It was (still) our first day in Myanmar, but at the Shwedagon Pagoda we could no longer pretend we were in any kind of a familiar place. Whatever hallucinogen permeates our air, there’s a different one here.

The Shwedagon Pagoda is the most holy Buddhist site in Myanmar. And certainly the most golden. The central stupa is covered in gold plates. We’re talking heavy things here, not the molecule-thin gold leaf that covers so many pagodas, stupas, and buddhas throughout the land. We’re talking substantial pounds, if not tons, of pure gold here. Oh yes, and plenty of gold leaf all about, too. And when there wasn’t enough of that, gold paint.

A word about Buddhist religious sites in Myanmar. They come in two varieties:

• Pagodas are buildings that you can enter, like churches. Often they have images of Buddha inside. People can enter them, and often do.
• Stupas are solid objects, generally bell-shaped, and often with an airy decoration on the top called an “umbrella.” They generally contain holy relics or else perhaps the ashes of important people. There is no way in.

The central stupa of Shwedagon Pagoda is said to contain eight hairs of the actual Buddha, and so it is a very holy site indeed, hence all the gold.

The Pagoda sits atop a marble-paved platform about 12 acres in size high on a hill overlooking the city. Its central stupa is surrounded by a large number (fifty? sixty? more?) of other stupas, pagodas, and spots for particular kinds of worship or meditation. Below are pictures of just a few.

The entrance to the pagoda from the stairway (or elevator) foreshadows the surreal environment to come.

It gets more intense as you enter the main area where the central stupa stands.

Here is a good view of the entire central stupa.

At the top of the stupa (hard to see here) is the obligatory umbrella. This one is encrusted with thousands (I think the number is five thousand) of diamonds and other gems. But you can get a sense of just how huge this gold-plated stupa is.

Among the places of worship surrounding the central stupa are eight stations related to the days of the week. (For reasons that I forget, Wednesday is divided into two.) People worship or pray or meditate at these different stations for different reasons. They may have been born on that day of the week, for example. In Myanmar, the day (of the week) of one’s birth is much more important than the date of one’s birthday, which I learned (by virtue of celebrating a birthday there) is nothing special. Or it might be a special day for any personal reason. Or it just might be the day one happens to be there.

In any event, the picture below shows the station for Tuesday. People are pouring and pouring the water from the fountain over all the images at the station. Encouraged by both guide and husband–and feeling consummately foolish–I did it too. But I didn’t feel nearly as foolish as I would have, had I been moved like the man at the bottom right of the picture to use the water for brushing the guardian lion’s teeth.

Here are a couple of close-ups of shrines immediately surrounding the central stupa.

At pagodas all around the platform like these…

…people and Buddhas intermingle freely.

It was at the Shwedagon Pagoda that I first encountered the phenomenon of the Electric Halo, the perfect finishing touch for a revered Buddha statue. I only wish these photos could show how they flash like fireworks.