Taungoo’s grandest pilgrimage spot is situated in the centre of town, around 500m west of the main road. The central stupa, a standard-issue bell shape, is gilded and dates from 1597; local legend says an earlier stupa on the site was built centuries before and contains sacred hair relics. Entering from the north, to your right is a display of Taungoo kings (and a rather busty queen), and a round building housing a reclining buddha surrounded by devas (celestial beings) and monastic disciples.
Nearby, on the western side of the stupa, there’s a 12ft bronze, Mandalay-style sitting buddha, given to the paya in 1912 by a retired civil servant who donated his body weight in bronze and silver for the casting of the image. He died three years after the casting at age 72; his ashes are interred behind the image.
On another side (go down one flight of the north stairs and turn right), there’s a scruffy garden with a shrine to Thurathati – a goddess borrowed by Buddhists from Hindus – atop a mythical hintha (the golden Swan of Burmese legend). Fine-arts students come to pray to her before exams.
