Shwedagon (history)
Description: Shwedagon (history)
The tradition concerning the founding of the Shwedagon, as contained in the Hmannan Mahayazawmdawgyi (The Great Glass Palace Chronicle) which was compiled in the early 1830's by a Royal Commission composed of learned monks brahmins and lay scholars, goes thus:
Tapussa and Bhallika, two merchant brothers of Asitanjana which was in the Mon country, went on a trading journey by ship and by 500 carts. They arrived at the place where the Lord Buddha sat in the bliss of eman- cipation under a linlun (Buchanania latifolia) tree. It was the 49th day after his Enlightenment and the two brothers offered him honey cakes. After the Lord Buddha had eaten the cakes, the two brothers asked for a gift from him. The Lord Buddha passed his hand over his head and, obtaining eight hairs, gave them to the brothers. The sacred hairs were eight fingerbreadths long in the Majjhimadesa (Indian) measure.
The two brothers then returned as they had come, by carts and by ship, carrying the sacred hairs with them in a ruby casket. On the way, they met with the King of Ajjhatta, who requested and received from them two of the sacred hairs.
As they travelled by ship and reached Cape Negrais at the southwestern extremity of Myanmar, a Naga (Serpent) King named Jayasena obtained two more sacred hairs from them and carried them to the naga country of Bhumintara.
The two brothers then placed the ruby casket containing the remaining four sacred hairs in a pile of pearls shaped like a pagoda and informed the King of Ukkalapa of the matter. The King came with the four arms of war-elephants, horses, chariots and foot soldiers-and, making a vow, paid reverence by making a clockwise circuit of the pagoda of pearls. Through his vow, the sacred hairs were restored to their original number of eight.
The King and the two brothers then brought the sacred hairs back to Asitanjana. At Asitanjana, Sakka, King of the Devas, the King of Ukkalapa and the two brothers decided to enshrine the eight sacred hairs on Singuttara Hill to the east of Asitanjana where also were enshrined the relics of the three Buddhas previous to Gotama-the water filter of Kakusandha, the robe of Konagamana and the staff of Kassapa.
The enshrinement took place on the Full Moon Day of Tabaung a Wednesday Sakka, the King of Ukklapa and the two brothers made a relic chamber 44 cubits square and 44 cubits deep. The relic chamber was filled knee-deep with jewels of all kinds; on these was placed a jewelled ship, and on the jewelled ship, the relics of the four Buddhas The relics of Kakusandha, Konagamana and Kassapa were each placed in a tiered receptacle made of rubies, then in a tiered receptacle made of jewels. The eight sacred hairs of Gotama were washed in water and placed in a ruby casket before being placed in tiered receptacles like those of the others.
A stone slab all covered with gold was placed over the relic chamber and on it was erected a golden pagoda 44 cubits high. The golden pagoda was encased in a silver pagoda, then in a pagoda of gold and copper alloy, then in a bronze pagoda, then in an iron pagoda, then in a marble pagoda, and finally in a brick pagoda.
Thus goes the tradition of the founding of the Shwedagon. The story of Tapussa and Bhallika occurs in a number of Buddhist texts, such as the Mahavagga section of the Vinaya Pitaka and the Anguttara Nikaya but the identification of Asitanjana-the city where the sacred hairs were brought and enshrined-with Dagon (Yangon) was made later in King Dhammazedi's inscription of 1485. There are many variations to the tradition of Tapussa and Bhallika and the founding of the Shwedagon which is given artistic expression in the screen carving of the Hall of the Hairwashing (18).
Little is known about the Shwedagon following its foundation. The Shwedagon Inscription which King Dhammazedi (1472-1492) inscribed in 1485 relates the story of Tapussa and Bhallika, then continues:
With a break in the tradition of those knowing that the sacred hairs of the Lord Buddha were enshrined in the Shwedagon, men no longer worshipped there and the pagoda became overgrown with trees and shrubs. Two hundred and thirty-six years after the Parinibbana (Final Release) of the Lord Buddha (308 BC), the monks Sona and Uttara arrived in Suvannabhumi Thaton to propagate the Religion. When the Religion was established and an Order of Monks set up. King Srimasoka requested the two Elders thus: "0 Venerable Monks, we have received the Dhamma (Law) and the Sangha (Order). Can you not provide us with the Buddha to worship?" The two Elders then showed the King the Shwedagon in which the sacred hairs of the Lord Buddha were enshrined. King Srimasoka cleared the overgrowth and built a pagoda and an enclosing pavilion with a tiered pyramidal roof. From that time onwards the people of the Mon country went to worship there.
When Banya-u (1353-1385) came to the throne of Hanthawaddy (Bago) he removed the enclosing pavilion and enlarged the pagoda, raising it to a height of 40 cubits.
