Phaung Daw Oo is the most important Buddhist site on Inle Lake. The whitewashed pagoda houses five small Buddha images, said to have been brought from Cambodia by King Alaungsithu in the twelfth century. Over the centuries pilgrims have applied so much gold leaf that the figures are now unrecognisable.
The pagoda sits on stilts at the southern end of the lake and is one of the standard stops on the boat circuit. Only men are permitted to add gold leaf or approach the inner platform — a rule that has stayed firm even as other parts of Myanmar relax. The site is liveliest during the Phaung Daw Oo Festival in September or October, when the images are carried in procession from village to village.