Kuthodaw Paya, Mandalay

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Located at the foot of Mandaly Hill, the Kuthodaw Paya (Mahalawka Marazein Kuthodaw Pagoda) complex is one of the most interesting places in the city. The Paya was built during the reign of the Mindon Kingdom. The main Pagoda was modelled after the Shwezagon Paya at Nyaung-U (near Bagan). The paya is surrounded by 729 pavillions containing marble-slabs with pages of the 15 books of the Tripadaya (the Canon of Theravada Buddhism), so every slab contains one page of the Canon. The Mindon Min king convened the 5th Buddhist synod in 1871 using 2,400 monks to read the whole book, and decided to have set in stone the Tripadaya for posterity. . The complex were looted during British annexation, and was restored around 1900.

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There are 729 marble slabs or tablets at this temple, inscribing the entire Tripitaka, which is the Buddhist canon. In 1900, the original paper version of the stone edition was reproduced in 38 volumes of about 400 pages per volume - and it took roughly 45 years for this to be completed.

This compound of small stupas was amazing - the idea that it actually represented a book was quite astonishing really.

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Each shrine contains a marble slab, inscribed on both sides with the Pali script text of a portion the Tipitaka ( Theravada Buddhism’s sacred texts). Taken together, they contain the entire text of the Tipitaka and thus form “the world’s largest book.” The work of carving began in 1860 and lasted for 9 years.
Each slab is 1.5 m by 1.1 m wide and 12.7 – 15 cm thick. If spread out horizontally, the slabs would cover a third of an acre, stacked vertically, the ‘pages’ would rise 103 m. Originally the lettering also had a gold leaf veneer.
It is mentioned that reading Tipitaka for 8 hours per day, one should need more than a year to complete the text!!!

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The Kuthodaw Pagoda is often called the world’s largest book.
It is a large walled complex situated at the base of the southeast stairway to Mandalay Hill and was built by King Mindon at the same time he was constructing the Royal Palace.
It's a colorful place to stroll in with a most celebrated Buddha image and an impossing central gilded stupa. Its central stupa is modeled on the Shwezigon at Bagan and it's connected to the outside entry by means of a long corridor, is set in the middle of a thirteen acre field of 729 pitaka pagodas or shrines.

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Tripithaka - the name of this miracle in Kutodaw paya. Buddhist Canon ( don`t confuse with cannon , please ).
729 stone " pages " on Pali language , so I didn`t read . In my childhood I even couldn`t read to the end " War and Peace " by count Tolstoy , so what about 38 volumes on paper with 400 pages in each ! Poor count Tolstoy ... and Gogol` couldn`t finish his second volume of the " Dead souls " ..
Ananda , Mahakashyapa and Mahamaudjliaana got ahead...
Justifiably , there were three of them , and Buddha helped them after all.

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Mandalay

Kuthodaw Paya

Otra vez aparece algo que es lo mas grande del mundo y esto no hace mas que demostrar lo importante que fue la cultura y la civilizacion en esta parte del mundo.
Aqui tienen el libro mas grande del mundo que esta tallado en 729 losas de marmol que se guardan en sus estupas y contienen todo el Tripitaka (Los tres cestos) que son las escrituras clasicas budistas y estan formadas por : La Disciplina Monastica, Discursos de Buda y Filosofia Budista

Again appears something that is the biggest on the world and this only comfirms how important was the culture and civilization on this part of the world
Here they have the biggest book on the world that is carved on 729 marble slabs that are kept on their stupas and they content all the Tripitaka (The three baskets) that are the classic Buddhist scriptures formed by : Monastic discipline, Discourses of the Buddha and Buddhist Philosophy