Museums gather dust in Sittwe

By DMG 05 May 2021

DMG Newsroom
5 May 2021, Sittwe

Closed for more than a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Cultural Museum and Buddhist Museum in the Arakan State capital Sittwe have yet to reopen to the public.

At the instruction of the National-Level Central Committee on Prevention, Control and Treatment of COVID-19, the museums were closed in March 2020 as part of coronavirus preventive measures.

U Kyi Sin, director of the Department of Archaeology and National Museum (Sittwe Branch), said museums cannot yet be reopened as the pandemic remains a concern.

“All museums throughout Myanmar are closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Pagodas are also closed. Museums can be reopened for the public when an order is issued to reopen them officially,” he said.

Museums will be reopened in line with COVID-19 preventive regulations, he added.

Sittwe resident U Tun Aung Sein said the closure of the city’s museums did not have a negative impact on locals, but he spared a thought for out-of-towners.

“I think people can visit there by wearing masks. Visitors from different regions and states lose the chance to see archaeological artefacts and cannot read books there. So, I think the museums should be open two days a week,” he said.

Tourism to Arakan State as a whole has been hard-hit by the pandemic: The number of domestic and foreign visitors to Arakan State fell by nearly 25% last year compared with 2019, according to figures from the state’s Directorate of Hotels and Tourism.