Evidence of Bagan's Arab connection found in frescoes
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Htet Nadi/Saw(NP News) - Sep 3
Newly-discovered frescoes in a pagoda in the Bagan Ancient Cultural Area in Mandalay Region provide visual proof of contact with Arabs from the Middle East, indicating that the Bagan people had interaction with Arabs from the Middle East since the Bagan period, U Kyaw Myo Win, director of the Department of Archaeology and National Museums at the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Culture, told The Statesman Journal.
The mural painting is located in Kyauk Myat Maw Pagoda, and animals such as camels and turkeys were found in the painting.
“We don’t have camels in our country. Camels have two humps and travel through deserts. The Arabs who ride them also dress differently from the people in Bagan. As written and drawn, they wear big headdresses and headscarves similar to those worn by Arabs today. Things like turkeys don’t exist in our country. T hey are animals from the Middle East. That’s why, there are records of people from the Middle East coming here, but there is no evidence yet of people going to the Middle East during the Bagan era,” he said.
Furthermore, although musical instruments from the Pyu period predate those from the Bagan period, even stucco sculptures of instruments, such as the seven-stringed harp, exist in the Bagan region, he added.
“There were murals of people playing drums. But the exact instruments that the Bagan people played remain unknown as the stucco in those paintings has been destroyed,” he continued.