Schwedagon Pagoda History - Yangon, Myanmar

Delora & Don Hutton escaped to Myanmar, Thailand and Cambodia. See our adventures here: http://sites.google.com/site/southeastasiaadventures. Legend has it that the Shwedagon Pagoda is 2,500 years old, but archaeologists estimate it was first built by the Mon sometime between the 6th and 10th centuries. The stupa is made of bricks covered with gold plates. Next is the bell-shaped part of the stupa. Above that is the turban, then the inverted alms bowl, inverted and upright lotus petals, the banana bud and then the umbrella crown. The crown is tipped with 5,448 diamonds and 2,317 rubies. Immediately before the diamond bud is a flag-shaped vane. The very top—the diamond bud—is tipped with a 76 carat (15 g) diamond.