The original pagoda, just nine meters high, is long gone, for unlike Angkor Wat in Cambodia, the Shwedagon pagoda has been "in use" ever since. Because it has continously been, and still is, a place of worship, it constantly has been extended, changed, renovated, rebuilt after fires and earthquakes, decorated according to the styles of the respective times, rebuilt again ... and so on... Was so nice to meet friendly priests there !!