Myanmar (aka Burma)

Yangon, Myanmar  -  February 19

If you look at a map, Myanmar looks like a kite with a tail. It has about 52 million people with 14 ethnic states and divisions. Its culture, language, and food has been heavily influenced by its neighbors of India.

Once again we are coming to a country that was colonized by the British. Their trip to independence was not straightforward but finally occurred in 1948.  Suffice it to say that the name Myanmar (myan = active; mar = strong) is the original name for the area, reinstituted in 1989, and preferred over the British term, Burma. Burma referred to the majority ethnic group in the central region of the country, but in fact there are 7 states and 7 regions in Myanmar.

The predominant language, Burmese, apparently evolved from Sanskrit and consists of beautiful flourishing symbols.  Other ethnic groups in Myanmar have their own languages and there are 2 ethnic areas that use English letters for the written form; English missionaries invented their written form to be able to translate the Bible.

Similarly, Yangon is the name used for the port where we arrived which supersedes the term Rangoon used by the British.  Yangon means “the city without strife.”

Today I hopped onto the SAS-run city tour of Yangon so I could get a taste of the city, knowing that my next few days were going to take me north to Mandalay and Bagan. 

We visited the not-to-be-missed site is the Shwedagon Pagoda.  It is impossible to adequately describe.  It was a huge temple surrounded by a platform that took about 30 minutes to walk around.  If I have the story correct, it was first built over 2,026 years ago and has been renovated over the years by 32 kings, reaching its present height of 99 meters in the 17^th century. People have had prayer houses built along the edges and multiple sponsors have contributed Buddha figures to each.  Everything seemed to be covered in gold and the stupa is covered with diamonds.  It was breathtaking. I tried to take pictures and there was just no way to capture how jaw-dropping it was.

Your day of birth is important here.  There are 8 days in the week, each with a corresponding animal (and flower):

Monday, tiger

Tuesday, lion
Wednesday morning (elephant with tusks), 

Wednesday afternoon (elephant without tusks), 

Thursday, mouse

Friday guinea pig (mine)

Saturday, dragon 

Sunday, Garuda bird (a mythical bird, also the name of an airlines)

At the temple, there were stations where we could pray and anoint the Buddha representing our day of birth.  We were told that it was appropriate for anyone to do so, so I found Friday!

Mandalay, Myanmar – February 20

Those who know me would not be surprised that I was up at 3 am if I said I was working late into the night. But this morning, I got UP at 2:30 am to be at breakfast at 3 am!  We left the ship at 3:30 am to get to the Yangon airport for our flight to Mandalay. 

Our guide for this trip, “Mandalay and Ballooning in Bagan” is Daniel from the Destination Asia group.  We’ve had wonderful guides through this group.  Our itinerary is packed! 

There are 32 of us including one of the Linked In executives, Mike with his family, Lisa, Jade and Mia.  Mike had been on SAS as a student.  Not surprisingly he is now on the board of directors and wanted to bring his family on the experience.  One of the students told me that he had to negotiate pretty hard to get the time off, but that he decided it was worth it even if he had to quit.  Impressive that someone could stay that balanced when in such an important role.  Another board of director joined us as well and we have 3 faculty and a life-long learner.  It seems to be a nice, well-balanced group. 

I am a “trip liaison” with Joon (pronounced June) who teaches English (women’s literature, a course called Reading Across Borders with books on the places we visit, and one other class I am not remembering) on the ship.  She is the sweetest person you could imagine and we have bonded in our roles.  “Trip liaisons” have low level responsibility for the group – meeting before the trip to set expectations, keeping track that people make it back on time, following up if someone isn’t feeling well, etc.  The guide, in this case Daniel, does the heavy lifting of managing the group through the itinerary.  So far the guides have been superb so I’ve had little to do.  Nice perk is that if we are selected we get our overnight trip for free!

Mandalay is a bustling little town, the second largest in Myanmar after Yangon, but much smaller.  It is considered the 3^rd capital of Myanmar which takes a little explaining.  Apparently, it was the capital before Myanmar was colonized by the British in 1857.  The British moved the capital to Yangon which was closer to an international trade port, which became the first capital.  When Myanmar became independent, the government decided to establish a new capital, Naypyitaw, half way between Yangon and Mandalay on the Irrawaddy River.  This made Mandalay the 3^rd capital and Yangon 2^nd.  Apparently Yangon is still the financial center and where embassies are, but the government buildings have been moved.

