; formerly known as Peguan and Talaing) is an Austroasiatic language spoken by the Mon peopl ...
inscriptions dedicated by Kyansittha.
Location
The pagoda, a pilgrimage centre, is located close to
Bagan
Bagan (, ; formerly Pagan) is an ancient city and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Mandalay Region of Myanmar. From the 9th to 13th centuries, the city was the capital of the Bagan Kingdom, the first kingdom that unified the regions that wou ...
or Pagan (known as "a land of thousand pagodas") in the plains in the Shwe Zigon settlement at
Nyaung-U
Nyaung-U ( my, ညောင်ဦးမြို့) is the administrative town of Nyaung-U Township of Nyaung-U District in the Mandalay Region of central Myanmar. It lies on the eastern bank of Ayeyarwaddy River. It is just 4 kilometers away ...
.
History
![Bagan-130-Shwezigon-Pagode-1976-gje](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/Bagan-130-Shwezigon-Pagode-1976-gje.jpg)
Chronicles of the Kings of Burma have attributed that King
Anawrahta
Anawrahta Minsaw ( my, အနော်ရထာ မင်းစော, ; 11 May 1014 – 11 April 1077) was the founder of the Pagan Empire. Considered the father of the Burmese nation, Anawrahta turned a small principality in the dry zone ...
(r. 1044–77) initiated its construction during 1059–1060.
According to legend, Anawrahta selected the site for building this pagoda by sending a white elephant mounted with a frontal bone
The frontal bone is a bone in the human skull. The bone consists of two portions.''Gray's Anatomy'' (1918) These are the vertically oriented squamous part, and the horizontally oriented orbital part, making up the bony part of the forehead, par ...
relic of the Buddha to roam freely with the declaration that wherever the elephant stopped would be the site for building the pagoda. The elephant finally stopped over a dune which was chosen as the site for erecting the pagoda, and hence the name Shwezigon pagoda meaning "golden pagoda on a dune" in Burmese. Pagoda means "stupa" or "zedi."
The pagoda was then completed by his son King Kyansittha (r.1084–1112/13). While its lower terraces were built by Anawrahta, the balance structure is credited to Kyansittha. Its final completion date is 1086 and the footprints below the four standing Buddha statues here are also believed to be of the same period.[ The pagoda is a replica of the pyramidal ]Mahabodhi Temple
The Mahabodhi Temple (literally: "Great Awakening Temple") or the Mahābodhi Mahāvihāra, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is an ancient, but rebuilt and restored Buddhist temple in Bodh Gaya, Bihar, India, marking the location where the Buddha ...
at Bodh Gaya
Bodh Gaya is a religious site and place of pilgrimage associated with the Mahabodhi Temple Complex in Gaya district in the Indian state of Bihar. It is famous as it is the place where Gautama Buddha is said to have attained Enlightenment ( pi, ...
, the location of Buddha's illuminating realisation in India.
The pagoda has been damaged by earthquakes and other natural calamities over the centuries, and has been refurbished from time to time. A notable renovation was carried out by King Bayinnaung (r. 1550–1581) during late 16th century. In the 1975 earthquake there was considerable damage to the spire and the dome necessitating large renovation. It is now substantially strengthened with covering of more than 30,000 copper plates, which were donated by local and international devotees; gilding of the dome has been done during 1983–1984 and again in recent times. However, the pagoda's bottom level terraces have remained mostly in their original form.
Features
The pagoda, a prototype of Burmese stupas,[ is like a bell-shaped stupa][ in traditional ]Mon people
The Mon ( mnw, ဂကူမည်; my, မွန်လူမျိုး, ; th, มอญ, ) are an ethnic group who inhabit Lower Myanmar's Mon State, Kayin State, Kayah State, Tanintharyi Region, Bago Region, the Irrawaddy Delta, and s ...
,[ which became the prototype architectural feature for many stupas built in the then Burma (now Myanmar).][ It has features of staircases, gates, and a richly ornamented spire fitted with a large golden umbrella type ]finial
A finial (from '' la, finis'', end) or hip-knob is an element marking the top or end of some object, often formed to be a decorative feature.
