lonely-planet-myanmar-burma-11-edition

46

YANGON

the platform – unless your bare feet can take

the heat of the uncovered marble paving.

The Stupa & Its Treasures

The hill on which the stupa stands is 190ft

above sea level and the platform covers over

12 acres. Prior to the British takeover of

southern Myanmar there had been defen-

sive earthworks around the paya, but these

were considerably extended by the British.

The emplacements for their cannons can

still be seen outside the outer wall.

The main stupa, which is completely

solid, rises from its platform in a fairly stan-

dard pattern. First there is the plinth, which

stands 21ft above the clutter of the main

platform and immediately sets Shwedagon

above the lesser structures. Smaller stupas

sit on this raised platform level – four large

ones mark the four cardinal directions, four

medium-sized ones mark the four corners of

the basically square platform and 60 small

ones run around the perimeter.

Various planetary posts around the base

conform to the days of the week, and locals

pray at the station that represents the day

they were born. If you know what day you

were born, locals can point you to the appro-

priate post. The one for Mars (Tuesday) corre-

sponds to Aung San Suu Kyi’s birthday – this

is where she prays whenever she visits the

shrine; look up and you’ll note a closed-circuit

TV camera trained on the spot.

From this base, the zedi rises fi rst in three

terraces, then in ‘octagonal’ terraces and

then in fi ve circular bands – together these

elements add another 98ft to the stupa’s

height.

The shoulder of the bell is decorated with

16 ‘fl owers’. The bell is topped by the ‘in-

verted bowl’, another traditional element of

stupa architecture, and above this stand the

mouldings and then the ‘lotus petals’. These

consist of a band of down-turned petals, fol-

lowed by a band of up-turned petals.

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See Northern

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