Myanmar Earthquake Causes Damage To Its Historic Bagan Temples

The temples of Bagan are Myanmar’s biggest tourist attraction, and are considered to be a major historical landmark.

From the 11th century onward, more than 10,000 magnificent religious monuments were built by the rulers of Bagan. The stupas, temples and monasteries became the defining emblems of Bagan.

On Wednesday, scores of these monuments were damaged in a powerful 6.8 magnitude earthquake. Yet much of what fell was modern material, sanctioned by Myanmar’s former army rulers who had put top priority on restoring the temples with little regard for the original architectural styles.

The Rise and Fall of Bagan

As more and more monuments rose in the dusty plains of central Myanmar, Bagan became the political, economic and cultural center of the empire, promoting religious as well as secular studies.

But Bagan declined as rapidly as it rose.

It was abandoned around 1287 for reasons not entirely clear. The city that was once home to up to 200,000 people was reduced to the status of a small town.

But the dead city left a legacy that future generations are benefiting from.

It is the country’s biggest tourist attraction, and the temples of Bagan are considered one of Southeast Asia’s major historical landmarks.

Despite this, Bagan is not listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO due to a tangled modern tale of neglect followed by a misguided effort to renovate and restore the damage from a 1975 earthquake.

As the ground shook on Wednesday, the tremors dislodged spires, loosened bricks and cracked the mortar, revealing modern material that was the result of haphazard restoration by the former military regime.

These efforts drew widespread international condemnation and forced UNESCO to deny Bagan the World Heritage Site stamp.

Much of the blame lies with the junta that took power in 1988. By 1995, restoration was in full swing to complete the work before the Visit Myanmar Year in 1996.

The plan was a limited success, due to still underdeveloped infrastructure and a boycott call by human rights groups against the military regime, which had placed pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest. The country emerged from military rule this year after Suu Kyi’s party won to become the country’s de facto leader.

Pierre Pichard, a UNESCO consultant who had long been associated with Bagan, said impressing visiting generals rather than cultural priorities dictated restoration while military-ordered excavation has been done “hastily, without proper preparation and without the requested scientific methodology and records.”

State tourism authorities responded that the tower would prevent tourists from climbing on fragile pagodas and stupas and damaging them.

(Published in arrangement with Associate Press.)