Kuthodaw Paya, Mandalay

Kuthodaw Paya, often called Kuthodaw Pagoda in a number of guide books, is a huge walled temple complex at the base of the southeast stairway to Mandalay Hill, in Mandalay, Myanmar. Kuthodaw Paya was built by King Mindon at about the same time as the Mandalay Royal Palace.

The pitaka pagodas that make up Kuthodaw Paya's "world's biggest book."

The central stupa of Kuthodaw Paya is called Maha Lawka Marazein Paya, and that name is often used to refer to Kuthodaw Paya itself. The Maha Lawka Marazein Paya was built in 1857, and was modelled after the Shwezigon Pagoda of Nyaung U, in Bagan. According the an on-site stela, the Maha Lawka Marazein Paya is 187ft high, including the platform on which it stands, while guidebooks usually list its nett height as 30 m (100 ft) high.

The Kuthodaw Paya is often called the World's Largest Book. That's because it is home to the 729 pitaka shrines, or dama ceti, which house marble slabs with Buddhist text. The Maha Lawka Marazein Paya is set in the middle of a thirteen acre field that contain the 729 pitaka shrines. These shrines were built in 1872 during the Fifth Buddhist Synod. Each contains one marble slab inscribed on both sides with the Pali script text of a portion the Tipitaka (Pali spelling, or Tripitaka, in Sanskrit), Theravada Buddhism's sacred texts. Taken together, the pitaka shrines contain the entire text of the Tipitaka and thus form "the world’s largest book."

The stone slabs were carved from white Sagyin Hill marble found just a few miles north of Mandalay. The project began in October 1860 and was carried out in a special hall within King Mindon's Royal Palace. Each slab measures 5 ft (1.5 m) tall by 3.5 ft (1.1 m) wide and 5-6 inches (12.7 – 15 cm) thick. The project was completed in May 1869. If spread out horizontally, the slabs would cover a third of an acre (.1 ha). Vertically stacked, these "pages" would rise 340 ft (103m) high!

There is a US$5 entrance fees for foreign travellers not within a tour package to visit the Kuthodaw Paya.

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