Sule Pagoda

The British laid out the city grid around the Sule Pagoda rather than removing it, so a stupa held to be over two thousand years old now sits in the middle of a roundabout with traffic going round it in both directions. The tower is octagonal all the way up, which is unusual, gilded, and about forty-five metres tall. The base is ringed by small shops selling everything from fortune-telling to mobile phone repairs, and you enter through a stairway between them and come out into a raised platform of shrines.

History

Legend says the pagoda is older than the Shwedagon, more than 2,600 years old, and stands on the home of a powerful nat, Sularata, who showed King Okkalapa where earlier Buddhas had buried relics so the Shwedagon could be built (Wikipedia, Sule Pagoda).

What you'll find

• The octagonal stupa - gilded and eight-sided from base to top, unlike the round form used elsewhere.
• The shop ring - astrologers, moneychangers and phone repairers built into the pagoda's outer base.
• The platform shrines - planetary posts and Buddha images around the terrace.
• The setting - the colonial city hall, the High Court and the mosque all on the same junction.

When to go

November to February for the weather. Evenings after dark are when the gilding is lit and the platform is busiest with local worshippers. Full moon days bring crowds.

Things to know

Shoes and socks come off at the entrance and the platform is hot underfoot in the middle of the day. The foreigner entry fee is charged at the stair. It is a working pagoda in the middle of heavy traffic, so it is noisy, and it is much smaller than the Shwedagon.

Nearby

Downtown Yangon's colonial grid runs in every direction from here, and Bogyoke Market is ten minutes north.

Key facts