The Shwezigon Pagoda or Shwezigon Paya ရွှေစည်းခုံဘုရာ is a Buddhist stupa located in Bagan, Myanmar. The pagoda, a pilgrimage center, is located close to Bagan or Pagan (known as "land of a thousand pagodas") in the plains in the Shwe Zig…
The Shwezigon Pagoda or Shwezigon Paya ရွှေစည်းခုံဘုရာ is a Buddhist stupa located in Bagan, Myanmar. The pagoda, a pilgrimage center, is located close to Bagan or Pagan (known as "land of a thousand pagodas") in the plains in the Shwe Zigon settlement at Nyaung-U.
A prototype of Burmese stupas, it consists of a circular gold leaf-gilded stupa surrounded by smaller temples and shrines. Construction of the Shwezigon Pagoda began during the reign of King Anawrahta, the founder of the Pagan Empire, in 1059–1060 and was completed in 1102, during the reign of his son King Kyansittha.
Over the centuries the pagoda had been damaged by many earthquakes and other natural calamities, and has been refurbished several times. In recent renovations it has been covered by more than 30,000 copper plates. However, the lowest level terraces have remained as they were.
This pagoda, a sacred Buddhist religious place, is believed to enshrine a bone and tooth of Gautama Buddha. The pagoda is in the form of a cone formed by five square terraces with a central solid core. There are footprints below the four standing Buddha statues here. Jataka legends are depicted on glazed terra-cotta tiles set into three rectangular terraces. At the entrance of the pagoda there are large statues of guardians of the temple. There are also four bronze standing statues of Buddha which are stated to be of the current age Buddha. At the outer limits of the pagoda there are 37 nats deified along with an intricately carved wooden sculpture of Thagyamin, the Burmese version of the Indian god Indra.
According to legend, Anawrahta selected the site for building this pagoda by sending a white elephant mounted with a frontal bone relic of the Buddha to roam freely with the declaration that wherever the elephant stopped would be the site for building the pagoda. The elephant finally stopped over a dune which was chosen as the site for erecting the pagoda, hence the name Shwezigon pagoda meaning "golden pagoda ..
