Arrangements are underway to create Thanbo Village in Kyaukpadaung Township of NyaungU District of Mandalay Region as an eighth tour destination connected with Bagan trips for visitors, according to the Directorate of Hotels and Tourism (Bagan Branch).
Kyaukpadaung Township of Mandalay Region has high petrified wood and other fossils demand from China, and Thanbo village is one of the places to collect pieces of petrified wood the people in the village of nearby forest area are searching for petrified wood and other fossils, said the residents.
The newly found petrified wood lies at 17 feet under the ground level and it is 74 feet in length and the digging has not finished yet, and the exact length cannot be estimated as the digging operation is still in progress. It is six feet and seven inches in girth, village administrator U Maung Maung Soe elaborated.
The administrator has collected approximately 100 primate fossils and experts who arrived at Thanbo Village guessed that only seven pieces are genuine primate fossils.
Those animal fossils discovered are deer horn, elephant jawbone, tortoiseshell, the skeleton of cattle and unidentified primates that are assumed to have existed for over 4,000 million years ago similar to the ones found in Myaing Township of Pakokku District.
The village located next to the Koekway forest reserve on Popa Road producing many kinds of petrified wood is likely to be home to thousands of mammals and aquatic animals, U Maung Maung Soe explained.
There are still many iron furnaces that crafted weapons for Bagan Kings in the tamarind forest east of Thanbo Chaungphya Village. There is a Nat shrine of Thadoe Min Khaung in that tamarind forest and the local elderly people cannot explain it.
The villagers are producing traditional medicines using various herbs from the Popa regions and sell them to visitors to Mount Popa. People who want to study the fossils and students who are interested in the botany can make study tours to Thanbo village as there are pieces of petrified wood and iron smelting furnace in that village which will be designated as 8th tour destination, said U Myo Min Aung, Assistant Director of Directorate of Hotels and Tourism (Bagan Branch). — Ko Kyemon/GNLM
