Bumper year for Shwedagon Pagoda

Yangon

AS he smooths a gold plaque on the glistening flank of Myanmar's most prestigious Buddhist pagoda, a merchant pays his ancestors the highest honour - and contributes to a bumper year of donations to re-gild the sacred site.

The Shwedagon Pagoda, which rises in a stately conical tower above downtown Yangon, has been at the heart of Buddhism in Myanmar for hundreds of years, as well as providing a luminous arena for political resistance in the former junta-run nation's more recent turbulent history. Authorities managing the monument are now cladding the structure with a fresh layer of gold - a five-yearly exercise to replace the older, weather-worn coating.