Search team confirms fabled Great Bell of Dhammazedi discovered

[DagonKhan]

Yangon-The search team confirmed that fabled Great Bell of Dhamazedi buried at the confluence of Yangon River, Bago River and Pazadaung Creek has been discovered, San Lin, the search team leader, told The Daily Eleven on August 26.

From Eleven Myanmar Media

The search team issued a statement discovering the fabled Great Bell of Dhammazedi. The great bell will be salvaged and brought to the land within next few days.

“Our search team announces the discovery of the great bell today. The statement letters are being distributed to the people. At the present time, we continue digging works. We haven’t discussed the salvage operation in detail,” San Lin said.

Dredging works are going on and Thaketa Bolin jetty is packed with the people on August 26. Feast is given in the charity for all comers.

It was widely rumoured that the great bell was tied with ropes the night before August 26. San Lin said in the press conference held during July that the great bell would be salvaged to reach on the land on August 26.

“San Lin confirmed that the great bell was discovered. Preparations are being made for salvaging the great bell with the use of necessary equipment and ropes,” Naing Min Aung, the vice-chairman of support sub-committee for exploring the great bell, said.

Read the full article here: Search team confirms fabled Great Bell of Dhammazedi discovered

[DagonKhan]

Dragons Add Mythical Twist to Search for Dhammazedi Bell

By THE IRRAWADDY| Tuesday, August 26, 2014

A salvage team works at the Rangoon and Pegu rivers’ confluence on Tuesday. (Photo: Sai Zaw / The Irrawaddy)

RANGOON — Finally, they appear to have struck a deal with the dragons—guardians of a sunken bell in Burma that, if found, is believed to be the world’s largest.

After more than two weeks probing watery depths southeast of Rangoon, a salvage team in search of Burma’s fabled Dhammazedi Bell on Tuesday claimed to have found the long-sought treasure. But the team said it was not the difficult diving conditions or 400 years of accumulated silt that had delayed announcement of the find: It was dragons.

Continues here:- http://www.irrawaddy.org/burma/dragons-add-mythical-twist-search-dhammazedi-bell.html

Edited August 27, 2014 by DagonKhan

[DagonKhan]

Will bell-searchers claim ring true?

The Dhammazedi Bell, for centuries believed to be lost beneath the silt at the confluence of the Pegu and Rangoon rivers, may at last have been found by a team of local divers.

“We have found it!” search team leader San Lin told DVB by phone on Tuesday. Offering no further detail on the bell’s location or how the team plans to retrieve it, he added that, “we will hold a press conference later.”

Continues here:- http://www.dvb.no/news/will-bell-searchers-claims-ring-true-burma-myanmar/43555

[SeaVisionBurma]

I'm still going to hold my breath until they produce the bell, or at least some underwater footage or a clear sonar image.

However - if its true then they've put the spitfire team to shame!!

[DagonKhan]

Legendary Dhammazedi bell found, claims dive salvage team

A photo released on August 15 of a diver and other members of the team involved in the salvage operation for the legendary Dhammazedi bell in the Yangon River near Yangon. Photo: Lynn Bo Bo/EPA

YANGON (AFP) - A team of Myanmar divers claims to have discovered a legendary bell in the murky depths of the Yangon River -- with the help of dragon spirits -- in the latest twist to a 400-year-old drama that has gripped the nation.

Continues here:- http://www.mizzima.com/mizzima-news/myanmar/item/12289-legendary-dhammazedi-bell-found-claims-dive-salvage-team

[SeaVisionBurma]

Fashioned mainly out of bronze, the Dhammazedi bronze bell is said to have weighed 294 tonnes -- about the same as the maximum take-off weight of a Boeing 777.

Hell's bells - that is one HUGE clanger.

[ggt]

Good news...the bell lives...could be a major tourist attraction with all the history behind it...

[NowImEasy]

Let freedom ring in Burma

[IsaanUSA]

It will be interesting to see what they pull up!

[DagonKhan]

Huge crowd observes Dhammazedi bell search

The Great Bell of Dhammazedi search team’s claim to have found the bell stirred huge interest from Yangon residents and offered rare business opportunities to small vendors.

A huge crowd of people from various townships in the region gather on the riverbank to observe the salvage operations. The Thaketa Bolin jetty has been packed since August 26 while security police is fully deployed.

A roasted chicken vendor near the jetty witnessed an improvement in business.

Continues here:- http://www.elevenmyanmar.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7365:huge-crowd-observes-dhammazedi-bell-search&catid=44:national&Itemid=384

[SeaVisionBurma]

A roasted chicken vendor near the jetty witnessed an improvement in business.

Love this comment, real no nonsense reporting! And I bet they did witness an improvement in business.

But still - no bell photos or proof yet. They suddenly went quiet yesterday, and now alarm bells are ringing that perhaps they spoke too soon?

[AhFarangJa]

A roasted chicken vendor near the jetty witnessed an improvement in business.

Love this comment, real no nonsense reporting! And I bet they did witness an improvement in business.

But still - no bell photos or proof yet. They suddenly went quiet yesterday, and now alarm bells are ringing that perhaps they spoke too soon?

Maybe someone has dropped a clanger.

[SeaVisionBurma]

A roasted chicken vendor near the jetty witnessed an improvement in business.

Love this comment, real no nonsense reporting! And I bet they did witness an improvement in business.

But still - no bell photos or proof yet. They suddenly went quiet yesterday, and now alarm bells are ringing that perhaps they spoke too soon?

Maybe someone has dropped a clanger.

If they don't actually find it, perhaps they can still be awarded the No Bell Prize??

