This is the Kuthodaw Pagoda & Sandumani Pagoda in Mandalay. The place deserves an introduction.

Mandalay was founded by King Mindon in 1857. He wanted to leave something for posterity that would last thousands of years to honour Buddha, and commissioned the Tipitaka (ancient collections of Buddhist scriptures) of Theravada Buddhism to be inscribed on stone.

Monks and skilled craftsmen took eight years (1860-1868) to complete the task of chiselling the Tipitaka onto 729 two-sided stone slabs.

Each of the stone slabs, made of marble, was housed in a masonry shrine called a ‘pitaka’ pagoda, at Kuthodaw Pagoda in Mandalay. This record of the 'Tipitaka" on stone at Kuthodaw Pagoda is sometimes called ‘The World's Largest Book'.

This view was taken from the Kuthodaw Pagoda looking towards the nearby Sandamuni Pagoda or Paya, with its rows of slender, white-washed 'pitaka' pagodas reflected on the water of an adjacent pond. Sandamuni Paya was built later than Kuthodaw Pagoda, and somehow gets much less attention despite containing twice as many marble slabs as Kuthodaw. Some people call it Volume II of the World’s Largest Book …