Our first stop was the Mahamuni Temple which houses the Mahamuni Sacred Living Image, a large statue in the image of Buddha, encrusted in gold leaf. Local men bring gold leave to add to the body. Women can view the Buddha, but may not approach him directly. (We could view him from a distance and they now have video cameras with close-ups of the men as they add their gold leaf offering).  In terms of reincarnation, apparently, we women are seen as just a little lower of the chain. It’s interesting to process this and be culturally sensitive at the same time.

A woman in her local garb (she agreed to be photographed) who was also visiting Shwedagon Pagoda:

Buddha is believed to have embraced the Buddha image here 7 times, thereby giving the statue life.  At 5:30 am a monk washes the Buddha’s face, brushes his teeth and prepares him for the day.  In the afternoon, visits are ceased so that Buddha can rest. 

Mandalay is home to many craftspeople: monument (Buddha) makers, weavers, wood carvers, and embossers.  We had a chance to visit one of the many locations where craftspeople are working and appreciate the transformation of wood into intricate figures using chisels, the painstaking task of laying gold leaf onto statues, and stitching fabric with sequins and embroidery. 

This was a great prelude to our visit after lunch to the Golden Palace Monastery to see the finely carved wood faces.  The Golden Palace itself is in another location from the monastery, which we got to glimpse later.  Our guide says that the palace has been rebuilt but this monastery is original. 

The story goes that there were spirits left in the building from King Mindon whose remains had been laid to rest in the monastery.  His son, King Thibas, as was the custom, consulted the astrologers for a solution and they said the building needed to be disassembled and moved to the bottom of the mountain.  Looking at the monastery now, this was no small feat with the large teak beams that hold the structure up.  The result is that when the Golden Palace was destroyed by bombing in WWII, this one original building was not harmed. 

Our next stop was the Aung Myay Oo Monastic Education School where we prepared some snacks and ice cream for a large crowd of young children who are preparing as novices and nuns.  Apparently most young boys and some young girls go to monastery to learn the principles of Buddhism for some period of time – from a few hours to several months.  It seemed like it is particularly popular to send children to the monastery during school breaks.  (It reminded me of how we send our children to summer camp.) Children can attend more than once. Many grandparents want to know that their grandchildren have been a novice before they die.

Monks and nuns have 227 laws to follow.  They must shave their heads and remove themselves from all attachments.  In the morning, they visit the community who shares food with them and they abstain from all food after noon.  We saw many monks wrapped in beautiful orange cloth (the suffering color of Buddha) as we visited temples and went through towns.  Some remain monks for long periods; others study for a while and then return to everyday life.  As our guide phrased it, “Nothing is permanent.”   It is not mandatory for women to train as nuns.  Females are more likely to show their confirmation with piercing of their ears. 

The children were sweet and enjoyed our attempts to interact with high fives and exploding fist bumps.  I don’t feel like we ever really got a full explanation of who the children were that are there—some looked like they had experienced some type of infections on their scalps.  We also gave out some pencils and what I think were bars of soap.  Many questions remain.  I looked the school up on the internet and it sounds like many of the children may work in inner city markets of Myanmar selling goods in to help their parents.

Longyis, wrap style skirts, are worn by men and women in Myanmar.  They are made from beautiful woven cloth.  We had the opportunity to visit a weaving factory to see the workers do both hand and machine weaving of the fabrics.  It was amazing to watch the patterns emerge out of the fast maneuvering of the threads by the women who worked the looms.  It seemed like back-breaking work but the results were beautiful.

Our final stop was the U Bein Bridge, probably the longest teak wood bridge in the world, where we watch a beautiful sunset and interacted with some of the local people at the market.

For those of my friends who like literary references, our guide mentioned Rudyard Kipling’s poem “On the Road to Mandalay” (which we saw posted in one of the restrooms) and Marco Polo who wrote about Mandalay.  He says that neither of them actually visited the area.

Mandalay to Bagan – February 21

It’s 8:30 am and I am on the open-air top deck of a boat, motoring up the Irrawaddy River. It actually feels cold, but then again it is early. We started our trip at 6:30 am

and won’t be to Bagan until dinnertime.  The river is quite lovely with trees and vegetation.  Every so often we see a town that has pagodas dotting the hillside. 

[Later] Mid-day we stopped at Yandapo Village, a small village on the Irrawaddy River which is known for making terracotta pots.  We learned about their process from mixing the clay, throwing the pots on foot-powered wheels, drying them and baking them in their individual fire kilns (wood burning mounds).  

