Myanmar 9 History

Lonely Planet Publications
35
History
A preview of the past: life in Myanmar has rarely been smooth. Squabbling kingdoms plagued the area for centuries, till the British took it in
three waves in the 19th century. For its own economic benefit, Britain
managed the mountainous border regions (home to many ethnic groups)
and the fertile plains and delta of central and lower Myanmar (where most
Bamar live) separately, festering a rift between cultures that lingers in full
force today. After a rocky independence from Britain from 1948, General
Ne Win wrestled control in 1962 from the fracturing elected government
and led the country to full isolation from the outside world. Ruined by a
rapidly deteriorating economy and a major currency devaluation in the
1970s and 80s, many thousands of locals flooded the streets peacefully
on 8 August 1988 in prodemocracy marches that saw Aung San Suu Kyi
emerge as a leader recognised worldwide. The violent reaction to this
protest by the military was broadcast on international television screens
and forced the administration to call a national election. The election was
held in 1990, but the military has yet to hand over the government to
Aung San Suu Kyis National League of Democracy (NLD), which won
a staggering percentage of votes.
WHERE HUMANS BEGAN?

Virtually nothing is known of Myanmars prehistoric inhabitants, though
archaeological evidence suggests the area has been inhabited since at
least 2500 BC. Ancient Greeks knew of Burma. Going a bit further back
in history: the Myanmar government is proud of recent finds that link
the earliest primates of which, theory goes, humans evolved to Asia,
or more precisely central Myanmar. A 45 millionyear-old fossil (an
anklebone of a primate) was supposedly found in central Myanmar in
the late 1990s.
EARLY KINGDOMS
Myanmars landscape a broad expanse of fertile flatland cupped by
protective mountain ranges along its present international borders and
carved by long, very navigable rivers explains a lot of how this land
evolved once migrating ethnic groups decided to stick around. Four
major precolonial ethnic groups peppered the flatlands with kingdoms
for centuries, while smaller ethnic groups lived mostly untouched
in the remote hills beyond. The first major kingdom of sorts started
with the Pyu (who arrived from the Tibeto-Burman plateau or from
India). The Pyu created city-states Beikthano, Hanlin (p262), Sri Ksetra
(Thayekhittaya; p286) in central Myanmar between the 1st century
BC and the 9th century AD. In the 10th century, Yunnanese invaders
from China enslaved or scared off most Pyu (though some art of the Pyu
remains, showing a blend of Hinduism and Theravada and Mahayana
Buddhism).
The Mon (Tailing), who may have originated from eastern India or mainland Southeast Asia, arrived in the 6th century, settling fertile lowlands on
TIMELINE 543 BC
Buddhas death
History of Burma (1925),

by GE Harvey, gives a
chronological rundown
of Myanmars kingdoms
(from the Pyu era until
1824). Harvey almost
audibly sighs at the
kings blunders, and
faithfully recounts many
fanciful legends.
The Rakhaing claim the

Buddha visited their
kingdom in the 6th
century BC.
1st century BC
Possible founding of Beikthano, a Pyu town east of
current-day Magwe
36 H I S T O R Y T h e Fi r s t B u r m a
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CAPITAL HOPSCOTCH
Its difficult to give a precise summary of overlapping historical periods, dynasties and locations
of capitals in Myanmar due to a lack of accurate records. Here are general periods of key capitals
of the Pyu, Rakhaing, Mon and Bamar people, although the kingdoms often jumped about as
often as new kings breathed and died.
Pyu
Beikthano
Inwa
Hanlin
Thayekhittaya
1st century BC5th century AD

3rd-9th century
3rd-10th century
Rakhaing
Dhanyawady
Wethali
Mrauk U
?-6th century AD
4th-9th century
13th-18th century
Mon
Thaton (Dvaravati)
Hanthawady (Bago)
Bamar
Bagan
Sagaing
?-10th century
6th-16th century
1740-57
10th-14th century
1315-64
Taungoo
Shwebo
(Mokesebo)
Konbaung
Mandalay
(Yadanapon)
British
Sittwe &
Mawlamyine
Mandalay
Yangon
1364-1555
1636-1752
1765-83
1823-37
1486-1573
1758-65
1783-1823
1837-57
1857-85
1826-52
1852-86
1886-1947
the Ayeyarwady River delta across Thailand to Cambodia. They developed

the area as Suvannabhumi (Golden Land), the capital either being near
present-day Thaton in Myanmar, or in Thailands Nakhon Pathom.
The Bamar people, or Burmans, arrived from somewhere in the eastern
Himalaya in the 8th or 9th century, supplanting the vanquished Pyu in
central Myanmar, and establishing the cultural heartland of Myanmar
as its still known. Bagan (Pagan) is believed to have been founded by
the Bamar in 849. Centuries of conflict with the Mon erupted after their
arrival, and the end product even with Bamar coming out on top was
really a merger of the two cultures.
Sometimes linked with present-day Bangladesh, the Rakhaing (Arakanese) claim their kingdom was well underway by the 6th century BC.
Certainly it was in full force by the 15th century, when as a Buddhist
kingdom based in Mrauk U Rakhaing pirates controlled much of the
Bay of Bengal.
THE FIRST BURMA

Nearly 200 years after Bagan was founded, Anawrahta took the throne
in 1044 and ignited the so-called golden period by consolidating the
scattered kingdoms for the first time. Initially animists, the Bamar had
picked up a hybrid form of Buddhism part Tantric, part Mahayana
during their migration to Myanmar. When the Mon king Manuha of
Thaton refused Anawrahtas request for their Tripitaka (the holy canon
of Theravada Buddhism), Anawrahta marched south and conquered
AD 754
Chinese Yunnan conquers the hill tribes in the north
6th9th century
The Mon, then the Bamar people settle in Myanmar
H I S T O R Y S e c o n d B u r m e s e E m p i re 37
Thaton in 1057, bringing back both the scriptures and the king! The
resultant injection of Mon culture in Bagan inspired a creative energy.
It quickly became a city of glorious temples and the capital of the First
Burmese Empire. For more on the history of Bagan see p293.
In 1077, the kingdom took a steady slip downward when a lowly buffalo
killed mighty Anawrahta. None of his successors (Kyanzittha, Alaungsithu
and Htilominlo) had his vision, and the kingdoms power slowly declined.
In 1273 King Narathihapate gets the credit for carelessly offending the
growing power of Kublai Khan and his Tartars (assassinating diplomats
will do that), who invaded in 1287 but didnt stay long. Shan tribes from
the hills to the east closely related with the Siamese took the opportunity and grabbed a piece of the low country, while the Mon in the south
broke free of Bamar control and established their own kingdom.
What is currently
considered traditional
Burmese culture is really
a fusion of Mon and
Bamar cultures that came
about at the height of the
Bagan era.
SECOND BURMESE EMPIRE

The 200 years following the collapse of Bagan were chaotic, with pieces
of the puzzle ruled by varying factions. During this time, Marco Polo
probably dropped by in the late 13th century, and the first actual record
of European contact came in 1435, when Venetian trader Nicolo di Conti
travelled along the coast.
In the 13th century the Mon re-established Hanthawady as a fairly stable
kingdom at Bago (Pegu) near Yangon. In 1472, Dhammazedi, the greatest
of Bagos kings, came to the throne; he prompted a Buddhist revival, set
up diplomatic contact with Europe and set the first stones for the great
Shwedagon Paya in Yangon.
Meanwhile the Shan had taken over northern Myanmar and founded the
Kingdom of Inwa (mistakenly called Ava by the British) near present-day
Mandalay in 1364, and the Rakhaing people flourished in western Myanmar, building fields of temples to rival Bagan.
Amid the testosterone, the tiny settlement of Bamar refugees in central
Taungoo (surviving between the Mon and Shan by playing the larger forces
off against each other) managed eventually to egg on the so-called Second
Burmese Empire. In the 16th century, a series of Taungoo kings extended
their power north, nearly to the Shans capital at Inwa, then south, taking
the Mon kingdom and shifting their own capital to Bago. In 1550 Bayinnaung came to the throne and reunified all of Myanmar and defeated the
neighbouring Siamese so convincingly that it was to be many years before
the long-running friction between the two nations re-emerged.
As happened with Anawrahta, the union slipped into decline following
the rulers death in 1581. The capital was shifted north to Inwa in 1636.
Its isolation from the sea effectively cutting off communication around
the kingdom ultimately contributed to their defeat by the British.
The Travellers History of

Burma (2000), by Gerry
Abbot, highlights
interactions with
Myanmar from foreign
eyes from the 14th
century to the end of the
last millennium.
BURMAS LAST KINGS

King Alaungpaya kicked off the third and final Burmese dynasty by contesting against the Mon when the Mon took over Inwa in 1752. Some say
Alaungpayas sense of invincibility deluded the Burmese into thinking
they could resist the British later on. After Alaungpayas short bloody
reign (see p38), his son, Hsinbyushin charged into Thailand and levelled
the capital of Ayuthaya, forcing the Siamese to relocate their capital to
849
Bagan founded
1057
Ancient Mon city of Thaton conquered by Anawrahtas Bamar
forces from Bagan; First Burmese Empire emerges
38 H I S T O R Y B u r m a s L a s t K i n g s
BURMAS GREATEST KING

Mention Alaungpaya to a Burmese person and youll often get a smile. The king with no royal
ties put his hometown of Shwebo (then known as Mokesebo; p260) on the map, and kick-started
Burmas final dynasty by kicking more arse than all the rest of Burmese kings combined. During
his reign, he mocked English dignitaries (like women with soft skin and no tattoos) and shrugged
off offers of assistance (I can crush 100 men such as the king of Bago). Alaungpaya talked big,
but backed it all up plus some.
As the Mon (Tailing) army of Bago conquered a passive Burmese capital of Inwa (Ava) in 1752,
a furious Alaungpaya rallied to keep the Burmese kingdom alive. He readied his hometown (then
home to 300) by digging a moat and building walls. When the Mon asked for Alaungpayas allegiance, he attacked.
Word spread of this defiant bumpkin, and Alaungpaya found ready recruits Burmese and
Shan who would accept the measly offerings for serving in his army: no pay (other than selling
any Mon kidnapped) and a BYOBS policy (bring your own bamboo spear to fight with).
Over the next few years, however, the army collected weapons from slain French soldiers (who
aided the Mon) and gradually picked apart the Mon kingdom: taking Inwa in 1753, Pyay in 1755,
Dagon later in 1755 (which he renamed Yangon, meaning End of Strife), and the Mon capital
of Bago in 1757. At one point, so the story goes, Alaungpaya sent 1000 cut-off Mon heads on
a raft to Bago as a gesture of ill will. After five years of battling the Shwebo king, the Mon fled
to Siam where they were assimilated.
Alaungpaya followed them. But he started so late in the year that rains sent him and his army
on retreat. On 11 May 1760, not yet back home, Alaungpaya died at the age of 46. His body
was cremated in Shwebo.
His reign lasted only eight years, but his home is ever revered as Victory Land to most
Burmese.
what eventually became Bangkok. His successor, Bodawpaya (another

son of Alaungpaya), looked for glory too, and brought the Rakhaing
(Arakanese) under Burmese control, which eventually led to tension
with the British (who had economic interests in Rakhaing territory) that
the dynasty would not outlive.
With eyes on Indochina, Britain wrestled all of the increasingly isolaSome of the first British
tionist Burma from the kings in three swipes, named the First, Second and
encounters with Burmese Third Anglo-Burmese Wars picking up Tenasserim and Rakhaing in
kings were in the early
1824, Yangon and southern Burma in 1853, and Mandalay and northern
18th century, when
Burma in 1885. The first war started when Burmese troops, ordered by King
Bodawpaya dressed up in Bagyidaw, crossed into British-controlled Assam (in India) from Rakhaing
so much gold (to impress) to pursue refugees. General Maha Bandula managed some minor victories
that he needed assistants using guerrilla tactics, but eventually was killed by cannon fire in 1824;
to help move him to his
Burmese troops then surrendered. The Treaty of Yandabo, helped by the
throne.
translator of missionary Adoniram Judson (whose name is on many Baptist
churches in Myanmar still), gave Rakhaing and Tenasserim to the British.
Two Burmese kings later, Bagan Min started his reign as many did
with mass executions to rid the capital of his potential rivals. An 1852
incident involving the possible kidnapping of two British sea captains
some argue it never happened gave the British a welcome excuse for
igniting another conflict, and an opportunity for more land. The British
1270s
Marco Polo pops by
1273
Burmese slay Tartar ambassadors; a peeved-off Kublai Khan
invades 14 years later
H I S T O R Y E n t e r B r i t a i n 39
quickly seized all of southern Burma, conquering Yangon, Pathein (Bassein) and they marched north to Pyay (Prome), facing little opposition.
The unpopular Bagan Min was ousted in favour of Mindon Min, who
moved the capital to Mandalay in 1857. Mindon Min built Mandalay, but
unhappily didnt adequately provide for his successor. After he died in 1878,
the new (rather reluctant) king, Thibaw Min, was propelled to power by
his ruthless wife and scheming mother-in-law. The following massive massacre of kinsmen (79 of his rivals) made many British papers previous
kings hadnt had to face the consequences of world media attention which
did little to support any move to question British power.
A couple of interesting
titles (usually available in
Yangon) include A History
of Burma by Maung Htin
Aung, and Deposed King
Thibaw of Burma in India,
18851926, by WS Desai.
ENTER BRITAIN
King Thibaw was totally ineffective and ruthless. Gangs of thugs replaced
relative order in northern Burma. In 1885 it took Britain two weeks to
take Mandalay, the final piece in the Burmese acquisition puzzle. Some
locals today shake their heads stating that Ayeyarwady forts werent used
adequately to repel the British ships; others call the conflict the war over
wood, as Britains victory allowed it to secure rights to the growing teak
industry.
Focused on controlling the rice, gem, petroleum and (particularly) teak
exports, England found Burma easier to control by applying direct rule only
where the Bamar were the majority (ie in the central plains). Hill states of
the Chin, Kachin, Shan, Kayin and Kayah were allowed to remain largely
autonomous. This division would contribute to a rocky start when Myanmar became independent in 1948, due to ill-feeling between the groups.
Division among the indigenous population was brought about in other
ways too. As part of British India after 1885, a flood of Indians (whom the
Burmese traditionally looked down on) came into the country and became
the second colonisers, by building businesses and taking rare low-level
government jobs. The less commercially experienced Burmese were unable
to compete. By 1930, most of Yangons population was Indian. Chinese
were also encouraged to immigrate and set up businesses to stimulate the
economy. Cheap British imports poured in, fuelled by rice profits.
At this time many old names got new British ones: Rangoon for Yangon, Prome for Pyay, Burma for Myanmar.
Contrary to the romantic tone of modern English-language accounts
of Burma under the Raj, much of Myanmar was considered a hardship
posting by British colonial officials, who found the Burmese difficult
to govern (and, to be fair, many of the British officials were insensitive
and incompetent). The country had the highest crime rate in the British Empire. Along with railroads and schools, the British built prisons,
including the infamous Insein prison, the Empires largest and still in use
by the current government.
For an immensely
readable fictionalised,
but accurate, retelling of
Burmas days from the
fall of King Thibaw to the
modern era, read Amitav
Ghoshs The Glass Palace
(p29).
RISE OF NATIONALISM
Or course, many Burmese were not happy with the British presence,
and nationalism burgeoned in the early days of the 20th century often
led by Buddhist monks. In 1919, at Mandalays Eindawya Paya (p236),
monks evicted Europeans who refused to take off their shoes; one monk,
U Kettaya, was given a life sentence. U Ottama, a Burmese monk who had
1364
Shan leaders found Inwa (Ava)
1435
Portuguese Nicolo di Conti visits; the first recorded European
contact
40 H I S T O R Y R i s e o f N a t i o n a l i s m
studied in India and returned to Myanmar in 1921, promoted religious

liberation as way to bring the independence movement to the attention
of the average Burmese Buddhist. After numerous arrests, U Ottama
died in prison in 1939. Another monk, U Wizaya, died in prison after a
163-day hunger strike that began as a protest against a rule that forbade
monks from wearing robes while imprisoned.
University students in Yangon went on strike on National Day in 1920,
protesting elitist entrance requirements at British-built universities; the
students referred to each other as thakin (master), as they claimed to be
the rightful masters of Burma. (Present leader General Than Shwe among
them.) One thakin a young man called Aung San was expelled from
university in 1936 for refusing to reveal who wrote a politically charged
article.
The British were eventually forced to make a number of concessions
towards self-government. In 1937 Myanmar was separated administratively from India, but internally the country was torn by a struggle
between opposing Burmese parties and sporadic outbursts of anti-Indian
and anti-Chinese violence.
Aung San & WWII

