TEMPLE BELLS [Allocated Title]

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  • Title: TEMPLE BELLS [Allocated Title]
  • Film Number: ABY 94
  • Other titles: ROYAL AIR FORCE OPERATIONS IN SOUTH EAST ASIA DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR [Allocated Series Title]
  • Summary: Scenes of peasant agriculture and Buddhist temple bells near Mandalay, Burma.
  • Description: Burmese peasant farmers thresh grain using bullocks to trample it underfoot. Close-up of this. Temple spires. RAF Spitfires overhead. A statue of a chinthe, or mythical lion-like guardian. Buddhist monks, with shaven heads and wearing their traditional robes, point up at the sky as the Spitfires pass. A Burmese boy drives a water-wagon drawn by a bullock. Close-up on the boy.
  • Access Conditions: IWM Attribution: © IWM
  • Featured Period: 1939-1945
  • Production Date: 1945-04-04
  • Production Country: GB
  • Production Details: Air Ministry, Directorate of Public Relations (Production sponsor) Royal Air Force Film Production Unit (Production company) Shears (Sergeant) (Production individual) Layzell, R G (Production individual)
  • Personalities, Units and Organisations: Royal Air Force (regiment/service)
  • Keywords: Mandalay, Burma (geography) Burma 1942-1945, Second World War (event) Mandalay 1945, Burma 1942-1945, Second World War (event) Royal Air Force 1939-1945 (theme) Far East 1939-1945 (theme) Burma 1942-1945 (theme)
  • Physical Characteristics: Colour format: B&W Sound format: Silent
  • Technical Details: Format: 35mm Number of items/reels/tapes: 1 Footage: 275 ft; Running time: 4 minutes
  • HD Media:
  • Notes: Dopesheet (written by Squadron Leader T D Connochie, Officer Commanding No.3 RAF Film Production Unit) explains that the purpose of this film was to capture the 'low, melodious sound' of Burmese temple bells. It continues: 'It was hoped to dispel the idea that these bells were anything like our church bells or an equivalent to the ones before "Time gentlemen!" as it has been understood from Kipling's [']Temple Bells are ringing and a man can raise a thirst.['] [This something of a misquote of Kipling's 1892 poem 'Mandalay']. Dopesheet refers to separately recorded sound of temple bells ringing, though this appears not to have survived for Archive preservation.
  • Link to IWM Collections page:

    ABY 94

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