Shwethalyaung Buddha of Bago – Bago, Myanmar (Burma) - Atlas Obscura

Shwethalyaung Buddha of Bago

Bago, Myanmar (Burma)

The second largest reclining Buddha in the world got "lost" for over 120 years. 

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One thinks it would be hard to lose the second largest reclining Buddha in the world. Apparently that would be wrong. 

Believed to have been built in 994, the Shwethalyaung Buddha is huge, at 180 feet long and 52 feet high. However after a 1757 pillaging of the area, the world lost track fo the Buddha, only to have a British railway engineer accidentally rediscover it, completely overgrown with jungle, in 1880.

The Buddha was given a giant mosiac pillow in 1930, and is currently kept under a rather unattractive enormous shed. 

A number of other giant Buddhas can be found throughout Bago, however the Shwethalyaung Buddha is the oldest and most revered. 

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August 15, 2011

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