A project to salvage the Great Bell of Dhammazedi, reportedly the world’s largest bell, from the bottom of the confluence of the Yangon and Bago rivers has raised K158.4 million (US$162,000) towards its K 180 million ($185,000) target.
U San Lin, leader of the salvage mission told Mizzima on July 31 that the reclamation was planned to begin on August 9 and that once they began he hoped that the bell would be on dry land within two weeks.
His plans to rescue the bell, which has rested in the depths for over four hundred years, involve using shoal digging equipment, traditional salvage techniques and ten divers from Kawthaung township, Tanintharyi Region.
U San Lin said that he has asked 11 times for permission from the government to raise the bell since 1997 and was permitted the opportunity for this attempt on July 14, 2014.
Estimated to weigh as much as 290 tonnes, the bell is named after King Dhammazedi, a Mon ruler who reigned at the time of the bells casting in 1485. Sources suggest the bell was later donated to Shwedagon Pagoda, where it was displayed until a Portuguese adventurer, Filipe de Brito y Nicote attempted to carry it across the river in order to melt it down for cannonballs.
