Over 400,000 pilgrims visit Shwedagon Pagoda in July

More than 400,000 pilgrims, both local and international, visited the Shwedagon Pagoda in July, according to U Bo Thin, a member of the Shwedagon Pagoda Board of Trustees. In January, over 500,000 devotees visited the pagoda, with similar numbers in February. March saw over 800,000 visitors, April had 600,000, May had 570,000, and June had 540,000.
“In July, nearly 7,000 to 20,000 pilgrims visited the Shwedagon Pagoda daily, with the numbers rising to thousands on weekends. The largest number of visitors came on the full moon day of 20 July, reaching over 100,000 travellers. There were over 430,000 local visitors and more than 5,000 foreign visitors,” said U Bo Thin.
“For the past ten years, we have been installing CCTV cameras to ensure that devotees can worship peacefully at the Shwedagon Pagoda. There are currently about 280 installed CCTV cameras. In 2018, we added approximately 300 more high-quality and upgraded CCTV cameras,” he added.
Due to the increasing number of pilgrims, the Shwedagon Pagoda has been open from 4 am to 10 pm to allow visitors to pay homage peacefully since 21 June. — ASH/MKKS