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The Mystery of the Great Bell
Legend and documented evidence seem to intertwine in the story of the largest bell ever made. Originally cast in 1484 by King Dhammazedi, a Mon ruler of Burma whose capital was the city of Bago, the bell was presented to the monks at Rangoon’s Shwedagon.
A gem merchant from Venice, Gaspero Balbi, visited the pagoda a century later: “I found in a hall a very large bell which we measured, and found to be seven paces and three hand breadths,” he wrote in his diary. The bell was engraved with writing he was unable to understand.
In 1608, Filipe de Brito, a Portuguese mercenary who controlled an area on the southern banks of the Rangoon river, seized the bell and tried to carry it back to his base. While transporting it across the river, the bell slipped into the water, sinking a barge and a Portuguese warship. Since then the bell has disappeared. All attempts to locate it have failed. But now a wealthy businessman from Burma, Khin Shwe, has promised funds for $10m to recover it. If the attempt will be successful, the bell will be returned to the glittering Shwedagon pagoda. His firm, the Zay Kabar Company, is one of Burma’s leading construction and real estate businesses. The media reports suggest it did a lot of work for the military junta that previously ruled the country. More recently his company has been involved in a controversial land rights dispute with farmers on the northern fringes of Rangoon.
A gem merchant from Venice, Gaspero Balbi, visited the pagoda a century later: “I found in a hall a very large bell which we measured, and found to be seven paces and three hand breadths,” he wrote in his diary. The bell was engraved with writing he was unable to understand.
In 1608, Filipe de Brito, a Portuguese mercenary who controlled an area on the southern banks of the Rangoon river, seized the bell and tried to carry it back to his base. While transporting it across the river, the bell slipped into the water, sinking a barge and a Portuguese warship. Since then the bell has disappeared. All attempts to locate it have failed. But now a wealthy businessman from Burma, Khin Shwe, has promised funds for $10m to recover it. If the attempt will be successful, the bell will be returned to the glittering Shwedagon pagoda. His firm, the Zay Kabar Company, is one of Burma’s leading construction and real estate businesses. The media reports suggest it did a lot of work for the military junta that previously ruled the country. More recently his company has been involved in a controversial land rights dispute with farmers on the northern fringes of Rangoon.