In architecture, it is a small decorative device, employed to emphasize the Apex (geometry), apex of a d ...
embedded with gems.[ The relics that are believed to be enshrined in the pagoda are Buddha's collar-bone and his frontal bone from ]Prome
Pyay (, ; mnw, ပြန် , ; also known as Prome and Pyè) is principal town of Pyay Township in the Bago Region in Myanmar. Pyay is located on the bank of the Irrawaddy River, north-west of Yangon. It is an important trade center for the Aye ...
, and his tooth from Ceylon
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
.
On the outer limits of the pagoda there is a shrine where 37 nats are deified along with an intricately carved wooden sculpture of Thagyamin
Thagyamin ( my, သိကြားမင်း, ; from Sanskrit ''Śakra'') is the highest-ranking nat (deity) in traditional Burmese Buddhist belief. Considered as the king of Heaven, he is the Burmese adaptation of the Hindu deity Indra.
...
, Buddhist deva Sakka, king of the nats, which is believed to be 900 years old; it is the Burmese version of the Indian god Indra holding his weapon, the thunderbolt. These shrines of 37 ''nat spirits'' have been built to circumambulate as a homage to these relics.
The pagoda, which rises with five square terraces has a central solid core. The terraces rise steeply in the form of a pyramid topped with umbrellas or ''chatris''. The entire edifice, from the base to the tip, appears like a cone. From the four cardinal directions there are steps from the base to the terraces at the centre to provide access to devotees to go up for worship; these terraces are fitted with instructions on slabs narrating events from the life of Buddha and other Buddhist
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...
scriptures. The interior, though conceived as a solid body, has a maze of interconnected narrow passages, where devotees affix dedicatory slabs on the walls by paying a donation, praying for special blessings. Even though the relics have not been found in the pagoda, believed to have been stolen, devotees still feel the sanctity of the stupa and embed slabs hoping to attain Nibbana
Nirvana (Sanskrit: निर्वाण, '; Pali: ') is "blowing out" or "quenching" of the activities of the worldly mind and its related suffering. Nirvana is the goal of the Hinayana and Theravada Buddhist paths, and marks the soteriologica ...
from the "force field" created by the embedded relics.
At the entrance to the pagoda there are huge statues of guardians of the temple, known as ''chinthes'' which are leogryphs (lion shaped gryphs). Out of the four entrances to the pagoda only the southern and western ones are in use. There are 550 glazed terra-cotta tiles inscribed with the ''Jataka tales
The Jātakas (meaning "Birth Story", "related to a birth") are a voluminous body of literature native to India which mainly concern the previous births of Gautama Buddha in both human and animal form. According to Peter Skilling, this genre is ...
'' fixed on three of the five terraces of the pagoda; the earlier count was 584 tiles of which some are not found now. The four flights of steps which provide access to the terraces leading to an octagonal platform over which the gilded stupa has been built. At the four corners of the top most terrace, smaller replicas of the main pagoda are affixed at their back side, fitted with four gilded kalashas or vases; similar replicas are also fixed at the corners in the lower terraces. At the base of the pagoda there are containers fitted closely and set in series, which have gilded bronze castings of plants and flowers, with alms bowls carved in stone in between. Around the exterior periphery of the pagoda there are several temples and wooden pavilions decorated with the ''pyatthat
Pyatthat ( my, ပြာသာဒ်, ; from Sanskrit ; mnw, တန်ဆံၚ် ; also spelt pyathat) is the name of a multistaged roof, with an odd number of tiers (from three to seven). The pyatthat is commonly incorporated into Burmese B ...
'' (multi-tiered and spired roofs).
The pagoda houses footprint of Lord Buddha. There are four bronze standing statues of Buddha which are in height, which are stated to be of the current age Buddha deified on the four sides of the temple; these four are Kakusandha Buddha
Kakusandha (Pāli), or Krakucchaṃda in Sanskrit, is one of the ancient Buddhas whose biography is chronicled in chapter 22 of the '' Buddhavaṃsa'', one of the books of the Pali Canon.
