Myanmar: Four Hours in Yangon

Then, a golden mystery upheaved itself on the horizon, a beautiful winking wonder that blazed in the sun, of a shape that was neither Muslim dome nor Hindu temple-spire…But the golden dome said: “This is Burma, and it will be quite unlike any land you know about.”

Rudyard Kipling

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A local told us that you couldn’t say you’d been to Myanmar unless you’d visited Shwedagon Pagoda, so with 4 hours to spare between flights that is exactly where we headed.

We took off our shoes and entered into the Shwedagon grounds, the pagoda towering like a golden mountain over the urban sprawl of Yangon. Walking barefoot on the cool white marble floors, it is impossible not to feel awestruck by this 100m tall gold monolith, shining in the sunshine. ”Shwe” means gold in Burmese and Shwedagon lives up to its name; adorned with 27 metric tons of gold leaf, thousands of other gems and diamonds and is also believed to enshrine eight hairs of the Guatama Buddha.

According to legend, two brothers were traveling when they encountered Buddha beneath a tree. After providing him with some food, Buddha offered them a gift and gave them eight hairs from his head. The brothers carried back the sacred hairs in a ruby casket, and they began building what would become the Shwedagon Pagoda complex. This would make the Pagoda more than 2600 years old and the oldest Buddhist stupa in the world.

The Pagoda sits on an octagonal base with shrines on each corner which represents each day of the week (Wednesday is divided into am and pm). Burmese believe that your destiny is determined by the day you were born and people come here to pray at the shrine that represents the day of their birth. I was born on a Tuesday and therefore represented by a Lion just FYI. Pagodas are the centre of Burmese spiritual life, with people visiting them regularly to offer prayers and make donations. Although Shwedagon is the number one tourist attraction in Myanmar, it is important to remember that it is primarily a functioning and active place of worship; as the most important religious site in the country. 

We wandered around in the shadow of the shrines, trying to avoid the hot midday sun, and it was incredible to see the huge numbers of monks, devotees and pilgrims in this religious microcosm mix amongst the tourists. As we roamed, we observed both the young and old expressing their devotion in diverse ways – a wonderful reminder of the value of faith in a world where the practice is slowly fading and in a country where hope for a peaceful, prosperous and democratic future remains uncertain.