Mahazedi Pagoda ( my, မဟာစေတီ) is a prominent Buddhist pagoda in

Bago Bago may refer to: Places Myanmar * Bago, Myanmar, a city and the capital of the Bago Region * Bago District, a district of the Bago Region * Bago Region an administrative region * Bago River, a river * Bago Yoma or Pegu Range, a mountain rang ...

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 Wells explai ...

History

The pagoda was built by King

Bayinnaung , image = File:Bayinnaung.JPG , caption = Statue of Bayinnaung in front of the National Museum of Myanmar , reign = 30 April 1550 – 10 October 1581 , coronation = 11 January 1551 at Toung ...

in 1560 to house a gold and jewel-encrusted tooth relic of the Buddha. The tooth relic was, in fact, a fake replica from

Dharmapala of Kotte Dharmapala or Dom João Dharmapala Peria Bandara (1541 – 27 May 1597) was last king of the Kingdom of Kotte, in present-day Sri Lanka, from 1551 until 27 May 1597. He is also known as Dom João Dharmapala, the first Christian king in Sri Lan ...

, the king of the

Kingdom of Kotte The Kingdom of Kotte ( si, කෝට්ටේ රාජධානිය, Kottay Rajadhaniya), named after its capital, Kotte, was a Sinhalese kingdom that flourished in Sri Lanka during the 15th century. Kotte, under the rule of Ming-backed ...

, who gifted the tooth, along with an alms bowl and his daughter. The relics arrived in 1576. In 1599, King

Anaukpetlun Anaukbaklun ( my, အနောက်ဘက်လွန် ; 21 January 1578 – 9 July 1628) was the sixth king of Taungoo Burma and was largely responsible for restoring the kingdom after it collapsed at the end of 16th century. In his 22–yea ...

conquered Bago and removed the relics to

Taungoo Taungoo (, ''Tauñngu myoú''; ; also spelled Toungoo) is a district-level city in the Bago Region of Myanmar, 220 km from Yangon, towards the north-eastern end of the division, with mountain ranges to the east and west. The main industry ...

. In 1636, King

Thalun Thalun ( my, သာလွန်မင်း, ; 17 June 1584 – 27 August 1648) was the eighth king of Toungoo dynasty of Burma (Myanmar). During his 19-year reign, Thalun successfully rebuilt the war-torn country which had been under constant wa ...

invaded Taungoo and removed the relics to Innwa, enshrining them at the

Kaunghmudaw Pagoda The Kaunghmudaw Pagoda ( my, ကောင်းမှုတော် ဘုရား ; Yaza Mani Sula Kaunghmudaw (); pi, Rājamaṇicūḷā) is a large Buddhist pagoda on the northwestern outskirts of Sagaing in central Myanmar (Burma). Mode ...

Sagaing Sagaing (, ) is the former capital of the Sagaing Region of Myanmar. It is located in the Irrawaddy River, to the south-west of Mandalay on the opposite bank of the river. Sagaing with numerous Buddhist monasteries is an important religious and m ...

. Throughout its history, the pagoda has been destroyed by several earthquakes on the

Sagaing Fault The Sagaing Fault is a major fault in Burma, a mainly continental right-lateral transform fault between the Indian Plate and Sunda Plate. It links the divergent boundary in the Andaman Sea with the zone of active continental collision along ...

, on 13 September 1564, 1583, and 8 October 1888, and completely leveled in 1930. Mahazedi Pagoda was rebuilt in the 1950s.

References

{{Buddhist sites in Myanmar Pagodas in Myanmar Buddhist temples in Myanmar 16th-century Buddhist temples Religious buildings and structures completed in 1560