It was remarkable to see the whole process unfold in front of our eyes. Despite its small size, Yandapo Village is apparently well known in Myanmar for its terracotta pots and many hotels purchase them for their displays.  We watched as they mixed sand and clay in one area, threw the pot in another, and witnessed the pots drying all around the village. We watched them pile about 400 pots together as the first step to making the kiln which would burn for about 3 days.  They don’t know exactly what temperature it reaches because they know by the color of the flame whether it is the right temperature.  Truly an art form.  

It felt a little awkward to be almost walking through their homes as we walked through the village.  They seem to have embraced the tourist intrusions and had little pots we could buy to remember the experience.  As always, the children were adorable and we were appropriately warned not to give the children anything in terms of snacks, gifts, or money that might disrupt the ecology of their lives.

We arrive in Bagan with just enough time to check into our hotel and go to dinner at a nearby restaurant, adjacent to a pagoda.  We were treated to a traditional elephant dance (people dressed up) at the end of our meal.  Back at the hotel, we discovered a troupe of musicians and dancers performing local music that was a treat to watch.  Tomorrow is ballooning over Bagan – so bedtime calls…

  

Ballooning in Bagan – February 22

Yet another early morning so we can make our way to a hot air balloon ride over fields of pagodas as the sun rises.  Our pilot, Gavin, is originally from Great Britain.  His father was also a balloon pilot so he has been flying for a long time.  He says he love to fly in Myanmar and thinks it’s one of the most beautiful of all places to fly.  He is now married to a woman from Myanmar and spends 7 months a year here, 2 months ballooning in another country in Africa, and a month visiting family back in Great Britain.  Sixteen of us rode with Gavin for an awesome, beautiful 50 minutes.  It was a clear day and we could see for miles.  The sky was filled with balloons (some from 2 other companies) as many of the SAS trips also had ballooning as part of their itinerary. 

I have never been ballooning before and found it to be magnificent.  I loved the sensation of floating upward in the sky, the gentle rotation of the basket as Gavin turned us around to see different sides, and the rushing of hot air as he fired up the balloons from time to time. 

Hundreds of pagodas sprinkled the landscape and the sunrise was beautiful.  Gavin told us that we had been superbly lucky as the day before had been hazy.  We celebrated our successful flight with champagne when we landed, received a certificate of flight and were offered many local souvenirs – sand paintings, elephant pants, enamel boxes to name a few -- from local vendors before departing back to the hotel for breakfast …. at 8:30 am.  Quite a day and it was only 8:30!!

Buddhism is the predominate religion in this country.  Its history goes back to the same time (9th-12^th century) as the temples we visited in Cambodia.  It was interesting to once again see human structures that have survived such long periods of time. 

There are 2 styles of pagoda:  1.) stupa, which is solid and contains relics of Buddha or saints and 2.) a temple.  You can enter temples which hold statues of Buddha (some believe the statues ARE Buddha.)  Buddha is thought to have 547 reincarnations and in various forms (frog, rabbit, rooster).  His followers memorized where he had been and recorded them in a book. 

Buddha can be seen in one of 4 positions: standing, sitting, reclining, and walking.  Walking is particularly unusual to see.  The other thing we learned to notice is Buddha’s hand gestures.  There are apparently 57 basic gestures – so we didn’t try to learn them all. 

Some of the fundamental tenets of Buddhism we learned about were:

1.      Look at yourself before you blame others: mirrors near the Buddha are a reminder of this

2.     Take the middle path: Without success Buddha tried some extremes to seek enlightenment like leaving home and fasting and realized that the best path was to not be too good or too bad

3.     Nothing is permanent: clocks at the pagodas represent this

4.     Thou shall not drink.

When asked why there are so many pagodas, our guide explained that they are all built in places identified by Buddha in his writings as places he had been.  Since reincarnation is part of the belief system, in some cases they are places that Buddha had pointed out that he had lived as a frog or some other animal. 

Bagan - February 22, the day continues

After breakfast we visited the 12^th century Sulamani Temple with some mural paintings from the 18^th century that are still visible.  During various conquests, displaced people took refuge in the temples and some paintings have been destroyed by the smoke from their fires. 

Next we took a horsecart ride among the temples we had seen from the air.  In this area, the temples are scattered across the fields within sight of each other, many within 50 feet of each other.   Everyone was encouraged to build a temple in the fronts of their properties by the king (of course, none higher than his own).  The houses are gone but the temples are still standing. 

