Information Sheet N0. C- 2948 ( I)
Okkar66127
YANGON
Information Sheet
N0. C- 2948 ( I) 27th February, 2004
(1) Shweli Hydro-electric Power Project
The Hydro-electric Power Department and Yunnan Machinery & Equipment Import &
Export Corporation (YMEC) has signed a contract to build the concrete dam and
tunnel and install machinery at the Shweli Hydro-electric Power Project. At
present, preliminary tasks are being carried out.
The electricity generated from the project will be supplied to Shan State
(North) through 66-kv high-tension cables. A grid including 230-mile long
double high-tension cable line from Shweli to Mandalay will be built to supply
power to other regions.
This office is presenting an article entitled "A 12th Century Cloth Painting
from Ancient Bagan" written by Dr. Khin Maung Nyunt which appeared in the
Myanmar Perspectives Vol:4/98 for you information.
On 31st March in 1984, a very rare objet d’art of antiquity was discovered by
chance in the ancient city of Bagan, Upper Myanmar. A team of archaeologists
was undertaking field work for the inventory of pagodas and monuments in the
archaeological zone of 16 square miles. When they came upon temple No. 315,
they saw a big statue of the Buddha in it. It was made of brick and plaster and
one of its hands was broken. One of the labourers who cleared the debris saw
something rolled up inside the hollow of the remaining portion of the hand. He
instantly pulled it out. In doing so the rolled up piece was shattered into
fragments. It was a cloth painting of the Bagan period. The fragments were
carefully picked up and kept for display in a glass show case at the
Archaeological Site Museum, Bagan. On examination by experts the painting was
datable- 12th century A.D.
In 1986 while the ICCROM (International Centre for Conservation of Arts, Rome)
mission was carrying out conservation of mural paintings in Bagan, the mission
members saw the fragments in the show case and Mr. Pierre Pichard, Co-ordinator
of the UNESCO/UNDP Project for Bagan proposed that the fragments be sent to a
specially equipped laboratory in Rome for restoration. In July 1986 the
proposal was accepted by the Myanmar authorities. The fragments were carefully
packed and handcarried to the Italian Capital, on 30th August, 1986 by Mr.
Pierre Pichard and delivered to the Myanmar Embassy. A UNESCO contract for the
restoration of the fragments was concluded with Mr. Carlo Giantomassi. It took
a year and two months to complete the restoration.
The painting was executed on a piece of fine cotton cloth with "a fairly tight
perependicular weave". The cloth measures about 81.5 cm wide from selvage to
selvage, and about 138 cm long. The pigments used were natural products from
orpiment, realgar, cinnabar, vegetable lacquer, carbon black, yellow ochre, red
ochre, copper green and blue. The colours are still lively and luminous. The
painting is a composition of "five registers of superimposed scenes, separated"
by decorative strips and calligraphy... A continous decoration frames the work
on the sides."
The painting presents an exclusively frontal view with no perspective. Details
of the figures and objects, such as the outlines of the figures, their facial
expressions, the drapes and folds of the clothing, their body ornaments, the
leaves, flowers and fruits of the trees are indicated with fine incised lines.
Why this scroll of cloth painting of the 12th century was left enshrined inside
the hollow of the hand of the Buddha statue for nearly 8 centuries is a mystery
which no archaeologist nor historian so far has been able to solve. Conjectures
have been put forward. Experts on ancient painting of Bagan say that there are
two types of mural paintings in Bagan, fresco and tempera. Fresco is the method
of painting pictures on plaster on a wall or ceiling especially before the
plaster is dry. Tempera is the method of painting pictures on a piece of cloth
and the painted cloth is glued on the wall or ceiling of a building. It is
presumed that the artist kept his rolled up tempera inside the hollow of the
hand of the Buddha statue whose hand was not yet finished. Then before he had
time to glue his cloth painting on the wall of the temple, the mason
unknowingly must have completed the hand of the statue. Thus the rolled up
tempera remained enshrined for the last eight centuries. Another theory is that
the artist himself or the donor purposely enshrined the cloth painting inside
the Buddha statue for attaining religious merit. Usually, sacred relics and
votive objects are found enshrined in the relic chambers deep down under the
monument or in the centre of the body of the statue. But the great earthquake
of 1975 revealed relics and votive objects enshrined in different sections of
monuments, pagodas and statues. Another surmise is that it is an unaccomplished
act of vandalism. Some robbers must have detached the cloth painting from the
wall of the temple and rolled it up and stored it in the hollow of the
statue’s hand. Then they had to escape with other more valuable treasures
leaving the painting.
Whatever the conjectures and surmises, we are lucky to have discovered this
rare cloth painting of antiquity by chance and we are very grateful to the
UNESCO/UNDP and the art restorers of the ICCROM for the restoring and
conserving of this piece of Myanmar cultural heritage and bringing it back to
the country of its origin.
In August 1988 the restored cloth painting was brought back to its homeland. It
was handcarried by one of its restorers Donatella Zari throughout the flight
from Rome to Yangon. From that date to early 1998 this art treasure was kept in
an airconditioned cabinet of the library of the Archaeology Department, Yangon.
After the opening of a new grand Museum Building in Bagan on 17th April 1998,
the cloth painting was moved there. It is now on display, inspiring national
pride of the Myanmar people and receiving admiration and marvel of the
visitors.
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