Burmese monks stopped from joining renovation of U Thant’s rest house

Thursday, 04 February 2010 19:43 Myint Maung

New Delhi (Mizzima) – Burmese Buddhist monks have been stopped from being a part of the renovation work of the U Thant’s memorial rest house in Lumbini, Nepal by the Burmese embassy in capital Kathmandu.

Though two Burmese monks were keen to be part of the renovation of U Thant’s memorial rest house into a library and museum by the trustee, the Burmese embassy prevented them.

“The building is going to collapse so we consulted Burmese monks in Lumbini. We heard that officials of the Burmese embassy in Kathmandu came yesterday and yelled at them for involving themselves in our project,” Nepali abbot Decruiser Karet Thanmar who is spearheading the renovation project told Mizzima.

The abbot, who sojourns at the U Thant memorial rest house said, “The Burmese embassy here does not want Burmese monks to be involved. In their view, U Thant was a democrat so that they have no respect for him. Besides they do not want anything related to U Thant publicised”.

One of the monks staying at the Burmese golden monastery in Lumbini, the birthplace of Lord Buddha, and run by Burma Religious Affairs Department said that the Burmese authorities also stopped them from talking about the matter to anyone.

The reason behind the ban is still not clear and the Burmese embassy was not forthcoming with its comments.

But the Nepali abbot said that they would go ahead with the renovation plan.

They plan to repair the damaged roof and build the library and an information centre in the front along with a dining hall and two guesthouses for visiting monks, it is learnt.

U Thant was UN Secretary General from 1961 to 1971. He died on 25 November 1974 in New York, USA.

The ruling Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP) government at that time refused to honour him with a state funeral and planned to bury him at the Cantonment Park. Rangoon University students refused to accept this and forcibly buried his mortal remains on 8 December 1974 in the university campus, in the former Student Union building compound.

The army raided the university campus on 11 December at about 2 a.m. and killed many students and people who were guarding the tomb of U Thant and arrested many. Then they bulldozed the tomb and reburied the mortal remains of U Thant immediately at their pre-planned site in Cantonment Park.

(Edited by Ye Yint Aung)