Wonders of the World: The Kyaikitiyo Pagoda

The Kyaikitiyo Pagoda is steeped in Buddhist mythology, but beyond its ties to a long religious history, it’s a peculiar geological landmark that attracts thousands of devotees and tourist...

10.31.12 | By: Maryam

The Kyaikitiyo Pagoda is steeped in Buddhist mythology, but beyond its ties to a long religious history, it’s a peculiar geological landmark that attracts thousands of devotees and tourists every year.

Located at the top of Mount Kyaikitiyo in Mon State, Burma, the shrine is built atop a gravity-defying granite boulder, perpetually perched as if on the verge of rolling down the hill below.

As the legend goes, a king built the Kyaikitiyo Pagoda – also known as the Golden Rock, as worshipers have painted it with gold leaf – in honor of a hermit who gifted him a strand of the Buddha’s hair. The king pulled the boulder, shaped like the hermit’s head, out of the ocean to commemorate the hermit and enshrine the strand of the Buddha’s hair. Buddhist tradition claims that this single strand keeps the boulder so precariously balanced. The legend also avers that pilgrims who undertake the pilgrimage three times consecutively within a year will be blessed with wealth and recognition.