N   89    The Age Old Buddha Statues and Pagodas of Wan

                        Sing (Shan State )                                                       

I came to know about this place not long ago.On the new year day of our Burmese calendar (17/5/17 ) we went to the Shan State Buddhist University with offerings for the monastery as is our custom. It was a rainy day and there were only a few devotees at the monastery. So we had a leisurely talk with the monk who received the offerings and gave blessings. While talking about my late travel to Merng Nawng , Merng Hsu and Hai Par waterfall he mentioned that there is an unknown place in Wan Sing which has many old Buddha statues and some pagodas. These were built by Sawti Shans some centuries ago and as they did not reside there anymore there are no one to take care of the place and with some evil persons who tried to rob and destroy the Buddha statues this place had gone to ruins. So it is needing some donors and some restoration.

I became interested in this place and asked a friend who have some connections to Wan Sing to get me some photos of the place. Before long I received the photos and I saw that they really looks old and very much needed  to be restored. On the advice to go and see it myself  and offering to drive the car by SHT the 4 of us drove to Wan Sing on the 29^th of May.

Wan Sing is 20 miles from Kholam which is 105 miles from Taunggyi. USTS who is a native of Wan Sing and a benefactor of the pagodas joined us at Namsang and we all went together.

We reached Wan Sing before noon, after having lunch at Kholam. The elders of WanSing village and some villagers who had heard that donors who will help restore the place and  were pleased with the news had gathered at a place to take us to the religious ground.

The distance to the pagodas is about 5/6 miles and it is not a paved road road but a dusty one and very narrow but on flat land.That 5/6 miles took us more than half an hour.

The first glance at the place made us perceive that the place is really old and decrepit and urgently in need of renovation. After alighting from our cars and climbing a few steps we came to a place built by UTS for paying homage to the statues. And then the monks whom the Abbot of Kholam had brought, led us to paying homage to the Buddha.

After the monks had left we took a look around. We heard that there are about 540 statues and actually it looks like there really are. But most are not complete figures but are ruined without heads or limbs. The people there said only about a hundred figures are in complete state.

The  figures are stucked so closely to each other with no uniformity in size, some big some small, some in sitting posture , and  a few  reclining. I didn’t notice any standing Buddha. The faces look antique enough and what we heard that they were built 2 or 3 centuries ago seems correct. The builders were Sawti Shans who worship only the Buddha and his teachings , and so they don’t have Sanghas. They also have strict rules of life and lives accordingly to them. But they had left this place to live anywhere else  and so there is no one to take care of this place, that they had gone to ruins.Evil people had also ransacked and looted the place in search of valuables.

But what I heard that there is no roof over the statues was wrong. Actually the statues are under 2 halls with steep roofing , but the tin roofs are so old and rusty. Some of the wooden poles had been covered with gold leaves but even these were not free from the hands of the looters. Only traces of gold can be seen now over their black lacquer foundation. Some elders said that out of the 540 statues only about a hundred are in good condition. And to our amazement the robes of some of the statues are intrically adorned with pieces of coloured glass to make them more attractive.

Outside these 2 halls , scattered over the not so big compound  are some medium sized pagodas. Altogether 22 of them. Not one is complete with umbrella. Naturally all look age old and covered with moss and dirt. Some with bricks loosened at their foot. As the pagodas were opened on one side the looters entered from the entrance and dug the centre part of the

pagoda in search of valuables.

After seeing what have to be seen we gathered at a zayat of Wan Sing’s biggest monastery and had a talk about renovating  the place. I promised to raise 5 million kyats and with donations from friends and relatives and donors, I told them we would  be able to do some really needy repair work. The villagers were glad that some one appeared to help with repairing the decrepit place of worship. They said that they would form a committee and start work at once. Firstly to widen the narrow road to the place . And then a barb wire fence around it and later other repair works.

Until now I had received some funds for these works. But if more donations will come in this place can become a neat and attractive place of worship and visit. It will be nice if a big donor come out so that the 2 very old  halls can be replaced by new ones. But any amount is going to be a help to renovate the hidden Wan Sing Buddhas and Pagodas, So I invite friends and relatives and donors to join me in this merit making work to add a place of attraction to our Shanland.

31/5/17