The ''Shwezigon Pagoda Bell Inscription'' ( my, ရွှေစည်းခုံဘုရား ခေါင်းလောင်းစာ) is a multi-language inscription found on the Shwezigon Pagoda Bell, donated by King

Bayinnaung , image = File:Bayinnaung.JPG , caption = Statue of Bayinnaung in front of the National Museum of Myanmar , reign = 30 April 1550 – 10 October 1581 , coronation = 11 January 1551 at Tou ...

Toungoo Dynasty , conventional_long_name = Toungoo dynasty , common_name = Taungoo dynasty , era = , status = Empire , event_start = Independence from Ava , year_start ...

and located at the

Shwezigon Pagoda The Shwezigon Pagoda or Shwezigon Paya ( my-Mymr, ရွှေစည်းခုံဘုရား ) is a Buddhist stupa located in Nyaung-U, Myanmar. A prototype of Burmese stupas, it consists of a circular gold leaf-gilded stupa surrounded b ...

Bagan Bagan (, ; formerly Pagan) is an ancient city and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Mandalay Region of Myanmar. From the 9th to 13th centuries, the city was the capital of the Bagan Kingdom, the first kingdom that unified the regions that wo ...

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

(Myanmar). Written in Burmese,

Mon Mon, MON or Mon. may refer to: Places * Mon State, a subdivision of Myanmar * Mon, India, a town in Nagaland * Mon district, Nagaland * Mon, Raebareli, a village in Uttar Pradesh, India * Mon, Switzerland, a village in the Canton of Grisons * A ...

, and

Pali Pali () is a Middle Indo-Aryan liturgical language native to the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist ''Pāli Canon'' or '' Tipiṭaka'' as well as the sacred language of '' Theravāda'' Buddh ...

, the inscription lists the important events in the first six years of his reign. It is the only contemporary record in Burmese that calls the king "Conqueror of the Ten Directions", the title by which he is widely known in Mon and Thai. The ''Shwezigon Pagoda Bell Inscription'' is recognised as a documentary heritage of the world and listed in

Memory of the World Register Memory is the faculty of the mind by which data or information is encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. It is the retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future action. If past events could not be remembere ...

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international coope ...

Brief

The inscription contains 43 lines in Burmese, 35 lines in Mon and five lines in Pali. It gives the correct regnal titles for the king and his chief queen as Sri Parama Maha Dhamma Raja and Sri Agga Maha Dhamma Raja Devi, respectively. The main events recorded in the inscription are as follows:Thaw Kaung 2010: 106–108 # Conquest of

Toungoo Taungoo (, ''Tauñngu myoú''; ; also spelled Toungoo) is a district-level city in the Bago Region of Myanmar, 220 km from Yangon, towards the north-eastern end of the division, with mountain ranges to the east and west. The main industry ...

(Taungoo) on 11 January 1551 # Conquest of

Prome Pyay (, ; mnw, ပြန် , ; also known as Prome and Pyè) is principal town of Pyay Township in the Bago Region in Myanmar. Pyay is located on the bank of the Irrawaddy River, north-west of Yangon. It is an important trade center for the Aye ...

(Pyay) on 30 August 1551 # Conquest of

Pegu Bago (formerly spelt Pegu; , ), formerly known as Hanthawaddy, is a city and the capital of the Bago Region in Myanmar. It is located north-east of Yangon. Etymology The Burmese name Bago (ပဲခူး) is likely derived from the Mon langua ...

(Bago) on 12 March 1552 # Dedication of a Bell of Justice hung outside the Kanbawzathadi Palace # Coronation of King Bayinnaung and his chief Queen Atula Thiri on 12 January 1554 # Conquest of Ava (Inwa) on 22 January 1555 # Sending a mission to

Ceylon Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

(Sri Lanka) for the promotion of

Theravada Buddhism ''Theravāda'' () ( si, ථේරවාදය, my, ထေရဝါဒ, th, เถรวาท, km, ថេរវាទ, lo, ເຖຣະວາດ, pi, , ) is the most commonly accepted name of Buddhism's oldest existing school. The school' ...

# Preparation of campaign to conquer the cis-Salween Shan States from 9 November 1556 to 8 January 1557 # Conquest of Mong Mit (Momeik) and Hsipaw (Thibaw) on 25 January 1557 # Dedication of a

pagoda A pagoda is an Asian tiered tower with multiple eaves common to Nepal, India, China, Japan, Korea, Myanmar, Vietnam, and other parts of Asia. Most pagodas were built to have a religious function, most often Buddhist but sometimes Taoist, ...

each at Mong Mit and at Hsipaw on 8 February 1557 # Conquest of Mong Yang (Mohnyin) on 6 March 1557 # Conquest of Mong Kawng (Mogaung) on 11 March 1557 # Prohibition of the burial of male and female slaves at funerals of Shan chieftains # Departing Mong Kawng on 9 April 1557 # Gilding of the

from plinth to pinnacle # Dedication of the Shwezigon Pagoda Bell weighing 2100

viss The traditional Burmese units of measurement were a system of measurement used in Myanmar (also known as Burma). According to the 2010 CIA Factbook, Myanmar is one of three countries that have not adopted the International System of Units (SI) ...

(7560 lbs or 3423 kg), cast of copper, on 23 May 1557 # Prayer to attain the

Buddhahood In Buddhism, Buddha (; Pali, Sanskrit: 𑀩𑀼𑀤𑁆𑀥, बुद्ध), "awakened one", is a title for those who are awake, and have attained nirvana and Buddhahood through their own efforts and insight, without a teacher to point o ...

and referring himself as the "Conqueror in the Ten Directions".

Print publications

The complete English translation of the inscription was published in the '' Myanmar Historical Research Journal'' in December 2001. The Mon part of the inscription was translated to Burmese by Chit Thein, a Mon scholar of the Myanmar Archaeology Department, and was in turn translated into English by

Than Tun Than Tun ( my, သန်းထွန်း, ; 6 April 1923 – 30 November 2005) was an influential Burmese historian as well as an outspoken critic of the military junta of Burma. For his lifelong contributions to the development of worldwide ...

.Thaw Kaung 2010: 108–109

References

Bibliography

* {{Burmese chronicles Burmese chronicles Multilingual texts First Toungoo Empire Inscriptions of Myanmar Bagan Memory of the World Register Burmese Buddhist texts Buddhist inscriptions 16th-century inscriptions