Shwedagon Pagoda

He who increaseth knowledge, increaseth sorrow. This article contains spoilers, meaning it has information and facts concerning Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple. If you do not want to know about these events, it is recommended to read on with caution, or not at all. This template should be removed from the article 4 June 2025.

Monk: "The Great Pagoda of Shwedagon. The third pagoda to be erected in the history of all cosmos... and the first in our human realm."

Saito: "A wonder to behold, indeed. I see how it came by its renown as the Golden Temple."

—A Buddhist monk and Shimazu Saito discussing the pagoda, 1725.

The Shwedagon Pagoda, also known as the Golden Temple, is a sacred Buddhist site in Yangon, Myanmar. Standing at over 112 m (367 ft) tall, it is the second-tallest stupa in Myanmar, after the Shwemawdaw Pagoda, and the fifth-tallest structure in the country.

Secretly, the pagoda was also the location of a sphere-shaped Isu artifact, one of the three Southeast Asian Pieces of Eden, which had been kept there for centuries.

History

Early history

According to legend, the Shwedagon Pagoda was built more than 2,500 years ago—while the Buddha was still alive—which would make it the oldest Buddhist stupa in the world. However, the first mention of the pagoda in Myanmar's royal chronicles dates only to 1362/63 CE.

In 1608, the pagoda was plundered by the Portuguese explorer Filipe de Brito e Nicote, who stole its 300-ton Great Bell of Dhammazedi. However, while attempting to escape with the bell on a raft across the Bago River, the load's weight broke the raft and the bell sank to the bottom of the river, where it became lost to time. Following this incident, security around the Shwedagon Pagoda greatly increased, with a number of guards patrolling the area day and night.

Golden Age of Piracy

In 1725, the British Assassin Edward Kenway saw in one of his visions induced by the crescent amulet that another Piece of Eden was housed within the Shwedagon Pagoda. Edward and his fellow Zhang Wei Union members subsequently traveled to Yangon and met a group of Buddhist monks who knew of the artifact hidden inside the pagoda. Believing that it was safer to give the Piece of Eden to the Union members than risk having it fall into unworthy hands, the monks helped Edward and his companions infiltrate Yangon in disguise.

As the pagoda was closed to visitors at the time, the Union members devised a plan to infiltrate it without alerting the guards. Using the Celestial Chariot, a hot air balloon built by Yun Pyeong-Gyu, Edward and Shimazu Saito flew over Yangon at night and parachuted onto the pagoda. They then entered the temple through a hole in the roof and found the Piece of Eden at its center.

Modern times

In 2023, while hiding out in Singapore, Doctor Shimazu Sei, her bodyguard Yuki, and the Assassin Nathan Zhang learned about the Piece of Eden housed within the Shwedagon Pagoda through the genetic memories of Edward Kenway relived by his descendant Noa Kim. Hoping to use the artifact to cure Noa of the crescent amulet's corruption, the group traveled to Yangon, but they were unable to enter the pagoda as the temple was currently undergoing renovations; the military was replacing the golden panels on the pagoda's outer walls, to prevent them from being stolen.

At night, while Nathan and his men attacked the soldiers as a distraction, Sei and Noa—who believed himself to be Edward due to the Bleeding Effect—infiltrated one of the nearby pagodas. There, they found a secret underground tunnel leading to the central temple and used it to reach their destination.

Appearances

• Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple