Begun under Anawrahta in 1059 or 1060 on the Chronicles of the Kings of Burma and finished in 1102 under Kyansittha; the page also gives a 'final completion date' of 1086 and Kyansittha's reign as 1084 to 1112 or 1113, so its dates disagree with themselves.
Anawrahta built the lower terraces and Kyansittha the rest. It is believed to hold a bone and a tooth of the Buddha, among them a tooth from Ceylon; the relics are not found. A stone pillar in the compound carries Mon inscriptions dedicated by Kyansittha (undated). A shrine at the outer limit holds the thirty-seven nats and a carved wooden Thagyamin (Indra) said to be about nine hundred years old: the court's way of putting the spirit cult under the Buddha's roof (English Wikipedia; board).
It is the dynasty's own shrine and the place a king goes first. No endowment is listed in anything we read.
Who holds it
- Title
- Keepers of the stupa
- Since
- not known
- Born
- not known
- Family
- not known
- Confidence
- low
English Wikipedia, Shwezigon Pagoda (citing Coedes, Gartner, Harvey and others).
What it holds
- The stupa and its precinct at Nyaung-U
- The nat shrine at its edge
How it was acquired
Begun by Anawrahta, finished by Kyansittha.
How things stand that morning
The kingdom's chief relic shrine, finished almost a century ago and well kept.
Places of note
- The Shwezigon: The relic stupa (page coordinates 21.1953, 94.8939).
Where the sources disagree
- The campaign board entry shwezigon: 'begun by Anawrahta and finished by Kyanzittha about 1102'. Agreed; the page also shows 1086.
Evidence: A standing monument with a Mon inscription; the chronology of the building is unsettled between 1059 and 1102.
"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.
Primary sources for Kingdom of Pagan
Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.
- The Glass Palace Chronicle of the Kings of Burma, The Royal Historical Commission of King Bagyidaw (Monywe Sayadaw and others), drawing on U Kala's Maha Yazawin (about 1724) and earlier chronicles (1829 to 1832). The standard Burmese court chronicle, compiled six centuries after 1200 from older chronicles now lost. Read online
- The later Tai, Lao and Mon chronicles of the north, Ratanapanna (Jinakalamali); Bodhiramsi (Chamadevivamsa); anonymous monks and court scribes (the Chamadevivamsa about 1410; the Jinakalamali 1516 to 1528; the Chiang Mai Chronicle in its surviving form 1827; the Nithan Khun Borom 16th to 17th century). There is no text of 1200 for the Mon kingdom of Haripunjaya, the Tai muang of Ngoenyang (Chiang Saen), Chiang Rung, the Yom and Nan valleys, or the Lao middle Mekong.
- History of Song, chapters 488 and 489: Jiaozhi, Dali, Champa, Zhenla, Pagan, Srivijaya, Java, Brunei, Chola and Tambralinga, Toqto'a (Tuotuo) and the Yuan history office, from the Song court records (1343 to 1345, from Song veritable records and court diaries). The Chinese court's record of its southern neighbours, compiled from Song archives. Read online
- Epigraphia Birmanica, being lithic and other inscriptions of Burma, Various, edited by Taw Sein Ko, C. Duroiselle and C. O. Blagden (inscriptions of the 11th to 15th centuries; the series ran from 1919 to 1936). The Archaeological Survey of Burma's series of edited inscriptions with full translations. Read online
- Inscriptions of Pagan, Pinya and Ava; Inscriptions of Burma, Various (the Pagan kings, queens, ministers and donors), edited by Tun Nyein, Taw Sein Ko, G. H. Luce and Pe Maung Tin (inscriptions of the 11th to 14th centuries; editions 1899 and 1933 to 1956). The dedicatory inscriptions of Pagan are the only contemporary texts for the kingdom of Narapatisithu (reigning 1174 to 1211). Read online
- A Description of the Foreign Peoples (Records of Foreign Nations), Zhao Rukuo (Zhao Rugua) (1225 at Quanzhou). The best single text for the island world around 1200, written by the superintendent of maritime trade at Quanzhou from merchants' reports a generation after the date. Read online
- Notes in Answer to Questions about the Lands beyond the Passes, Zhou Qufei (周去非) (1178, after service in Guangxi). A Guangxi official's notes, written twenty years before 1200, on the south-western frontier of the Song and the countries beyond. Read online
Sources and studies
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.