The Shwedagon Pagoda at dusk in Yangon. Photo: AFP
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.
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