Irrawaddy Flotilla, by
Alister McRae, highlights
the British-bred fleet of
steamers that continue
to ply Myanmars many
waterways, while
The Longest War
194145, by Louis
Allen, gives an excellent
account of the WWII
campaign in Burma.
More famous in the West as Aung San Suu Kyis father, Bogyoke Aung
San is still revered as national hero No 1 by most Myanmar people
from prodemocracy activists to the military regime. His likeness is seen
throughout Myanmar. Aung San Suu Kyi, who was only two when he died,
called him a simple man with a simple aim: to fight for independence.
Born in 1915, Aung San was an active student at Rangoon University.
He edited the newspaper and led the All Burma Students Union. At 26
years old, he and the group called the Thirty Comrades looked abroad
for support of their independence movement. After initially planning to
seek it in China, they negotiated for military training in Japan, and returned as the first troops of the Burmese National Army (BNA) with the
invading Japanese troops in 1941. By mid-1942, the Japanese had driven
retreating British-Indian forces, along with the Chinese Kuomintang
(KMT), out of most of Myanmar. But the harsh and arrogant conduct of
the Japanese soon alienated the Myanmar people. Aung San complained
at Japans 15th Army headquarters in Maymyo (now Pyin U Lwin): I
went to Japan to save my people who were struggling like bullocks under
the British. But now we are treated like dogs.
MAJOR WWII SITES IN MYANMAR

Lashio (p215) Where the infamous Burma Road began
Taukkyan War Cemetery (p140) Final resting place of over 33,000 allied soldiers
Death Railway terminus (p159) Western end of Japanese-designed BurmaSiam Railway
(of Bridge over the River Kwai fame), built by Allied POWs and Asian coolies and which claimed
over 100,000 lives
British Colonial Diplomat House, Meiktila (p288) Former Japanese interrogation centre,
now a hotel
1472
The great Mon King Dhammazedi takes the throne and sets up
diplomatic contact with Europe
1550
Bayinnaung ascends to the throne and reunifies all of Myanmar;
the Second Burmese Empire
H I S T O R Y U N U & E a r l y W o e s 41
Aung San and the BNA switched allegiance to the Allied side. The
British, helped by the imaginative Chindit anti-Japanese operation,
ultimately prevailed. The Allies suffered about 27,000 casualties, while
nearly 200,000 Japanese perished during the campaign.
Footsteps to Independence
In January 1947, Aung San visited London as the colonys deputy chairman
of the Governors Executive Council, and signed a pact (the Aung San
Attlee agreement) allowing self-rule within a year. Plans included an April
election of a constituent assembly, made up of nationals of Burma only; also
Burma would receive an interest-free loan of 8 million from Britain.
A month later, Aung San met with Shan, Chin and Kachin leaders in
Panglong, in Shan State. They signed the famous Panglong Agreement
in February 1947, guaranteeing ethnic minorities the freedom to choose
their political destiny if dissatisfied with the situation after 10 years.
The agreement also broadly covered absent representatives of the Kayin,
Kayah, Mon and Rakhaing.
In the elections for the assembly, Aung Sans Anti-Fascist Peoples
Freedom League (AFPFL) won an overwhelming 172 seats out of 225. The
Burmese Communist Party took seven, while the Bamar opposition (led
by U Saw) took three. The remaining 69 seats were split between ethnic
minorities (including four seats for the Anglo-Burman community).
Britain hoped to maintain influence and wanted a gradual transition.
Aung San wanted immediate independence with a democratic, civilian
government.
He wouldnt live to see it. On 19 July 1947, the 32-year-old Aung San
and six aides were gunned down in a plot ascribed to U Saw. (Some
speculate that the military was involved, due to Aung Sans plans to
demilitarise the government.) Apparently U Saw thought hed walk into
the prime ministers role with Aung San gone; instead he took the noose,
when the British had him hanged in 1948.
Democracy is the only

ideology which is
consistent with freedom
It is therefore the only
ideology we should
aim for
AUNG SAN
U NU & EARLY WOES

While Myanmar mourned the death of a hero, Prime Minister Attlee and
Aung Sans protg, U Nu, signed an agreement for the transfer of power
in October 1947. On 4 January 1948, at an auspicious middle-of-thenight hour, Burma became independent and left the British Commonwealth. As Aung San had promised, the national presidency was given to
a representative from an ethnic minority group, and Sao Shwe Thaike, a
Shan leader, became the first president of the Union of Burma.
Almost immediately, the new government had to contend with the
complete disintegration of the country involving rebels, communists,
gangs and US-supported anticommunist Chinese KMT forces.
The hill-tribe people, who had supported the British and fought against
the Japanese throughout the war, were distrustful of the Bamar majority
and went into armed opposition. The communists withdrew from the government and attacked it. Muslims from the Rakhaing area also opposed
the new government. The Mon, long thought to be totally integrated with
the Burmese, revolted. Assorted factions, private armies, WWII resistance
groups and plain mutineers further confused the picture.
1627
Dutch and English East India Company opens branches
17535
Burmese king Alaungpaya conquers Inwa, then Dagon, which he
renames as Yangon
42 H I S T O R Y N e W i n & t h e R o a d t o S o c i a l i s m
Burma: Prospects for

Political and Economic
Reconstruction (1997),
by David I Steinberg,
written for the World
Peace Foundation, gives
a quick summing-up of
the present woes and
concludes that The
Burmese will determine
their own fate.
After being forced into

exile, one-time leader
U Nu vainly attempted
to oppose the Ne Win
government from abroad.
In 1980 he returned to
Yangon, where he translated Buddhist scripture
most of the time. He died
in 1995.
In early 1949 almost the entire country was in the hands of a number
of rebel groups, and there was even fighting in Yangons suburbs. At one
stage the government was on the point of surrendering to the communist
forces, but gradually fought back, and through 1950 and 1951 regained
control of much of the country.
Also, with the collapse of Chiang Kai-Sheks KMT forces before Mao
Zedongs, the tattered remnants of the KMT withdrew into northern
Burma and mounted raids from there into Yunnan, China. Being no
match for the Chinese communists, the KMT decided to carve their own
little fiefdom out of Burmese territory.
NE WIN & THE ROAD TO SOCIALISM

By the mid-1950s, the government had strengthened its hold on the
country, but the economy slipped from bad to worse. A number of grandiose development projects succeeded only in making foreign advisors
rather wealthy, and in 1953 the Burmese bravely announced that aid or
assistance from the USA was no longer welcome, as long as US-supplied
Chinese KMT forces were at large within the country. U Nu managed to
remain in power until 1958, when he voluntarily handed the reins over
to a military government under General Ne Win.
Considering the pride most of the country had for the Burmese army
which helped bring independence and was founded by Aung San this
was seen as a welcome change. Freed from the democratic responsibilities inherent in a civilian government, Ne Win was able to make some
excellent progress during the 15 months his military government operated. A degree of law and order was restored, rebel activity was reduced
and Yangon was given a massive and much-needed cleanup.
In early 1960, elections were held and U Nu regained power with a
much-improved majority, but once again political turmoil developed.
His party threatened to break up into opposing groups and in early
1962 Ne Win assumed power again and abolished the parliament. He
established his own 17-member Revolutionary Council, announcing that
the country would march towards socialism in our own Burmese way.
This time U Nu did not hand over power voluntarily, and along with his
main ministers was thrown into prison, where he remained until forced
into exile in 1966.
The Burmese Road to Socialism was a steadily downhill path. A
rice-growing wonder fell into economic free fall. Nationalisation policies
were extended right down to the retail shop level in 1966 when it was
announced that a long list of items would only be available from Peoples
Shops. The net result was frightening; many everyday commodities immediately became available only on the black market, and vast numbers of
people were thrown out of work by the closure of retail outlets.
A disingenuous sock the rich measure demonetised the largest banknotes (K50 and K100). Anybody so unfortunate as to have these notes
found them to be worthless. Many of the retail traders who became
unemployed following the nationalisation of retail trade were Indians
and Chinese vestiges of the colonial era in Bamar eyes and they
were hustled out of the country with Draconian thoroughness. No compensation was paid for their expropriated businesses, and each adult
1826
England annexes Rakhaing and Tenasserim, following First
Anglo-Burmese War
1852
Second Anglo-Burmese War gives Britain Bago
H I S T O R Y N e W i n & t h e R o a d t o S o c i a l i s m 43
was allowed to depart with only K75 plus K250 in gold. As many as a
250,000 people of Indian and Chinese descent left Burma during the
1960s. Anti-Chinese riots in Yangon in 1967 spurred by fears that the
Chinese were about to import Chinas Cultural Revolution resulted
in hundreds of Chinese deaths.
In late 1974 there were serious student disturbances over the burial
of former United Nations (UN) secretary-general and long-time Ne
Win political foe, U Thant, yet overall the government appeared firmly
in control and determined to continue its strange progress towards a
Burmese Utopia. In late 1981 Ne Win retired as president of the republic (retaining his position as chair of the Burmese Socialist Programme
Party, the countrys only legal political party at the time), but his successor, San Yu, and the government remained guided very much by Ne
Wins political will.
8-8-88
With the standard of living in Burma on a continual downward spiral, something happened that no-one foresaw. In 1987 and 1988, the
long-suffering Burmese people decided they had had enough of their
incompetent and arrogant government and packed the streets in huge
demonstrations, insisting that Ne Win go.
Ne Win voluntarily retired from the chairmanship of the party in July
1988, but it was too late to halt the agitation of the people. The massive
prodemocracy demonstrations, spurred by the further demonetisation of
large notes and a prophecy that Burma would become a free country on
the auspicious date of 8 August 1988 (8-8-88), were brutally crushed by the
government, with at least 3000 deaths recorded over a six-week period.
Ne Wins National Unity Party (NUP; formerly the Burmese Socialist
Programme Party) was far from ready to give up control, and the public
protests continued as two Ne Win stooges succeeded him. The third Ne
Win successor came to power after a military coup in September 1988,
which, it is generally believed, was organised by Ne Win.
A newly formed State Law & Order Restoration Council (Slorc) established martial law under the leadership of General Saw Maung, commander in chief of the armed forces, and promised to hold democratic
National Assembly elections in May 1989.
The opposition quickly formed a coalition party called the National
League for Democracy (NLD) and campaigned for all it was worth. The
long-suppressed Burmese population rallied around charismatic NLD
spokesperson Aung San Suu Kyi, daughter of hero Aung San. Suu Kyi,
conversant in Burmese, Japanese, French and English and married to an
Oxford University professor, brought a hitherto-unseen sophistication
to Burmese politics.
Nervous, Slorc tried to appease the masses with new roads and adding
a coat of paint to many buildings in Yangon, and then it attempted to
interfere in the electoral process by shifting villages from one part of the
country to another and by postponing the election. Perhaps the biggest surprise came with the announcement that the government was abandoning
socialism in favour of a capitalist economy in all but a few industries.
In July 1989 Aung San Suu Kyi was placed under house arrest.
1885
Third Anglo-Burmese War ends era of Burmese kings
In 1989, Slorc changed

the countrys official
name from the Union of
Burma to the Union of
Myanmar, claiming that
Burma was a vestige of
European colonialism.
Other name changes
included Rangoon (back
to Yangon).
19478
General Aung San assassinated; independence achieved
44 H I S T O R Y 1 9 9 0 E l e c t i o n & t h e N L D
1990 ELECTION & THE NLD
Had the NLD been

installed in government,
Suu Kyi wouldnt have
been the leader. She may
have been given a high
position, though the
constitution forbids those
married to foreigners
from holding high public
office.
Aung San Suu Kyi has

been under house arrest
three times (from July
1989 to July 1995; from
September 2000 to May
2002; and from May 2003
to the present).
Feeling it had effectively dealt with the opposition, the government

allowed an election in May 1990 (the first in 30 years). In spite of all
its preventive measures, the NUP lost the election to the NLD, which
took 392 of the 485 contested seats. Slorc barred the elected members
of parliament from assuming power, however, decreeing that a stateapproved constitution had to be passed by national referendum first. In
October 1990 the military raided NLD offices and arrested key leaders.
Since that time over 100 elected parliamentarians have been disqualified, imprisoned, exiled or killed. Some observers wonder if the election
was a ruse to get opposition out in the open, where they could be more
easily crushed.
Before her arrest in 1989, Suu Kyi had been appointed secretary general of the NLD. The main NLD candidates in line for any potential
premiership that might have occurred if the 1990 election results had
been recognised by the current regime were U Aung Shwe, U Tin Oo
and U Kyi Maung, all ex-officers. It was widely acknowledged, even back
in 1990, that Slorc would never allow a person of Aung San Suu Kyis
background (an ex-resident of the country, and married to a Briton) to
run for office; it was equally acknowledged that the candidates who stood
the best chance of acceptance by the military dictatorship were those with
a military background. It turned out that even this was not enough to
make the ruling junta relinquish control.
After the events of 198889, the world press at first gave amazingly
little coverage to politics in the country that had been renamed Myanmar.
In January 1991, Suu Kyi was awarded the Sakharov Prize for freedom
of thought by the European Parliament, and in October of the same year
she was honoured with the Nobel Peace Prize. Another international
honour came her way in June 1992 when Unesco awarded Suu Kyi the
Simn Bolivar Prize. In May 1995, Suu Kyi was honoured with a fourth
international award when India presented the leader, in absentia, with the
Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding. As the world
media began to follow events in Myanmar, prodemocracy elements, both
within the country and abroad, proved themselves to be much more
media savvy than the military junta. The democratisation of Burma, as
most prodemocracy groups still call the country, soon became a cause
clbre for sundry activists and Hollywood celebrities.
Much to the joy of the Burmese people and her supporters abroad, the
government released Suu Kyi from house arrest in July 1995 after nearly
six years. Suu Kyis detention was the most potent symbol of government
repression and the biggest magnet for international attention, but many
other high-level dissidents, including the NLDs Tin U and Kyi Maung,
were also released at this time not from house arrest, but from prison.
For several months Suu Kyi was allowed to address crowds of supporters
from her residence. In May and September 1996, Suu Kyi held a congress
of NLD members in a bold political gambit to demonstrate that the
NLD was still an active political force. The junta responded by detaining
hundreds who attended the congress and the street leading to Suu Kyis
residence was blockaded, prohibiting her from making speeches at her
residence.
1962
Ne Win establishes power after military coup
1975
Massive earthquake rocks Bagan
H I S T O R Y T h e W o r l d & M y a n m a r 45
THE WRITINGS OF AUNG SAN SUU KYI