[soalbundy]

just have to find a tower strong enough to hang it from. I predict, two sunken boats,three tipped over canes and a dead dragon

[gomangosteen]

Believe it when I see it.

Been enough searches and false hopes in recent years.

... they may have found all those buried WWII Spitfires in their crates under the water, the other Great Treasure Hunt of Myanmar.

[DagonKhan]

just have to find a tower strong enough to hang it from. I predict, two sunken boats,three tipped over canes and a dead dragon

Funny you should say that. Just this morning someone I was talking to predicted that once they started to lift it, the rope would break (having never reached the surface so it was visible) and the Dragons would claim it once again... Made me laugh!

[Deacon Bell]

the Dhammazedi bronze bell is said to have weighed 294 tonnes

Global sea levels will fall once that's removed.

Have the Thais made some sort of claim on it yet?

[Deacon Bell]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Bell_of_Dhammazedi

[gomangosteen]

a myth?

from BBC report 18 August

In the years that followed the legend of the bell has endured, and recovering it has become a point of both Buddhist and Burmese national pride. There have been at least seven serious attempts in the last 25 years. Some have involved international teams and sophisticated underwater equipment, but to date no one has been able to accurately pinpoint where the huge bell is.

Historian Chit San Win has spent most of his life researching and writing about the Dhammazedi Bell, and following the failed salvage efforts. When I meet up with him at the Schwedagon Pagoda he lays his maps on the floor and tells me that both the Yangon and Bago Rivers have changed course in the last 400 years, making it almost certain that the search is in the wrong place.

More worryingly, having scoured Burmese literature for supporting evidence of the Great Bell he now has serious doubts as to whether it ever really existed.

"I really hope that the bell is real, it would make me so proud of our country," he says.

"But if we look at the three main Burmese history books written 200 years after the Bell sunk none of them mention it."

Undeterred, this latest team say they will keeping diving for another two weeks. They have no doubt that Myanmar's holy grail is down there somewhere in the mud.

[DagonKhan]

The Friday Report: The moaning and groaning of the bells

[gomangosteen]

for whom the bell doesn't toll - all quiet in Myanmar News

this was an earlier article, 14 August 2014:

Free-divers Search for 270-Ton Bell Resting Under 25 Feet of Mud

that can't be easy, diving through 25 feet of mud?

though if they have found it - there'll be a fight over ownership:

Archaeological officials have threatened legal action if those claiming to have found the Dhammazedi Bell fail to return it to its former home – Yangon’s famed Shwedagon Pagoda.

The team behind the salvaging effort said on August 27 that they had found the Dhammazedi Bell – with the help of dragon spirits – although they are yet to provide any evidence to support their claim.

[gomangosteen]

Found! - a shipwreck - but no bell

Saturday, 13 September 2014

Divers searching for the Dhammazedi bell have found a shipwreck in the murky Yangon River – but not the legendary 400-year-old bell, leader of the divers’ team Than Nyunt told The Daily Eleven last Thursday.

and

Hope turns to anger as Dhammazedi Bell news dries up

THE tide appears to be turning against those leading the expedition to raise the fabled Dhammazedi Bell.

The team announced on August 26 that it had located the bell at the bottom of the Yangon River but has since failed to offer up any evidence to support the claim, prompting some to question whether donors to the effort have been duped.

Adding fresh fuel to the fire, a spokesperson for the effort, U Kyi Win, confirmed to The Myanmar Times that the search had stopped all equipment would be returned to the government on September 18.

The team had requested K180 million to cover the initial expenses related to the search, and quickly raised K150 million from businesses and individuals.

[DagonKhan]

Revered monk calls for end to lies in search for Dhammazedi bell

Dhammazedi bell search team leader San Lin should not lie when he releases information to the public about the search, a revered monk told a press conference yesterday.

Natsintaya Sayadaw Bhaddanta Panna Teja made the comment following reports that he was involved with San Lin in the effort to find the fabled bell.

Continues here:- http://www.elevenmyanmar.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7560:revered-monk-calls-for-end-to-lies-in-search-for-dhammazedi-bell&catid=44:national&Itemid=384

[gomangosteen]

a pity, maybe in another lifetime it'll be located

Search for Dhammazedi Bell ends

The Dhammazedi Bell search team yesterday terminated its mission, after the failure to find the mystic bell in the past month.

San Lin, the team leader, announced that the search was over. The 400-year-old bell weighed nearly 300 tonnes.

San Lin has been heavily criticised in the past weeks for sparking false hopes. Weeks after the search began on August 8, he announced that the bell was found under the riverbed of the Yangon River. However, no further evidence was disclosed.

Thant Nyunt, a diver, on September 12 said that what they found was a shipwreck not the bell. Two days later, revered monk, Sayadaw Natsin Tayar, a member of Mon Literature and Culture Organisation as the spokesperson of the search team, said that San Lin should not have given the public a lie.

Tomorrow, another member of the search team, Win Myint, will host a press conference. San Lin is not expected to show up.

The search team earlier announced that well-wishers who provided the Ks 13 million fund to finance the search could retrieve their money. It was reported that none of them showed up to reclaim the money.
Kyi Win, a member of the team, said that there are 132 of them.

Published on Wednesday, 24 September 2014 18:14

[J Bradley]

Any updates on this story? It sounds amazing.

Not in the same league, but possibly of interest, is the Mandalay bell at Windsor Castle.

[SeaVisionBurma]

Post containing inappropriate language removed

[J Bradley]

I see the previous post has been deleted. The guy was saying the search has been called off.

For the time being, then, the Great Mingun Bell near Sagaing remains the world's largest..

Meanwhile, over in Greece, excavations continue at Amphipolis:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-29239529

Edited October 9, 2014 by J Bradley