Kuthodaw Paya

Entry fee: covered in the through ticket of Mandalay Pass which charges US$10.

Built in 1857 by King Mindon (who reined from 1853 to 1878) and located at the foot of Mandalay Hill, Kuthodaw Paya is regarded as the greatest merit Buddhism pagoda in the world. At that time, more than 2400 eminent monks from the whole Southeast Asian countries were gathered in Mandalay and had Buddhism sutras revised for five times. The final version of Tripitaka was then carved on 729 stone tablets, soon after the Kuthodaw Paya was built to enshrine these tablets. The tablets are peerless and the only one can be found in the world. It is said that it needs about 450 days to finish the reading of these sutras if one read 8 hours a day. Furthermore, the four corridors of the paya are also magnificent beyond praises and a teak gate carved with Jataka stories and door-god can be find at every entrance of interior walls of the paya.