ABSTRACT
Razadarit's daughter Shin Saw Bu (ruled 1453-72) continued the era of relative peace; significantly, she chose to retire to religious pursuits at Dagon during the latter part of her reign, relinquishing power to a Buddhist monk named Dhammazedi, whom she married to her daughter. The devout Dhammazedi (ruled 1460-92) revolutionized Bago's govern ment-and ultimately that of greater Myanmar-by purify ing the Sangha (Buddhist monastic order) and inspiring a Buddhist revival throughout the region. He sent twenty-two monks to Sri Lanka, traditional bastion of Theravada Bud dhism, to receive orders at the esteemed Mahavihara monas tery. These devout emissaries returned to Bago to perform specially sanctioned mass ordinations in Bago and through out Lower Myanmar. In 1476 Dhammazedi commissioned the Kalyani Sima, the first hall in Myanmar built specifically to accommodate the sacred ordination rites. The Kalyani Sima holds ten original stone pillars inscribed with the con secration ceremony. Set in both the Pali and the Mon lan guages, the pillars relate the history of early Buddhism.
