The Shwemawdaw Pagoda ( my, ရွှေမောဓော ဘုရား ; mnw, ကျာ်မုဟ်တ ) is a

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, circum ...

located in Bago,

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 ...

. It is often referred to as the Golden God Temple. At in height, the Shwemadaw holds the record for the tallest pagoda in the country although 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 ...

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 ...

is usually credited as the tallest pagoda in Myanmar (at ). Shwemadaw, along with the Shwedagon and Kyaiktiyo, are famous

Mon Mon, MON or Mon. may refer to: Places * Mon State, a subdivision of Myanmar * Mon, India, a town in Nagaland * Mon district, Nagaland * Mon, Raebareli, a village in Uttar Pradesh, India * Mon, Switzerland, a village in the Canton of Grisons * A ...

pagodas. The annual

pagoda festival Pagoda festivals ( my, ဘုရားပွဲ; ''paya pwe'') are regular festivals found throughout Burma (Myanmar) that commemorate major religious events in pagoda's history, including the founding of a pagoda and the crowning of the pagoda's ...

is a 10-day affair that takes place during the Burmese month of

Tagu Tagu ( my, တန်ခူး; mnw, ဂိတု စဲ) is the first month of the traditional Burmese calendar. Holidays and observances *Thingyan *Pagoda festivals **Shwemawdaw Pagoda Festival, Bago Tagu symbols *Flower: ''Mesua ferrea'' *As ...

History

The Shwemawdaw Paya was originally built around the 10th century, C.E. It was destroyed several times due to earthquakes, including one in 1917 and another in

1930 Events January * January 15 – The Moon moves into its nearest point to Earth, called perigee, at the same time as its fullest phase of the Lunar Cycle. This is the closest moon distance at in recent history, and the next one will b ...

. Portions of the fallen pre-1917 version of the Paya remain at the site. The original version of the pagoda was approximately tall, built by the

supposedly to hold two hairs of the

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 L ...

. Allegedly, the hairs were given personally to two Mon merchants named Mahasala and Kullasala by the Buddha on a trip to India. Tooth relics were also added to the pagoda in 982 and 1385. Further additions to the temple include a bell from King

Dhammazedi Dhammazedi ( my, ဓမ္မစေတီ, ; c. 1409–1492) was the 16th king of the Hanthawaddy Kingdom in Burma from 1471 to 1492. Considered one of the most enlightened rulers in Burmese history, by some accounts call him "the greatest" of al ...

, a crown from 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 Tou ...

, and a spire umbrella from King

Bodawpaya Bodawpaya ( my, ဘိုးတော်ဘုရား, ; th, ปดุง; 11 March 1745 – 5 June 1819) was the sixth king of the Konbaung dynasty of Burma. Born Maung Shwe Waing and later Badon Min, he was the fourth son of Alaungpaya, fo ...

. The current stupa, as of its most recent rebuilding, stands at 374 feet, making it the tallest in Myanmar.

Images

Image:ShwemawdawPaya.jpg, kyaikmuhdaw Exterior Image:ShweMawDaw03.jpg, Old Royal Umbrella which collapsed due to an earthquake in 1917 Image:Pegu_2008_052.jpg, Shwemawdaw from Hintha Ghone Image:ShwemawdawPayaCarving.jpg, Sculpture at Shwemawdaw Paya

References

Exploring the Shwemawdaw Pagoda

External links

* {{Buddhist sites in Myanmar Pagodas in Myanmar 10th-century Buddhist temples Buddhist pilgrimage sites in Myanmar