A ground-breaking ceremony was held yesterday on November 9th near Kamawet village, Mudon Township, at the site of a new pagoda and monastery that will be built over the upcoming year by the New Mon State Party (NMSP).
Despite the increased emergence of Mon splinter groups advocating for various responses to the 2010 Burmese elections, an abbot who presides over another of the many monasteries near Kamawat informed IMNA’s reporter at the ceremony that Mon State’s monastic communities will continue to support the NMSP.
“We just believe in the New Mon State Party (NMSP), we don’t care about the other new Mon [splinter] groups” the abbot said at the November 9th ceremony, which was held at the site of the pagoda in the Kamawat forest. The pagoda is to be called “Kyaik Jamoi Dein” [“Hoping for Country”], and its construction will be overseen by both the NMSP and a local Kamawet land development organization.
This abbot claims that the vast majority of Mon State’s monastic community supports the NMSP’s public refusal to participate in the 2010 elections without certain changes to the Burmese government’s 2008 constitution; this announcement was issued on January 27th.
The abbot interviewed by IMNA at the November 9th ceremony also reported that the monk-run organization “They plan to release a statement proclaiming its support of NMSP policies in the near future.
The ceremony was attended by NMSP Central Executive Committee member Nai Tala Nyi, as well as 30 monks from the area, including Rev. Palita from Kamawet village. The site for the future Kyaik Jamoi Dein pagoda is located 3 miles from the Winhanon dam in Mudon Township.
The construction of the pagoda is a significant testament the Mon people’s quest for independence, both due to its nationalistic name (“searching for country”), and because of its proximity to land previously occupied by the Mon People’s Front (MPF), one of the first armed Mon independence groups, formed after the departure of Burma’s British occupiers in the mid-20th century.
“The place where the NMSP built the pagoda, the Mon People’ Front (MPF) was based in that area in 1949. We also made the name for the pagoda “Kyaik Jamoi Dein,” said the abbot interviewed at the ceremony in Kamawet village.
In 1994, the Burmese government granted the NMSP roughly 5000 acres of land in Southern Mudon Township to use in its land development program. IMNA’s reporter learned that the party received special permission from the Burmese authorities for the land grant needed for the pagoda’s construction.
