For the fifth time in two years, the ruling Burmese military junta is reportedly planning to designate the Yawnghwe Buddhist museum, previously the palace of Yawnghwe, as a National Races Traditional Museum soon, according to local sources close to staffs of the museum.

Caption: The new name for the Palace of Yawnghwe two years ago, photo: Wittaya Huanok

In a move that recalls the junta’s building of its Shwedagon pagoda replica to overshadow the historic ethnic Panglong monument in Shan State South’s Panglong last year, it would seem that the ruling military junta is forging ahead with its “attempt to erase ethnic culture, religion and the history of the country”, a criticism, which was leveled at them in “Forbidden Glimpses of Shan State”, a report published by Shan Women’s Action Network (SWAN) in November 2009.

The destruction of architectures of former Shan rulers was contrasted with the regimes’ construction of new monuments that extol ancient Burmese kings and numerous replicas of the ‘Shwedagon’ pagodas across Shan State.

The Yawnghwe palace has been converted several times into different names just within two years from 2008, said a source.

It was first converted to be the Palace Museum, then it became a Museum of the Princes before undergoing another transformation into a historical museum housing some of the most precious artifacts of the Shan princedom since 1369.   Most recently it has existed as a Buddhist Museum, since it was designated as such in May 2008.

During the transformation from historical museum into Buddhist museum, all displayed antiques such as Saofah’s regalia (royal garments worn by Shan princes), lacquerwares, ancient armaments, and two imperial thrones were moved to Nay Pyi Taw, the new capital of Burma and were replaced with Buddhist images, according to a local source.

“We deeply regret the loss of Sao Shwe Thaike’s sword”, the source said.  The 5 fathom (7 ½ ft.) long artifact was one of the casualties of the museum’s facelift.

The number of tourists visiting the museum has also declined since the transformation of the museum took place, according to a local shop keeper near the museum.

“Visitors said they would prefer to see different kinds of Shan princes’ artifacts than looking at pagodas, which are not as rare” she said.

“There are seven staff members who take care of the current Buddhist museum. Those will be reshuffled to Shan State East’s Kengtung,” said the source close to the museum. “Naypyitaw will send its own selected people to take care of the planned museum.”  

The Yawnghwe Palace as seen today, photo: Wittaya Huanok

Yawnghwe is one of the oldest principalities of the Shan State. Its last ruling prince was Sao Shwe Thaike, who became the first president of the independent Union of Burma (1948-52), former Speaker of the Chamber of Nationalities of the Union Parliament (1952-1960), last hereditary ruler of Yawnghwe (1936-62), and a leader of the ‘Federal Movement’ to amend the Union Constitution. His consort was Sao Nang Hearn Hkam, the founder of the Shan State Army (SSA).

Many palaces of the Shan rulers have been destroyed by the military junta since General Ne Win, launched a ‘bloodless’ coup when he seized power on 2 March 1962.  One of the palaces destroyed was Shan State North’s Hsipaw Palace of Sao Kya Seng, Prince of Hsipaw and his consort Sao Nang Inge, author of the book Twilight of Burma, which had also been turned into a museum. Another was Kengtung Palace in Shan State East, which became Kengtung Hotel.