An act of merit-making by General Than Shwe and his wife, this 321ft tall golden pagoda – 1ft smaller than Yangon’s Shwedagon Paya – is impressive from afar (especially when illuminated at night), but close up betrays its hasty construction with poor finishing. Nevertheless, the vast interior is lined with some vivid carved-stone murals depicting the life and legend of Buddha and key scenes from Myanmar’s Buddhist history. Foreigners are supposed to pay a $5 entry charge, but no one asked us for it when we showed up.
At the foot of the pagoda’s east side is a covered, open-sided enclosure where two fabled white elephants (Buddawadi and Nandawadi) stand chained and munching bamboo. Along with these two females, who are more dusky pink than white, there’s also a regular pair of grey elephants for comparison. Between 10am and 4pm the elephants are unchained and disappear from public view to roam the grazing ground to the rear.
