Page 77 - The Rough Guide to Myanmar (Burma)

Midtown Yangon Yangon and around 75
The stairways 1
Four majestic covered stairways (zaungdan) lead up from street level to the pagoda
above. Those at the north, south and west are guarded at the bottom by pairs of
enormous chinthe, although these impressive guardian figures failed to prevent the
destruction of the western stairway by fire in 1931, nor the British from badly
damaging the eastern stairs when they attacked the temple during the Second Anglo-
Burmese War. There are lifts on the north and south sides, although it’s much more fun
to walk. The southern stairway (with 104 steps) is perhaps the most impressive, its roof
supported by rich red columns and lined with shops selling assorted religious artefacts
– Buddha images, miniature paper umbrellas, incense sticks, flowers, religious tomes,
and so on. Further shops line the almost equally impressive eastern stairway (118 steps),
decorated with gilded columns with fancy woodwork. The chintzy, almost rococo-
looking northern stairs (128 steps) look like something out of the interior of a French
chateau. The western stairs are the longest (166 steps), and contrastingly plain, with
white walls, golden columns, and an escalator down the middle.

The stupa
The stupa is 99m high, the entire gargantuan structure gilded using the metal from
almost 22,000 gold bars. It’s the iconic example of the classic Burmese stupa and has
served as the prototype for hundreds of other stupas across the country (see p.390).
The entire structure sits on a square white base encircled with a mass of colourful
statues positioned at ground level, including dragons, chinthe, sphinxes and assorted
figures ranging from gods and kings through to loin-clothed ascetics and dancing girls
wringing out their hair – as well as a string of planetary posts (see box opposite).
Rising up from its square platform, the first section of the stupa proper comprises
three octagonal terraces (paccaya), ringed with 64 mini-stupas (eight on each of the
eight sides) – only monks are allowed to ascend these terraces. Above rises the huge
bell and spire, crowned with a hti (umbrella) said to be set with 5448 diamonds,
2317 rubies and 1065 golden bells, along with sapphires and other gems, the whole
thing topped with a single 76-carat diamond designed to catch the first and last rays
of the sun every dawn and dusk.

Around the terrace
The terrace surrounding the stupa is scarcely less eye-popping than the stupa itself,
ringed with a veritable forest of shrines and pavilions topped with spiky golden roofs,
like dozens of Buddhist antennae pointing towards heaven.

Between the southern and western staircases
Arriving at the top of the southern stairs you come out onto the terrace opposite the
ornate shrine housing an image of the Konagamana Buddha (signed “Kawnagammana”),
one of the four Buddhas of the present kalpa (see box opposite) which sit at the stupa’s
cardinal points. All four were commissioned by King Singu (reigned 1776–82) using a
five-metal alloy containing gold, silver, copper, iron and lead – a particularly auspicious
metal (derived from the ancient Hindu tradition of panchaloha) favoured for sacred
icons – although the Kassapa image (on the west side of the stupa) was subsequently
damaged by fire and replaced.
Turning left and heading clockwise around the terrace brings you to the Chinese
Merited Association pavilion housing a single solid jade Buddha, made in 1999 with
324kg of jade from Kachin in northern Myanmar and inlaid with 2.5kg of gold,
91 rubies and nine diamonds. Just behind here is the so-called Sun–Moon Buddha,
flanked with images of a peacock and a hare (symbolizing the sun and moon
respectively), while immediately behind that image stands a small square
Commemorative column inscribed in Burmese, English, French and Russian and
honouring the student leaders of the 1920 revolt (see p.368).

054-097_Myanmar_B2_Ch1.indd 75 30/06/17 2:20 pm