The stairways and bridges leading into the main sanctuary serve the thousands of pilgrims who flock here, and flower and book stalls, peddlers of religious souvenirs and tea shops do a brisk trade during the Shwedagon's long hours of opening. The Shwe Dagon," wrote Somerset Maugham in 1930, "rose superb, glistening with gold, like a sudden hope in the dark night of the soul.