Sule Pagoda description and photos - Myanmar: Yangon (Topic)

Sule Pagoda description and photos - Myanmar: Yangon. Detailed information about the attraction. Description, photographs and a map showing the nearest significant objects. The name in English is Sule Pagoda.

Photo & Description

The Sule Buddhist Pagoda is built on a busy intersection right in the historic center of Yangon. British authorities, trying to draw up maps of the city, considered this temple to be a kind of “zero kilometer” of the city and numbered houses from it.

According to a legend widespread in Yangon, the pagoda was built on the site where the man-eating elephant used to live Sule, who was converted by Buddha and turned into a spirit. This spirit was supposed to assist King Okkalapa and two merchant brothers in their search for the relics of previous Buddhas, which were hidden at the top of the Singuttar Temple, as the Shwedagon Pagoda was in the past called. There are many older versions of this legend, which differ in the number of cannibals who help in the search for artifacts. And some don't even have a hint of Sula. So, One of the myths tells that the place where the Sule pagoda was built, intended to store the hair of the Buddha, was indicated by two monks Sonia and Uttarze. The name of the pagoda in the Mon language sounds like Chak Athok, which translates simply: "The pagoda where the hair is kept."

Although some historians believe that the pagoda was built in the 1st millennium BC. e., but there is no historical evidence of this. The earliest mentions of the pagoda date back to the early 19th century. In 1816 the pagoda was renovated: the stupa was gilded, and the tower near it was renewed. This tower was subsequently destroyed.

The Sule Pagoda was built in the Mon style on an octagonal base. The peculiarity of the pagoda's design is that the stupa also has an octagonal shape. The height of the pagoda is 46 meters. In the 1920s, four prayer halls dedicated to the Buddhas were placed around the Sule Temple. In the following years, shops and fortunetellers' stalls appeared near the pagoda.

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Topic: Sule Pagoda description and photos - Myanmar: Yangon.