The story behind this place is that Prince Siddhartha, who had just attained Buddhahood, was visited by two merchant brothers from Myanmar--Tapussa and Bhallika. They offered a gift of honey cakes and in return Buddha removed 8 hairs from his head and gave them to the brothers for enshrinement in their native town.
The brothers brought them back to Okkalapa, which is now Yangoon, and the hairs along with some other relics were enshrined here. That was 2500 years ago. It has been built up and added to over the years.
I also visited the Cha Khdatagyi Monastery. There was a gigantic reclining buddha there. Something I saw all around Myanmar was the Buddha footprint, which is on this buddha. It's something I haven't seen in other Buddhist countries I've visited so far. The footprint has 108 tiles, which represent Buddha's life.
That evening I enjoyed some local street food. Most tourists go to the restaurants and only locals eat at the street stalls so I caused quite the scene! The food was fantastic and I paid about 30 cents for my meal, yummy!!
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