The man and two women sold offerings at the gate of Shwemawdaw Pagoda

Because Shwemawdaw Pagoda was built on the hill, the entrance to Shwemawdaw Pagoda was built on the bottom of the hill. It was impossible to see the pagoda on the other side of the gate. And there was no signboard written in English at the gate. Something was written at the head of the gate. Yet it was written in only Burmese. It might be difficult to find out the entrance was here for foreign travelers by seeing signs.

Alternatively, it could be easy to notice that this gate was something different by seeing people who hung out at the entrance. All of them had flowers in their hands. These flowers were a kind of offering. And these people were offering sellers. In Japan, people usually just make money offering when they visit any Buddhist temples or Shinto Shrines. The Burmese people seemed to make both money offering and flower offering.