Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Sule Pagoda
Sule Pagoda Rd • Daily 5am-9pm • $3
Rising out of the very heart of downtown Yangon, the
Sule Pagoda
is the most visible of
all Burmese temples, its soaring golden stupa providing the old colonial city with its defin-
ing landmark, towards which all streets seem to converge. Placed at the centre of the British
gridplan in the 1850s, the pagoda remains very much at the centre of downtown life, both
physically and culturally (all distances to other parts of the nation are still measured from
the pagoda, like a Burmese version of London's Charing Cross). The pagoda is particularly
beautiful when illuminated at night, although it looks rather incongruous by day, marooned
within a busy roundabout, surrounded by a constant swirl of traffic and with a string of small
shops inserted into its outward-facing sides.
Accordingtolocaltradition,thepagodawasbuiltduringthelifetimeoftheBuddhahimself,
although themorelikely,albeit prosaic, explanation isthat itdates backtotheMonerainthe
tenth century, or thereabouts. The 43m-high stupa was enlarged to its present size by Queen
Shinsawbu (1453-72), and is said to enshrine one of the Buddha's hairs, given (it's said) by
the Buddha himself to the brothers Tapissa and Balika, two itinerant merchants from Myan-
mar. More recently, the Sule Pagoda served as an important rallying point for pro-democracy
activists during both the 1988 uprising and the 2007 Saffron Revolution - and was the scene
of a brutal massacre during the latter, when the military opened fire on unarmed protestors,
killing nine people.
Four staircases lead up to the pagoda from each of the cardinal points, with four matching
shrines attached to the base of the stupa at the top of each flight of stairs, all topped with
flamboyant gilded roofs. The stupa itself sits on an octagonal base (following the standard
Burmese design) but is unusual in that both the bell and spire of the stupa continue the octa-
