SOME murals lost at Maha Yadana Bomsa Pagoda in the Inwa Cultural Zone, Mandalay Region, have emerged after the Mandalay earthquake, according to scholar and author U Htoo Thant Myo (aka) Kalan Nge Htoo Thant.

“There are golden and colour paintings on the interior walls of the gates. Later, an unknown donor seems to have stuck a layer of plaster over the original paintings and then applied lime. The murals had been hidden under the plaster for many years. The chiselled thin lines to preserve the plaster were visible. Some parts of the paintings were revealed after the plaster fell apart during the earthquake,” he wrote on his social media page.

It is difficult to say the period because the complete part of the painting has not been found, but some parts are estimated to be from the Amarapura period.

“Inwa was the capital of the four dynasties, but there are not many remaining cave pagodas with wall paintings in Inwa. Both pagodas — Nos 233 and 234 — with mural paintings in the Taungpawtha monastery, as well as pagoda No 193 inside the Lawka HtakeOo, collapsed, and murals were destroyed. In this situation, the emergence of a new place with mural paintings is a good thing,” he said.

Htet Oo Maung/ZN

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