Shwedagon Pagoda is a very important buddhist temple that is anywhere from 1500-1100 years old. It is unclear as to when exactly it was built. As you will be able to tell from the pictures it is covered in gold and is estimated to contain in the neighborhood of 60 tons of gold covering all the pieces of the temple. How accurate this is I have no idea nor any idea of how to fact check the information.
We visited Shwedagon on our second day in Yangon and took two trips to it as we had heard sunset was impressive. We were not disappointed by sunset nor by the overall ambiance of the pagoda. It was nice to sit and people watch. It also let me play with camera settings when taking the pictures. In addition to taking pictures we got to watch all the people coming and going, whether they were worshiping, site seeing or working it was an eventful place with plenty of things going on.
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| Shwedagon Pagoda at night. |
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| When we arrived in the afternoon we were able to see three vultures being chased by hordes of smaller birds. A guide told us this was not common. |
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| The entrance to Shwedagon pagoda. As you walked into the pagoda you took off your shoes then walked by a series of shops selling religious goods. |
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| The corridor of shops was covered in gold, it was an interesting juxtaposition to say the least. |
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| Their were different religious scenes overhead. The one big difference from other temples and churches was that the figures in the stories were set so that they leaned out, making it easier for people walking by to see the figures. |
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| The primary pagoda was surrounded by smaller stupas. |
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| People washing a buddha. |
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| Caitlin in front of the Pagoda. |
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| A monk taking a break. |
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| There were more Buddhas than I could count and people worshiping at almost all of them. |
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| All the Buddhas seemed slightly different but all similar at the same time. |
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| The gold of the spires made for interesting pictures as the sunset. |
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| If you enlarge this one you’ll see all the detail in the carvings. |
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| Another Buddha, as you can see slightly different. |
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| More people washing a Buddha. This father is holding his little girl up to wash the Buddha. She has Thanaka on her face as I mentioned in the previous post. |
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| As you can see gold is the theme. |
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| One of the vultures landing on the Pagoda. |
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| The vultures being chased by the smaller birds. |
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| There were plenty of monks visiting the pagoda. |
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| Another smaller temple within the pagoda. |
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| An attempt at capturing more of the pagodas. |
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| As I was playing with camera settings multiple squadrons of sweepers came through. |
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| The main Spire. |
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| And again. |
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| Caitlin being patient with me taking tons of pictures. |
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| A monk taking pictures for little kids. |
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| Another picture of all the intricacy in the Pagoda. There was no way I could capture everything, hopefully this gives you an idea of what Shwedagon Pagoda consists of. |
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