Myanmar Adventure Ecotourism, Ecotourism tour, Adventure Tour

Kyaikhtiyo & Its Environment
		Kyaikhtiyo The world famous mysterious “Golden Rock”. This stands on a gold gilded boulder, precariously perched on the edge of the hill over 1100km above sea-level. Kyaikhto, the town at the foot of the hill, 160 km from Yangon . Kyaikhtiyo is about 20km from the town of Kyaikhto. It is an 11 kilometer uphill climb for the hiker from Kinpun Base Camp. There is also a steep winding road for 4-wheel drive cars from the base to the nearest point of the pagoda. It is situated on the edge of Paung Laung mountain range, part of the eastern Yoma, in Kyaikhtiyo township, Mon state.
The pagoda is called in Mon language “Kyaiki-hti-ro”. Later came to be known as Kyeikhtiyo Pagoda. ‘Kyaik’ means ‘pagoda’, ‘Hti’ means ‘hamit’ in pali word, and ‘Yo’ means ‘carried on the head’. So, Kyaik-hti-yo means pagoda carried by hermit on his head. There are many legends about the Pagoda and the “nats” or “spirits”. According to the legend of the pagoda, during the Lord Buddaha visit to Thaton, the 3 hermits, Teiktha, Thiha and Kaylatha living on these hills requested to Lord Buddaha to give them strands of his hair. So,Lord Buddha gave 2 strands of his hair to each hermit. The eldest hermit, Teiktha, living on Kyaikhtiyo hill wished to keep the sacred hairs on his body. So, he kept the 2 relic hairs on his head among his hair.
The youngest hermit, Thiha built 2 pagodas enshrining each share of relic. One is on Zinkyaik hill and one is on Zwekabin hill Pharam. The 3rd hermit, Kaylatha built only one pagoda enshrining on of his share relic. He kept the remaining strand on his body. When he died, Teiktha received one reliac hair from Kaylatha. Teiktha had now 3 srrands of Buddha’s hair, 2 of its own share and 1 from Kaylatha. He decided to keep these hairs on his head untail his death. However, he grew old, he become worried about the reliac hair and thought of keeping them in safety before he died. When the Sakka, Kings of Deva knew about this, he found the boulder in the shape of the hermit’s head from the sea. He drilled a hole and
enshrined 3 strands of sacred hair there. And then a small pagoda was built on it. It is just 5 meter high. You can visit there by car or or by train. If yoy visit by car, you will take you to the Kinpon Camp, at the foot of the hill. Nowaday you can go by car at the foot of Yatheytaung or hermit hill to the pagoda near than Kinpon Camp, and you have to take a walk for about 45 minutes. Then, you will reach on the Kyaikhtiyo pagoda platform. If you visit by train, you must get off at the Kyaikhto Railway Station. Then,you have to continue your journey to Kinpon Camp by foot. From there you have to climb the 33 mountains for about 12 km, takes about 7 hours. When you climb up, you must across 27 rest camp such as Yemmaunggyi, Shweyinsou, Saingtamaut, Phopyantaung, etc. You can take a rest at the camps on the way. Among the camps, Yemaunggyi is a big camp where you can take a bath and meal. You can see full of pilgrims going up and coming down along the way. You will find again Kyaukthanban Zedi as soon as you pass the shrined of Shwenankyin nat. When you approach to the pagoda, you can see the golden rock. It is very shiny in open space.
	There is a deep gorge between the golden rock with the pagoda on the top and the mountain range on which the pagoda platform is built. So, a bridge was built to give access to the pagoda. Male pilgrims use the bridge to reach the boulder. There they can pay homage to the pagoda, gild the side of the boulder and tell their beads. The pagoda platform is very wide and crowed with pilgrims from the parts of the country and foreign tourists. There are many restaurants and souvenir shops around the pagoda platform. From there, you can see the panoramic view of the valley of the Sittaung River, green forests, mountain ranges and poagodas. You can see other interesting places
such as Kyeepasuk cave (or) Crow cave, Naga phaya, Pha phaya, Moksotaung (or) Hunter hill, Yatheytaung (or) Hermit hill, Sontaung. It is very pleasant to see the sunset and sunrise from that pagoda platform. You can also hear the songs of birds and the breeze whispering among the trees. So, Kyaikhtiyo pagoda is not only traveling but also climbing and exercise for health.
Thaton Ancient capital of Mon people, it is still having some historic monuments. Of them, Shwe-sar-yan is the most famous. Pitakataik, Thagyar Paya together with and Yan-aung-myin pagoda are similarly adorned with high terraces, terra-cotta plaques, flights of steps and balus trades at cardial points reflecting the orientation for Bagan monuments later. The contemporary lithic-insciptions including trap and Pandit in Mon languges can also be studied there.