Michael Sloan
Phnom Penh Post
Photo by: Photos supplied
Standing 150 metres above sea level on a promontory of Phnom Yat mountain, the Aung Sula Mani stupa is the only surviving trace of Pailin’s Burmese community, which transformed the sleepy town into a regional hub through the gem trade in the mid-19th century.
They settled here, built a community, and then disappeared. They all disappeared.
A crumbling stone stupa atop a remote mountain in Pailin province may hold the key to determining the origins of a Burmese ethnic group that once dominated Cambodia’s gem trade, according to Pyonne Maung Maung, who is heading up efforts to restore the monument.
Erected more than 100 years ago, the Aung Sula Mani stupa is believed to have once contained a tooth belonging to Buddha.
It’s the only remaining trace of Pailin’s once-thriving Burmese community, known locally as Kola, who transformed the town into centre of arts and literature in the 19th century.
Ten months and US$100,000 worth of painstaking restoration work by Pyonne, chairman of the Burmese IT company SeaNet Technologies, will pay off on Thursday as the stupa re-opens.
They settled here, built a community, and then disappeared. They all disappeared.
A crumbling stone stupa atop a remote mountain in Pailin province may hold the key to determining the origins of a Burmese ethnic group that once dominated Cambodia’s gem trade, according to Pyonne Maung Maung, who is heading up efforts to restore the monument.
Erected more than 100 years ago, the Aung Sula Mani stupa is believed to have once contained a tooth belonging to Buddha.
It’s the only remaining trace of Pailin’s once-thriving Burmese community, known locally as Kola, who transformed the town into centre of arts and literature in the 19th century.
Ten months and US$100,000 worth of painstaking restoration work by Pyonne, chairman of the Burmese IT company SeaNet Technologies, will pay off on Thursday as the stupa re-opens.
3 comments:
Thank you for the restoration effort.
This is a part of Cambodian history and heritage too.
since khmer empire stretch so far in southeast asia, we khmer lost many history which we should continue to do more research to find out where all the khmer origin living. there are khmer in thailand, laos, burmese, vietnam, etc.
It's a shame that so far no one had written the History of Pailin and it's people who found it.
The Kola people, gems adventurers and traders coming from Burma, settled in Pailin in the Mid of 18 or 19th Century and made Pailin a rich city area.
Under the KR regime most of the Pailin people and especially the Kola, died from the killing by the KR,overwork, starvation and disease.
It's a great loss that now in Pailin there are no survived Kola living there.
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