Repairs to 389 temples and other religious structures in Bagan that were damaged by an earthquake last August will be completed by 2020, announced the Department of Archaeology, National Museum and Library.
A department official told Eleven: “We have a priority list of 36 quake-affected religious buildings that need immediate repairs. [Repairs to the structures on the] list will be finished by 2019. The rest will be repaired by 2020.”
Twenty religious buildings on the priority list will be repaired this year, said the official.
Conservationists have seen the opportunity to repair Bagan’s ancient temples as a silver lining to last year’s devastating earthquake, which also killed four people. Many of the temples had been “baseless, conjectural restorations” by Myanmar’s military government. The repairs offer an opportunity to restore the temples in a way that is more consistent with their original design.
The repairs are being conducted with input from UN experts, and the process is even expected to open up an opportunity for Bagan’s temples to receive UNESCO World Heritage Site status, which they were long denied before the earthquake.
The archaeology department’s deputy-director, Thein Lwin, told Eleven: “The frescoes in the Myinkaba Cave Pagoda are some of the finest from the Bagan era. Thanks to UNESCO, the frescoes look shinier than they were before.”
Reader Interactions