Yangon – Sule Paya

Sule Paya (or Pagoda) is the oldest Buddhist temple in Yangon. It’s so old, that when the British redrew the city map, they placed it at the middle of the modern street grid. This has had the unfortunate side affect, of making the temple a roundabout in one of the busiest parts of Yangon.


The pagoda shares a lot in common with the Shwedagon Paya. It’s round, has a big gold zedi bell in the middle and is swamped by people offering to guide you around. It’s on a much smaller scale though and probably takes 15 minutes to walk around at a leisurely pace.

Contained inside the zedi is a hair of the Buddha. This is a fairly common thing in Asian countries from what I’ve gathered. The Buddha must have been one hairy fellow – he seems to have left hair lying about all over the place!

I noticed that this temple was mainly full of local people and very few monks. This differs greatly from the Shwedagon pagoda, which is monk central. Mind you, most people in the temple seemed to be getting out of the sun rather than doing any serious religious activities. It’s also free to get into, so maybe it’s just a handy place for people to meet.


Inside the temple, there’s an air of calm. There are quite high walls, so the sound of the traffic does not intrude too badly. Bizarrely though, around the outside of the temple, at street level, are a series of shops. That’s right, shops built into the side of the temple. They are not at all religious. There’s an internet cafe, a few tailors, as well as a number of fortune tellers. It’s the commercial face of modern Buddhism.

It’s hard to miss this pagoda, as it sits in the middle of the city. It’s also a convenient place to get dropped by a taxi. I had a wander around, then set off to see the rest of downtown Yangon.