Kyaiktiyo Pagoda in Mon state will be shut down on Saturday in a bid to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, the pagoda board of trustees has told Myanmar Now.
The four-hour trekking route up to the famous mountaintop pagoda, better known as Golden Rock, will remain open but shuttle busses will be stopped.
A cable car that serves part of the route up the mountain will also be closed, officials said.
Local business owners have asked for bus owners to be allowed to run 20 trips per day, down from around 200.
The closure means cancelling a seven-month festival held at the site that was due to end in May.
Kyaw Win Hlaing, head of the board, said they received an order from the Mon state government late afternoon Wednesday to stop the festival, which has been running since last October.
The festival is the longest in Myanmar, running from the Burmese lunar months of Thadingyut to Kason, with tens of thousands of pilgrims from across the country visiting and the number peaking during dry season.
Dozens of foreigners, mostly Thai, visit the pagoda each day.
The order did not specify how long the pagoda must close for, but it will reopen once it is safe to do so, Kyaw Win Hlaing said.
The festival gets busiest at weekends, with up to 9,500 visitors using the shuttle buses that run from the base of the hill to the pagoda, according to the bus line’s chief, Myo Myint.
The Mon state parliament on March 16 sent a notice letter to the state government asking it to ban upcoming pagoda festivals in the state.
It comes after the union government banned pagoda festivals and closed cinemas until the end of April. The Thingyan festival, due to take place from April 13-17, was also cancelled.
Several companies, NGOs and international organisations such as the World Bank have told their staff to work from home and not to use public transportation starting this week.
Foreign embassies in Myanmar are also withdrawing their staff and dependents. The UK and Germany are advising their nationals to leave the country if they can, warning Myanmar’s inadequate medical facilities could be overwhelmed.
