Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
FROM TOP
KANDAWGYI LAKE; RECLINING BUDDHA, CHAUK HTAT GYI PAGODA
Chauk Htat Gyi Pagoda
Shwegone Rd • Daily 6am-8pm • Free
Even in a land of big Buddhas, the giant reclining figure at the
Chauk Htat Gyi Pagoda
(also spelt “Kyauk Htat Gyi”) is an unquestionable show-stopper: almost 66m long, with a
7.3m-long face, 2.7m worth of nose, and 50cm-high eyes. The figure was begun in 1959 but
not completed until 1974, replacing an earlier giant seated Buddha on the same site which
was demolished in 1957 (there's a photo of it, labelled “Wingaba, Rangoon”, in front of the
reclining image). The name of the pagoda, meaning “Six-storey Pagoda”, refers to this im-
pressively huge but now-vanished seated statue - the present reclining figure being more of
a three- or four-storey affair.
Housed within a huge corrugated iron shed propped up on glass mosaic columns, the
Buddha has a delicate, rather feminine-looking face complete with blue eye shadow and su-
