Myanmar tour guide left 'heartbroken' as ancient temple destroyed

STORY: :: In the debris of an past temple, a circuit usher says Myanmar's earthquake has taken her livelihood

:: Inwa, Myanmar

:: April 6, 2025

:: Mar Oo, Tour guide

“I was conscionable coming down with visitors from the temple astatine this gate. We would person been deed by the earthquake if we had gone down from the different side. I was taking pictures of the visitors here. Then, erstwhile we were receiving tips from the visitors, the earthquake struck the ceramic temple. It abruptly fell down.”

“This ceramic temple is our livelihood, wherever radical sold flowers here, and guides explained to visitors astir its history. We are heartbroken that it collapsed. It is arsenic if a household subordinate had died.”

The 36-year-old is among respective locals who depended connected selling flowers and souvenirs, guiding tours, and taking photos for temple visitors, for a living.

The decease toll from the almighty quake that deed connected March 28 roseate to 3,471, authorities media reported, with 4,671 radical injured and different 214 inactive missing.

Myanmar's subject has struggled to tally the state since overthrowing the authorities of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi successful 2021, leaving the system and basal services, including healthcare, successful tatters, a concern exacerbated by the quake.