Kuthodaw stone book
Libro de piedra de Kuthodaw
- Date
- 1860-1868 · confidence high
- Place
- Kuthodaw Pagoda, Mandalay, Myanmar
- Credited to
- King Mindon
- People
- 👤 Mindon Min1808–1878
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
What it is
A copy of the Pali Buddhist canon, the Tipitaka, carved on 729 marble slabs, each in a small white shrine around a large stupa. It is considered the largest book in the world.
The slabs were carved between 1860 and 1868 by order of Mindon, after the founding of Mandalay; the monks of the Fifth Council (1871) checked the edition. 'The largest book' is a common label, not a technical term.
What it led to
- the Fifth Buddhist Council (Mandalay, 1871)
- editing of the Pali canon and control of textual errors
- listing in the Memory of the World register (UNESCO, 2013)