Thagyamin is the indigenized form of Sakka, king of the Tāvatiṃsa heaven and chief of the gods of Buddhist cosmology, whom the Mon share with their Burmese neighbours. In the Shwedagon origin legend he descends from the heavens to reveal the buried Siṅguttara Hill, sanctified by relics of the three earlier Buddhas, so that Gotama's eight hairs may join them. Within the broader nat pantheon and its Mon antecedents, studied by H. L. Shorto, Sakka presides as the celestial overlord who legitimizes the earthly enshrinement of the relics.