SCHWEDAGON PAYA, A LITTLE BIT OF HISTORY

The great golden dome rises 98 meters above its base. According to legends this stupa- of the solid zedi type- is 2500 years old but archeologists are unanimous in suggesting that the original stupa was built by the Mon sometimes between the 6th and 10th centuries. In common with many other ancient zedis in earthquake-prone Myanmar, it has been rebuilt many times and its current form dates back only to 1769.   The legend of the Schwedagon Paya tells of two merchants brothers meeting the Buddha, who gave them eight of his hairs to take back to be enshrined in Myanmar. With the help of a number of spirit nats, the brothers and the king of this region of Mynamar discovered the hill where relics of the previous Buddha had been enshrined. When the chamber to house the hairs was built and the hairs were taken from the golden casket, some quite amazing events took place:

...There was a tumult among men and spirits...rays emitted by the Hair penetrated up to the heavens above and down to hell...the blind beheld objects...the death heard sounds...the dumb spoke distinctly...the earth quaked...the wind of the ocean blew...Mount Meru shook...lightning flashed...gems rained down until they were knee deep...all trees of the Himalayas, though not in season, bore blossoms and fruits.

Fortunately hairs of the Buddha are not unveiled everyday. Once the relics were safely enshrined, a golden slab was laid on the chamber and a golden stupa built on it. . Over this a silver stupa was built, then a tin stupa, a copper stupa, a led stupa, a marble stupa and finally an iron-brick stupa. Or so the legend goes. Later the legend continues, the stupa at Dagon fell into disuse and it is said that the great Indian Buddhist Emperor Asoka came to Myanmar and found the site only with great difficulty, but subsequently had the encroaching jungle cleared and the stupa repaired.   During the Bagan period the story of the stupa emerges from the mists of legend and becomes hard facts. Near the top of the eastern stairway, one can see an inscription recording the history of the stupa until 1485. King Anawrahta visited the Dagon from his capital at Bagan in the 11th century, while king Bayinnaung, during his reign at Bago (1353-85), had the stupa rebuilt to a height of 18 meters. Succeeding kings alternately neglected, teh improvd, the stupa. During the 15th century it was rebuilt several times, eventually reaching 90 meters, not far from its present height.   During this period the tradition of gilding the stupa also began- Queen Shinsawbu, who was responsible for many improvments to the stupa, provided her own weight (40kg) in gold, which was beaten into goldleaf and used to gild the structure. Her son-in-law Dhammazedi, went several times better by offering four times his own weight and that of his wife's in gold. He also provided the 1485 historical inscription on the eastern stairway.   In 1586 the English visitor Ralph Fitch made probably the best early European description of the great stupa:

...it is called Dogonne, and is of a wonderful bigness, and all gilded from the foot to the toppe...it is the fairest place, as I suppose, that is in the world; it standeth very high, and there are foure ways to it, which all along are set with trees of fruits, such wise that a man goes in the shade above two miles in length...

please follow ...