Using Technology to Help Restore Bagan

CyArk, a non-profit digital archive organization, travelled to Bagan in June 2016 with the help of the Department of Archaeology of Myanmar and UNESCO. The scope of the visit was to take enhanced images and scans of four temples within the ancient city.

Drones were an important part of this project. They were used to fly over vast areas to better understand how far apart the monuments were from each other, and from the sites around them.

Shortly after the first mission to Bagan, an earthquake damaged hundreds of temples whose foundations were not strong enough to withstand the shock.

Teams were sent from all around the world to Bagan to restore the exteriors of the temples, monasteries and meditation places back to how they were before the earthquake.

The earthquake also damaged some of the precious frescoes inside of the buildings. These too were part of the restoration project. 

Following the earthquake CyArk returned to assist local teams on two follow up expeditions. 

The images captured proved invaluable to the Bagan teams who were restoring the buildings, giving them an idea of what the structures looked like before, and exactly how much damage the earthquake had caused. This helps locals to preserve this sacred site for future generations.