Treasures

"It has been said there is more gold on the Shwedagon Pagoda than in the vaults of the Bank of England."Insight guides, Burma.

Shwedagon Pagoda right in the heart of Yangon/Rangon (you decide). In this relatively poor nation, UNICEF quotes a $220 Gross National Income, sits this treasure filled Pagoda. To give you an idea of what I mean the topmost vane, with it's flag is gold and silver plated and studded with 1100diamonds totalling 278 carats, and lets not forget the 1383 other gem stones. At the very top of the vane is a diamond orb, a hollow golden orb studded with 4351 diamonds, weighing 1800 carats in total. And at the very top of the orb a single 76 carat diamond. stats. from Lonely Planet


Now granted the picture to the right here is not great a picture but it is the only one that you can see a bright white light from the very top. We ran into a guy there that night that pointed this out to us and he said it was the light shining of that 76 carat diamond. I think I believe him.

He also pointed out another place where a single jewel glowed and changed colors as you moved around. Red, green, yellow, blue, orange... and these are just the colors I saw. For our Burmese friends it was the first time for them to see these 2 phenomena.

On my next post I hope to share with you about the treasures we found in "Jars of Clay"