King Mindon, the ruler of Myanmar from 1853 to 1878 (Burma at that time), wanted to leave a great work of merit for posterity. So he was the one who organized the Fifth Buddhist council in 1871 and was responsible for engraving Gautama Buddha's teaching (called Tripitaka) on stone for conservation.

Stonemasons, under King Mindon's observation, started to engrave the Tripitaka on 14 October 1860. Hundreds slabs of marble were quarried from Sagyin Hill, which is 51 km north of Mandalay and transported to the city by river. The work of engraving on those stones was carried out in a large shed near Mandalay Palace.

After some years, all the stones were completed and opened to the public on 4 May 1868. The collection consists 730 stone tablets, each of them is 107 centimetres (3.51 ft) wide, 153 centimetres (5.02 ft) tall and 13 centimetres (5.1 in) thick. Each stone tablet has 80 to 100 lines of inscription on each side, chiselled out and originally filled in with gold ink.

The stone tablets is also protected by being put in a small stupa (called kyauksa gu), with precious gems on top. And all 730 stone tablets was arranged around a central golden pagoda to form a completed religious site that was named Kuthodaw pagoda.

Nowadays, Kuthodaw pagoda and its collection of Tripitaka Pali canon inscription on stone are attracting thounsands of tourist in Myanmar every year. They go to Kuthodaw pagoda not only to read and learn Buddha's teaching but also to express their admiration to the religiosity of King Mindon, a devout Buddhist who had contributed a lot for the development of Buddhism in Myanmar.