Many readers looking at the title will think of the book in a traditional way. So it's probably a book like a modern book, only huge with thousands of written pages that would take weeks or months to read.

Nothing could be more wrong, because this unusual book is carved in stone and is located in Myanmar, i.e. former Burma.

More precisely, the book is located in the town of Mandalay, in the vicinity of the Kuthodaw and Sandamuni temples, a beautiful region abounding in countless historical monuments.

What does a stone book look like?

It consists of marble slabs, of which there are exactly 729, and the teachings of Buddha were carved on them. Each of the slabs is placed in a separate stupa painted white. This is only a part of this great work, because it only concerns the Kuthodaw Pagoda.

Another, much larger collection of 1,774 marble Teachings of the Buddha, or Tipitaka, is located nearby at the Sandamuni Temple.

Summing up, these marble tablets are the equivalent of 2,500 pages, but written in very small writing. In addition, the board itself is quite large, because it is over 120 cm high and about 100 cm wide.

Half a year of reading stone tablets

The records written on the boards have been read in their entirety only once. This took place during the first Buddhist synod.

At that time, 2,400 monks took turns reading the Tipitaka without any breaks. It took them half a course

It's hard to describe in words, and even the pictures don't show the size of this place. A specific magic is felt there and the impressions are difficult to show. This beautiful place, like the whole of Mandalay, is worth recommending and should be on the map of every traveler visiting Myanmar.