The hunt for missing magical bell

Last week, an excavation team believes they have located the spot where the Great Bell of Dhammazedi lies and will start using a dredger to clear mud away from the site.

Salvage team member Win Myint said on Friday that on the day, some spiritual charms were dropped near the site to try to make the search for the giant sunken bell a success.

“The spiritual charms were dropped by followers of the late Min Theinkha, who is an astrologer and fortune-teller,” Win Myint said.

The bell was cast during the reign of Mon King Dhammazedi in 1484, according to historical records. It has been sitting on the riverbed for more than 400 years and is sure to create a lot of excitement if it is located and brought to the land.

Some say modern techniques are useless, and only mystical divination can outwit the spirits guarding the bell.

On the banks of Myanmar's Yangon River, residents have misgivings about efforts to recover an ancient temple bell, thought to be lying at the bottom since the early 17th century.

"We were taught since we were children that the bell is guarded by Naga," said Maung Lwin, an old resident of Daw Pone Township, just other side of Yangon, commercial capital of Myanmar. 

Naga are snake-like spirits of pre-Buddhist religions that persist across much of South and Southeast Asia, portrayed in many temples, and integrated into the daily rituals of many nominal Buddhists.

"We fear they would punish those who find the bell in river and this may affect us," he said. 

Maung Lwin and his neighbours make regular offerings of food to another Naga named U Shin Gyi Nat, said to control all sea water.

"U Shin Gyi will protect us from the anger of spirits that guard the bell. "Those spirits could be irked by the latest round of salvage efforts, he said, or roused to unleash floods or worse on the area. 

Last year, Khin Shwe, a prominent businessman of the Mon ethnic group, and a lawmaker of the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party, announced the latest plans to find the Great Bell of Dhammazedi.

The project would last 45 days, and cost Ks 200 million ($250,000dollars), with most of the funding coming from donations, said San Lin, leader of the salvage team of 10 divers brought from the southern archipelago of Myeik. 

It was kicked off on August 9. 

The locals' fear of the Naga's wrath has some basis, as previous attempts to divine the bell's location coincided with sudden floods that destroyed nearly a hundred villages within a week. 

Myths and superstition have surrounded the bell since it was cast in 1484 by King Dhammazedi, a Mon ruler whose capital was the city of Bago, 50 miles north-east of Yangon. 

The bell's toll was said to be not for human ears, but for spirits only, as it was cast under the astrological influence of the crocodile, as determined by the path of the moon.

"Unlike others, this bell is silent, as the crocodile makes no sound," Maung Lwin said.

In 1608, it was seized for scrap by Portuguese mercenary Filipe de Brito Nicote, who controlled the nearby town and area of Sanlyin on the southern banks of the Yangon River. 

He tried to carry the bell from the Shwedagon Pagoda back to his base to melt it down for weapons, but while crossing the river, the bell slipped and fell into the water, sinking a barge and a Portuguese warship in the process. 

For more than 400 years the missing magical bell, believed to weigh nearly 300 tonnes, has drawn adventurers and treasure-hunters from across the world.

"Even some Hollywood stars like Richard Gere have shown an interest," said Chit San Win, author of a book on the Dhammazedi Bell.

From 1987 to 1998, several salvage attempts were made by a consortium of the government and private investors, including foreign prospectors. But the efforts were stymied by poor visibility, silt, shipwrecks and the difficulty in locating the site of the accident after 400 years of shifting currents. In 2012, a Singaporean firm announced a 10-million-dollar budget and18-month timeframe for its own recovery effort, but nothing followed the announcement."The bell has been guarded by spirits since it returned to its home -a Nat nest," San Lin said.

"The salvage can't be done by using only modern ways. We must use some traditional ways," said the dive team leader, who was involved in seven previous attempts to retrieve the bell, and said he spotted it on the river bottom in 1998.The latest initiative uses no modern equipment to locate the bell. Food and prayers are offered up at a nearby shrine, and then divers trawl the bottom, breathing through air pipes connected to thesurface. But some historians say the bell might not even be in the river.

"They had better examine the history," said Chit San Win. "The myth might be a feint by de Brito to the Buddhists at that time to make his work easier," he said.