WATCH: Botataung Pagoda Yangon, Myanmar (Burma)
By taxi, we arrived at “Buddha’s First Sacred Relic Pagoda, Botataung, Yangon”
This site was the original home of Buddah’s first sacred hair relic. The Buddha gave eight strands of his sacred hair to two brothers Tapussa and Bhalika who brought them to Okkla later called Dagon and now Yangon. (from site brochure)
On November 8, 1943, the RAF bombed Yangon’s wharves and the pagoda was badly damaged. From 1948-1953, a new pagoda was built with the original design with an internal cavity, which we visited. There were major renovations completed in 1990. According to the brochure, “Botataung Pagoda is the First Pagoda to be build in the world with the very first sacred hair relic of (Siddhartha Gotama) Buddha.
The pagoda is gilded with gold which is common in Myanmar. I liked walking inside the temple. Foreigners pay $3usd or 3000 kyat which is a bad exchange. For this reason, it was suggested to us to bring American dollars in small denominations to pay entrance fees. Most sites will give change so having ten or twenty dollar bills is fine you do not need so many ones.
We also saw the Nan Oo Royal Palace Bronze Image of Buddha which was taken by the British in 1886 with 300 other Buddha images while the British had annexed Burma. In 1948, the Myanmar government asked the British to return all the Royal possessions that had been taken from the Mandalay Palace after the Third Anglo Myanmar War. The image was returned on June 17, 1951 by the Staffordshire. The image is currently in a glass paneled shrine where it was installed on May 16, 1981. (from the site brochure and Yoma Press). September 29, 2012.
This movie is from our 28 days in Myanmar (Burma) from September 28, 2012 to October 26, 2012 and our year TRIP in South East Asia, see all the videos from our trip.
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