Study on the conservation condition forthe “technical support for the safeguarding of architectural heritages at Bagan,” project of UNESCO Japanese Funds-in-Trust for the Preservation of World Cultural Heritage
This project is intended to contribute to enhancing the conservation management system of historical buildingscomprising Myanmar’s Bagan monuments, and provides technical assistance aiming for updating the monument inventory and establishing a method to assess the conservation state of structures. At the same time, the project is also aiming for contributing to the human resources development for the Department of Archeology and National Museum (DoA) of Myanmar’s Ministry of Culture, which is in charge of the conservation and management of the monuments. We have been working on the two-year project since 2014.
Commissioned by UNESCO, the National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Tokyo, has been taking part in the project, mainly the assessment of conservation states of architectural structures. So far, we have been putting our efforts into drawing up a rapid condition assessment sheet to effectively understand in a short time the overall conservation states of all buildings in Bagan built during the Bagan Dynasty period. As a next step, we started a study on methodology for an in-depth condition assessment of structural problems that are detected by a rapid assessment. Even among the monuments in Bagan, individual historical architectures differ significantly not only in their scales and structures, but also in locations and damage conditions. Thus, it is difficult to standardize the process of the in-depth condition assessment as we did for the rapid condition assessment, while it is considered possible to develop a certain pattern for detecting basic problems and creating a work flow. So, we decided to select the Phya-sa-shwe-gu temple (No. 1249) as it is an architecture with a typical scale and structure that has not undergone a full-scale restoration so far, and conduct a pilot case study for an in-depth condition assessment at the temple.
In a field study from June 11 to 19, we conducted detailed recording of crack distribution, non-destructive tests using a Schmidt hammer and an ultrasonic gauging device, a study on the inside of walls using micro drilling and an endoscope, and an excavation surveyto investigate the foundation structure together with an Italian expert in structural engineering, Myanmar engineers and staff members of DoA. On the last day, we discussed about an indoor strength test on brick samples taken from the temple at a research institution in Yangon.
The temple building’s structural degradation has been significantly progressing, and the outer wall of the back of the corridor is in a particularly dangerous condition. Through analysis of information and data obtained in the latest survey, we will examine the cause and mechanism of damage and continue the study aiming for presenting an appropriate diagnosis flow.