It takes very little reading to understand why so many people in Myanmar have a deep respect
for the Lady, Aung San Suu Kyi. Her interviews with journalist Alan Clements, described in
Voices of Hope (1997), often intermingle politics and Buddhism. Freedom from Fear (1991) is a
collection of her writings on topics ranging from her father to winning the Nobel Peace Prize.
Letters from Burma (1997) features a collection of letters Suu Kyi wrote on Burmese culture for
a Japanese publication.
In 1998 18 foreign activists were arrested in Yangon in 1998 for distributing antigovernment leaflets. In the same year Suu Kyi attempted to
leave Yangon to meet with supporters outside the city but was blocked
by the military and forcibly returned to Yangon. In 1999 Suu Kyis British husband, Oxford professor Michael Aris, died of cancer shortly after
Yangon denied him a visa to see Suu Kyi one last time in Myanmar. Although they hadnt seen each other since January 1996, Suu Kyi felt she
had no choice but to stay in Myanmar, fearing that if she left the country
to visit her husbands deathbed in England, she would be refused re-entry
and forced into exile.
Suu Kyi made a second attempt to leave Yangon to meet with supporters in September 2000, but was stopped at a military roadblock. After
spending six days in her car by the roadside, Suu Kyi was once again
placed under house arrest.
In October 2000, secret talks began between Suu Kyi and the junta
the most significant step towards reconciliation since the elections. Brokered by Rizali Ismail, a former Malaysian diplomat and special envoy
to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, the talks resulted in the release of
hundreds of political prisoners. A very noticeable result of the talks was
the cessation of crude attacks against Suu Kyi in the Myanmar media. The
NLD in return stopped its direct criticism of the Myanmar government.
In May 2002 Suu Kyi was released from house arrest and immediately
announced that her demands for political reform had not changed as a
result of the talks with the junta. Her unconditional release promised
the opposition leader freedom of movement for the first time in over
12 years. In the weeks following her release she visited NLD offices in
townships in the Rangoon area, and in late June made a triumphant visit
to Mandalay. It was Suu Kyis first trip to Myanmars second-largest city
since 1989 (her September 2000 attempt to visit Mandalay was thwarted
by the military).
In May 2003, while touring Sagaing District outside Budalin (north of
Monywa), Suu Kyi and a party of 250 NLD members were attacked. Its
believed as many as 100 people were killed. Many others were held in
detention. Suu Kyi spent several months in jail and underwent a hunger
strike. She was eventually transferred to her house. She is still there.
Aung San Suu Kyi

returned to Burma from
Britain in 1998 to tend
to her dying mother. At
the time disquiet with
the government was at
a peak
THE WORLD & MYANMAR

To improve its image, Slorc hired a Washington, DC public-relations
firm for help, which suggested changing its name to the State Peace &
Development Council (SPDC), which it did in November 1997.
1988
On 8/8 (8 August), huge prodemocracy nonviolent marches; army
kills over 3000
1990
NLD earns 82% of votes in election but the military refuses to hand
over power
46 H I S T O R Y T h e W o r l d & M y a n m a r
Although Ne Win had

retired from all official
positions in 1988, he was
widely believed to call
the shots for many years
thereafter possibly up
till his death in December
2002.
Initially after 1988, the West established embargoes on arms sales

and most foreign aid to Myanmar. But some companies such as the
UKs Premier Oil, Frances Total and USAs Unocal helped develop
offshore gas fields. Stronger international sanctions were taken in 1997
by the USA, the regimes harshest critic, when it banned new investment
by American companies in Myanmar. Strong lobbying by activists and
threats of consumer boycotts forced some major companies (including
PepsiCo, Heineken, Carlsberg and Levi Strauss) to either pull out or
decide against investing in the country.
In November 1999, the UN International Labour Organization took
the unprecedented step of recommending sanctions against Myanmar for
its use of civilians for forced labour and treacherous tasks of porterage
for the military (including serving as human landmine detectors). Its
174 member nations were advised to review their links with Myanmar
and ensure they did not support forced labour there. In June 2001, UN
agencies in Myanmar warned in a joint letter to their headquarters that
Myanmar was facing a humanitarian crisis and that it was a moral and
ethical necessity for the international community to extend more aid.
The letter stated that one-quarter of Burmese babies were born underweight and, as of the end of 1999, an estimated 530,000 people were
HIV-positive. The letter also stated that Myanmar only receives annual
foreign aid equivalent to about US$1 per capita, compared with US$35
for Cambodia and US$68 for Laos.
In a controversial move in 2001, Japan broke ranks in the embargo
on nonhumanitarian aid to Myanmar when it offered US$28 million in
technical assistance to repair the Baluchaung hydroelectric power plant
in Kayah State as an incentive for the regime to press ahead with reconciliation talks with Suu Kyi.
The sanctions got stronger following Aung San Suu Kyis third arrest in 2003. US President George W Bush authorised full economic
sanctions, which resulted in foreign banks in Myanmar packing up and
leaving. The wording of EUs sanctions, however, allowed Frances Total
gas company to continue operating there. Much criticism has focussed
on whether forced labour was used from 1995 to 1998 to build Totals
Yadana pipeline, which reportedly generates anywhere from US$150 million to US$400 million annually.
Critics of the use of sanctions argue that these measures hurt the local
workforce. After US sanctions, many garment factories, virtually all of
which are privately owned, closed down, reportedly leading to the loss of
40,000 to 60,000 jobs. For more on the sanctions debate, see p17.
Despite the Myanmars governments human-rights record, a number
of foreign investors most of them Asian (particularly Chinese, but
also Singaporean, Japanese, Indian and Thai) continue to invest huge
amounts of foreign currency into private development projects, especially in the Yangon to Mandalay corridor. See p22 for more on foreign
investment.
The land border between Myanmar and China stands wide open for
legal and illegal trade, and acts as the main supply line for millions of
dollars worth of Chinese weaponry destined for Myanmars military,
along with another estimated US$1 billion in consumer goods annually. A
1996
The Governments Visit Myanmar Year prompts ongoing tourism
boycott
1997
Myanmar joins Asean

H I S T O R Y T h e W o r l d & M y a n m a r 47
1994 visit to Yangon by Chinese Premier Li Peng the man who ordered
the Tiananmen Square massacre one year after Myanmars bloody 1988
putdown reaffirmed Chinas firm approval of Myanmars government.
Meanwhile the repression of free speech and other human rights continues under the SPDC leadership. A report commissioned by the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) in Geneva describes systematic
human-rights violations, including arbitrary arrests of anyone opposed to
the junta, the torture of detainees, severe media restrictions, forced relocation of 500,000 urban dwellers, and forced conscription of civilians to
serve as anything from porters to human minesweepers for the military.
(See p56 for examples of media restrictions, and p65 for how censorship even affects rock music albums.) The government also frequently
requests volunteer beautification labour (in effect, forced labour) from
city, town and village residents, requiring them to paint their houses,
dig drainage ditches, build walls and weed the roadside. (Apparently
forced labour has decreased since the early 1990s, according to Amnesty
International, but is still very much in use. See www.amnesty.org or www
.irrawaddy.org, among other sites, for updates on this issue.)
Myanmar gained some international muscle with its controversial
membership of Asean, which it joined in 1997. Despite some murmurs
of discontent regarding the arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi, no Asean officials
have directly confronted the generals on the issue. Some commentators
wonder whether the 2006 Asean summit, scheduled for Yangon, will go
forward if Suu Kyi isnt free by the time.
In 2004 Prime Minister Khin Nyunt, a disciple of Ne Win, who sought
to re-create himself after Ne Wins death in 2002 with the seven-step
Roadway to Democracy programme, was ousted by hard-line Than
Shwe, who claims he will continue the roadway. See p34 for more on
recent events in Myanmar.
2003
Aung San Suu Kyi placed under house arrest (for third time); USA
and EU impose tougher sanctions
Considering the US
renewal of Most
Favoured Nation trade
status for China, and
China remains a foreigntrade hub for Asia,
Myanmars government
believes it need not fear
trade sanctions with
the West.
2004
Myanmar opens worlds largest tiger reserve, ousts prime minister

48
The Culture
NATIONAL PSYCHE
Living Silence: Burma

under Military Rule (2001),
by Christina Fink, sums up
Myanmars military years
and how the military
affects various aspects of
life all peppered with
fascinating quotes from
a wide cross-section of
Myanmar people.
Although isolated, subjugated and poor, the Myanmar people can be

as proud of their country and culture as any nationality youll meet.
Locals gush over past kings, pwe (festivals), mohinga (noodles with
chicken or fish) breakfasts, great temples and, for many, Theravada
Buddhism itself. Of course Buddhism here comes with a heavy dosage
of bamahsan chinn (Burmeseness) a Buddhism-influenced complex
word describing the gentle personality of many, which includes undying
respect for elders, modesty in dress, and a preference for subtlety rather
than loudness or directness. Another trait is ah har de, a sense of not
wanting to make waves or pass on unpleasant news. Perhaps telling is
Pico Iyers great piece on hanging out with Myanmar students in Video
Nights in Kathmandu (1988); though released on the eve of the explosive
prodemocracy marches of that year, students talk of moonwalking, and
do not even show a glimpse of the bubbling discontent.
Even small-scale open dialogue is not an everyday aspect of life. One
exiled Myanmar man explained: The most important thing I got out of
being in England was watching political TV shows, where people were
arguing, explaining different viewpoints. That never happens at home.
It tends to surprise locals if an American tourist vocalises disapproval
of George W Bushs policies, for example. Locals here tend to cheer for
Arsenal, Manchester United and Chelsea.
LIFESTYLE
Exiled writer Pascal Khoo Thwe writes that, growing up in Myanmars
hills, traditional family life meant that Earth is round at school and flat
at home, meaning some aspects of modern life are left, along with your
shoes, outside the door at home.
Families in Myanmar are big, and the birth of a boy or girl is a big
occasion. While boys are coddled more, girls are equally welcomed, as
theyre expected to look after parents later in life. You might find three or
four generations of a family living in a two- or three-room house. Some
thatched huts in the countryside have generators pumping life into the
TV a couple hours a night. Running water outside the cities and bigger
TOP FIVE FIRST QUESTIONS ASKED
T H E C U LT U R E L i fe s t y l e 49
towns is rare. Many families put coconut symbols of the house guardian
nat (spirit) inside (see p000).
The bulk of village life revolves around the farm. Here Yangons politics
or dreams of wealth can pale in importance to the season, the crop, the
level of the river (where they bathe, clean and get their drinking water)
and Buddha. One local outside Shwebo told us, All I want is K2000 a
day for rice to feed my family.
TheCultr/RigonBdsmIMyar/The37Nt
DOS & DONTS
Etiquette
Many locals are too kind to mention to a traveller when theyre being insensitive. So, let it be your
role to (politely) tell fellow travellers when theyre acting inappropriately. Here are the basics:
When visiting a Buddhist sight, dont wear shoes, shorts, short skirts, or have exposed shoulders.
Dont thrust a camera into a monks (or anyones) face for a photo.
Dont pose with, sit on, or strike Buddha images.
Take your shoes off (not necessarily socks) when entering private homes.
Dont touch somebody on the head (including patting a childs head).
Dont point your feet at anybody or anything apologise if you accidentally brush someone
with your foot.
When shaking hands or handing over something, do so with your right hand, while touching
your right elbow with your left hand.
Dont step over somebody who is sitting or lying on the floor (such as on a boat deck).
What to Give
Many travellers are prone to give gifts to locals in this impoverished country. Gifts can be big
thrills and are often asked for by children around the country but foreigners should exercise
care when deciding what and where and to whom they give things to. One way to discourage
kids from begging, and to show respect, is giving toys or kid-related gifts either directly to their
parents or to schools or monasteries. Here are a few gift suggestions:
Donate school supplies such as cheap pens and pencils bought locally all of which are
highly sought.
Bring self-made or bought English-language tapes to give out to villagers who cant afford
English classes.
Bring some popular English-language magazines and books; locals love to read, and material is hard to find in cash-poor Myanmar; exercise care in handing over any that could carry
political overtones (such as the New Yorker or the Economist or Myanmar-related books); hand
discreetly over to new friends in their homes.
Burma or Myanmar? Britain renamed Myanma as Burma (after the majority Bamar, or
Burmese, people); the junta restored the original name of Myanmar in 1989; Burmese in this
book refers to the food, the Bamar and the language.
Other popular gifts include Western T-shirts, lipstick, toys, baseball-style caps, stickers and
chocolates (though heat ruins them in a hurry).
Men in skirts? Most Myanmar men wear longyi (saronglike wraparound skirts); its easy to
understand why when the heat hits you.
Instantly appearing images on digital cameras viewfinder screens draw much applause from
locals.
Mud on face? Women, kids and some men sprinkle, stripe or blotch their faces with tan
thanakha (powdered bark) as make-up.
If asked, make simple suggestions of what tourists might be interested in, to prompt grassroots entrepreneurship (eg night market walking tours etc).
Is that blood? No. The red droplets in corners and sidewalks are relinquished bits of betel,
made from the chopped nut and a paste of slaked lime; youll see betel sold from streetside
stands, wrapped into small leaves.
Donate to villages seeking aid for health clinics (about 0.4% of the national budget goes
to health care); at research time, we bumped into a Swiss tourist who contacted the Bagan
Department of Archaeology seeking to fund placing a glass shield over unprotected 800year-old murals.
How to say thanks? C-z-bh.
Bring photographs of your city, home, family or postcards you can leave.
50 T H E C U LT U R E P o p u l a t i o n
In the cities, large apartment blocks are connected to more-or-less

around-the-clock electricity. Residents are better educated, sometimes
working as lawyers, doctors, clerks and officials that is, they work in
buildings. Theyre a bit more internationally aware, and likely to speak
more English. Where electricity exists, it invariably clicks off frequently
when it does listen up for the ahhhs and laughter that good-naturedly
follows.
For Buddhists, especially, the acquisition ofspiritualmerit by giving
to monks, adding gold-leaf layers to Buddha images helps worshippers
achieve enlightenment. This is why locals in towns that lack a health
clinic may bang alms bowls on the side of the road for donations to help
build a new pagoda, for example.
Death is a big deal, though mourned for less time than in much of the
West. To miss a funeral is an unimaginable faux pas. If a heated argument
goes too far, the ultimate capper is to yell, Oh yeah? Dont come to my
funeral when I die. Cemeteries are not well tended, and rarely visited, as
many consider it bad luck to go near the dead (often the widowed arent
invited to wedding parties, and weve seen fishers do their thing while
ignoring a floating body no-one dares to touch).
T H E C U LT U R E S t a t e s & D i v i s i o n s o f M y a n m a r 51
200 km
120 miles
CHINA
(TIBET)
BHUTAN
KACHIN
STATE
INDIA
Myitkyina
CHINA
BANGLADESH
SAGAING
DIVISION
Hakha
POPULATION
About 11% of Myanmars 52 million people live in the capital, Yangon.
In Myanmars tain
Its estimated, though, that seven in 10 people are involved in agriculture.
(divisions) the Bamar
Unlike many developing-world countries, there isnt a massive flocking
(Burman) people are in
to the big cities: jobs are scarce in the capital with inflation soaring at 50%
the majority (Yangon, Ay- and international banks (and their potential credit) fleeing in 2003 due to
eyarwady, Bago, Magwe, economic sanctions imposed by the international community.
Mandalay, Sagaing,
Historically, the diverse ethnic make-up of the country has been sepaTanintharyi) but in the pyi rated by its topography. The broad central plain, with the Ayeyarwady
(states) the non-Bamar
River and Myanmars most fertile soil, has been run by whichever group
are in the majority (Shan, was strongest (usually the Bamar, or Burmese, in the past few hundred
Kachin, Chin, Rakhaing,
years). Most ethnic groups continue to live in some sort of isolation in
Kayah, Kayin, Mon).
the mountains lining much of Myanmars international borders, notably
the Shan, Kayah and Kayin (Karen) in the east; the Kachin to the north;
and the Chin and Rakhaing to the west.
There are roughly 71 people per sq km (compared to 939 per sq km
in neighbouring Bangladesh), and outside Yangon or Mandalay, theres
Laos-like elbow room.
0
0
STATES & DIVISIONS OF MYANMAR
Sagaing
Mandalay
SHAN
STATE
CHIN
STATE
MANDALAY
DIVISION
Taunggyi
Magwe
Sittwe
MAGWE
DIVISION
LAOS
Loikaw
KAYAH
STATE
RAKHAING
STATE
BAGO
DIVISION
KAYIN
STATE
Bago
Pathein
AYEYARWADY
DIVISION
YANGON
YANGON
DIVISION
Hpa-an
Mawlamyine
MON
STATE
THAILAND
ETHNICITY
Ethnologists have
suggested that there
are actually some 135
distinct ethnic groups
living in Myanmar.
One of the more exciting aspects of travel in Myanmar is getting the opportunity to experience a corner of Asia that in many ways has changed
little since British colonial times. Due to its isolation self-imposed and
otherwise Myanmar has yet to be completely overwhelmed by outside
clothing influences. Nowhere else in Southeast Asia will you see so
many sarongs, turbans and other exotic apparel. Of course, differences
in dress are just a hint of the distinctions between Myanmars diverse
ethnic populations.
Officially Myanmars 50-plus million residents (not including Chinese,
Indian, Nepalese and other groups) are divided into eight nationalities
the Bamar, Shan, Mon, Kayin, Kayah, Chin, Kachin and Rakhaing but
the Myanmar government further subdivides these eight groups into 67
subgroups. Weve made a list of the 10 groups visitors to Myanmar are
most likely to encounter or read about.
As in many other ethnically (and religiously) diverse countries, feelings
Dawei
TANINTHARYI
DIVISION
Andaman
Islands
(INDIA)
ANDAMAN
SEA
Gulf of
Thailand
52 T H E C U LT U R E E t h n i c i t y
MYANMAR:
ETHNO-GEOGRAPHY

INDIA
CHINA
Myitkyina
Lashio
Hakha
Sagaing
Mandalay
LAOS
Taunggyi
Loikaw
Sittwe
THAILAND
Bay of
Bengal

Bago
Hpa-an
YANGON
Pathein
Chin
Mawlamyine
Kachin
Dawei
Shan
Bamar
(Burman)
Rakhaing
Kayin
(Karen)
Mon
Kayah
ANDAMAN SEA
of pride and prejudice cause friction between

Myanmars ethnic groups. Ask a Bamar (or
a Shan or a Kayin) their opinion about their
countrymen of different ethnic or religious
backgrounds to get an idea of what kinds of
challenges governments in Myanmar have
faced in their efforts to keep the peace and
preserve the borders.
In recent years, theres been a massive influx of Chinese people into northern Burma,
evident in Mandalay and certainly in border
towns such as Mong La, where the yuan is
the local currency.
Bamar
The Bamar also known as Burman or Burmese make up the majority (68%) of the
population and, not surprisingly, rule the
country. Thought to have originally migrated
from the Himalaya, the Bamar ruled much
of what is now Myanmar from Bagan by the
11th century. When the British conquered
Myanmar in the 19th century, it was the
Bamar who had to relinquish the most. Many
ancient court customs and arts were lost as
the Bamar monarchy was abolished.
Devout Theravada Buddhists, the Bamar
from the top military generals to trishaw
drivers believe that being Buddhist is a key
aspect of being Bamar, and the Myanmar
media reports daily on the merit-making of
top officials at the countrys principal Buddhist places of worship. Government nationbuilding efforts have included establishing
the Bamar language (Burmese) as the language of instruction in schools throughout
Myanmar. So most non-Bamar speak Burmese as a second language.
Chin
The Chin inhabits the mountainous region (mostly corresponding with

Chin State) that borders on India and Bangladesh to the west. In the
past, the Chin, as with most highland dwellers, led labour-intensive lives
and their relatively simple traditional dress reflected this. Men wore loincloths in the warmer months and draped blankets over themselves when
the weather turned cool. The women wore poncholike garments woven
with intricate geometric patterns. These garments and Chin blankets are
highly sought-after by textile collectors today.
The most extraordinary Chin fashion of old was the custom of tattooing the womens faces. Chin facial tattoos cover the whole face starting
at just above the bridge of the nose and radiating out in a pattern of dark
lines that resemble a spiders web. Even the eyelids were tattooed. The
tattooing was traditionally done to girls once they reached the age of 12
or 13. Legend has it that this practice was initiated to keep young Chin
maidens from being coveted by Rakhaing princes whose kingdom bor-
T H E C U LT U R E E t h n i c i t y 53
SUBJUGATION
With the complete takeover of Myanmar by the British in 1886, new borders were drawn. As
with so many of the boundaries superimposed on maps during the European colonisation of the
world, these borders had little to do with ethnic groupings, and there were many old rivals and
enemies within the borders of British Burma. The colonisers managed to keep animosity between
ethnic groups under controlby utilising the carrot of semi-autonomy or the stick of arrest and
imprisonment. Over a century later, despite a different bunch of rulers, little has changed.
Acts of insurgency between Bamar-majority government troops and minority ethnic groups
that smouldered for four decades after independence have been largely quelled. Groups that
signed ceasefire agreements with the government (the Kachin, Kayah etc) have been granted
limited economic autonomy. Those groups that continue to fight the government (some Shan
and Kayin) are dealt with severely. In rebel-controlled areas, government troops have been accused of using rape as a weapon and adopting a scorched-earth policy that regularly sends
groups of refugees fleeing across the borders into Thailand and Bangladesh. Some observers of
politics in Myanmar predict that, given a choice, many of Myanmars ethnic groups would opt
for independence and break away from Bamar-controlled Myanmar.
dered the southern Chin Hills. The practice died out after WWII, but in
many Chin villages (particularly in the more traditional southern areas)
you can see a few tattooed grannies going about their daily chores.
Many Chin, particularly in the north, are Christian, following the efforts of American missionaries during the British colonial period. Chin
State is restricted to travellers, but can be visited with government permission (p000). Kalaymyo (p000) is a half-Chin town that can be reached,
by air, without permit.
WestrnMyam/ChiS
AroundMaly/UpeSgiDstrcKalymo
Kachin
The Kachin (who call themselves Jingpaw) were heavily targeted by
Christian missionaries during British colonial times. The Baptists seemed
to have been the most successful, with the Catholics following close
behind. As much of the Kachin State lies above the tropic of Cancer,
the climate is more extreme stifling hot in the summer months and
downright cold in the winter and the Kachin seem to have abandoned
their traditional dress for Western clothes that can be easily changed to
suit the seasons.
About the only vestige of Kachin dress that foreign visitors are likely
to encounter are mens longyi (saronglike lower garment) of indigo,
green and deep-purple plaid. During festive occasions Kachin dress is
quite impressive. Women sport finely woven wool skirts decorated with
zigzag or diamond patterns and dark blouses festooned with hammered
silver medallions and tassels. These exotic blouses are admired by the
Bamar and until fairly recently it was not uncommon for photo studios
in Bamar-majority towns as far south as Pyay to keep a few Kachin
blouses on hand so that Bamar women could wear them while posing
for photographs.
Travellers can visit the

Kachin in Myitkyina
(p000), home to the
Kachin State Cultural
Museum, Bhamo (p000
) and with a permit
Putao (p000).
NortheasnMym/iktoKahMyn
Myanmr/itkoKhBam
Kayah
Also known as the Karenni or Red Karen, the Kayah are settled in the
mountainous isolation of Kayah State an area completely closed off
to travellers.
As with many of Myanmars ethnic groups that traditionally practised
animism, the Kayah were targeted for conversion to Christianity by
Baptist and Catholic missionaries during the colonial period. The name
NortheasnMym/TFNorthPua
Northeasn
54 T H E C U LT U R E E t h n i c i t y
Presently the only place

in Kayin State that travellers can visit is Hpa-an
(p000).
SoutheasrnMym/KiSteHpa-n
T H E C U LT U R E E t h n i c i t y 55
Red Karen refers to the favoured colour of the Kayah traditional dress,
and the fact that their apparel resembles that of some Kayin (Karen)
tribes a resemblance that caused the Kayah to be classified by colonisers and missionaries as Karen. Today the Kayah make up a very small
percentage of the population of Myanmar perhaps less than 1% and
the vast majority lead agrarian lives within Kayah State, much as their
ancestors have done for centuries. A significant number of Kayah also
live in Thailands Mae Hong Son Province.
of this experiment was a feeling of unity among the many Naga tribes,
which led to an organised Naga independence movement.
The Naga sport one of the worlds most exotic traditional costumes.
Naga men at festival time wear striking ceremonial headdresses made
up of feathers, tufts of hair and cowry shells, and carry wicked spears,
giving them a look that somehow seems vaguely African, Polynesian and
Amazonian like some fantasy ensemble cooked up by Hollywood.
Kayin
The Rakhaing (formerly called Arakanese), who make up about 4% of the

population of Myanmar, are principally adherents of Buddhism. Their
ancient capital was centred at Mrauk U in what is now the northern
Rakhaing State, which borders Bangladesh. Their language is akin to
Bamar but, due to their geographical location, they have absorbed a fair
amount of culture from the Indian subcontinent. In the eyes of most
Bamar, the Rakhaing are a Creole race a mixture of Bamar and Indian
a perception that Buddhist Rakhaing strongly resent.
Rakhaing State also has a minority population of Muslim Rakhaing,
who refer to themselves as Rohingya.
The Rakhaing are skilled weavers and are known in Myanmar for their
eye-catching and intricately patterned longyi.
The Kayin (also known as Karen) are a large and diverse group, divided
into numerous subgroups. They were originally animists, but some Kayin
villages were heavily targeted by Christian missionaries in the 19th and
early 20th centuries, while other villages converted to Buddhism.
The Kayin are an independent-minded people but the sheer diversity
of the many Kayin subgroups has made it impossible for them to achieve
any real cohesion for achieving greater political power. To this day Buddhist Kayin often side with the Buddhist Bamar against their Christian
Kayin kin. The recruitment of child soldiers for rebel groups is not uncommon in this neck of the woods. This came to the worlds attention
most recently when a Christian Kayin group calling itself Gods Army
made headlines with its brief armed struggle against the Myanmar government. The group was led by young twin brothers who reputedly had
magical powers and took up arms when they were only nine years old.
The typical dress of both the Kayin men and women is a longyi with
horizontal stripes (a pattern that is reserved exclusively for women in
other ethnic groups). The Kayin are thought to make up about 7% of the
total population of Myanmar.
Mon
The Mon (also called the Tailing by Western historians) were one of the
earliest inhabitants of Myanmar and their rule stretched into what is
now Thailand. As happened with the Cham in Vietnam and the Phuan
in Laos, the Mon were gradually conquered by neighbouring kingdoms
and their influence waned until they were practically unknown outside
present-day Myanmar. As in Thailand, which also has a Mon minority,
the Mon have almost completely assimilated with the Bamar and in most
ways seem indistinguishable from them. In the precolonial era past, Mon
Buddhist sites including Yangons Shwedagon Paya were appropriated
by the Bamar (though the Golden Rock is still in Mon State), and Mon
tastes in art and architecture were borrowed as well. Today the Mon make
up just over 2% of the population of Myanmar, but Mon art and culture
have influenced that of the Bamar quite thoroughly, as a trip to the Mon
Cultural Museum (p000) in Mawlamyine will attest.
Rakhaing
Informati/ TusInformati
Naga
The Naga are mainly settled in a mountainous region of eastern India
known as Nagaland, but significant numbers live in the western Sagaing
Division between the Indian border and the Chindwin River.
When the British arrived in the mid-19th century, the Naga were a
fragmented but fearsome collection of tribes. Headhunting was a tradition among them and for many decades they resisted British rule, though
a lack of cooperation between the tribes hindered their efforts to remain
independent. A turnaround came about during WWI when the British
recruited nearly 17,000 Naga to fight in Europe. The unexpected result
WestrnMyam/NohRkingMrauU/Sts
Sights/MandlyBuimge
WestrnMyam/NohRkingStwes/ah CultrMsem
Shan
The Shan call themselves Tai (Shan is actually a Bamar word derived
from the word Siam). The name they call themselves is significant, as
the Shan are related ethnically, culturally and linguistically to Tai peoples
in neighbouring Thailand, Laos and Chinas Yunnan Province. In fact, if
youve spent some time in northern Thailand or Laos and learned some
of the respective languages, youll find you can have a basic conversation
with the Shan. The Shan are also Theravada Buddhists and at one time
they fought the Bamar for control of Myanmar. Today they make up
about 9% of the population.
Traditionally, the Shan wore baggy trousers and floppy, wide-brimmed
sun hats, and the men were known for their faith in talismanic tattoos.
Nowadays Shan town-dwellers commonly dress in the Bamar longyi and
are mostly indistinguishable from the Bamar, except on festival occasions
when they proudly sport their ethnic costumes.
In former times the Shan were ruled by local lords or chieftains called
sao pha (sky lords), a word that was corrupted by the Bamar to sawbwa.
The Shan are said to be very fond of gambling and festivals, and Shan
women are admired throughout Myanmar for their beauty and light
complexions.
SoutheasrnMym/Stawline(mou)/Sghts&AcvieMonCulrasm
It is only possible to visit

the Naga during their
New Year celebrations
in January, held near
Khamti, by taking a costly
government-sponsored
tour (p000).
Besides the ruins at

Mrauk U (p000), the
most visible vestige of
the Rakhaings illustrious
past is the Mahamuni
Buddha image (p000),
now in Mandalay. Sittwe
is home to a Rakhaing
State Culture Museum
(p000).
Wa
During British-colonial times the Wa (who come from the still-remote
northeastern hills of Shan State) were hated and feared. The British distinguished two groups of Wa according to how receptive they were to
the colonisers attempts to control them. The Wild Wa were headhunters, and decorated their villages with the severed heads of vanquished
enemies to propitiate the spirits that guarded over their opium fields.
(Apparently they only stopped the practice in the 1970s!) The so-called
Tame Wa allowed the colonisers to pass through their territory unimpeded, yet the area inhabited by the Wa east of the upper Thanlwin
(Salween) River in northern Shan State was never completely pacified
Many parts of Shan State

(Myanmars largest) are
restricted to travellers,
but its possible to get
to many areas, including
around Inle Lake (p000
), Kengtung (p000) and
Hsipaw (p000).
NortheasnMym/Il
Lake
NortheasnMym/Kgu&BordeAasntg
NortheasnMym/PiULwtoashHp
56 T H E C U LT U R E M e d i a
With a guide, you can

visit Wa villages outside
Kengtung (p000).
NortheasnMym/Kgu&BordeAasnKgtu
T H E C U LT U R E R e l i g i o n 57
by the British. Nowadays rumours abound of the 20,000-strong United

Wa State Army, led by Bao Youxiang (aka Chairman Bao); an army supposedly highly militarised producers of opium and methamphetamine.
They often make headlines in neighbouring Thailand due to frequent
border skirmishes with Thai military and police forces.
the U Nu period, Buddhism functioned as a state religion of sorts as

embodied in such catch phrases as the Socialist Way to Nibbana. Nowadays there is complete freedom of religion, though within the government
Buddhists tend to attain higher rank more easily than non-Buddhists.
MEDIA
EARLY HISTORY
Though media sources have proliferatedin recent years 15 new domestic journals and papers in the first few years of this century very little
objective hard news gets splashed on their pages. Much of Myanmar, for
example, learned about the ousting of their prime minister Khin Nyunt in
2004 via international TV channels or the BBC website. You can get the
flavour of medias (enforced) censorship from the pages of the governments voice piece in English, the New Light of Myanmar, whose repertoire
includes anti-West poems. Theres also an agenda in place where even the
slightest of strayers get arrested. Apparently novelists cant use the name
Suu in books because ofits association with Aung San Suu Kyi. When
Nelson Mandela won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993, the story was censored because the prize could be associated with Aung San Suu Kyi.
In 1999 documentary filmmakers Aung Pwint and Thaung Tun were
arrested for videotaping grim details of everyday life, including footage
of forced labour. They remain in prison. In 2003 troubles arose from a
football article on a team fined for not appearing in a tournament! Loose
links between the fine and the government, plus questions surrounding
the governments handling of US$4 million from an international grant
to foster football programs, was enough to land the four writers in jail,
one of whom briefly faced a death sentence.
The 9.15pm national news broadcast nightly is read by a no-smiles
woman (often sporting a 1968 beehive do) in front of a mural of a power
plant. She mostly gives national news on the governments achievements.
Some locals get their news from fascinating grainy newsreels that precede
all cinema showings, which show General Than Shwe overseeing new
construction projects.
RELIGION
About 87% of the people of Myanmar are Buddhist. Locals are proud of
their religion and keen to discuss it. Knowing a little about it is a prerequisite for outsiders wishing to better understand the Burmese mind. During
HOW MANY DID YOU SAY?
The Myanmar people may seem, to outsiders, to have an imaginative understanding of maths.
We had a resident of Mrauk U tell us, in all earnestness, the local area had six million temples; a
Sittwe resident insisted the largest minority group in the city of 150,000 were the 800,000 Muslims, and a trishaw driver in Mandalay suggested that to start a guesthouse youd need after
spending several minutes tabbing it up by pen and paper about US$400 million. Minimum.
Locals count 4000 islands in the Mergui Archipelago, while detailed British surveyors found only
804. Historical accounts include hundreds of thousands of soldiers marching to battle; numbers
often contradictory to later British accounts. The age of the antique youre holding is often
wildly, um, optimistic too.
Nothing to fuss over, though. Locals are more accustomed to counting with the lakh (equal to
100,000) than a million, so its possible a zero or two gets added there. Also, Myanmars largest bill
is just K1000 (worth about US$1.05 at research time), and many people are happy to earn K3000
a day. For nearly everyone, US$40,000 is about as likely to fall into their laps as US$400 million.
Buddhism in Myanmar
The Mon were the first people in Myanmar to practise Theravada Buddhism. King Asoka, the great Indian emperor, is known to have sent missions here (known then as the Golden Land) during the 3rd century BC.
A second wave is thought to have arrived via Sinhalese missionaries from
present-day Sri Lanka, sometime between the 6th and 10th centuries.
By the 9th century the Pyu of northern Myanmar were combining
Theravada with elements of Mahayana and Tantric Buddhism brought
from their homelands in the Tibetan Plateau. During the early Bagan
era (11th century), Bamar king Anawrahta decided that the Buddhism
practised in his realm should be purified from all non-Theravada elements, a task he set for Mon monks captured by his armies in Thaton,
in southern Myanmar. However, Buddhism here has never completely
shed Tantric, Hindu and animist elements, but remains predominately
Theravada (only 1% of the Buddhists, most of whom are of Chinese
descent, practise Mahayana Buddhism today).
THERAVADA & MAHAYANA
Theravada Buddhism (also followed in Cambodia, Laos, Sri Lanka and

Thailand) differs from Hinduism, Judaism, Islam or Christianity in that
it is not centred around a god or gods, but rather a psycho-philosophical
system. Today it covers a wide range of interpretations of the basic beliefs,
which all start from the enlightenment of Siddhartha Gautama, a princeturned-ascetic, and referred to as the Buddha, in northern India around
2500 years ago.
Neither the Buddha (which means The Enlightened) nor his immediate pupils ever wrote the dhamma (Buddhist teachings) down, so
after Gautamas death a schism developed and today there are two major
schools of Buddhism. The Theravada (Doctrine of the Elders) school
holds that to achieve nibbana (nirvana), the eventual aim of every Buddhist, you must work out your own salvation with diligence. In other
words, it is up to each individual to work out their own fate.
The Mahayana (Large Vehicle) school holds that individuals should
forego the experience of nibbana until all humankind is ready for salvation. The goal is to become a Bodhisattva (Buddha-to-be), rather than a
fully enlightened Buddha.
The Mahayana school does not reject the other school, but claims it
has extended it. The Theravadins, on the other hand, see Mahayana as
a misinterpretation of the Buddhas original teachings. Of the two, the
Theravada is more austere and ascetic, and, some might say, harder to
practise.
TENETS
Buddha taught that the world is primarily characterised by dukkha (unsatisfactoriness), anicca (impermanence) and anatta (insubstantiality),
and that even our happiest moments in life are only temporary, empty
and unsatisfactory.
The ultrapragmatic Buddhist perception of cause and effect kamma
in Pali, karma in Sanskrit, kan in Burmese holds that birth inevitably
Many visitors come to

Myanmar to meditate;
see p000 for a list of
monasteries.
Directoy/CusMdan
58 T H E C U LT U R E R e l i g i o n
leads to sickness, old age and death, hence every life is insecure and subject to dukkha. Through rebirth, the cycle of thanthaya (samsara in Pali)
repeats itself endlessly as long as ignorance and craving remain.
Only by reaching a state of complete wisdom and nondesire can one
attain true happiness. To achieve wisdom and eliminate craving one must
turn inward and master ones own mind through meditation, most commonly known to the Burmese as bhavana or kammahtan.
The Buddha taught four noble truths:
1 Life is dukkha.
2 Dukkha comes from tanha (selfish desire).
3 When one forsakes selfish desire, suffering will be extinguished.
4 The eightfold path is the way to eliminate selfish desire.
The eightfold path is divided into three stages: sila (morality), samadhi
(concentration), and paa (wisdom and insight). It consists of:
1 Right thought
2 Right understanding
3 Right speech
4 Right action
5 Right livelihood
6 Right exertion
7 Right attentiveness
8 Right concentration
At many stupas, worshippers pour one glassful of

water for every year of
their age (plus one) over
the Buddha image to
ensure long life.
Devout Buddhists in Myanmar adhere to five lay precepts, or moral rules

(thila in Burmese, sila in Pali), which require abstinence from killing,
stealing, unchastity (usually interpreted among laypeople as adultery),
lying and intoxicating substances.
In spite of Buddhisms obviously profound truths, the most common
Myanmar approach is to try for a better future life by feeding monks,
giving donations to temples and performing regular worship at the local
paya (Buddhist monument). For the average person, everything revolves
around the kutho (merit), from the Pali kusala (wholesome), one is able
to accumulate through such deeds.
MONKS & NUNS
There are as many as 500,000 monks in Myanmar. Socially, every Myanmar male is expected to take up temporary monastic residence twice in
his life: once as a samanera (novice monk) between the ages of 10 and
20 and again as a hpongyi (fully ordained monk) sometime after the age
of 20. Almost all men or boys aged under 20 participate in the shinpyu
(novitiation ceremony) quite a common event since a family earns great
merit when one of its sons takes robe and bowl.
All things possessed by a monk must be offered by the lay community.
Upon ordination a new monk is typically offered a set of three robes
(lower, inner and outer). Bright red robes are usually reserved for novices
under 15, darker colours for older, fully ordained monks. Other possessions a monk is permitted include a razor, a cup, a filter (for keeping
insects out of drinking water), an umbrella and an alms bowl.
In Myanmar, women who live the monastic life as dasasila (10-precept nuns) are often called thilashin (possessor of morality) in Burmese.
Myanmar nuns shave their heads, wear pink robes, and take vows in an
ordination procedure similar to that undergone by monks. Generally
speaking, nunhood isnt considered as prestigious as monkhood. This
is mainly because nuns generally dont perform ceremonies on behalf of
T H E C U LT U R E R e l i g i o n 59
NUMBER NINE, NUMBER NINE

Myanmar astrology, based on the Indian system of naming the zodiacal planets for Hindu deities,
continues to be an important factor deciding proper dates for weddings, funerals, ordinations
and other events. Burma became independent at 4.20am on 4 January 1948, per U Nus counsel
with an astrologer. Numerology plays a similar role in Myanmar.
Nearly everyone in Myanmar reveres the number nine, which is thought to have an inherent mystic significance. The Burmese word ko (nine) also means to seek protection from
the gods. General Ne Win, too, was fascinated with numerology, especially that relating to
the cabalistic ritual Paya-kozu (Nine Gods). He replaced common currency with 45-kyat and
90-kyat notes, because their digits sum equalled nine. It is considered no accident that the
prodemocracy marches were staged on 8 August 1988 (8-8-88); for many, eight is considered
an unlucky number.
laypeople, and keep only 10 precepts the same number observed by

male novices.
MONASTERIES
Monastic communities are called kyaungtaik, hpongyi-kyaung, or simply

kyaung for short. There are over 50,000 in Myanmar. The most important structure on the monastery grounds is the thein (a consecrated hall
where monastic ordinations are held). Kyaung may also be associated
with one or more zedi or pahto (temple). An open-sided resthouse or
zayat may be available for gatherings of laypeople during festivals or
pilgrimages.
RECOMMENDED READING
Some of the following books are available in Yangon:

Essential Themes of Buddhist Lectures Given by Ashin Thittila, Department of Religious Affairs (DRA), Yangon
The Initiation of Novicehood and the Ordination of Monkhood in the
Burmese Buddhist Culture by Sao Htun Hmat Win, DRA, Yangon
Religion and Legitimation of Power in Thailand, Laos, Burma, edited
by Bardwell L Smith
Things as They Are, by Maha Boowa Nyanasampanno
A few online sources:
Access to Insight (www.accesstoinsight.org/index.html)
Barre Center for Buddhist Studies (www.dharma.org/bcbs.htm)
Buddha Net (www.buddhanet.org)
DharmaNet International (www.dharmanet.org)
THE 37 NAT
One of the great things about Myanmar is the ongoing worship of the
nat (spirit) a link to the pre-Buddhism era when animism (associated
with hills, trees, lakes) held undisputed dominion over the land. Though
some Buddhist leaders downgrade the nat, the nat are very much alive
in the lives of the people of Myanmar.
History
The powerful nat of Myanmar has evolved into a spirit that may hold
dominion over a place (natural or human-made), person, or field of experience. Orthographically, the written Burmese word nat is likely derived
from the Pali-Sanskrit natha (lord or guardian).
I worship Buddha, but

I make friends with
the nat
PAKOKKU LOCAL
60 T H E C U LT U R E R e l i g i o n
Many locals split their

devotion between Buddha and the nat: Buddha
is for their future lives,
and the nat for problems
in this life.
Separate, larger shrines were built for a higher class of nat, descended
from actual historic personages (including previous Thai and Bamar
kings) who had died violent, unjust deaths. These suprahuman nat, when
correctly propitiated, could aid worshippers in accomplishing important
tasks, vanquishing enemies and so on.
In Bagan, King Anawrahta stopped animal sacrifices (part of nat worship at Mt Popa) and destroyed nat temples. Undeterred, many of his
subjects simply rebuilt nat shrines in their homes. Realising he may lose
the case for making Theravada Buddhism the national faith, Anawrahta
wisely conceded the nats coexistence with Buddha. He himself led the
way by placing images of the 36 nat from Mt Popa at the base of the
sacred zedi of Shwezigon.
To these universally recognised 36, Anawrahta sagely added a 37th,
Thagyamin, a Hindu deity based on Indra, who he crowned king of
the nat. Since, in traditional Buddhist mythology, Indra paid homage
to Buddha on behalf of the Hindu pantheon, this theistic insertion effectively made all nat subordinate to Buddhism.
Anawrahtas scheme worked, and today the commonly believed cosmology places Buddha and his teachings at the top, with the Hindu and
Bamar nat in second and third place.
Worship & Beliefs
In many homes, you may see the most popular nat in the form of
an unhusked coconut dressed in a red gaung baung (turban), which
represents the dual-nat Eindwin-Min Mahagiri (Lord of the Great
Mountain who is in the House). Another widespread form of nat worship is exhibited through thered-and-white cloths tied to a rear-view
mirror or hood ornament; these colours are the traditional nat colours
of protection.
Some of the more animistic guardian nat remain outside home and
paya. A tree-spirit shrine, for example, may be erected beneath a particularly venerated old tree, thought to wield power over the immediate
vicinity. These are especially common beneath larger banyan trees (Ficus
religiosa), as this tree is revered as a symbol of Buddhas enlightenment. A
village may well have a nat shrine in a wooded corner for the propitiation
of the village guardian spirit. Such tree and village shrines are simple,
dollhouselike structures of wood or bamboo; their proper placement is
divined by a local saya (teacher or shaman), trained in spirit lore. Such
knowledge of the complex nat world is fading fast among the younger
generations.
Those with a general fear of nat will avoid eating pork, which is
thought to be offensive to the spirit world. The main fear is not simply
that spirits will wreak havoc on your daily affairs, but rather that one
may enter your mind and body, and then force you to perform unconscionable acts in public acts that would cause others to shun you. Spirit
possession whether psychologically induced or metaphysical is a
phenomenon that is real in the eyes of the people of Myanmar.
T H E C U LT U R E W o m e n i n M y a n m a r 61
The nat like loud and colourful music, so musicians at a nat pwe bang
away at full volume on their gongs, drums and xylophones, producing
what sounds like some ancient form of rock and roll.
Every nat pwe is accompanied by a risk that the invited spirit may
choose to enter, not the body of the medium, but one of the spectators.
One of the most commonly summoned spirits at nat pwe is Ko Gyi
Kyaw (Big Brother Kyaw), a drunkard nat who responds to offerings of
liquor imbibed by the nat-gadaw. When he enters someones body, hes
given to lascivious dancing, so a chance possession by Ko Gyi Kyaw is
especially embarrassing.
Once possessed by a nat, the only way one can be sure the spirit wont
return again and again is to employ the services of an older Buddhist
monk skilled at exorcism a process that can take days, if not weeks.
Without undergoing such a procedure, anyone who has been spiritpossessed may carry the nat stigma the rest of their lives. Girls who
have been so entered are considered unmarriageable unless satisfactorily
exorcised.
Though nat pwe are commonly held with festivals throughout Bamar
Myanmar, the grandest of all occur during the annual nat festival in
Taungbyone, about 20km north of Mandalay. Held each August (more
specifically for six days up to and including the full moon of Wagaung,
the fifth lunar month) since Anawrahtas reign, the Taungbyone festival
honours the so-called Muslim Brothers, Byat-wi and Byat-ta, two of
the most famous nat from the Bagan era. Another nat festival, rather
smaller than the one at Taungbyone, follows immediately afterwards at
Yadana-gu, a paya south of Amarapura. This one revolves around the
ritual bathing of nat images on the banks of the Ayeyarwady River; many
festival-goers arrive here by sampan from Amarapura.
Other Religions
Among the non-Buddhist people of Myanmar, 1% are animist, 4% Christian, 4% Muslim and 1.5% Hindu. Most Muslims and Hindus, as well
as many Christians, are of Indian descent and live in the larger towns
and cities.
Most other Christians in Myanmar are found among the tribal minorities, though the majority of the tribal people remain animist. Baptist,
Catholic and Anglican missionaries have been active in Myanmar for
over 150 years. Ethnic groups that traditionally practised animism were
more receptive to conversion, especially the Kayin, Kachin and Chin.
Myanmar had 2500 Jews before the wake of nationalism encouraged
most to leave; today Myanmar has only about 50 Jews; the best Jewish site
to visit is Yangons 19th-century Moseah Yeshua Synagogue (p000).
With such religious diversity, its not surprising that there is sometimes
friction between religious groups. In October 2001, riots between Buddhists and Muslims caused the government to impose temporary curfews
in Taungoo and Pyay. Many Muslims endure restrictions on their ability
to travel, and often can stay only at family homes, not hotels.
Yango/SihtsOerPy,Tmpl&Sins/Moeah
Nat Festivals
WOMEN IN MYANMAR
On certain occasions, the nat cult goes behind simple propitiation of

the spirits (via offerings) and steps into the realm of spirit invocation.
Most commonly, this is accomplished through nat pwe (spirit festivals),
special musical performances designed to attract nat to the performance venue. Nearly all indigenous Burmese music is designed for this
purpose.
In most respects Myanmar women enjoy legal rights equal to those of