The Shwedagon Inscription goes on to detail how subsequent Mon longs reconstructed and enlarged the pagoda. Perhaps the greatest work of reconstruction was the one carried out by Shinsawbu (1453-1472). Granddaughter of Banya-u, founder of the new dynasty of Hanthawaddy, and daughter of Rajadhiraj (1385-1423), hero of the Mon epic Akram kamrao lewi Rajadhiraj (The Struggle of Rajadhiraj), Shinsawbu came to the throne of Hanthawaddy in 1453 at the age of 59. Until her death nineteen years later she devoted herself to religious works, assisted by her son-in-law and Heir Apparent, Dhammazedi. The Shewedagon Inscription describes how she and Dhammazedi came from Hanthawaddy with a great host to the pagoda, levelled the hillocks there, filled up the ravines, made a retaining embankment of laterite and bricks, built an enclosure wall and planted coconut trees within the enclosure.
Shinsawbu also enlarged the pagoda and gave it its first gilding, giving a donation other weight in gold for the purpose. For the maintanance of the pagoda she donated a piece of land 225,000 acres (9,000 hectares) in extent.
Towards the end other life, Shinsawbu came to the Shwedagon and established her residence nearby. She drew her last breath with her eyes fixed on the Shwedagon, her mind made calm and happy.
Dhammazedi, who succeeded Shinsawbu, was also a great patron of Buddhism and continued the good works at the Shwedagon. Among other things he contributed gold the weight of himself and his queen for the gilding of the pagoda and cast a huge bell for it,8 cubits wide at the mouth and 12 cubits high.
Situated at the northeastern end of the Indian ocean, the kingdom of Hanthawaddy became a busy emporium of trade , particularly attracting merchants by the repute of its rubies. These merchants were to provide the West with its first glimpses of the Shwedagon in the late 16th century. Gasparo Balbi, a gem merchant of Venice who visited the Shwedagon in 1583, provides this account.
When we came to the Pagoda, we found a pair of stairs of ninety steps, as long in my judgement as the canal of the Rialto. At the foot of the first stairs are two tigers, one at the right and the other at the left; these are of stone. The stairs are divided into three-the first is forty steps, the second thirty, and the third twenty-and at the top of each of them is a plain spacious place.
On the last step are angels of stone, each with three crowns,one upon the other. They have the right hand lifted up, ready to give the benediction, with the two fingers stretched out. The other hand of one is laid upon the head of a child, and of the other upon the head of an ape. These statues are all of stone.
At the right hand is a Pagoda, gilded, in a round form made of stone, and as much in compass as the street before the Doge's Palace, if it was round, and the height may equal the campanile of St Mark's, not to the top of it, but the little pinnacles.
At the left hand is a fair Hall, carved and gilded within and without. And this is the place of devotion whither the people go to hear the monks preach.
The street is greater than St Mark's, at least larger.
This is a place of great devotion among them, and yearly multitudes of people come by sea and by land. And when they celebrate a solemn Feast, the King in person goes before them all, and with him the Queen, the Prince and his other sons, with a great train of nobles and others who go to get a pardon. And on this day there is a great Mart where there are all sorts of merchandise which are current in those countries which they frequent in great multitudes and which come hither not so much for devotion as trade, and we may freely go thither if we will.
At the foot of the first stairs at Dagon I found in a fair hall a very large Bell, which we measured and found to be seven paces and three handbreadths. It is full of letters from the top to the bottom and so near together that one touches the other.
With the merchants there also came adventurers and soldiers of fortune. One of them, Filipe de Brito e Nicote -nephew of Jean Nicot, French ambassador to the Portuguese Court-who served the King of Mrauk-u on the western coast of Myanmar as the captain of his Portuguese mercenaries, established himself at Thanlyin (Syriam) across the river from Yangon, in 1600. De Brito's dominion at Thanlyin lasted only until 1613, but during his brief rule he strove to strengthen his position, contracting a marriage with a niece of the Viceroy of Portuguese India. He also came to the Shwedagon and carried away Dhammazedi's Bell to be melted down and cast into a cannon. However, his attempt did not succeed-the bell was lost in the river between Yangon and Thanlyin and it still lies there today.
De Brito's rule at Thanlyin was ended by Anaukpetlun (1605-1628), King of lnwa. Soon after his conquest of Thanlyin in 1613, Anaukpetlun donated a bell to the Shwedagon and followed this six years later with the donation of a new "umbrella." Anaukpetlun's acts of merit ushered in a new phase in the royal patronage of the Shwedagon. Previously, it was the kings of Hanthawaddy who had been the royal patrons. Now, the kings of the more distant north extended their patronage with as much devotion and religious fervour as the kings of Hanthawaddy.
