Great Bell of Dhammazedi
| ဓမ္မစေတီခေါင်းလောင်းကြီး | |
| Location | Sunk beneath Yangon River |
|---|---|
| Type | Temple bell |
| Material | bronze 297,103 kilograms (655,000 lb) |
| Opening date | 5 February 1484 |
| Dedicated to | Shwedagon Pagoda |
The Great Bell of Dhammazedi (Burmese: ဓမ္မစေတီခေါင်းလောင်းကြီး [dəma̰zèdì kʰáʊɴláʊɴ dʑí]) is a bronze bell, believed to be the largest bell ever cast. It was cast on 5 February 1484 by order of King Dhammazedi of Hanthawaddy Pegu, and was given as a present to the Shwedagon Pagoda of Dagon (today's Yangon, Myanmar).
In 1484, prior to the casting of the bell, King Dhammazedi's astrologer advised him to postpone the date, because it was at the astrologically inauspicious time of the Crocodile constellation, and the resulting bell would not produce any sound. After the bell was completed, it reportedly gave an unpleasant sound.
According to texts of the time, the bell was cast of 180,000 viss (294 t) of metal which included silver and gold, as well as copper and tin. The bell was said to be twelve cubits high and eight cubits wide.
In 1583, Gasparo Balbi, a Venetian gem merchant, visited ancient Dagon and the Shwedagon Pagoda. He wrote in his diary about the King Dhammazedi Bell. His description of the Great Bell said that it had writing engraved from top to bottom around its circumference that he could not decipher at that time:
"I found in a faire hall a very large bell which we measured, and found to be seven paces and three hand breadths and it is full of letters from the top to the bottom but there was no Nation that could understand them."
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Wikipedia