Shwedagon Pagoda
religious building in Yangon, Myanmar
The Shwedagon Pagoda (Burmese: ရွှေတိဂုံဘုရား, MLCTS: shwe ti. gon bhu. ra:, IPA: [ʃwèdəɡòʊɰ̃ pʰəjá]; Mon: ကျာ်ဒဂုၚ်), officially named Shwedagon Zedi Daw (Burmese: ရွှေတိဂုံစေတီတော်, [ʃwèdəɡòʊɰ̃ zèdìdɔ̀], lit. 'Golden Dagon Pagoda,'), and also known as the Great Dagon Pagoda and the Golden Pagoda, Kyaik Dagon 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 (167 ft) Singuttara Hill, the 112 m (367 ft) tall pagoda stands 170 m (560 ft) above sea level, and dominates the Yangon skyline. Yangon's zoning regulations, which cap the maximum height of buildings at 127 metres (417 feet) above sea level (75% of the pagoda's sea level height), ensure the Shwedagon's prominence in the city's skyline.
History
Legend holds that the Shwedagon Pagoda was constructed more than 2,500 years ago — while the Buddha was still alive — which would make it the oldest Buddhist stupa in the world. According to the Buddhavaṃsa, two merchants from Ukkalājanapada named Tapussa and Bhallika were passing through Bodh Gaya when they encountered the Buddha. The Buddha, who was at that time enjoying the bliss of his newly attained Buddhahood as he sat under a rājāyatana tree, accepted their offering of rice cake and honey and taught them some of the dharma in return.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Shwedagon Pagoda” is religious building in Yangon, Myanmar. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Shwedagon, Pagoda and religious, not as a finished interpretation.
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Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q464535. Authority coordinates are 16.798, 96.149. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Shwedagon Pagoda” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.