SHWEDAGON PAGODA | YANGON | MYANMAR | MOST SACRED STUPA

The Shwedagon Pagoda, situated on Singuttara Hill in the center of Yangon (Rangoon), is the most sacred Buddhist stupa in Myanmar and one of the most important religious reliquary monuments in the world. The proposed property includes the hill atop of which the main stupa is located, the hill-top reliquary stupa and associated religious buildings and sacred statuary, bells, and other emblems situated on the hill, as well as the hill’s surrounding sacred perimeter. The proposed property comprises a total area of 46.3 hectares.
According to local chronologies dating from the14th century CE, the Shwedagon is believed to enshrine the bodily relics of the historical Buddha, Gautama, as well as artifactual relics purported by long tradition to be associated with the three other most recent previous Buddhas of our present era (kalpa).The enshrined relics include: eight strands of hair from the head of Gautama Buddha, as well as a piece of the robe believed to have belonged to Kassapa Buddha, a water filter attributed to Konagamana Buddha, and the staff of Kakusandha Buddha.
The formal name of the Shwedagon Pagoda is ShwedagonZedi Daw, which translates as The Great Golden Mountain Stupa.
The stupa's plinth is made of bricks covered with genuine gold plates and the main stupa itself is entirely covered in gold, adorned with a crowning umbrella encrusted with diamonds and other jewels. Following a tradition began in the 15th century by the Queen Shin Sawbu (BinnyaThau), who donated her weight in gold to the pagoda, Buddhist devotees from all walks of life and all regions of Buddhist Asia, as well as monarchs throughout Burma’s history, have donated gold to the Shwedagon in order to maintain the monument, and in so-doing gain merit in this life and in future lives.
There are four covered monumental stairways leading from the four cardinal directions from the base of Singuttara Hillup to the main stupa. On the ascent to the main stupa, these stairways give access to three intermediary terraces, or platforms (pisssaya).On these platforms are located circumambulatory walkways around the hill punctuated with Buddhist monasteries and community lecture-cum-prayer halls (dhammayons). The main golden iconic reliquary stupa is located on the fourth, uppermost terrace/platform, surrounded by numerous pavilions and shrines, large bronze bells, and other decorative features related to Hindu-Buddhist iconography. The spatial siting of the attributes within the site is organized following a system derived from Hinducosmology, indicated by cosmic pillars surrounding the central main reliquary stupa, which mark the planetary positions within the zodiac. The design of the site is an intentional recreation of the Hindu-Buddhist cosmos, reflected on earth.
Buddhist devotees circumambulate the hill and its stupa in a clockwise direction, beginning at the eastern directional shrine, which houses a statue of Kakusandha, the first Buddha of the present era (kalpa.) Next, at the southern directional shrine, is a statue of the second Buddha, Koṇagamana. Next, at the western directional shrine, is that of the third Buddha, Kassapa. Finally, at the northern directional shrine, is that of the fourth Buddha, Gautama.As the devotee circumambulates the stupa, s/he recites sacred prayers either silently or aloud, there by “turning the wheel of the law” and contributing to the propagation of the immutable, unchanging laws of the universe (dhamma) as revealed and taught by successive Buddhas.
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