Maung Day
Temple Guarded by a Fence in War Colors
Mixed media on paper
37.5 x 27.5 cm
Copyright The Artist
In April 2022 – almost a year after a series of wars broke out between the Arakan Army and the Bamar Military in the area, Burmese artist Maung Day took...
In April 2022 – almost a year after a series of wars broke out between the Arakan Army and the Bamar Military in the area, Burmese artist Maung Day took a trip to Arakan Land. On this trip through Sittwe, Mrauk-U and other small Arakanese towns, he brought along a drawing book, into which he sketched out the sights of his journey. Upon returning home, he redrew many of these sketches.
Of this drawing, Maung Day writes:
"This piece has a similar thematic approach to the image of the ogre. During the drives around in the Arakan Land, I couldn’t help noticing temples built on the hills and military posts and structures existing in the vicinity of those temples. At one particular place just outside of Mrauk-U, I saw a military gate on a hill and a little beyond that, a powder-white temple. I am sure this combination, this landscape, would have appalled and outraged so many local Arakanese. Again, the narrative of the Bamar Army as the protector of race, religion and nation comes into play. It also points out that the presence of the Bamar military has not only encroached the physical space of the local population but it has also intruded on their spiritual space, something the Bamar military has repeatedly done in the areas of other religious and ethnic populations. At least a lot of the Buddhist Bamar have now realized the military, who always claims to be truly Buddhist, will not flinch once and do to them and to their religion what it has done to other minority groups."
Of this drawing, Maung Day writes:
"This piece has a similar thematic approach to the image of the ogre. During the drives around in the Arakan Land, I couldn’t help noticing temples built on the hills and military posts and structures existing in the vicinity of those temples. At one particular place just outside of Mrauk-U, I saw a military gate on a hill and a little beyond that, a powder-white temple. I am sure this combination, this landscape, would have appalled and outraged so many local Arakanese. Again, the narrative of the Bamar Army as the protector of race, religion and nation comes into play. It also points out that the presence of the Bamar military has not only encroached the physical space of the local population but it has also intruded on their spiritual space, something the Bamar military has repeatedly done in the areas of other religious and ethnic populations. At least a lot of the Buddhist Bamar have now realized the military, who always claims to be truly Buddhist, will not flinch once and do to them and to their religion what it has done to other minority groups."