Truckloads of soldiers and squadrons of police sealed off some of the centuries-old Buddhist pagodas around Myanmar’s ancient capital of Bagan on Thursday, a day after at least 187 of the brick temples were damaged in a powerful natural disaster. All Destination Asia clients as well as its team and families are safe.
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The temple city of Bagan consists of approximately 3000 structures dating from the ninth to the 14th century spread across the plain of Bagan in central Myanmar. However, there was no report of major damage.
A general view shows the damage at the Sulamani temple in Bagan, southwest of Mandalay, Myanmar, 25 August 2016.
Lawmaker U Win Myint Khine, who represents the Chauk region – the epicenter of the quake – told VOA the tremors damaged at least 140 ancient temple structures in Bagan, a tentative world heritage site. Bagan is home to thousands of ancient Buddhist pagodas, dozens of which sustained damage in Wednesday’s 6.8 magnitude quake.
Visitors have been denied access to the damaged archaeological site with security measures being imposed on the area.
Using brooms and their hands, soldiers and residents of an ancient Myanmar city famous for its historic Buddhist temples began cleaning up debris Thursday from a powerful natural disaster that shook the region and damaged almost 200 pagodas.
“I’m very anxious … there will be less tourists to Bagan”, Zaw Naing said.
Although earthquakes are fairly common in Myanmar, which is also known as Burma, the southeast Asian country has not had a deadly one since a 6.8-magnitude quake in November 2012 killed almost 40 people. A hospital was damaged in Pakkoku, where one person was injured, and other buildings affected, while two houses collapsed near Chauk.
The Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement reported two other deaths in nearby Thitapwe village.
The country’s President Htin Kyaw visited the area on Thursday to see the damage and discuss how to fix it with local officials.
Tremors were felt as far away as Thailand, Bangladesh and India. Locals are anxious that the damage to the pagodas and temples will impact tourism in the area. The area is one of the country’s main tourist attractions.
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The last major quake in the area – which is often affected by smaller tremors – occurred in April about 300 kilometres further north, and measured magnitude 6.9.