Myanmar men; for example, they own property and arent barred from
any profession. Unlike in the West, females do not traditionally change
any portion of their names upon marriage; in the event of divorce, they
are legally entitled to half of all property accumulated during the marriage. Inheritance rights are also equally shared. Aung San Suu Kyi wrote
To lure a nat to a loud

pwe takes the work
of a spirit medium, or
nat-gadaw (nat wife),
who is either a woman or
a male transvestite who
sings and dances to invite
specific nat to possess
them.
62 T H E C U LT U R E A r t s
MYANMAR BEAUTY SECRETS

Women rarely touch alcohol or cigarettes; the cheroots puffed by country women are mild.
High humidity helps, as sweating keeps the pores active and flushed.
Most locals wash with cold water (often straight from the river) two or three times daily with
unscented soap.
Thanakha paste is a combination of moisturiser, sunscreen and perfume thats smeared on
the face (some women apply it to their whole bodies at night); its made from the ground
bark of the thanakha tree.
Plumpness is a sign of health; to say wa-laiq-ta! (how fat youre looking!) is quite a compliment!
T H E C U LT U R E A r t s 63
Jataka (life story of the Buddha) while the yamazat picks a tale from the
Indian epic Ramayana.
Classical dance-drama is occasionally performed at the National Theatre in Yangon (p000), where around a dozen amateur theatre groups regularly practise and perform yamazat. In Mandalay, yamazat performers
even have their own shrine. Since Myanmar classical dancing emphasises
pose rather than movement, and solo rather than ensemble performances, it can soon become a little boring for TV-hyped Western tastes.
By contrast the less common, but livelier, yein pwe features singing and
dancing performed by a chorus or ensemble.
Most popular of all is the a-nyeint pwe, a traditional-variety pwe somewhat akin to early American vaudeville (see p000 for a description).
Yango/EterimNalTh
Enteraim/ MoustacheBr
The literacy rate for men

is 88%; for women it
is 78%.
that a baby girl is equally celebrated as a baby boy, as theyre believed to

be more dutiful and loving than sons. Girls are educated alongside boys
and, by university age, women outnumber men in university and college
enrolment. Most white-collar professions grant women a paid maternity
leave of six weeks before birth and one or two months afterwards.
Religion is one arena in which women perpetually take a back seat,
though. Any man is seen as possessing the potential, regardless of desire, of becoming a Buddha; women cannot. A small number of Buddhist shrines, for example Mandalays Mahamuni Paya, have small areas
around the main holy image that are off-limits to women. Many people
in Myanmar women as well as men believe the birth of a female indicates less religious merit than the birth of a male, and that it is easier
for males to attain nibbana. A small but devoted minority of men and
women refute this view, pointing out that the actual suttas, or sayings of
the Buddha, do not support this assumption.
Just as boys between the ages of five and 15 usually undergo a prepuberty initiation as temporary novice monks, girls around the same
age participate in an initiatory ear-piercing ceremony (often called earboring in Burmese English). Some also become temporary nuns at this
age.
Saw Myat Yin, the insightful author of Culture Shock! Burma, expresses
a viewpoint common among the majority of Myanmar women, who see
their role as equal but supportive and complementaryrather than in
competition and that if they accept a role a step behind their menfolk
they do so freely and willingly.
ARTS
Dance & Theatre

Myanmars truly indigenous dance forms are those that pay homage
to the nat. In special nat pwe, one or more nat is invited to possess the
body and mind of a medium; sometimes members of the audience are
possessed instead, an event greatly feared by most locals.
As with music, most of Myanmars classical dance styles arrived from
Thailand. Today the dances most obviously taken from Thailand are
known as yodaya zat (Ayuthaya theatre), as taught to the Burmese by
Thai theatrical artists taken captive in the 18th century.
The most Myanmar of dances feature solo performances by female
dancers who wear strikingly colourful dresses with long white trains,
which they kick into the air with their heels quite a feat, given the
restrictive length of the train.
A zat pwe involves a re-creation of an ancient legend or Buddhist
Marionette Theatre
Youq-the pwe (Myanmar marionette theatre) presents colourful puppets
up to a metre high in a spectacle that many aesthetes consider the most
expressive of all the Myanmar arts. Developed during the Konbaung period, it was so influential that it became the forerunner to zat pwe as later
performed by actors rather than marionettes. As with dance-drama, the
genres golden age began with the Mandalay kingdoms of the late 18th
century and ran through to the advent of cinema in the 1930s.
The people of Myanmar have great respect for an expert puppeteer.
Some marionettes may be manipulated by a dozen or more strings; certain nat may sport up to 60 strings, including one for each eyebrow. The
marionette masters standard repertoire requires a troupe of 28 puppets
including Thagyamin (king of the gods); a Myanmar king, queen, prince
and princess; a regent; two court pages; an old man and an old woman; a
villain; a hermit; four ministers; two clowns; one good and one evil nat; a
Brahmin astrologer; two ogres; a zawgyi (alchemist); a horse; a monkey;
a makara (mythical sea serpent); and an elephant.
These days its rare to see marionette theatre outside tourist venues in
Yangon, Mandalay or Bagan.
Music
Much of classical Myanmar music, played loud like the nat like it, features
strongly in any pwe, and its repetitive, even harsh, harmonies can be hard
on Western ears at first. This harshness likely comes from the fact that
Myanmar scales are not tempered as Western scales have been since
Bach. Traditional Myanmar music is primarily two dimensional in the
sense that rhythm and melody provide much of the musical structure,
while repetition is a key element in developing this structure. Subtle shifts
in rhythm and tonality provide the modulation usually supplied by the
harmonic dimension in Western music.
CLASSICAL MUSIC
The original inspiration for much of Myanmars current musical tradition came from Thailand (then Siam) during the reign of King Hsinbyushin, particularly after the second conquest of Thailand in 1767 when
musicians and dancers were brought to Myanmar to effect cultural augmentation. Interestingly, the Thais had acquired these styles themselves
from Cambodian musicians after conquering Angkor centuries earlier.
Myanmar classical music as played today was codified by Po Sein, a
colonial-era musician, composer and drummer who also designed the
hsaing waing (the circle of tuned drums, also known as paq waing) and
formalised classical dancing styles. Such music is meant to be played as
Myanmar dance scholars

have catalogued around
2000 dance movements,
including 13 head
movements, 28 eye
movements, nine neck
movements, 24 ways of
moving only one hand
and 23 using both hands,
38 leg movements, eight
body postures and 10
walking movements.
T H E C U LT U R E A r t s 65
TRADITIONAL BURMESE MUSIC CDS
ROCK & RAP CDS
These music CDs can generally be found outside Myanmar:
These are five highlights, generally only found (for K1200 or K1500) in Myanmar. (Sincere regrets
go to the one-time Rakhaing band Evil Elf, who sadly never recorded.)
Mahagita, Harp & Vocal Music from Burma (2003; Smithsonian Folkways)
Green Tea Leaf Salad, Flavors of Burmese Music (2001; Pan Records)
Lay Phyu & Iron Cross, Butterfly (2003) Myanmars most popular rock singer
White Elephants & Golden Ducks, Musical Treasures from Burma (1997; Shanachie)
Ah Nge & Iron Cross, Khu Hnit Tway Ah Ka (2003) Iron Cross number two (a little more
talented than Mr Lay, actually)
Pat Waing, The Magic Drum Circle of Burma (1998; Shanachie)
Myanmar Future Generations Free-download album (www.mm-fg.net) of 11 politically

charged rap tracks (and counting)
U Ko Ko, Performs on the Burmese Piano (1995; Ummus)
The Ants, Colourful Chocolate (1998) Alternative-rock trio from Shan State
At the National Museum

in Yangon (p101) you can
view an exhibit of Burmese traditional music
an accompaniment to classical dance-dramas that enact scenes from the

Jataka or from the Ramayana.
Musical instruments are predominantly percussive, but even the hsaing
waing may carry the melody. These drums are tuned by placing a wad of
paq-sa (drum food) made from a kneaded paste of rice and wood-ash
onto the centre of the drum head, then adding or subtracting a pinch
at a time till the desired drum tone is attained.
In addition to the hsaing waing, the traditional hsaing (Myanmar
ensemble) of seven to 10 musicians will usually play: the kye-waing (a
circle of tuned brass gongs); the saung gauq (a boat-shaped harp with
13 strings); the pattala (a sort of xylophone); the hneh (an oboe-type
instrument related to the Indian shanai); the pa-lwe (a bamboo flute);
the mi-gyaung (crocodile lute); the paq-ma (a bass drum); and the yagwin
(small cymbals) and wa-leq-hkouq (bamboo clappers), which are purely
rhythmic and are often played by Myanmar vocalists.
FOLK
Older than Myanmar classical music is an enchanting vocal folk-music

tradition still heard in rural areas where locals may sing without instrumental accompaniment while working. Such folk songs set the work
cadence and provide a distraction from the physical strain and monotony
of pounding rice, clearing fields, weaving and so on. Youll hear this type
of music most readily in the Ayeyarwady Delta between Twante and
Pathein.
ROCK & RAP
Modern music has taken off in Myanmar in recent years, with a host
of rap and rock bands influenced with the introduction of MTV Asia.
Western musics influence first came in the 1970s, actually, when singers such as Min Min Latt and Takatho Tun Naung sang shocking things
such as Beatles cover versions or Tie a Yellow Ribbon around the Old
Oak Tree. This led to long-haired, distorted-guitar rock bands such as
Empire and Iron Cross in the 1980s. Iron Cross still makes a huge impact,
as does the band Lazy Club, which you may see on videotapes in teashops
or aboard all-night buses.
Bands such as these (all of whom sing in Burmese, even if they have
English names) have a stable of half a dozen singers who share the stage
with the same backing band. Iron Cross, for example, features one of
Myanmars wilder singers, Lay Phyu, whose recent Butterfly album has
him done up like the insect. Then Iron Cross also tones it down as a
backing band for the poppier stuff of other singers. One local aficionado
explained: Theres no competition between a bands many singers. They
Big Bag, Dont Talk About Punk (2004) Includes cover of Green Days Longview, in Burmese
Myo Kyawt Myaing, The Troubles of Being Human (2004) Rap pioneer, features My Name is
Myo Kyawt Myaing
help each other. Our rock singers dont throw TVs out the windows. On
stage they jump around and all, but offstage theyre very good natured.
Sone Thin Par and actress Htu Eindra Bo are female singers who win
fans for their melodies and looks.
Rap is the latest trend, with Min Min Latts son, Anega, now busting
beats with other big-name rappers Barbu, Myo Kyawt Myaung and (hear
the girls sigh) Sai Sai. Songs often deal with gossip, or troubles between
parents and kids. One rap band, 9mm, was briefly detained in 2004
for performing political songs written by an anonymous prodemocracy
group of exiled and local rappers called Myanmar Future Generations
(MFG).
A famed exiled singer, Mun Awng (a Kachin singer) has recorded
political songs, including his Battle for Peace album, which is available
through the underground only.
Look out for posters advertising shows. Yangons Strand Hotel and
Mya Yeik Nyo Hotel are popular venues. You might bump into one of
Myanmars more popular musicians at Yangons Mr Guitar Cafe (p000
).
Yango/DrikBsM
Guitar
Architecture
It is in architecture that one sees the strongest evidence of Myanmar artistic skill and accomplishment. Myanmar is a country of zedis, often called
pagodas in English. Wherever you are boating down the river, driving
through the hills, even flying above the plains there always seems to be
a hilltop zedi in view. It is in Bagan (p000) that you see the most dramatic
results of this national enthusiasm for religious monuments.
TemplsofBagn
PAYA, ZEDI OR PAHTO?
The paya (pa-yah), the most common Myanmar equivalent to the oftenmisleading English term pagoda, literally means holy one and can refer
to people, deities and places associated with religion. Often its a generic
term covering a stupa, temple or shrine. There are basically two kinds
of paya: the solid, bell-shaped zedi and the hollow square or rectangular
pahto. A zedi or stupa is usually thought to contain relics either objects
taken from the Buddha himself (especially pieces of bone, teeth or hair)
or certain holy materials. Both zedi and pahto are often associated with
kyaung (Buddhist monasteries).
The term pahto is sometimes translated as temple, though shrine
All lyrics must pass the

governments censor
board. In 1998 blues
singer Nyi Pu had to
rename his debut Everythings Going to Be Good
to Everythings Good;
a few years later, Iron
Cross Myo Gyi changed
his Very Wild Wind album
to a tamer Breeze.
High above you in a zedi

you can hear the wind
bells tinkling from the
hti, the decorative metal
umbrella that tops the
structure.
would perhaps be more accurate as priests or monks are not necessarily in

attendance. The so-called Mon-style pahto is a large cube with small windows and ground-level passageways; this type is also known as a gu or ku
(from the Pali-Sanskrit guha; cave). The overall Bamar concept is similar
to that of the Mayan and Aztec pyramids of Mesoamerica: worshippers
climb a symbolic mountain lined with religious reliefs and frescoes.
If all this seems too confusing, just remember that the generic Myanmar term for all these structures is paya. The famous Mon zedi in Yangon
is called Shwedagon Paya (p000), and Bagans greatest pahto is often called
Ananda Paya (p000).
T H E C U LT U R E S p o r t 67
of styles and materials, from the rustic wood-and-plaster Tudor villas of

Pyin U Lwin to the thick-walled, brick-and-plaster, colonnaded mansions
and shop houses of Yangon, Mawlamyine and Myeik. An interesting
example of a fusion of Burmese and European styles is the City Hall
building in Yangon. Until recently scant attention was paid to preserving colonial architecture for political as well as economic reasons.
Nowadays some are being restored, but many have been demolished and
replaced by new structures in recent years.
Yango /Si hts wed P ya
TemplsofBagn/NrthPiAdo
ZEDI STYLES
Early zedi were usually hemispherical (the Kaunghmudaw at Sagaing

near Mandalay) or bulbous (the Bupaya in Bagan), while the more modern style is much more graceful a curvaceous lower bell merging into a
soaring spire, such as the Shwedagon Paya in Yangon. Style is not always
a good indicator of a zedis original age as Myanmar is earthquake-prone
and many (including the Shwedagon) have been rebuilt over and again.
Around the base of a zedi people are meditating, strolling around and
chatting. This makes zedi tranquil places to visit.
OTHER BUILDINGS
Traditionally, only the zedi, gu and pahto have been made of permanent
materials; until quite recently all secular buildings and most monasteries were constructed of wood, so there are few old ones to be seen.
Even the great palaces were made of wood, and with the destruction of
Mandalay Palace during WWII there is no remaining wooden Myanmar
palace. A few surviving examples are in Mandalay (p000), Inwa (p000),
Salay (p000) and near Pakokku (p000).
Although so little remains of the old wooden architectural skills, there
are still many excellent wooden buildings to be seen. The people of Myanmar continue to use teak with great skill, and a fine country home can
be a very pleasing structure indeed.
Buildings erected during the British colonial period feature a variety
Sights/ wenadKyug
Bagn&CetrlMym/AoudBagnSlihtsYqoKyaung
AroundMaly/cietCsInw(av)Sgh
Sculpture & Painting

