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three predecessors) placed back to back around a huge, square pillar, about a mile south
of Bago just off the Yangon road.
According to legend, four Mon sisters were linked with the construction of the
buddhas; it was said that if any of them should marry, one of the buddhas would collapse.
One of the four buddhas disintegrated in the 1930 earthquake, leaving only a brick out-
line (since restored) and a very old bride.
Maha Kalyani Sima (Maha Kalyani Thein) BUDDHIST TEMPLE
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This 'Sacred Hall of Ordination' was originally constructed in 1476 by Dhammazedi, the
famous alchemist king and son of Queen Shinsawpu. Like almost everything in Bago it
has suffered a tumbledown history and has been destroyed and rebuilt many a time.
Next to the hall are 10 large tablets with inscriptions in Pali and Mon describing the
history of Buddhism in Myanmar.
If you can't get enough of buddha statues then across the road from the Maha Kalyani
Sima is the Four Figures Paya , with four buddha figures standing back to back. An ad-
jacent open hallway has a small reclining buddha image, thronged by followers, and
some macabre paintings of wrongdoers being tortured in the afterlife.
Relaxing in the sun next to these two monuments is the serene Naung Daw Gyi Mya
Tha Lyaung , a reclining buddha sprawled out over 250ft and built in 2002 with public
donations.
Mahazedi Paya BUDDHIST STUPA
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The design of the Mahazedi Paya (Great Stupa), with its whitewashed stairways leading
almost to the stupa's summit, is unusual for southern Myanmar and certainly one of the
more attractive religious buildings in Bago.
Originally constructed in 1560 by King Bayinnaung, it was destroyed during the 1757
sacking of Bago. An attempt to rebuild it in 1860 was unsuccessful and the great earth-
quake of 1930 comprehensively levelled it, after which it remained a ruin. This current
reconstruction was only completed in 1982.
The Mahazedi originally contained a Buddha tooth, at one time thought to be the most
sacred of all Buddha relics; the tooth of Kandy, Sri Lanka. After Bago was conquered in
1539, the tooth was moved to Taungoo and then to Sagaing near Mandalay. Together
with a begging bowl supposed to have been used by the Buddha, it remains in the
Kaunghmudaw Paya, near Sagaing, to this day.
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