Why would you want to travel 4 hours from Yangon up to a mountain top to look at a rock that's perched precariously, covered in gold and topped with a Stupa? In short this is the 3rd most important Buddhist site in Myanmar and as such is a major pilgrimage site for Buddhists around the world. By travelling here you’ll not only see a beautiful part of the country but travel on a mini-adventure with thousands of pilgrims that will give you a sense of how Buddhism is the absolute bedrock of the nation’s consciousness and is hard to replicate elsewhere.
The Golden Rock
Kyaiktiyo is considered the 3rd (behind Shwedagon Pagoda, Yangon and the Mahamuni Temple, Manadalay) most important Buddhist sites in Myanmar. According to legend the boulder is placed over a strand of Buddha's hair and this keeps it from rolling. Those who visit the holy site three times a year will be blessed with wealth and acknowledgement of their goodness.
The Journey
But from a tourist’s perspective this is only a part of it. The beginning of the journey is not remarkable, but as you turn off the main road the scenery starts to become more bucolic as you drive through river lined villages, past rubber plantations and start to weave your way into the hills.
The adventure starts when you arrive at the Kyaikhtiyo base station. From here the road up to the Golden Rock is steep and windy, so to accommodate the masses you have to join the locals in adapted open air trucks that have rows of bench seating accommodating approx. 60 people. It’s great fun as the trucks hit the lowest gear and you start the climb in convoy up the steep, forest clad hills, enjoying fantastic views down towards the coast, but you may wish you done those core exercises as you’re thrown around like a rag doll while the locals look totally relaxed. They will be opening up a cable car that takes away part of the ride soon.
Mountain Ridge & Pilgrims
Arrive at Kyaiktiyo and you realise that you’re on top of a narrow mountain ridge wide enough to have houses and shops on both sides and a wide walkway that runs all the way to the Golden Rock and on along the spine. You have a 10 minute walk to the Mountain Top Hotel that fittingly has a mountain chalet feel to it. Step back out of the hotel and you join the stream of thousands of pilgrims that continue on to where a plaza opens up at the top and leads to the Golden Rock. Amongst the visitors you’ll see monks and nuns as well as hermits who have left the forests to visit here. According to legend Buddha gave the strand of hair to Taik Tha, a hermit.
As you walk through the plaza you’ll see that groups of friends and families have travelled up together and the excited chatter adds to the experience. Most will bed down here as you can’t travel back down until morning. Here you also get a real sense of where you are as you enjoy a panoramic 360 degree view of the surrounding Mon State Mountains. Spectacular and made all the better as you witness the sun setting behind the Golden Rock and sunrise from the breakfast room in the hotel.
As the sun starts to set take a walk around the Golden Rock and you’ll see men (no women) adding gold leaf to the rock, whilst others contemplate and pray around its base. When the sun drops the Golden Rock is lit up in the night sky for all to see and the evening gets into full swing as the families and groups socialise and eat. Children run around excited and local food stallholders sell their wares. You leave with a feeling that you’re in the midst of a Burmese charabang.