Shwethalyaung Buddha

This Myanmar reclining Buddha is so big that from looking up from the bottom steps it’s impossible to determine exactly what’s ahead of you. The golden slap you see is only the torso. Measuring 55 m long and 16 m high and Myanmar Shwethalyaung Pagoda is 9 m longer than the reclining Buddha at Wat Pho in Bangkok, but still 19 m short of the Myanmar Buddha in Dawei. You’ll find the Shwethalyaung to the west of the Yangon Bago road, only a little more than 1 km to the Yangon side of Myanmar train station. A sign on the platform in front of the image gives the measurements of each body part the little finger alone extends 3.05m. The Shwethalyaung is reputed to be one of the most lifelike of all Myanmar reclining Buddhas. Myanmar Burmese people say the images represents Myanmar Buddha in a relaxing mode instead of parinibbana (death) since the eyes are wide open and the feet lie slightly splayed rather than parallel. Myanmar Bago Shwethalyaung Buddha is originally built of brick and stucco in 994 by the Mon King Migadepa II, Myanmar Bago pagoda Shwethalyaung was allowed to deteriorate and was then restored several times before the bestruction of Myanmar Bago in 1757. Bago town was so completely ravaged that huge Myanmar Buddha was totally lost and overgrown by jungle. Myanmar Bago Shwethalyaung Buddha was not found until the British era of the 1880s when an Indian contractor, digging in a large earth mound for fill to be used in the construction of Myanmar railway line rediscovered the image. Restoration began in 1881 and the present iron and steel tazaung, a product of a Calcutta engineering company, was completed in 1903. The 1903s saw another flurry of renovation activity, as a mosaic was added to the great pillow on which the Buddha’s head rests, and Italian marble was laid along the platform at Bago Myanmar.

Shwethalyaung Buddha – Bago, Myanmar