Bagan was on the silk road.  This is not an area that grows rice, but they had peanuts, sesame, silk, cotton, and oil to trade and these days, oil and gold.  The guide says that they claim to have 3 colors of gold: yellow (as we think of it); black (oil); and white.  He said the government says that rubber is their white gold, but locals say that the white gold is opium.  There is a growing disparity of wealth as the opium dealers have money to invest at a different level than typical workers. 

There have been 9 earthquakes in the area.  Two large ones (1976 and August 2016) were especially destructive to some of the temples.  Some have crumbled and have had to be rebuilt.  Interestingly, in the process, a great deal of history has been revealed as sometimes inside of the temples there are relics that provide information that contradicts what was thought to be the “facts.” There were also a number of “tomb raiders” who went searching for the gems stored in Buddha. Recently the government has required business to renovate 1 stupa for each business permission (license) the seek.  While this has provided money for restoration, apparently it has also led to shoddy restoration efforts among some traders.

It was interesting to talk with the horsecart driver who was working to learn English.  He seemed to take pride in stopping to give us the perfect camera shot and pointed out vegetation along the way.  In the recent past, the government marked this area as a historical preservation site and at the time displaced all those who were living in the area to “New Bagan.”  I wondered what it was like for all those forced to move.

Bagan is known for creating beautiful black lacquerware.  We visited a village center where it is made, learned what the process is, and tried our hand a laying small pieces of crushed shell into a design.  It was a fascinating process and I have full respect now for how difficult a process it is.

We had a second opportunity to interact with children at the Zay Ta Wun monastery after lunch.  The children here were dressed in uniforms and seemed to be more comfortable with interactions with us than yesterday.  The guide orchestrated a game of “tickle” with us, to the children’s glee.  We were all running around trying to make each other giggle by tickling each other.  The kids loved it when we squealed. It was hysterical – and exhausting.  The SAS photographer captured me on video in full play form and I am featured on the SAS Myanmar video if anyone is following those clips. Another SAS trip came right behind us to give out snacks to the kids who by that time were standing quietly in line.  (I think we had more fun.)

Until 1959 girls only went up to the 4^th grade.  Things began to change in 1962 and they now continue through 9^th grade.  In 10^th grade students begin to focus on a particular University study if they qualify.  Daniel said that about 40% leave school after 10^th grade.  Women need better grades than men to go on to University. (Don’t know if that is policy or practice.)

Some other cultural things we learned: a main recreation is movies.  Pornography is strictly prohibited.  A gardenia or jasmine dropped in mud is substituted in films to denote sexual violation. 

Daniel shared some local sayings,

·       “Fire is a good service and a bad master” making a parallel reference to the appropriate use of Facebook.

·       “All mushrooms are edible, some just once” just for humor. 

·       “Maybe you have never been to a monastery” as a parental chastise for misbehaving.

Marriage in not arranged in Myanmar. The father pays for the wedding and the male provides the dowry to show how much he loves the woman.  There is much superstition about color.  Black would never be worn to a wedding unless the person is an ex.  Dark green is an insulting color to wear.

A typical Burmese breakfast includes rice and mild curry.  Other popular dishes are mohinga (fish & chipped beef, garlic, turmeric with rice noodle); chicken soup with coconut milk and wheat noodles and “fish soup.”  Northern cuisine has more chili and ginger (perhaps because for warmth in the cooler, mountainous area).  The western area is known for its powdered green chili and much spicier foods.

In the afternoon, we visited more temples: Ananda Temple (11th century; masterpiece piece temple with four standing position Buddha statues)

and Tayoke Pyay Temple (13th century; finest stucco decoration & 13th century mural painting) and visited another picturesque area where there were temple ruins, encountered a goat herd, watched the sun set.  It was a beautiful setting.

So much packed into one day. Then back to the airport to return to Yangon and our ship.  The ship is feeling like home by now.  It was a wonderful trip and it feels good to be home.

I so enjoyed my trip to Myanmar with its rich culture and friendly people.  It is a challenge to reconcile my experience with what is happening in the western part of the country.  Civil war has been going on in various parts of the country for quite a while, so one perspective was that It is not something new.  From what was said, it seems like the President does not really have the power, so she is limited in her ability to change what is happening.  The sense was that it will take pressure from the international community to make change happen.