Two women with a parasol were standing in front of the large Shwemawdaw Pagoda

Women standing under same umbrella in front of Shwemawdaw Pagoda — Women standing in front of Shwemawdaw Pagoda

A huge pagoda looms in the center of the temple grounds. The name "pagoda" is an English translation of the word Sanskrit “stupa." In Myanmar, it is called paya. The Sanskrit sound was written as “卒塔婆(sotoba)" in Chinese characters in Japan. When I hear the word “sotoba," I think of a wooden stupa in Japan, which makes me feel bewildered, but originally it was a building for enshrining Buddhist stupas. In Buddhist temples in Theravada Buddhist countries such as Myanmar, the center of the temple grounds is not a hall where Buddha statues are enshrined as in Japan, but a pagoda.

The Shwemawdaw Pagoda also has a large 114-meter-high pagoda in the center of the temple. The photo shows the lower part of the pagoda. It is the tallest pagoda in Myanmar. I do not know where the chedi is enshrined in this large structure, but this is not a matter of concern to worshippers. Visitors go around the pagoda in a clockwise direction in order to accumulate virtues. The woman in the photo was also circling the pagoda. She stopped to take something out of her bag, so I guessed she was trying to make an offering at the altar.

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