Vandalism and ancient arts

I went back to Burma in Feb 2010. It was the first time I stepped into my mother land for past three and a half years since I started studying again. Nothing has much changed in my country except that some areas are more developed. Same old place with filthy road sides full of betel blood- a tradition of ours which make the whole community look awful.

It was a lovely country with great sceneries. Many people were kind and friendly. What happened to these people now? Before I stepped out of the express bus which stopped at the middle of our country the second capital, Mandalay, there was a massive group of people waiting at the exit. They are moaning like zombies asking if you need a ride. "Motorcycle?", "Taxi?", Tri-cycle?", "How many people?", they touted. I felt sorry for them. It was in the early morning 5am and they are struggling for their lively hood. It was hard for me to pick one and it was even harder for me not to get angry at them as some were trying to pull my bag hard to get a chance of being chosen. After arriving to the hotel then I can breathe peacefully.

Let me share a few interesting things about the country itself. It has full resources with high standard of traditional culture with amazing historic structures which you can mainly found in Bagan, central Burma. The picture on the left is on the walls of these pagodas in Bagan. There are plenty of them but sadly some of them are covered by (lime)white paint or plastic paints. These are so artistic and they were done very carefully to satisfy the king who commanded to built it.

Have a look at them how beautifully they are made to last thousands of years.
 

Can you imagine how much work they have put into this? Every detail, every strokes are showing the feelings and emotions of the artist. Feel the mixture of emotions of the artist- concentration, joys,worries and fears.

You might wonder how many of these wall arts are there? My answer is simply in the picture below...

 

You might say, how does this picture answer how many paintings are there in Bagan. Well, please be patient and let me explain a little further. This is the picture of which Bagan's evening is famous for. A shining bright red sun setting into the hills behind the scene of Bagan. As you can see, there are many structures spiking out from the ground. These are pagodas of Bagan. Too many of them? Hang on...this is just a quarter of 360 degree view. So, lets imagine the other three quarter and point your finger at any direction except sky and earth. Surprisingly, you'll be pointing to at least a pagoda; this is the whole reason why Bagan is a very popular destination among tourist attractions. There are over 2000 pagodas built around 10th to 12th century.

These vast amount of treasures seem to be lasting forever. However, like every country and every nation when there is people, there is vandalism. I am writing this post to show people that how much damage that we can cause to our own society just because of your own desire or your negligence act could cost. In big cities, governments spend millions of dollars on vandalism. So, how about our treasures like the above paintings and pagodas? Everyone knows that these paintings are priceless- because we will never get them again. Lets have a look at how my people throwing away our own treasures gradually.

 

Our major problem is correction pens or white-outs which we use to cover our mistakes when we write. Majority of Burmese tourists write things like this because they want to remember that they were there. So that when they come next time, they can have fun looking for their own graffiti or signature. This kind of behavior is completely unnecessary. This is only pleasure they get and the price we pay is tremendously huge. What more? If we don't have these historic treasures, there will be no one coming to see these buildings. No one is willing to come to see random white scratches scattering around the sculptures or temples.

So, what I want to say to Burmese people is "Please maintain our own treasures and don't destroy it for our personal reasons. These are our national treasures." For other readers, please help fight vandalism and make our way of life better and more meaningful. Thank you for reading...