As did the kings of Hanthawaddy, the kings of Inwa and their successors-the kings of the Konbaung dynasty-renovated and embellished the Shwedagon, a further opportunity for such works of renovation being provided by the periodical earthquakes which affected the Shwedagon. The earthquakes-seven of which were recorded in the 17th century-were due to the Sagaing-Namyin fault which runs north and south about 30 miles (48 kilometres) to the east of Yangon, and just a year after he had contributed an "umbrella" to the Shwedagon, a severe earthquake in November 1620 compelled Anaukpetlun to reconstruct the Shwedagon and to donate another "umbrella."
An earthquake in June 1768 resulted in the last major work of reconstruction of the Shwedagon. The earthquake toppled the spire of the pagoda, and Hsinbyushin (1763-1776), son of Alaungpaya and third king of the Konbaung dynasty, undertook the work of reconstruction. Better known for his military exploits and his conquest of Ayutthaya in 1767, Hsinbyushin, by his reconstruction, gave the Shwedagon its present height and appearance. He also donated his weight in gold-170 lbs (77 kilos)-for the gilding of the pagoda and donated a new "umbrella" which was installed on 15 March 1775. Hsinbyushin also intended to donate a bell to the Shwedagon but died before he could accomplish his aim. His son and successor, Singu (1776-1781), completed his father's work of merit and donated the bell, 25 tons (25.4 metric tons) in weight, on 17 January 1779.
Fifty years after Hsinbyushin's work of reconstruction, Yangon became a battleground. Following a series of border clashes, hostilities broke out between the Myanmar and the British. A British expeditionary force took possession of Yangon on 11 May 1824 and its commander. Sir Archibald Campbell, established his headquarters at the Shwedagon because it offered a position commanding the country side. To turn the tide of war, the great Myanmar general Mahabandula was recalled from the Chittagong front, where he was conducting a successful campaign, to take command of the Yangon front. Arriving in late November 1824, he established a ring around Yangon. Then, in early December, he launched his assault. The attack on the Shwedagon was led by Mahaminhlayaza, Mahabandula's lieutenant in the Chittagong campaign, and was made from the north where the wooded terrain provided good cover. The battle was a furious one, but unable to prevail against the strong British defensive position, Mahabandula decided to retire to Danubyu, 60 miles (96 kilometres) northwest of Yangon. While the British troops were in occupation of the Shwedagon, they stripped the outlying pagodas of their treasure. They also claimed Singu's Bell as a prize of war. But while attempting to carry the bell on board a ship, it slid nd sank into the river. The British failed to recover the bell, but the Myanmar later did so by the device of securing the bell to a brig with cables at low tide and then letting the incoming tide float the bell free. With the end of the war and the conclusion of a peace treaty in February 1826, the British troops evacuated the Shwedagon.
There was a bustle and stir of another sort 15 years later when Tharyarwady (1838-1846), who, as a prince, had commanded a force in reserve near Yangon during the war, came on a royal visit to Yangon. Arriving in October 1841, he set about improving the defences of Yangon. He moved the town inland, away from the river over which the British had easily established control during the war, and set up an earthen wall around the new town 16 feet (4.9 metres) high. The Shwedagon was worked into the defences of he town, being fortified and made into its citadel in the northeast.
During his five months' stay in Yangon Tharyarwady also embellished the Shwedagon. Ma Mya Glay, his Queen of the Western Palace-noted for her beauty as well as for her literary accomplishments-built a covering roof over the western stairway. Tharyarwady himself had 115 Ibs (52 ilograms) of gold beaten into fine gold leaf for the gilding of the pagoda. Furthermore, he donated a bell to the Shwedagon 42 tons (42.35 metric tons) in weight
Ten years after Tharyarwady's visit to Yangon, war broke out again between the Myanmar and the British. A few days after landing near Yangon, the British decided to attack, not the town but the Shwedagon. A storming party made an assault from the eastern side on 14 April 1852, and although Colonel Coote of the 18th Royal Irish Regiment who commanded the party was wounded, the British gained the pagoda. With the capture of the pagoda, the Myanmar forces evacuated the town.
