A squad of gun-toting police officers patrolled Myanmar’s sacred site of Bagan under the cover of night, taking on plunderers snatching relics from temples forsaken by tourists due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Each evening as dusk falls, about 100 officers fan out across the plain of Bagan covering 50km2, sweeping flashlights over the crumbling monuments to scour for intruders.
“Our security forces are patrolling day and night,” Police Lieutenant Colonel Sein Win told reporters. “We have it under control for the moment, but it’s a challenge.”
Photo: AFP
The central Burmese city is strewn with more than 3,500 ancient monuments — stupas, temples, murals and sculptures — and was finally added to the prestigious UNESCO world heritage list last year.
However, the pandemic has stymied plans to capitalize on Bagan’s newfound status.
The dearth of visitors means temples and hotels lie empty, crushing the livelihoods of locals and opening doors to opportunistic burglars.
In a spate of break-ins across the holy site early last month, robbers looted 12 temples, swiping a range of relics, including copper stupas, ancient coins and jade jewelry.
The 35th Battalion regional police squad have been deployed to bolster local tourism police and firefighters, the teams ranging across the site by jeeps and motorbikes, and on foot.
“It’s not easy to patrol, as the area is so big,” one police officer said through his mask, worn by all on duty to protect against COVID-19.
They also need to be on their guard against the area’s numerous venomous snakes, he added, asking not to be named.
For now, the extra security seems to have thwarted any break-ins at the most prestigious temples. Some of the relics date back to the 11th to 13th century, an era when Bagan was the capital of a regional empire.
This is the first time in decades the site has been so seriously targeted, said Myint Than, deputy director of Bagan’s archeological department, as he showed at one stupa how the looters scaled the walls to enter from the roof.
“When there were tourists here, there were no burglaries,” he said, adding that he believes this is the work of outsiders.
Even if locals’ livelihoods have been devastated by the tourist downturn, he said he does not believe they would “betray their heritage.”
Times are hard in an area dependent on tourism.
Bagan welcomed nearly 500,000 visitors last year, while this year the figure was 130,000 up until the country’s New Year festival in April and much of the area has been closed to tourists since.
Hotels and restaurants lie shuttered, while the hawkers and tuk-tuk drivers not lucky enough to clinch rare construction or farming work wait in vain for customers among the deserted lanes connecting the temples.
Souvenir seller Wyne Yee, 46, said the money she makes in April alone usually keeps food on her family’s table for the following six months.
“But this year we have no money left,” she said.
She said she was saddened by the desecration of the temples, but — like others in the area — was convinced that a curse will see the crooks receive their comeuppance.
“The Bagan temples will not tolerate it,” she said. “The robbers will be dealt with.”
On the Chinese microblogging platform Sina Weibo, enthusiastic slackers share their tips: Fill up a thermos with whiskey, do planks or stretches in the work pantry at regular intervals, drink liters of water to prompt lots of trips to the toilet on work time, and, once there, spend time on social media or playing games on your phone. “Not working hard is everyone’s basic right,” one commenter wrote. “With or without legal protection, everyone has the right to not work hard.” Young Chinese people are pushing back against an engrained culture of overwork, and embracing a philosophy of laziness known as “touching
‘STUNNED’: With help from an official at the US Department of Justice, Donald Trump reportedly planned to oust the acting attorney general in a bid to overturn the election Former US president Donald Trump was at his Florida resort on Saturday, beginning post-presidency life while US President Joe Biden settled into the White House, but in Washington and beyond, the chaos of the 45th president’s final days in office continued to throw out damaging aftershocks. In yet another earth-shaking report, the New York Times said that Trump plotted with an official at the US Department of Justice to fire the acting attorney general, then force Georgia Republicans to overturn his defeat in that state. Meanwhile, former acting US secretary of defense Christopher Miller made an extraordinary admission, telling Vanity Fair that
The Palauan president-elect has vowed to stand up to Chinese “bullying” in the Pacific, saying that the archipelago nation is set to stand by its alliances with “true friends,” Taiwan and the US. Surangel Whipps Jr, 52, a supermarket owner and two-time senator from a prominent Palauan family, is to be sworn in as the new president tomorrow, succeeding his brother-in-law, Tommy Remengesau Jr. In a forthright interview, Whipps said that the US had demonstrated over the years that it was a reliable friend of Palau, most recently shown by its delivery of 6,000 doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine. “It’s important for
DELIVERING HOPE: The Japanese PM pledged to push ahead with plans to stage the Games, despite polls showing about 80% think they will not or should not happen Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga yesterday vowed to get the COVID-19 pandemic under control and hold the already postponed Olympic Games this summer with ample protection. In a speech opening a new session of parliament, Suga said that his government would revise laws to make disease prevention measures enforceable with penalties and compensation. Early in the pandemic, Japan was able to keep its caseload manageable with nonbinding requests for businesses to close or operate with social distancing, and for people to stay at home, but recent weeks have seen several highs in new cases per day, in part blamed on eased attitudes
RSS