Initially meditators often had to share cells, since in its first stage the pagoda contained only 32.
Sometimes as many six or seven people sat together in one cell.
Each year more cells were addded. In 1980, a large meditation hall was built next to the pagoda. At the same time, the residential facilities were expanded and improved.
After a few years, a second meditation hall was added and extensive tree planting was undertaken to create a green zone around the perimeter of Dhamma Giri.
The original hall has been expanded and six more rings of cells have been added to the cell complex.
In the early 1990s, an outer ring of 32 cells was built on the upper level.
This served as a base for a larger hollow pagoda, within which the original pagoda remains intact.
This magnificient Myanmar - Style structure rises sixty feet above the second level of cells.
information source: www.giri.dhamma.org