Completed 1196
Merit of King Narapati Sithu (r. 1173-1210)
It is believed that King Narapati Sithu was looking for a site for a pagoda and saw a column of smoke rising out of the ground ‘to the height of a palm tree’; and this place was chosen. Stone inscriptions of 1196, 1197 and 1198 record the choosing of the site, the construction, dedication, and the boundaries of Bagan of the time.
If you have ever visited the Shwezigon Temple in your Bagan tour, you will see that Dhamma Yarzika is a squat, conical spire like the Shwezigon. It rises from a pentagonal platform of three terraces. At the base and in the middle of each side there is a small temple painted with murals. Within each temple is an image of one of the four Buddhas: Kakusanda, Konnagona, Kassapa and Gautama, all who have graced the earth, plus the Bodhisattva Mettaya, the Buddha of the future.
Five stairways lead up the terraces, and along their sides are glazed relief plaques. Originally there were 600 but now only about 350 remain.