Nearly 200,000 locals, foreigners visit Shwedagon Pagoda on 9 Oct

There were 194,400 local and foreign visitors to Shwedagon Pagoda on 9 October, the full moon day of Thadingyut (Abhidhamma Day), 1384 ME, according to the pagoda board of trustees.
Between 1 and 8 October, a total of 335,023 visitors – 3,018 members of the Sangha, 1,903 nuns, 149,970 males (locals), 179,408 females (locals), 406 male foreigners and 318 female foreigners visited the pagoda.
On 9 October, a total of 194,400 visitors – 1,335 members of the Sangha, 1,197 nuns, 90,376 males (locals), 101,239 females (locals), 133 male foreigners and 120 female foreigners visited the pagoda. Therefore, there were 529,423 visitors between 1 and 9 October.
“The visiting hours of the pagoda have been set from 6 am to 6 pm daily since March 2021. The visitors mostly visit in the early morning and so we are going to extend the hours from 5 am to 6 pm daily beginning 30 October. Then, the numbers of pilgrims are increasing and so we changed the hours between 5 am to 8 pm commencing 26 March,” said U Boe Thin, a member of the pagoda board of trustees.
There are 20,000 visitors daily and between 30,000 and 50,000 visitors on the weekends, according to the board of trustees. — Pwint Thitsa/GNLM