KU THO DAW
A BRIEF HISTORY
When people talk about Mandalay, the last kingdom of Burma, King Mindon is an unforgettable icon. King Mindon is the founder of Mandalay Capital. This religious king donated a pagoda called Ku Tho Daw which people around the world respected as The Biggest Book on this planet.
In literal Myanmar, Ku Tho Daw Gyi means the Great Royal Bounty. Ku Tho Daw pagoda is situated at the foot of south-eastern side of Mandalay Hill. At the center of the compound is the 100 foot high Maha Lawka Marazein pagoda.
There are 729 smaller shrines called Pitaka pagodas surrounding the central pagoda. Each pagoda houses one standing marble stone slabs, inscribed on both sides with Tripitaka Buddhist sacred literature in Pali (Sanskrit). The inscriptions describes three treatises of Sutta, five treaties of Vinaya and seven treatises of Abhidhamma, with the aim of flourishing Theravada Buddhism. King Mindon donated the stone slabs inscriptions with the aims of establishing a long lasting Buddhism reference and flourishing Theravada Buddhism over the whole world.
A complete version of the Tipitaka was edited by a team of 2,400 monks during the Fifth Buddhist Synod in 1872. Buddhist scholars then inscribed the whole text onto the tablets. It took over 8 yrs to complete inscribing.
Each slab measures about 5 ft (1.5 m) tall by 3.5 ft (1.1 m) wide and 5-6 inches (12.7 – 15 cm) thick. Archeologists refer Ku Tho Daw as the biggest book in world. This reflects the archaeological heritage with sentimental value.
Remark: Long Live Mandalay… This post is the third dedication post to the 150th Birthday Anniversary of Mandalay.
The grand entrance of famous Ku Tho Daw Pagoda…
Bronze statue of King Mindon, donor of the biggest book in the world, is ready to put up on the throne in the juncture of 150th Anniversary of Mandalay foundation…
At the heart of the Ku Tho Daw compound is the 100 foot high Maha Lawka Marazein pagoda…
One of my favorite shots from my recent Mandalay Trip… Pitaka pagodas inside Ko Tho Daw compound…
There are 729 shrines called Pitaka pagodas surrounds the central pagoda. Each Pitaka Pagoda house the Tripitaka Buddhist sacred literature in Pali (Sanskrit)…
Each slab measures about 5 ft (1.5 m) tall by 3.5 ft (1.1 m) wide and 5-6 inches (12.7–5cm) thick…
When you see from away, you see these pagoda arising uniformly. My tele shot from Atumashi Kyaung Taw Gyi…
မင္းတုန္းမင္း ရုပ္တုကို ကုသိုလ္ေတာ္ ေရွ႕မွာ ထားတယ္ေပါ႔… မုိက္တယ္ကြာ။ အကို… # 4 & 7 ကိုႀကိဳက္တယ္…