As in the first war, the British troops in the second pillaged the Shwedagon of its treasures. A Major Fraser of the Royal Engineers went so far as to drive a tunnel deep into the pagoda, his reason for the action was that he was ascertaining whether the pagoda could be used as a powder magazine. Finally, Lord Dalhousie, Governor General of India, issued an order decrying the "open and almost universal desecration " of the pagodas and prescribing a punishment with prompt severity for such offences. At the end of the war, Yangon-and with it, the Shwedagon-was lost to the British. Even with the restoration of peace, the British continued their ilitary occupation of the Shwedagon, including it within the cantonment area. With this military occupation the Shwedagon came to wear even more of a fort-like appearance. In Novermber 1853 there was a Myanmar attempt to seize Yangon, the plan being first to gain control of the Shwedagon platform, then to launch a general uprising in the town. With foreknowledge, the British suppressed the attempt before it could be carried out. Moreover, to prevent such attempts in the future and to provide a safe haven in the event of a general disturbance in Yangon, the British turned the Shwedagon into a stronghold. The pagoda and the arsenal which had been established nearby were surrounded by a ditch and an escarp wall while the arsenal was completely entrenched; a guardhouse was built in the southwestern comer of the platform and a permanent guard posted; a wall with embrasures was built on the southern slope and its approach guarded by a wooden drawbridge.
The loss of Yangon to the British did not lessen the reverence and adoration which the Myanmar kings had for the Shwedagon. The ironwork of the "umbrella" donated by Hsinbyushin in 1775 having become rusted, Mindon (1852-1878) decided in December 1869 to donate a new "umbrella" to the Shwedagon. But the matter was not to be an easy one. Did the installation of the "umbrella," a symbol of sovereignty, on the Shwedagon imply a claim of sovereignty over those parts of Myanmar which were now under British rule. Mindon was the most unwarlike of kings and maintained cordial relations with them, but the British could not be sure of the full consequences of his benefaction. It took a year for the British to decide, but finally the "umbrella" was brought down from Mandalay and installed on the pagoda on 26 November 1871; not by the royal officials who had brought the "umbrella" but by a committee of five Myanmar citizens of Yangon. The making of the "umbrella" was undertaken by the Minister of Iron Manufactories U Nyunt, who had been educated in Calcutta and Paris as one of the first of the royal scholars sent abroad to acquire a knowledge of Western technology, and the total value of the "umbrella" amounted to 622,917 rupees, of which 289, 253 represented Mindon's contribution, 171, 574 rupees those of the citizens of Yangon, and the rest, 162, 090 rupees, the value of those parts re-used from the old "umbrella."
The third Anglo-Myanmar war in 1885 and the deposition of Thibaw (1878-1885), the last of the Konbaung kings, brought an end to royal patronage of the Shwedagon. The pagoda now became entirely the shrine of the people of Myanmar, maintained and renovated by their pious devotion and contributions.
Following their acquisition of the southern portion of Myanmar in the war of 1852, the British tried to turn their acquisition to economic profit and the Ayeyarwady delta developed into a rice-growing, rice-exporting region, particularly after the opening of the Suez canal in 1869. Yangon was the main port of the developing export trade and its population increased 2 ½ times between 1872 and 1901, from 98, 138 to 248, 060. The Myanmar who rode the economic boom and who flaunted their newfound economic status-Trader, Broker, Land Owner, Rice Miller-as if they were titles of nobility were responsible for much of the new construction work at the Shwedagon in the late 19th and early 20th century. Not untypical was the Western Devotional Hall built in 1900 at a cost of 120,000 rupees (about £ 10,000) by U Aung Gyi, Head Broker of Steel Bros., the British firm founded in 1870 which dominated the rice and timber trade. Among other things, the Hall was noted for its fine screen carvings executed by Saya Khin of Mandalay.
The Shwedagon was restored to Myanmar hands in September 1929, nearly 80 years after its occupation by the British in 1852, and a formal ceremony was held on 2 March 1930 to celebrate the re-opening of the Western Stairway for public use. A year later, on 6 March 1931, one of the temporary structures which had been erected for the re-opening ceremony and which had remained undismantled caught fire. The fire spread up the Western Stairway, and, as the Shwedagon was being re-gilded and covered with matting, found fresh fuel on the platform. Altogether 23 structures were destroyed by the fire, 13 on the platform. Some of the most beautiful buildings which had been erected at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th-among them, U Aung Gyi's Western Devotional Hall-were lost in the fire. The fire had come at a time when Myanmar was in the throes of the Great Depression and rebuilding was slow. Eventually the structures which had been destroyed by the fire were rebuilt but few of them could compare in elegance and beauty to those lost in the fire.
The next great period of building activity at the Shwedagon began in the late 1980's and continued on into the 1990's. With the State Law and Order Restoration Council actively promoting Buddhism and giving encouragement to the arts, there was a flurry of building activity resulting in such works as the laying out of the Singuttara Garden at a cost of K 8.5 million, the building of the Museum, Library and Archives at a cost of K 37.5 million and the Museum of the Buddha at a cost of K18 million, and the renovation of the stairways.