Burma's Golden Rock Pagoda defies gravity

What kind of miracle hair could explain this?

The marvel of Golden Rock's survival

Entrance to the site protected by lion creatures

Kyaiktiyo Pagoda (Burmese ကျိုက်ထီးရိုးဘုရာ) also known as Golden Rock [1]) is a well-known Buddhist pilgrimage site in Mon State, Burma (Myanmar).

The rock and its pagoda sit at the top of Mt. Kyaiktiyo.

• Why is Burma called Myanmar now? The military dictators decided to restore the original name the British could not pronounce (\mee-yan-maa\), which is actually the same as Burma, but it signifies acknowledgement of the illegitimate authoritarian government that took the country by force and savagely repressed the Saffron Revolution and the once-beloved Aung San Suu Kyi, the legitimate heir to power and leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD).
• Buddhism in Burma or Myanmar (Theravada)

Covered in more gold leaf

It is a small pagoda of 24 feet (7.3 m) built on top of a giant granite boulder covered with real gold leaf pasted on by male devotees.

According to legend, the rock itself is precariously perched on a strand of the historical Buddha's hair [1]. The balancing rock is apparently defying gravity, as it perpetually appears to be on the verge of sliding off and rolling down the hill.

Another legend claims that a Theravada Buddhist monk impressed a celestial king (deva raja) with his asceticism and the celestial king used his supernatural powers to carry the rock to its current position, specifically choosing the rock for its resemblance to the monk's head.

It is the third most important Theravada Buddhist pilgrimage site in Burma after Shwedagon ("Great Golden" Pagoda (of Dagon) in Rangoon (Yangon) and Mahamuni  ("Great Sage") Pagoda [2, 3, 4, 5].

Mahamuni ("Great Sage") Buddha Temple, Burma (Myanmar)

Etymology

In the local Mon language, the word kyaik (ကျာ်) means "pagoda" and yo (ယဵု) means "to carry on the hermit's head." The word ithi (ဣသိ in Mon from the Pali ရိသိ, risi, Sanskrit rishi or "seer") means spiritual "hermit." Thus, Kyaik-htiyo means "pagoda upon a hermit's head" [6, 7].

Legend

The marvel has been going on for long time

The legend associated with the pagoda is that the historical Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama or Shakyamuni), on one of his many visits to the area in ancient times, gave a strand of his hair to Taik Tha, a hermit. The hermit, who tucked it in the tuft of his hair for safety, in turn gave the strand to the king with the wish that the hair be enshrined in a boulder shaped like the hermit's head.

The king had inherited supernatural powers from his father, Zawgyi (a proficient alchemist or more likely a weizza or "wizard"), and his mother, a naga (reptilian) dragon princess. They found the rock at the bottom of the sea, where nagas generally are said to dwell. With the help of the Thagyamin, the king of Tawadeintha (Pali Tavatimsa or the "Space World of the Thirty-Three"), a sensual heaven in Buddhist cosmology, found the perfect place at Kyaiktiyo to locate the golden rock and build a pagoda. There the strand was enshrined.

• This accords with the ancient legend found in Buddhist texts of the Buddha offering some strands of his hair to traveling businessmen from what is now Burma as a token when they requested it after he impressed them with his spiritual outlook and noble demeanor, which became the basis for the massive construction of Shwedagon Pagoda, one of the most impressive Buddhist sites in the world, said to have been built around the original stupa or "burial mound" reliquary for the hair.

Theravada monks gather at the pagoda

It is this holy (magical) strand of hair that, according to legend, prevents the rock from sliding off and tumbling down the hill.

The boat used to transport the rock turned into a stone. This is also honored by Buddhist pilgrims at a location about 980 feet (300 m) from the Golden Rock.

The place is known as the Kyaukthanban Pagoda or stupa (lit. "stone boat stupa") [2, 7, 8]. Legends also mention that Buddhists undertaking the sacred pilgrimage by trekking from the Kinpun Base Camp three times consecutively in a year are blessed with wealth and recognition [9].

Geography

Miracle Golden Rock, 2007

The pagoda is located near Kyaikto in Mon State in the northern part of the Tenasserim coast. Golden Rock is situated at an elevation of 3,609 feet (1,100 m) above sea level, on top of the Kyaiktiyo Hill (also known as Kelasa Hills or Eastern Yoma Mountains); it is on the Paung-laung ridge of the Eastern Yoma Mountains. It is 130 miles (210 km) from Rangoon (Yangon) and 460 feet (140 m) north of Mawlamyine, the capital of Mon State [10, 11]. More

• Golden Rock, Myanmar [Amazing Places 4K]; Amber Larson and Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit