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Vases of pink and yellow plastic flowers, white lace umbrellas and baskets of fruit— even the twisted metal and smashed glass—all lie as they were on the night the thieves entered the building, a disturbing visual reminder of the violence wrought on the abbot’s body.  High up on the wall, a clock ticks in the surrounding silence.

Adding to the mystery, of course, is uncertainty about whether the ashes unceremoniously dumped at the entrance to the monastery grounds are really the abbot’s. Without a DNA test, we will never know.

Many aides and disciples openly admit their doubts. They point out what they believe to be the abbot’s extraordinary magical powers, which, some believe, enabled him to secretly enter Aung San Suu Kyi’s house while she was under house arrest. They intimate his body’s disappearance is a result of the abbot’s powers, and it will shortly be replaced, by the return of the abbot himself to human form.

Whatever the beliefs of some disciples, the mystery remains, intensifying the Thamanya Sayadaw’s powerful presence, even in death, while also attracting curious, confused pilgrims and bringing more money to the monastery.