page_title: Shwedagon Pagoda
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Shwedagon Pagoda / History
caption_attribution_description: Shwedagon Pagoda, Rangoon
context_page_description: The Shwedagon Pagoda, officially named Shwedagon Zedi Daw and also known as the Great Dagon Pagoda and the Golden Pagoda, is a gilded stupa located in Yangon, Myanmar.
  The Shwedagon is the most sacred Buddhist pagoda in Myanmar, as it is believed to contain relics of the four previous Buddhas of the present kalpa. These relics include the staff of Kakusandha, the water filter of Koṇāgamana, a piece of the robe of Kassapa, and eight strands of hair from the head of Gautama.
  Built on the 51-metre high Singuttara Hill, the 112 m tall pagoda stands 170 m above sea level, and dominates the Yangon skyline. Yangon's zoning regulations, which cap the maximum height of buildings to 127 metres above sea level, ensure the Shwedagon's prominence in the city's skyline.
context_section_description: According to tradition, the Shwedagon Pagoda was constructed more than 2,600 years ago, which would make it the oldest Buddhist stupa in the world. The story goes that two merchant brothers Tapussa and Bhallika met the Gautama Buddha during his lifetime and received eight strands of the Buddha's hairs. The brothers presented the eight strands of hair to King Okkalapa of Dagon who enshrined the strands along with some relics of the three preceding Buddhas of the Gautama Buddha in a stupa on the Singuttara Hill in present-day Myanmar.
  The first mention of the pagoda in the royal chronicles dates only to 1362/63 CE (724 ME) when King Binnya U (r. 1348–1384) raised the pagoda to 18 m (59 ft). Inscriptional evidence, the Shwedagon Pagoda Inscriptions from the reign of King Dhammazedi (r. 1471–1492), shows a list of repairs of the pagoda going back to 1436. In particular, Queen Shin Saw Pu (r. 1454–1471) raised its height to 40 m (130 ft), and gilded the new structure. By the beginning of the 16th century, Shwedagon Pagoda had become the most famous Buddhist pilgrimage site in Burma.
  A series of earthquakes during the following centuries caused damage. The worst damage was caused by a 1768 earthquake that brought down the top of the stupa, but King Hsinbyushin in 1775 raised it to its current height of 99 m (325 ft) (without counting the height of the hti (crown umbrella)). A new hti was donated by King Mindon Min in 1871 after the annexation of Lower Burma by the British. An earthquake of moderate intensity in October 1970 put the shaft of the crown umbrella visibly out of alignment. A scaffold was erected and extensive repairs were made.
  The Shwedagon Pagoda Festival, which is the largest pagoda festival in the country, begins during the new moon of the month of Tabaung in the traditional Burmese calendar and continues until the full moon. The pagoda is on the Yangon City Heritage List.
caption: Shwedagon Pagoda in the 1890s
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