Kyaik Hti Yo Pagoda (Golden Rock)
Kyaikhtiyo Pagoda which is now one of the wonder and most interesting pagoda in our country. It is my great pleasure to explain about the pagoda because of it’s interesting historical background and the way of visiting to it is different with other places. It is 160 Kilometers from east of Yangon. It is located on the range of Paunglaung in part of Eastern Yoma. Kyaikhto Township in Mon State. Now I am going to explain about the historical background of the pagoda, how it is called, why and when it was built. The name of the Kyaikhtiyo is the Mon Word “Kyaik-isi-roe” in origins. It is means “ The pagoda carried on the head of a hermit”. According to the legend of the pagoda, during the Lord Buddha visit to Thaton, the three hermit, Teiktha Thiha and Kaylatha living on these hills requested to lord Buddha to give them strand of his hairs. So lord Buddha give two strand of his hairs to each hermit. The eldest hermit Teiktha living on Kyaihtiyo Hill wished to keep the seared hair on his body. So he kept the two relic hair on his head among his hair.
The youngest hermit, Thiha built two pagodas ensuring each share of relic. One is on Zinkyaik Hill and another is on Zwekabin Hill in PharAn. The Third hermit Kaylartha built only one pagoda enshrining one of his share relics. He kept the remaining stand on his body. When he died, Teiktha received one relic hair from Kaylatha. Tleiktha had now three strands of Buddha’s hair, tow of his own share and one from Kaylatha. He decided to keep these hair on his head until his death. However, he grew old, he become worried about the relic hair and thought of keeping them in safety before he died. When the Kakka, king of Deva knew about this, he found a boulder in the shape of the hermits head from the sea. He drilled a hole on the boulder and enshrined three stands of scared hair. And then a small pagoda was built on it.
You can visit by car or by train. If you visit by car you will pass through Bago city and other Mon small town. The car takes you at the foot of pagoda, Kimpon camp. If you go by train you must get off at the Kyaikhto station. Then you proceed to Kimpon camp by bus. From the Kimpon camp you have to climb up the mountain for 7 and half miles to the pagoda. If you come with tourists you have to request the tourists for payer entrance fees 6000 Kyats for each one. From the Kimpon camp to the pagoda there are 27 rest camp along the pagoda street. When you viist on foot, it takes about 7 hours. You can take a rest at the camps on the way. Among the camps Yemyaungyi is the big camp where you can take a bath and meal. You can see full of pilgrims going up and coming down along the way. As soon as you approach the pagoda you can see the golden rock. The golden rock is very shiny in open space.
The pagoda platform is very wide and crowed with pilgrims from different parts of the country. There are many restaurants and souvenir shops around the pagoda platform. From the pagoda platform you can see very beautiful scenes such as the ranges of the mountains the valley of the Sittaung river and the green forest. Tourists like to see the sunset very much. Other interesting places you can see Kyeepasuk cave, Naga phaya, Pha phaya, Mokso-taung, Rathetaung, Soon taung. Today you can climb up to the top of the hermit hill by care. It is about 45 minutes drive from Kimpon camp to the top of the hermit hill. From this hill you have a take a walk about seven furlongs.
