A Dvarapala sandstone statue from AD 5 excavated in Hanlin City
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Khit / Yoon (NP News) – Sep 29
The guard statue known as Dvarapala made of sandstone which was usually placed at the entry of the ancient palace, assumed to be built in A.D 5 or 6, was excavated in Hanlin ancient city, Sagaing Region.
The palace gate located at the center of old Hanlin City was found in 2015. A large stone, cracked, was found in a prone position at the time in front of the gate, according to Tun Tun Aye, assistant director from the Hanlin Department of UNESCO World Heritage Convention.
The department, after excavating the palace gate and the large stone, didn’t recognize it was a statue; but covered the large stone to prevent further damage since the stone was already damaged with many cracks.
Later, Tun Tun Aye continued, the department built a temporary workshop 50 feet away from the stone so that maintenance work can be carried out. An iron frame was made to join and attach different parts of the statue from the bottom of it. Each part was drilled and sheathed with steel rods. The maintenance process took four months.
The sheltered pieces of the rock stone, now, appeared to know that it was a Dvarapala statue since its physical appearance matched the criteria of a Dvarapla statue, which was usually placed at the entrance of an ancient palace as a guard statue.
The statue is physically similar to designs of sculptures in India’s Gupta Dynasty and it was designed in Myanmar outlooks. Therefore, the statue is predicted to be from A.D 5 or 6, he added.