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| Noetling, an expert on
oil matters, who used to holiday in Pagan whilst preparing a report on the
Yenangyaung oil fields not far to the south of the old city. These holidays
were mainly spent in detaching glazed plaques from the zeidi, Dhammayazika and
gyi stupas, in addition to removing various Vishnu sculptures from the
Nat-hlaung-kyaung, that eventually found their way to the Berlin Volkerkunde
Museum."
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| The Teutonic exactness of
Forchammer returned to Pagan in 1899, though in this case it was a
destructively inclined exactness, with the arrival of the so-called `Doctor'
Th. Thomann, and his party of fellow Germans." Though Thomann may be credited
with producing the first book on Pagan, he may also be credited with
systematically dismantling some of Pagan's finest mural paintings, which he
subsequently aunched on the art markets of the day, eventually to be sold to
the-Hamburg Ethnographical Museum, at no slight discount on the original asking
price. Today, one may see the scars of Thomann's work on the vault of the in
gyi: tattered newspapers, used to lift the sections of plaster off, remain
stuck to the vaults and the sawed cuts, in neat lines, reveal Thomann's method
of cutting loose the murals in rectangular sections. Thomann and his group
visited other temples too, at one, the Paya-ngazu group, their names are
scrawled upon the wall .12 Fortunately, though belatedly, Thomann's activities
were arrested by the District Commissioner of Myingyan. The road from Pagan to
Myingyan is of comparatively recent construction and news of the German's
activities took some time to reach the Commissioner. The German party was
subsequently expelled from Burma, though much of their loot had been sent
ahead, thereby escaping confiscation. The present location, or even existence,
of the in paintings is not known and the murals taken from the zi temple which
are now at Hamburg are little displayed." Happy will the day be when these
treasures are returned to their rightful places on the walls, vaults and
soffits of these now denuded temples.
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| Tragically, thieving from
the monuments continues to this day, for so long as dealers can command high
'prices from wealthy collectors, `greed' will drive less fortunate local people
to thieve and vandalise. Luce in 1948 lectured:
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| Germans alas were not the
only vandals, though they were the worst. I have myself met more than one
globetrotter, bag in hand, "souveniring" among the ruins. There used to be
statuettes, and small objects of dedication in the temples; one never sees them
now .24
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| Nowadays, the Burmese
Government, anxious to save *hat remains of their early civilisations, have
banned the export of antiquities, yet still they pass out to the thickly
carpeted galleries of more affluent places, in the protected baggage of the
diplomatic community. Perhaps those that connive to rob Pagan of her riches
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| should mind the dreadful
curses placed upon those who take from a work of merit, and mind that Thomann
suffered a tragic death in mysterious circumstances." In 1886 Upper Burma was
annexed, and by 1900 the region had been pacified and the British regime turned
their eye to the archaeological possibilities of Burma. In 1901 Lord Curzon,
the Imperial Viceroy, came to Burma. A highly cultivated man, Curzon was quick
to realise the full value of Burma's Buddhist civilisation. In Mandalay he
commanded that the royal palace should be conserved, and the drinking club set
up by the conquerors, in one of the throne rooms, be removed elsewhere. 26
Curzon stopped at Pagan on his way upstream and ordered the construction of a
museum there, the original Ananda Museum. In the year following this fortuitous
visit, the Archaeological Survey of India set up a `Burma Circle' under the
directorship of Taw Sein Ko who contributed each year to the Survey's Annual
Reports. Taw Sein Ko, of Peking Lodge in Mandalay, a Chinese in the Indian
Civil Service, was responsible for inaugurating the western discipline of
archaeology into Burma. In his reports his interpretations are highly centric:
chinthe are Chinese, stupas are of the Chinese type as are palaces. Though he
did acknowledge that Buddhism was of Indian origin, his tributary mentality
permitted little else to have seeped through from that direction. However,
under his directorship (1901-15), temples were repaired, reports that are now
valuable sources on lost structures were published and some exploration was
carried out. It was under his directorship that the first list of the monuments
was prepared with the assistance of the old and venerable headman of Pwasaw, U
Tin U. On their rounds together Taw Sein Ko would ask U Tin U the name of a
monument, U Tin U would pause in deep thought and, rather than disappoint the
official, invent some apt name. 27 These spontaneously invented names for many
of the less well known monuments remain in use today and are followed in the
monument descriptions that are discussed in Part Two of this work. Taw Sein Ko
wrote the first tourist guide on Pagan, for by this time Pagan was opening up
to the traveller:
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| NOTES FOR TOURISTS
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| Express steamers, which ply up and down
the Irra waddy twice a week, do not actually touch at Pagan, but at U, which is
five, miles distant from the Pagan Circuit House. There is a good circuit House
at Nyaung-U, where the Post and Telegraph Offices are situated. At both circuit
houses, the Khansamah can supply meals. Ferry boats, which start from Myingyan,
call daily at Nyaung-u and Pagan (Sundays excepted), and Pagan can be reached
from Nyaung-u by these boats. The journey can also be made by country boats, by
bullock carts, or on horse back, according to the inclination of tourists
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| It was with the arrival of a Frenchman,
Charles
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More Info:
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Religious
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12 Months' Festivals
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References
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Travel & Tour
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