The sacred geography of the Indic world — every site mapped, dated, storied, and cited.
Bago, Bago Region · 17.3369°, 96.4970°
The great stupa of Bago, capital of Hanthawaddy, enshrining hair relics of the Buddha with a tooth relic added in 982/83. Donald Stadtner notes that its founding tradition surfaces only in the late 18th century, while documentation begins in the late 14th: Razadarit ringed it with 160 small stupas in 1390 and Bayinnaung gave it a jewelled hti in 1556; Bodawpaya raised it to 90 m in 1796, earthquakes in 1912, 1917 and 1930 wrecked it, and repairs were completed in 1954.
What follows is the temple’s own traditional account, transmitted through liturgy and local memory. It is recorded here as tradition, not as attested history.
Tradition holds that the merchant brothers Kullasala and Mahasala received two strands of hair from the Buddha himself and raised the first stupa over them.
coordinates: wikipedia-2026-08-28 · sources retrieved 2026-08-26 · dynasty page: Modern rebuild, Hanthawaddy and Konbaung antecedents
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