Early Myanmar art was always a part of the religious architecture paints
were for the walls of temples, sculpture to be placed inside them. Remarkably little research has been carried out on Myanmar religious sculpture
other than that from the Bagan and Mandalay eras. Many pieces, formerly in paya or kyaung have been sold or stolen. Mandalays Mahamuni
Buddha image, a Rakhaing sculpture, is the countrys most famous image
of any age. Unfortunately, youll easily find more Myanmar religious
sculpture for sale or on display in Bangkok, Chiang Mai, San Francisco
and London than in Myanmar.
In the immediate aftermath of the 1988 demonstrations, the government forbade selfish or mad art that didnt have clear progovernment
themes. One artist, Sitt Nyein Aye, spent two months in custody for
sketching the ruins of the former student union, which New Win had
blown up in 1962. Things seem to have relaxed a little, evident in national
galleries though most works are rather predictable tourist-oriented
works. The governments social posters anti-AIDS, antidrugs, or just
progovernment! are interesting pieces of propaganda posted on many
main streets.
Bagn&CetrlMym/AoudBagnPk
BUDDHAS HAND SIGNS

Of the hundreds and hundreds of Buddha images youll see in Myanmar, the Buddha will be in
one of four postures: standing, sitting, walking and reclining. The first three are associated with
the daily activities of the Buddha, while the later represents Buddhas dying moments when
he attained parinibbana (ultimate nirvana). Look out for the following hand signs, which have
difference meanings:
Abhaya Both hands are extended forward, palms out, to symbolise Buddhas offer of protection
or freedom from fear.
Bhumispara The right hand touches the ground, which symbolises the point in the Buddhas
life when he sat in meditation beneath the banyan tree and vowed not to budge from the
spot until he gained enlightenment.
Dana One or both hands extended forward with palms up, which symbolises the offering of
dhamma (Buddhist teachings) to the world.
Dhyana Both hands rest palm-up on the Buddhas lap, signifying meditation.
Vitarka or Dhammachakka Thumb and forefinger of one hand forms a circle with other fingers
curving outward (somewhat like an OK gesture), symbolising the first public discourse on
Buddhist doctrine.
Literature
Religious texts inscribed onto Myanmars famous kammawa (lacquered
scriptures) and parabaik (folding manuscripts) were the first pieces of
literature as such, and began appearing in the 12th century. Until the
1800s, the only other works of literature available were royal genealogies, classical poetry and law texts. A Burmese version of the Indian epic
Ramayana was first written in 1775 by poet U Aung Pyo. The first printed
books in the country were produced by missionaries; the American
Baptist Mission was responsible for virtually all publishing until the late
19th century, when the first press owned by a Burmese began printing a
Burmese-language newspaper.
Today the people of Myanmar are great readers, as youll realise from
the piles of books in the street at every night market.
SPORT
Martial Arts
Myanmar has a tradition of kickboxing thats said to date back to the
Bagan era, although the oldest written references are found in chronicles
of warfare between Burma and Thailand during the 15th and 16th centuries. Myanma let-hwei (Myanmar kickboxing) is very similar in style
to muay thai (Thai kickboxing), although not nearly as well developed
as a national sport.
The most common and traditional kickboxing venues are temporary
rings set up at paya pwe rather than sports arenas. However, in recent
years occasional championships are held at Aung San Stadium in Yangon.
Yangons YMCA is a good place to ask about upcoming events.
When royal palaces

ceased to be built,
woodcarving skills rapidly
declined. There has been
a small renaissance in
recent years, mostly seen
in hotels.

68 T H E C U LT U R E S p o r t
As with Thai boxing, almost anything goes in the ring. All fighters
are bare-fisted. All surfaces of the body are considered fair targets and
any part of the body except the head may be used to strike an opponent.
Common blows include high kicks to the neck, elbow thrusts to the
face and head, knee hooks to the ribs and low crescent kicks to the calf.
Punching is considered the weakest of all blows and kicking merely a
way to soften up ones opponent; knee and elbow strikes are decisive
in most matches.
Competition isnt nearly as formalised in Myanmar as in Thailand; in
fact you probably wont find two people anywhere in the country who
agree on the rules! In the simplest rural matches, fought in a dirt circle,
theres no time limit and a fighter loses once he has wiped blood from his
face or body three times (or gets knocked out cold!). In more organised
amateur matches, boxers fight in square rings (5.8m by 5.5m), for three to
five rounds of three minutes each, usually with two minutes rest between.
Professional matches in larger towns and cities begin with five rounds
but may increase round by round to 12 rounds when the scoring is tight
even longer if no clear winner emerges earlier in the match.
Before the match begins, each boxer performs a dancelike ritual in the
ring to pay homage to Buddha and to Khun Cho and Khun Tha, the nat
whose domain includes Myanmar kickboxing. The winner repeats the
ritual at the end of the match.
Chinlon
Often called cane ball in Burmese English, chinlon refers to games in
which a woven rattan ball about 12cm in diameter is kicked around. It
also refers to the ball itself, which resembles the takraw of Thailand and
Malaysia. Informally any number of players can form a circle and keep
the chinlon airborne by kicking it soccer-style from player to player; a lack
of scoring makes it a favourite pastime with locals of all ages.
In formal play six players stand in a circle of 22ft (6.6m) circumference.
Each player must keep the ball aloft using a succession of 30 techniques
and six surfaces on the foot and leg, allotting five minutes for each part.
Each successful kick scores a point, while points are subtracted for using
the wrong body part or dropping the ball.
A popular variation and the one used in intramural or international
competitions is played with a volleyball net, using all the same rules as
in volleyball except that only the feet and head are permitted to touch
the ball.

69
Environment
THE LAND
A bit bigger than France and slightly smaller than Texas, Myanmar
covers 678,500 sq km, though it sometimes jockeys with neighbouring
Thailand for a hectare or two more along its eastern extremes. Its land
borders with (clockwise from west) Bangladesh, India, Tibet, China, Laos
and Thailand, covers 5876km, and 1930km of coastline faces the Bay of
Bengal and Andaman Sea.
Geographically, Myanmars south is similar to Malaysia, the north to
northern India or China, and the centre is an overlap of the two each
producing unique zones manifested in the scenery and creatures that
hop by it. The area southwest of Yangon is a vast delta region. There
is a central broad flat heartland, where much of the countrys history
was played out and lots of rice is currently grown. This is surrounded
by protective mountain and hill ranges. Most notable are: the rugged
Kachin Hills, which serve as the first steps into the Himalaya to the
north; Khakabo Razi, on the Tibetan border, is Southeast Asias highest
mountain at 5889m; and Mt Victoria, west of Bagan in Chin State, which
rises 3053m.
Three major rivers fed by monsoon downpours and melted Himalayan snows from Nepal and India cut north to south through the country. The 2000km-long Ayeyarwady River, one of Asias most navigable big
rivers, feeds much of the countrys rice fields. It connects lower Myanmar
(based around Yangon) with upper Myanmar (around Mandalay). North
of Mandalay, the Chindwin River connects the hills to the north; while
the Thanlwin River leads from China to the Gulf of Mottama through
Myanmars east. Also, the Mekong River passes by on the short border
with Laos.
Politically, the land is divided into seven tain (divisions) and seven pyi
(states) as shown on the map on p51.
WILDLIFE
Myanmars rich wildlife benefits from its diverse habitats brackish waters and mangrove along the coast, bizarre mixes of tropical forests and
cooler mountain habitats up north. The central plains (the dry zone) are
home to more rice fields than wildlife.
Animals
When Marco Polo wrote about Myanmar in the 13th century, he described ...vast jungles teeming with elephants, unicorns and other wild
beasts. Though Myanmars natural biodiversity has no doubt altered
considerably since that time, its difficult to say by just how much. Its
estimated that Myanmar is presently home to 251 mammals, 687 birds,
203 reptiles and 70 amphibians 32 of which are endangered, including
the tiger, two species of rhinoceros and the red panda (see p70).
The most comprehensive wildlife survey available was undertaken by
the Bombay Natural History Society between 1912 and 1921 and published as the Mammal Survey of India, Burma and Ceylon. In Myanmar
The Wild Animals of Burma, published in 1967, is the most recent work
available and even this volume simply contains extracts from various
surveys carried out by the British between 1912 and 1941, with a few
observations dating to 1961.
From the local

perspective, the 3000kmlong Himalaya mountain
chain begins in Myanmar.
This is true enough, as
one end of the chain,
formed when the Indian
and Eurasian tectonic
plates collided 140 million
years ago, extends to
Myanmars northern
Kachin State.
70 E N V I R O N M E N T W i l d l i fe
Possession of a sacred
white (albino) elephant
supposedly ensured
Burmese kings a
prosperous reign. In 1885
Burmas last royal white
elephant died during the
reign of King Thibaw.
Shortly thereafter British
colonial forces took over
the country.
As with Myanmars flora, the variation in Myanmars wildlife is closely

associated with the countrys geographic and climatic differences. Hence
the indigenous fauna of the countrys northern half is mostly of IndoChinese origin while that of the south is generally Sundaic (ie typical of
Malaysia, Sumatra, Borneo and Java). In the Himalayan region north of
the Tropic of Cancer (just north of Lashio), the fauna is similar to that
found in northeastern India. The area extending from around Myitkyina
in the north to the Bago Mountains in the central region is one where
there is overlap between geographical and vegetative zones which
means that much of Myanmar is a potential habitat for plants and animals from all three zones.
Distinctive mammals found in dwindling numbers within the more
heavily forested areas of Myanmar include leopards, fishing cats, civets,
Indian mongooses, crab-eating mongooses, Himalayan bears, Asiatic
black bears, Malayan sun bears, gaur (Indian bison), banteng (wild cattle), serow (an Asiatic mountain goat), wild boars, sambar, barking deer,
mouse deer, tapirs, pangolin, gibbons and macaques. Sea mammals include dolphins and dugongs.
Some 10,000 Asiatic elephants roughly a third of all those on the planet
are distributed throughout Myanmar. Among these are 6000 working
elephants, most of which are used in logging and agriculture. Its encouraging that this number exceeds by a thousand that tallied by English
scholar FT Morehead in his 1944 treatise The Forests of Burma.
Reptiles and amphibians include four sea turtle species along with
numerous snake varieties, of which an astounding 52 are venomous.
These include the common cobra, king cobra (hamadryad), banded krait,
Malayan pit viper, green viper and Russells viper.
Myanmar is rich in birdlife, with an estimated 687 resident and migrating species. Coastal and inland waterways of the delta and southern peninsula are especially important habitats for Southeast Asian waterfowl.
One of the best birding spots is at Mt Victoria, which requires taking an
expensive government guide (p329).
ENDANGERED SPECIES
Currently, 32 species are endangered in Myanmar, including the flying

squirrel, tiger, three-striped box turtle and blue whale. The main threats
to the countrys wildlife are deforestation and poaching (see p72 for
more details).
As recently as the mid-1990s, an estimated 2000 tigers (about 40% of
Southeast Asias total, some suggest) were thought to inhabit the primary
forests, but some sources claim that numbers have dropped dramatically
due to poaching and the illicit trade in tiger parts.
Both the one-horned (Javan) rhinoceros and the Asiatic two-horned
(Sumatran) rhinoceros are believed to survive in very small numbers near
the Thai border in Kayin State. The rare red panda (or cat bear) was last
E N V I R O N M E N T W i l d l i fe 71
INTRODUCINGTHE LEAF DEER

In the 1990s, the leaf deer a 0.6m-tall tall deer amazed scientists in northern Myanmar just
by existing. Locals called it leaf deer because its so small they could wrap it in a leaf. Genetically ancient, and considered the most primitive deer species, it offers insight into evolution. The
New Yorkbased Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) was the first to bring the leaf deer to the
attention of the world. The WCS also broke ground by becoming, in 1993, the first international
NGO to work with the junta to set up wildlife reserves in Myanmar in three decades.
sighted in northern Myanmar in the early 1960s but is still thought to

live in Kachin State forests above 2000m.
Plants
As in the rest of tropical Asia, most indigenous vegetation in Myanmar
is associated with two basic types of tropical forest: monsoon forest (with
a distinctive dry season of three months or more) and rainforest (where
rain falls more than nine months per year). Its said there are over 1000
plant species endemic to the country.
Monsoon forests are marked by deciduous tree varieties, which shed
their leaves during the dry season; rainforests are typically evergreen.
The area stretching from Yangon to Myitkyina contains mainly monsoon
forests, while peninsular Myanmar to the south of Mawlamyine is predominantly a rainforest zone. There is much overlapping of the two some
forest zones support a mix of monsoon forest and rainforest vegetation.
In the mountainous Himalayan region above the Tropic of Cancer,
Myanmars flora is characterised by subtropical broadleaf evergreen forest up to 2000m; temperate semi-deciduous broadleaf rainforest from
2000m to 3000m; and, above 3000m, evergreen coniferous, subalpine
snow forest and alpine scrub.
Along the Rakhaing and Tanintharyi coasts, tidal forests occur in river
estuaries, lagoons, tidal creeks and along low islands. Such woodlands
are characterised by mangrove and other coastal trees that grow in mud
and are resistant to seawater. Beach and dune forests, which grow along
these same coasts above the high-tide line, consist of palms, hibiscus,
casuarinas and other tree varieties that can withstand high winds and
occasional storm-sent waves.
The countrys most famous flora includes an incredible array of fruit
trees, over 25,000 flowering species, a variety of tropical hardwoods, and
bamboo. Cane and rattan are also plentiful.
Myanmar may possibly

contain more species of
bamboo than any country
outside China. One pure
stand of bamboo forest in
Rakhaing State extends
over 7770 sq km.
RESPONSIBLE ECOLOGICAL TRAVEL TIPS

Here are some simple tips for helping Myanmars environment.
Avoid using nonbiodegradable goods.
If you do use nonbiodegradable items deposit them in rubbish bins in the nearest town.
CARING FOR YOUR ELEPHANT

One of my favourite Burmese books is Burmese Timber Elephant by U Toke Gale. It could be subtitled selection, care and use of your pet elephant, for it tells you everything you need to know
and many things you dont about timber elephants even what to do when your elephant is in
musth. Theres a chart of 90 nerve centres to use to control an elephant or get it to do things.
But dont press 13, 25, 60, 61 or 63 or the animal will be infuriated!
Tony Wheeler
Make an effort to carry out rubbish left by others.

