ဥပ္ပါတသန္တိ စေတီတော်
( Uppatasanti Pagoda )Uppātasanti Pagoda (ဥပ္ပါတသန္တိစေတီတော်, pronounced [ʔoʊʔpàta̰ θàɰ̃dḭ zèdìdɔ̀]; officially called ဥပ္ပါတသန္တိစေတီတော်မြတ်ကြီး, also called the "Peace Pagoda") is a prominent landmark in Naypyidaw, the capital of Myanmar. The pagoda houses a Buddha tooth relic. It is nearly a same-sized replica of Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon and stands 99 metres (325 ft) tall.
Construction of Uppatasanti Pagoda began on 12 November 2006, with the stake-driving ceremony, and completed in March 2009, built under the guidance of Than Shwe, head of Burma's ruling State Peace and Development Council.[1] The invitation card for the stake-driving ceremony opened with a phrase "Rājaṭhānī Naypyidaw" (the royal capital).[2] The pagoda is 30 centimetres (12 in) shorter than the Shwedagon Pagoda.[3] The name "Uppātasanti" roughly translates to "protection against calamity". It is the name of a sutta prepared by a monk in the early 16th century. It is to be recited in time of crisis, especially in the face of foreign invasion.[4]
On 4 March 2009, 20 people died during a ferris wheel accident at a festival marking the pagoda's consecration.[5] The consecration of the pagoda, which involves the hoisting of the htidaw (sacred umbrella, ထီးတော် [tʰí dɔ̀]) and the seinbudaw (diamond lotus bud, စိန်ဖူးတော် [sèɪɰ̃ bú dɔ̀]), took place on 10 March 2009.[6]
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