The Shwedagon Pagoda has dominated the physcial landscape as well as history, culture and life of the people of Yangon for centuries. The massive, bell-shaped stupa sits on a terrace 275m by 215m in size, on top of Singuttara Hill to the north of the city centre, and can be accessed by four covered stairways from the directions of each of the four cardinal points. The stupa is plated with gold and surrounded by more than 100 buildigs on the terrace - smaller stupas, pavilions, temples, etc.

W Somerset Maugham wrote on the Shwedagon in 1930 - "The Shwe Dagon rose superb, glistening with its gold, like a sudden hope in the dark soul of the night of which the mystics write, glistening against the fog and smoke of the thriving city."

No gallery on Yangon can be complete without including some photos of the Shwedagon Pagoda. The picture of the pagoda towering above the rooftops of Yangon seen from afar has probably been photographed ad nauseam by all visitors to the city. Yet, it is not an easy subject to photograph on the terrace, that can effectively depict its legend and hold over the life of the city and its people...