MYANMAR the land of Buddhas.

AUNG SAN SUU KYI

When I tell people I just returned from Myanmar, some say, "Where?" Yet most people have heard of Aung San Suu Kyi, the president elect that was put on house arrest by the military junta of Myanmar and kept her from collecting her Nobel Prize for Peace - at least until last year. Myanmar is now opening up, the miliary is loosening its grip, and people all over the country are treating Aung San Suu Kyi as a hero. Photos of her are everywhere, as well those of her father Bogyoke Aung San who liberated the country from British rule.

STUPAS, TEMPLES & PAGODAS

SHWEDAGON PAGODA IN YANGON



BAGAN, HOME OF 3,000 TEMPLES

SOME OF THE 2,000 STUPAS IN KAKKU

THE TOURIST TRAP

You may notice the many tourists taking photos of the monks on their way to their morning meal. The monks at this monestary (Sasnayaunggyi Kyaung) a thousand monks reside. Unfortunately, there must have been four times that many tourists photographing and josseling each other for a better vantage point. The crowd must have been four or five deep!

Myanmar men are expected to be monks at some point in their lives - usually once as children, and once as adults. This country is devoutly Buddhist, and when the local people take a vacation they do a pilgrimage to religious sites: pagodas, stuppas, temples, monasteries, and caves full of Buddhas. The tour agencies assume that is what tourists will want to do. So our itinerary was one after the other of these sites. Unfortunately, all the other tourists were following the same trail. We met an 84 year old man from England, Dermit - who we ended up seeing three times - in three different cities.

In Bagan we went to what we thought was a remote pagoda as a vantage point to take a photo of the sunset. When we climbed to the top it was full of tourists who had come to capture the same sunset. This is a picture of all the tourists climbing down after photographing the sunrise.

A year ago Myanmar only had 300,000 tourists. In contrast, Thailand had ten million. This year Myanmar has had a million tourists, and anticipates three million next year. I'm glad we took the advice of travel articles in the San Francisco paper and went now. The country doesn't have the hotels or infrastructure to handle many more tourists.

OFF THE ITINERARY

Fortunately, we had guides willing to vary from our itinerary. We encountered these nuns on the street. In this case we were the only tourists witnessing this amazing sight.






At another place we encountered another kind of tourist - Buddhist nuns from China.

THE PEOPLE

We found the people to be exceptionally friendly. We rarely found anyone who wasn't gracious about having a camera pointed at them. I suspect this may change as they are confronted with a larger volume of tourists.

 These two monks, ages 19 and 20 years old, came to this site to engage English speakers with the intent of practicing their own language skills. They were taking English in the monastery. We also encountered a large group of university students at the same site - there for the same reason.

We were invited to join these weavers on their tea break.

ETHNIC GROUPS

 There are 135 different ethnic groups in Myanmar. The predominant group are from the Shan tribal origins.


The Paoh (also spelled Pa-o) ethnic group was the most identifiable one we saw - noteworthy for the colorful towels in orange and red that they wear on their heads.








Many of the areas we went to were populated by the Paoh people, and where our guide, Aung was from.








This woman is from the Padaung ethnic group.

This is a dying custom of rings being increasingly added until a woman marries. The numbers of younger women interested in this custom has decreased by more international exposure. The U.N. has compared the treatment of these women to animals in a zoo, in that they are strategically placed in shops to be photographed by tourists. It might, however, be the only income for their families.

We did met a teenager with rings. We also were able to pick up rings and found them quite heavy. They don't actually elongate the neck, but push the clavical and shoulders down.



An unidentified ethnic group

THANAKHA & BETEL NUT

Thanakha is a paste made by rubbing the bark of the Thanakha tree onto a grindstone with water, and then smearing it on your face. It is used as sun block, moisterizer and perfume. It is worn by all Burmese and is very common, sometimes artfully shaped like a leaf on young, fashion conscious girls.

Note that the woman above has her mouth full. She is chewing betel nut which produces a mild stimulant, red teeth and spit.

The betel nut is combined with leaves and a paste and can be bought at any of the markets.

BURMESE FASHION

BURMESE ARTISTRY

FARMING & MECHANIZATION

Three out of four citizens of Myanmar are farmers.

We saw fields of wheat being harvested, rice being planted, and crops of all kinds.

Wheat threshing by hand.

GOLD

 

 

Gold Leaf can be readily purchased to add to sacred sites.



Monk applying gold to Buddha with so much
gold leaf that the original shape is obscured.

BUDDHAS EVERYWHERE

PINDAYA CAVES WITH 8,000 BUDDHAS

 

LAKE INLE

Lake Inle was probably my favorite place: the fishermen use a very unique net,

and paddle with their feet.

JUDY'S PHOTOS

Judy engaging a local person to be able to take a photograph.

 Judy was amazing on this trip. Her philosophy was, "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em." Instead of standing around watching me with a camera she took on some serious shooting of her own.

Here are some of the results of her own creative work!