Pilgrims press individual 24K squares onto the stupa surface, building a mosaic that grows denser with each generation.
Each octagonal platform narrows toward the crown, encoding the ascent from earthly ground to nirvana's peak.
Lion-griffin sentinels carved from single teak trunks mark every passage where the profane yields to the sacred.
At dawn the stupa's surface catches low-angle tropical sun, turning cladding into a field of shifting amber.