Shwedagon Paya

Shwedagon Paya, in all its golden wonder, has to be the most incredible place in Yangon. Although Yangon is pretty flat, Shwedagon is on a slight hill, and can be seen from all over town. The current stupa dates back to 1769, although the site has been important to Buddhists for centuries.

Shwedagon covers a large area, and after removing shoes and socks and climbing quite a few stairs (or catching the lift) you enter a huge glittering complex of golden stupas (Swedagon itself is one of many), temples, shrines and different covered areas where people pray, rest, drink water from one of the many water purification stands donated by rich benefactors, and give blood (we didn't see this happening, but our guide told us voluntary blood donations for the hospital takes place several times a year, and thousands of people come forward).
There are lots of different Buddha's, which people make offerings to. Many of the offerings are bananas and coconuts. Ant asked what happened to the huge piles of offerings at the end of the day and apparently these are given to elderly people and slightly randomly - the zoo.
 

Not as many monks about as one might expect… but there was the odd one wandering around. The green mats were quite useful as bare feet + rain + a marble floor = somewhat treacherous.
  

Golden glory… much of the stupa is covered in gold leaf, but the top is apparently covered in 13,153 solid gold plates each covering 1square foot. It really is huge. Hopefully some of the photos with people in give some sort of perspective. We will have to return once the rainy season is over as all that gold against a blue sky will, I think, be far more spectacular than with the a grey sky.
     

Below is quite a fun photo-of-a-photo of the bit at the top of the stupa. I will quote from Lonely Planet about this part of the stupa – because it is incredible!

“…The top most vane, with its flag, turns with the wind. It is gold and silver plated and studded with 1,100 diamonds totalling 278 carets – not to mention 1,383 other stones. Finally at the very top of the vane rests the diamond orb – a hollow golden sphere studded with 4,351 diamonds, weighing 1,800 carats in total. The very top of the orb is tipped with a single 78-carat diamond…”

Another interesting fact is that there is 2nd “Shwedagon” (Uppatasanti Paya) in Nay Pyi Taw. Nay Pyi Taw is the new captial city, built in 2004. Obviously a new capital city needs a big landmark, and so the then leader of the country constructed a replica of Shwedagon (apparently with his own money – as an act of merit making), but made sure it was 1ft smaller than the original version (I guess out of respect for the original). At some point hopefully we will visit Nay Pyi Taw with its air conditioned zoo and replica golden wonder.
Finally, Shwedagon at its most amazing – by night, when it becomes a tall glowing golden beacon – so beautiful. This is the view from the hotel we are now staying in. Our window isn’t at quite the right angle, and I don’t yet have my tripod so it is a bit of a grainy photo, but you get the idea. At some point (when it stops raining perhaps), we will go back up there at night for a wander around, and to get some better photos.