Myanmar revamps Shwedagon Pagoda
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Myanmar is renovating the famed Shwedagon Pagoda in preparation for a major event to mark the Yangon landmark’s 2,600th anniversary. The state-run New Light of Myanmar reported yesterday that renovation work on the 99-metre-high pagoda is under-way, with the anniversary event scheduled to take place in March 2012.
The project includes new tiling of prayer halls and shrines, the installation of lifts at the museum, the construction of a new staircase to the Buddha’s Life Museum, and landscaped gardening. The construction of two new gateways to the pagoda is also under-way.
The Shwedagon Pagoda was built in 588BC, reputedly making it the oldest Buddhist pagoda in the world.