After years of campaigning, a park in central Yangon once again bears the name of U Ottama, a leading nationalist monk from Rakhine State who was repeatedly jailed under British colonial rule.
Nationalist ralliers in Sittwe celebrate on September 9 the renaming of a Yangon park in honour of the monk U Ottama, who died following hunger strikes in 1939. Photo: EPA
Ceremonies were held to officially rename the former Kan Taw Min park in Yangon on September 9, the 76th anniversary of U Ottama’s death, while commemorations were also held in his home town of Sittwe in Rakhine State. Parliament agreed to the name change in January.
Born in 1879, U Ottama was prominent among Buddhist monks agitating against British rule and was jailed for the first time in 1921 for sedition. His death in 1939 was hastened by hunger strikes he staged during later periods of incarceration.
Opposed by conservative clerics, his preachings were seen as radical for arguing that monks had a moral and religious duty to intervene in politics and improve the lot of ordinary people, a stance that although inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s teachings of non-violence was to lead to clashes between monks and successive military regimes in the decades to come.
Among those attending the ceremony in Yangon was U Wirathu, a nationalist monk from Mandalay well known for his support of Rakhine Buddhists opposed to civil rights for the state’s Rohingya Muslim minority. U Zaw Aye Maung, minister for Rakhine ethnic affairs in the Yangon Region government, was also present.
U Kyaw Sein, patron of the organising committee for U Ottama Park, urged the national government to issue an official letter recording the renaming of the park.
He also called on the government not to allow “a repeat of the first experience”, referring to how the park, near the south gateway to Shwedagon Pagoda, was first named after U Ottama in January 1962, but switched back to Kan Taw Min by the military junta that took power three months later.
U Zaw Aye Maung explained how a large bronze statue of the sayadaw was removed from the park in 1962 and thrown into a lake but rediscovered when the water was later dredged. The statue was moved to a military area, sank into the ground because of its weight and was discovered again when the site was redeveloped as the Russian embassy. Moved to another municipal building in Myoma Kyaung Street, it disappeared again and has not been found since.
But organisers said a donor has been found to fund a new bronze statue at a cost of K100 million (US$78,000).
From:The Myanmar Times