Maha Wizaya Pagoda stands just south of Shwedagon, close enough to be folded into the same walk but different in mood. It was built in 1980, so it lacks the deep age of Yangon's great shrine, yet its hilltop position and quieter compound make it a useful counterpoint after the crowds.
The pagoda is especially good if you like seeing how Buddhist monuments continue to be made, not only preserved. The gilded exterior is familiar, but the interior decoration and the political-religious history of its founding give it a specific late-20th-century Myanmar character.