Kuthodaw Pagoda, Buddhist stupa in Mandalay, Myanmar
The Kuthodaw Pagoda features a gilded stupa at its center surrounded by hundreds of white marble shrines, each containing inscribed stone tablets. These shrines are arranged in organized rows forming a vast sacred compound around the main structure.
King Mindon Min ordered construction of this religious complex in 1857 as part of his plan for a new royal capital in Mandalay. The project represented an ambitious effort to preserve Buddhist teachings on stone for eternity.
The marble tablets here preserve the complete Buddhist Tipitaka written in Burmese script. You can see how these stone records have kept the teachings of Buddha documented for future generations.
This site can be visited throughout the day and sits near other important locations like Mandalay Palace. It helps to visit early in the morning when temperatures are cooler and the site feels less crowded.
Each of the hundreds of marble tablets stands taller than 5 feet and bears Buddhist texts on both sides, originally written with golden ink. These massive stone tablets make this one of the world's largest open-air religious text repositories.
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