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Burma Decay Exposed
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New fears for the past under the Generals
The slow ‘death by restoration’ at Burma’s vast, ancient Bagan temple complex has been condemned around the world. But photographs taken this year and given to ‘Cornerstone’ suggest that another major heritage site is being destroyed
Myanmar – Burma – is home to thousands of spectacularly beautiful ancient temples and stupas, testament in brick to the strength of Buddhist belief in the region. Pagan, renamed Bagan in 1989, is the largest ancient Buddhist site in the world. Located on the great central plain, the site has more than 3,000 brick shrines and other religious structures, which extend over a 42 square kilometre site. But the architectural glories of Burma are spread far and wide.
Near the beauty spot of Inle Lake, in the south of Shan State, there stands Indein, a smaller but no less captivating ancient religious site. Here, Thai monks built more than 400 pagodas, or stupas, each one in memory of a faithful soul departed, or one preparing for the next stage of the spiritual journey. The site is thought to date back to the 17th or 18th centuries, though some believe that it may be far older, perhaps 12th or 13th century.
To the casual tourist – of whom far fewer pass through than did before the military government’s stranglehold began to tighten in the 1980s – Indein is an attractive, photogenic cluster of ruins. The more informed traveller, however, perhaps aware of the ongoing “restoration” and rebuilding work that has made Bagan a byword for heritage destruction, might notice that the ancient buildings of Indein are fading away with suspicious haste. One such visitor, a reader of Cornerstone, has given the magazine a series of photographs, taken this year and printed on these pages, which do seem to suggest that the ancient Indein pagodas are not only being deliberately stripped of their bricks, but that at least some of those bricks might well be used in constructing one of a rash of new pagodas that is spreading across the sensitive historic site. Some of these new pagodas, gleaming like downtown tower-blocks amid the muted reds and browns of centuries-old old brick, are dedicated to senior members of the military government which has held sway in Burma since the Sixties.
The photographs speak for themselves. Though, on the face of it, in tune with the structures and aims of UNESCO membership, the Burmese government does pretty much as it likes with its historic buildings. Adjacent Inle Lake, as Bagan, is on UNESCO’s “Tentative” World Heritage List, a citation singling out its “well preserved landscape”. Yet, with concern focused on the dismal human rights record in Burma, UNESCO is wary of openly criticising the abuse of cultural heritage in the country. Its instinct, one it shares with many opponents of the ruling dictatorship, is not to discourage travel to Burma. Indeed, many opposed to the Generals see tourism as the one firm link with the outside world. No nation has yet been exluded from the international community solely on the grounds of abusing its heritage. Among sundry horrors at Bagan have been the wholesale rebuilding of ancient structures, and the widespread use of cement and other non-traditional, non-local materials to carry out repairs. In recent years a giant concrete observation post, some 200ft high and looking like a Cold War watch tower, was build amid centuries-old structures, destroying an ancient skyline at a stroke.
But the threat to Indein, and other historic sites across Burma, may not be posed solely by the Generals and their wealthier supporters. In an exclusive report on the Bagan heritage crisis for Cornerstone in 2007 (Vol 29, No 2) Clementine Cecil wrote: “Perhaps shockingly for a Westerner, some American and European tourists have become involved with historical ‘reconstruction’ projects in Burma, for example on Lake Inle in Shan State.
“Here, several new stupa have been paid for by foreign donors. Perhaps believing that they were helping the local community, their money has only added to the desecration of an historic site.”
In a near-closed society, hard facts are notoriously difficult to come by. There is, however, sufficient cause for concern for an independent, expert international assessment of the condition of Burma’s architectural gems. And that, of course, is not something the Generals are ever likely to allow.
Robin Stummer