As a natural disaster prevention process, lightning rods have been installed on 11 ancient buildings in Bagan World Heritage Area, and additional lightning rods are being installed on nine ancient buildings, according to the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Culture (Bagan Division).
Under the supervision of the Department of Archeology and National Museum of the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Culture, Department of Buildings (Electricity) of the Ministry of Construction, and Mandalay Region Government’s NyaungU District Administration Council, and with the cooperation among related departments and pagodas’ boards of trustees, lightning rods were installed on 11 ancient buildings in Bagan to prevent natural disasters.
A meeting was held on 2 August at the meeting hall of the District General Administration Department, and plans to install lightning rods at nine pagodas – Lokananda, Tuyin Taung, Alotawpyae, Buu, Ngetpyittaung, Shin Izzagawna, Minnanthu Laymyetnhar, Mingalarzedi and Sedanagyi pagods -were discussed among relevant authorities.
As the ancient building No 1657 Buu pagoda was struck by lightning due to heavy rain on 6 June 2023, emergency maintenance and installation work was carried out. Similarly, on 17 September 2023, the ancient building No 947 Dhammarazika pagoda was struck by lightning. Afterwards, a survey was conducted by relevant authorities and it was found that 11 out of 22 big ancient buildings need to get lightning rods installed.
Among the 11 pagodas, installations were completed in nine pagodas which have boards of trustees –Htilominlo, Dhammarazika, Shwesandaw, Manuha, Dhammarangyi, Mahabawdi, Sulamani and Pyathetgyi pagodas. The rest two pagodas, Pantthagu Mahahtae and Thagyapon pagodas, which have no board of trustees, were also completed installing from 14 December 2023 to 6 March 2024, the department said in April.
The Bagan region is the only region in Myanmar that has a total of 3837 ancient buildings found in one place, that is invaluable to the whole of Myanmar and attractive to tourists around the world as a well-deserved world cultural heritage.
MT/ZN
