'Caring People' Help Save Ancient Treasures

[webfact]

'Caring people' help save ancient treasures

By THE NATION

Chiang Mai

Buoyed by their success with the Therachan Pagoda, a group of Chiang Mai University lecturers and local people have vowed to conserve more "sacred places" from ancient times.

Assoc Prof Somchote Ongsakul, who led the conservation efforts, said yesterday his group was determined to protect ancient city walls and pagodas at other locations in this northern town too.

"From our surveys, there are ancient structures at no fewer than 21 locations between the foot of Doi Suthep and Umong Temple," he said.

He said without conservation efforts, many historical structures already have been sadly buried under new condominium buildings.

The Therachan Pagoda has evaded the invading urbanisation with help from caring local people.

After noticing there were some ancient remains in their neighbourhood, locals behind the Umong Temple had built up fences to cordon off the location for more than 50 years.

"They have alerted the Fine Arts Department too," Somchote said.

He added that with budget from the department in 2009, excavation has finally started to reveal the great historical treasure.

"When we first came here, we saw only some broken bricks under trees," Kraisin Ounjaijin said in his capacity as an archaeologist from the Fine Arts Department.

Ongoing excavation, however, has shown there is an octagonal pagoda deep down with a style reflecting the Burmese influence.

"Within the same vicinity, we have also found parts of ancient city walls," Kraisin said.

He believed the old city walls came from the Wiang Jed Rin, which predated the Kingdom of Lanna.

"The findings have so much historical value," Kraisin said. He believed the remains here might have been built between 500 and 600 years ago.

The archaeologist added that his team also found the relics of Arahant and Buddha statues.

The excavation at the Therachan Pagoda will take three to four more months to complete.

-- The Nation 2010-07-26