Legacy of the last Mughal lives on in Yangon

IN MEMORIAM: The tomb the emperor wrote about is now a dargah.

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Yangon: Days before the last Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar died in a British Army officer's garage in Yangon, the poet-king wrote: “Who will pray on my behalf or bring me flowers? Who will light a candle for me? I am nothing but a gloomy tomb.” But he needn't have worried as 145 years after Zafar's death his legacy still lives on in a dargah in Yangon.

Far from being the last Mughal or one of the prominent leaders of the first war of Indian Independence, Bahadur Shah Zafar is seen in an entirely new light in Myanmar.

In order to quell all memory of 1857, the British never revealed where exactly Zafar was buried. It was only in 1991, during a restoration drive, that workers unearthed a red brick structure, now recognised as Zafar's real grave.

The tomb the emperor wrote about is now a Dargah, and in his final resting place, Zafar himself is revered as a saint-scholar.

“Here he lived like a fakir. He may have been a king there, but here he was a Sufi saint,” the imam of the dargah, Ashraf Ismail said.

Today, hundreds of pilgrims flock to the tomb every day, looking for peace and tranquility. A congregation of followers takes place every year, where qawwalis are sung, and Zafar's poetry lives on in the hearts and minds of millions of people.