According to Theravāda Buddhist tradition, Kakusandha is t ...
in the northern face, Koṇāgamana Buddha
Koṇāgamana (Pāli), also known as Kanakamuni in Sanskrit or alternatively Koṇāgon or Kanakagamana, is one of the ancient Buddhas whose biography is chronicled in chapter 23 of the '' Buddhavaṃsa'', one of the books of the Pali Canon.
...
in the eastern wall, Kassapa Buddha
Kassapa Buddha (Pāli), known as Kāśyapa (काश्यप) in Sanskrit, is one of the ancient Buddhas whose biography is chronicled in chapter 24 of the ''Buddhavaṃsa'', one of the books of the Pali Canon. He was the last Buddha before th ...
in the southern wall and the Gautama Buddha
Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism.
According to Buddhist tradition, he was born in Lu ...
to the west wall. All of these Buddhas are cast in beaten bronze and seen with their right hand in a posture of abhayamudra
The Abhayamudrā "gesture of fearlessness" is a mudra, mudrā (gesture) that is the gesture of reassurance and safety, which dispels fear and accords divine protection and bliss in Buddhism and other Indian religions. The right hand is held upr ...
, meaning "the fear not gesture" and left hand holding the monk's robe. Below the Buddha Kassapa statue there are a pair of footprints intricately carved on sandstone slab; these were carved from a large "Bodhi-leaf-shaped" slab. They have engravings of a chakra
Chakras (, ; sa , text=चक्र , translit=cakra , translit-std=IAST , lit=wheel, circle; pi, cakka) are various focal points used in a variety of ancient meditation practices, collectively denominated as Tantra, or the esoteric or ...
at the centre, which is considered an auspicious symbol. Devotees offer oblations to the footprints through a rectangular wedge created at the rear of the stone slab. The placing of the footprints gives the viewers an impression of Buddha walking towards them.
On one of the outer walls surrounding the Shwezigon Pagoda there is a stone pillar with Mon language
The Mon language (, mnw, ဘာသာမန်, links=no, (Mon-Thai ဘာသာမည်) ; my, မွန်ဘာသာ; th, ภาษามอญ; formerly known as Peguan and Talaing) is an Austroasiatic language spoken by the Mon peopl ...
inscriptions dedicated by King Kyansittha.
See also
*Cetiya
upright=1.25, Phra Pathom Chedi, one of the biggest Chedis in Thailand; in Thai, the term Chedi (cetiya) is used interchangeably with the term Stupa
Cetiya, "reminders" or "memorials" (Sanskrit ''caitya''), are objects and places used by Buddhi ...
*Burmese pagoda
Burmese pagodas are stupas that typically house Buddhist relics, including relics associated with Buddha. Pagodas feature prominently in Myanmar's landscape, earning the country the moniker "land of pagodas." According to 2016 statistics compiled ...
*Bupaya Pagoda
Bupaya Pagoda ( my, ဗူးဘုရား,) is a notable Buddhist Burmese pagoda, pagoda located in Bagan (formerly Pagan), in Myanmar, at a bend on the right bank of the Ayeyarwady River. The small pagoda, which has a bulbous shaped dome, is w ...
* Dhammayazika Pagoda
* Mingalazedi Pagoda
*Shwesandaw Pagoda (Bagan)
The Shwesandaw Pagoda ( my, ရွှေဆံတော် ဘုရား, ) is a Buddhist pagoda located in Bagan, Myanmar. It is the tallest pagoda in Bagan, and contains a series of five terraces, topped with a cylindrical stupa, which h ...
* Lawkananda Pagoda
*
References
Bibliography
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External links
Myanmar Tourist Attractions
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{{Use dmy dates, date=July 2019
Buddhist temples in Myanmar
Buildings and structures in Mandalay Region
Bagan
Pagodas in Myanmar
Buddhist pilgrimage sites in Myanmar