Never bury your rubbish: digging disturbs soil and ground cover, and encourages erosion.
Buried rubbish will likely be dug up by animals, which may be injured or poisoned by it.
Avoid restaurants serving exotic wildlife species, if you should find them (eg barking deer, bear).
Ask boat drivers not to lower anchors onto coral formations, if on a trip in the vicinity of coral
reefs.
72 E N V I R O N M E N T N a t i o n a l Pa r k s
Myanmar holds 75% of the worlds reserves of Tectona grandis, better known as teak (kyun in Burmese). This dense, long-wearing, highly
prized hardwood is one of Myanmars most important exports, for which
the biggest consumers are China, Singapore and India.
NATIONAL PARKS
Alan Rabinowitzs Beyond
the Last Village: A Journey
of Discovery in Asias
Forbidden Wilderness
(2001) describes the
rolled-up-sleeve efforts
by himself and the
Wildlife Conservation
Society to set up reserves
and parks in Myanmars
northern areas.
Most of Myanmars
protected areas are
off-limits for travellers.
See a list of wildlife
sanctuaries at www
.myanmars.net/travel
/ecotourism.htm.
By an optimistic account, about 7.2% of Myanmars land area (48,981 sq

km) is made up of national parks and national forests, wildlife sanctuaries and parks and other protected areas. Other accounts estimate the
percentage of protected areas as more like 2.1% (and this tally takes in
zoos and the like). Regardless, the government has pledged to expand the
area, much to the credit of the efforts of the New Yorkbased Wildlife
Conservation Society. In 2004 the government expanded the Hukuang
Valley Tiger Reserve (p225) in Kachin State to 8400 sq km (and it may
grow to 12,000 sq km), making it the largest tiger reserve in the world.
When set up in 2001, a mere 150 tigers roamed the area; hunting (for the
Chinese market) has been a major cause of the decline.
Most of the ecotourist sights touted by the government (ranging
from the zoo in the capital to the worlds largest tiger reserve in Kachin
State) are in remote areas and require special permission to visit. The
most visited national park is Mt Popa (p277), which receives 150,000
visitors annually.
By one account, Myanmar sports more forest in general than any South
or Southeast Asian country apart from India, and has 75% of the same
area of forest as India, despite its much smaller size. That said, only 1.2%
of Myanmars forests are protected by one estimate; others have it at
about 3% so Myanmars forests remain the most unprotected in the
region. The government apparently plans to expand, in increments, to
protect 5%, then 10%, of the country at some point. Well see.
ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
A conservative estimate is
that 500,000 cu metres of
timber heads to China
annually. Myanmars
forest cover is currently
about 50%, but apparently
the percentage drops by
1.4% annually one of
the 10 worst deforestation
rates in the world.
Essentially no environmental legislation was passed from the time of

independence until after 1988, and unsurprisingly most of the governments acts such as recent efforts to green the Dry Zone, protect
wildlife etc have been ineffective.
At the moment, deforestation by the timber industry poses the greatest threat to wildlife habitats. In areas where habitat loss isnt a problem,
hunting threatens to wipe out the rarer animal species. Wildlife laws are
seldom enforced, which hardly helps matters. Poaching remains a huge
problem in Myanmar, where tiger, elephant, python, turtle and eagle is
frequently sold in Mandalay (en route to China usually). Of the protected
areas, 13 of 16 wildlife sanctuaries are smaller than 350 sq km not big
enough to make much of a difference.
Marine life is threatened by a lack of long-range conservation goals.
Myanmars move to industrialise means that the release of pollutants
into rivers and the sea is steadily increasing, and overfishing, especially
in the delta regions, is also a growing problem. The country must also
deal with illegal encroachment on national fisheries by Bangladeshi, Thai
and Malaysian fishing boats.
Though most locals recycle nonbiodegradable material as a matter of
course (disposability is still only a luxury for the rich here), and despite
governments plans to expand protected areas, there is no environmental movement in the country as such.
About 70% of the population are farmers, and much of Myanmars
forests have fallen to the axe for fuel sources, or legal/illicit timber

E N V I R O N M E N T N a t i o n a l Pa r k s 73
exports. One of the most troubled areas is the so-called Dry Zone, made
up of heavily populated Mandalay, lower Sagaing and Magwe divisions.
Little of the original vegetation remains in this pocket (which is about
10% of Myanmars land, but home to one-third of the population) due
to growth in the areas population and deforestation. The problem isnt
new. Much of Britains 19th-century industrialisation, as well as the train
tracks made here in Myanmar, were built from cut Burmese timber. Following the 1988 putting down of the prodemocracy protests, the government relaxed timber and fishing laws for short-term gains, causing more
long-term problems.
Myanmar is the worlds

second-leading producer
of heroin, with many
poppy farms in the
Golden Triangle area
of Shan State. The UNs
Office of Drugs & Crime
reported, however, that
poppy cultivation fell by
29% in 2004.

74
Food & Drink

STAPLES & SPECIALTIES
When youre served a

bowl of hn (curry), youre
not expected to consume
all the oil; just spoon
out the ingredients from
underneath the layer.
One of the seminal works

on Myanmar cuisine is
Cook and Entertain the
Burmese Way, by Mi Mi
Khaing.
F O O D & D R I N K D r i n k s 75
(rice noodles with chicken or fish), which is eaten with a spoon and
tu (chopsticks). Another popular noodle dish, especially at festivals, is
oun-no hkauq-sweh, rice noodles with pieces of chicken in a spicy sauce
made with coconut milk.
Burmese Cuisine
REGIONAL CUISINE
Mainstream Burmese cuisine represents an intriguing blend of Bamar,

Mon, Indian and Chinese influences. Tmn, also written as htamin
(rice) is the core of any Burmese meal, to be eaten with a choice of hn
(curry dishes), most commonly fish, chicken, prawns or mutton. Very
little beef or pork is eaten by the Burmese beef because its considered
offensive to most Hindus and Burmese Buddhists, and pork because
the nat (spirits) disapprove (see p60). Many Burmese Buddhists in fact
abstain from eating the flesh of any four-legged animal, and, during the
Buddhist rain retreat around the Waso full moon may take up a fire-free
diet that includes only uncooked vegetables and fruit. Nearly all butchers
in Myanmar are either Muslim or Chinese.
Unlike many Chinese dishes, Burmese food takes a long time to prepare,
and is often best eaten either at lunch in restaurants when its fresh, or in
homes. Bamar curries are the mildest in Asia in terms of chilli power in
fact most cooks dont use chillies at all in their recipes, just a simple masala
of turmeric, ginger, garlic, salt and onions, plus plenty of peanut oil and
shrimp paste. Heat can be added in the form of balachaung, a table condiment made from chillies, tamarind and dried shrimp pounded together, or
from the very pungent, very hot ngapi jaw (shrimp paste fried in peanut
oil with chilli, garlic and onions). Curries are generally cooked until the
oil separates from all other ingredients and floats on top. Some restaurants
will add oil to maintain the correct top layer, as the oil preserves the underlying food from contamination by insects and airborne bacteria while
the curries sit in open, unheated pots for hours at a time.
Lots of dishes are flavoured with ngapi, which is a salty paste concocted
from dried and fermented shrimp or fish, and can be very much an acquired taste. A thin sauce of pressed fish or shrimp called ngan-pya-ye
may also be used to salt Bamar dishes.
One of the culinary highlights of Burmese food (or Bamar food) is
undoubtedly dhouq or thouq (also lethouq) light, spicy salads made with
raw vegetables or fruit tossed with lime juice, onions, peanuts, chillies and
other spices. Among the most exquisite are maji-yweq dhouq, made with
tender young tamarind leaves, and shauk-thi dhouq, mixed with pomelo,
a large citrus fruit similar in appearance to grapefruit, but sweeter. Tmn
let-dhouq are savoury salads made with cooked rice.
A popular finish to Bamar meals is la-hpeq dhouq (a saladlike concoction of pressed, moistened green tea leaves mixed with a combination
of sesame seeds, fried peas, dried shrimp, fried garlic, peanuts, toasted
coconut and ginger, and other crunchy flavourings). The slimy-looking
mass of leaves puts some foreigners off, but its actually quite tasty once
you get beyond the dishs exotic appearance.
A common side dish is Indian-influenced peh-hn-ye (lentil soup, or
dahl); the classier restaurants may serve dahl fortified with chunks of
boiled turnips, potatoes and okra. A hn-jo (mild soup) of green squash
may also be available. Once youve ordered one or more curries at an authentic tmn zain (rice shop), rice, dahl, soup, side dishes and Chinese
tea come automatically for no charge.
Noodle dishes are most often eaten for breakfast or as light meals
between the main meals of the day. By far the most popular is mohinga
In Mandalay and around Inle (Kalaw, Pindaya, Nyaungshwe and Taunggyi) it is also fairly easy to find Shan cuisine, which is very similar to
northern Thai cuisine. Popular dishes are kauk sen (Shan-style wide rice
noodles with curry) and various fish and meat salads. Large maung jeut
(rice crackers) are common throughout Shan State.
Shn kauk swh (Shan-style noodle soup) thin wheat noodles in
a light broth with chunks of chilli-marinated chicken is a favourite
all over Myanmar but is most common in Mandalay and Shan State. A
variation popular in Mandalay is made with rice noodles and called myi
shay. Another Shan dish worth seeking out is tmn chin (sour rice, a
turmeric-coloured rice salad).
Mon cuisine, most readily available in towns stretching from Bago to
Mawlamyine, is very similar to Bamar food with a greater emphasis on
curry selections. While a Bamar restaurant might offer a choice of four
or five curries, a Mon restaurant will have as many as a dozen, all lined
up in curry pots to examine. Mon curries are also more likely to contain
chillies than in other cuisines.
Rakhaing food most resembles dishes found in Bangladesh and Indias
Bengal state, featuring lots of bean and pulse dishes, very spicy curries
and flatbreads. Because of Rakhaing States long coastline, seafood is
common in the larger towns. Seafood is also available and popular in
Tanintharyi Division, which has a similarly lengthy sea coast.
Food is so enjoyed in
Myanmar that standard
greetings to friends and
foreigners include:
sar pyi bi lar? (have you
eaten your lunch yet?)
and bar hn ne sar le?
(what curry did you have
for lunch?)
Chinese & Indian Cuisines

In towns large and small throughout Myanmar youll find plenty of
Chinese restaurants, many of which offer regional specialities that are a
world (well, half of China anyway) away from the Chinese food found in
Western countries. For example, there are Muslim-Chinese restaurants
that serve Yunnanese specialities.
Indian restaurants are also common, although much more so in Yangon
than elsewhere. Most are run by Muslim Indians, a few by Hindus. Excellent chicken dan bauk (biryani) as well as all-you-can-eat vegetarian thali
served on a banana-leaf is easy to find in the capital. The Myanmar people
call Indian restaurants that serve all-you-can-eat thalis Chitty or Chetty
restaurants. Many Indian places outside of Yangon can be very basic.
Fruit
Myanmar has a wide variety of tropical fruits (watermelon, grapefruit
lychee, pomelo, banana, tangerine etc) and in season you can get delicious strawberries in Pyin U Lwin, Mandalay and even Yangon. Dont
miss the huge avocados if youre in the Inle Lake area. Bago is known
for its tasty pineapples, and Hsipaw has the most delicious papayas weve
ever sampled. Mangoes are available from March through July, jackfruit
from June to October.
DRINKS
Nonalcoholic Drinks
Only drink water in Myanmar when you know it has been purified
which in most restaurants it should be. You should be suspicious of ice
Half of Ba Thans fun

little book Myanmars
Attractions & Delights
(2003) features snippets
of background on various
dishes and food-related
customs. The book is
available in some Yangon
bookshops.
76 F O O D & D R I N K D r i n k s
For more tips on drinking

water, see p375.
although weve had lots of ice drinks in Myanmar without suffering

any ill-effects. Many brands of drinking water are sold in bottles and
are quite safe. A 1L bottle, usually kept cool by ice or refrigerator, costs
about K150 or K200.
Burmese tea, brewed in the Indian style with lots of milk and sugar, is
cheap. If this is not to your liking, ask for Chinese tea, which is weak and
comes without milk. Many restaurants, the Chinese ones in particular,
will provide as much weak Chinese tea as you can handle for free if
you order some food. Its a good, safe thirst quencher and some people
prefer it to regular Burmese tea. You can always buy some little snack if
youd like some tea but not a meal. Teashops (p79) are a good place to
drink safely boiled tea and munch on inexpensive snacks such as nambya, palata (kinds of flat breads) or Chinese pastries.
Soft drinks are more costly but reasonable by Asian standards. Since
the privatisation of industry there has been a boom in new made-inMyanmar soft-drink brands, including Fantasy, Max, Star, Fruito and
Crusher. They taste pretty much the same as a Coke and are not frequently found outside Yangon or touristy areas. Local soft drinks costs
about K150 per bottle, while a Coke can be K700 or more because it can
only be brought into the country via the black market.
Coffee drinkers will find themselves growing disturbingly attached to
the three-in-one packets of instant coffee (the three being coffee, milk
and sugar), which you can have in teashops for about K200. Shops sell
them for K100 each in stores.
Alcoholic Drinks
In the past the Burmese were not big drinkers. This was partially due to
the general lack of disposable income but also because alcohol-drinking
is looked down upon by the many Burmese Buddhists who interpret the
fifth lay precept against intoxication very strictly. However, with the advent of beer stations places that serve cheap draught beer the number
of urban Burmese who can afford a few glasses of beer after work is on
the rise. In fact, beer stations seem to be giving the traditional Burmese
teashops some stiff competition.
Any place selling beer or alcohol must pay (sometimes relatively expensive) alcohol licence fees to the government. See p79 for information
on drinking venues.
BEER
Apart from international brands such as Tiger, ABC Stout, Singha, San
Miguel, Beck and other beers brewed in Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia (typically costing K800 to K1200 for a 375mL can or bottle), there
are a couple of Myanmar brews. These include long-established Myanmar
Beer, which is very similar to Indian or Sri Lankan beer and equal to
Tiger, to the palate of at least a couple of researchers. A more watery beer
is Mandalay Beer. If you order it, some waiting staff may double-check
to see if you meant Myanmar beer. Some bottles contain a layer of
sediment on the bottom resulting from inadequate filtration. Founded in
1886, Mandalay Brewery, in Yangon, also produces the New Mandalay
Export label, which is the best-tasting local beer. Some fine, newer, brands
brewed in Myanmar include Dagon and Skol. All these cost about the
same as Mandalay Beer but taste a lot better. Also worth a try is the new
Mandalay Strong Ale, which packs a punch with a 7.5% alcohol content.
Among the locals, Myanmar draught is the favourite; a glass of it will
only set you back K250.
F O O D & D R I N K C e l e b r a t i o n s 77
TODDY
Throughout central Myanmar and the delta, tn ye (or htan ye; palm
juice) or toddy is the farmers choice of alcoholic beverage. Tn ye is
tapped from the top of a toddy palm, the same tree and the same sap
that produces jaggery, or palm sugar. The juice is sweet and nonalcoholic
in the morning, but by midafternoon ferments naturally to a weak, beerlike strength. By the next day it will have turned. The milky, viscous liquid
has a nutty aroma and a slightly sour flavour that fades quickly.
Villages in some areas have their own thatched-roof toddy bars where
the locals meet and drink pots of fermented toddy. The toddy is sold in
the same roughly engraved terracotta pots the juice is collected in and
drunk from coconut half-shells set on small bamboo pedestals. Favourite
toddy accompaniments include prawn crackers and fried peas. Some
toddy bars also sell tn-ayeq (toddy liquor, also called jaggery liquor), a
much stronger, distilled form of toddy sap.
OTHER LIQUORS & WINES
Very popular in Shan State is an orange brandy called shwe leinmaw,

with prices decreasing depending on how close to the source you buy it.
Much of it is distilled in the mountains between Kalaw and Taunggyi. Its
a pleasant-tasting liqueur sort of a poor mans Grand Marnier and
packs quite a punch.
In Pyin U Lwin, there are several sweet strawberry-based wines you
can pick up.
There is also a variety of stronger liquors, including ayeq hpyu (white
liquor), which varies in strength from brandylike to almost pure ethyl;
and taw ayeq (jungle liquor), a cruder form of ayeq hpyu.
CELEBRATIONS
Burmese meals are made not with servings, but giant shareable portions, and feasts often spill into grand family-and-friends affairs. For
some birthdays, when a child takes the robe and joins a monastery,
and certainly funerals (or anniversaries of deaths), monks are invited to
eat with Buddhist families, who offer blessings to the family. Those who
can afford it arrange large parties to eat at Chinese restaurants or hotel
restaurants for weddings or birthdays.
WHERE TO EAT & DRINK

Myanmar has essentially three dining/drinking scenarios: whats in Yangon; whats in other oft-visited places (Mandalay, Bagan, Inle Lake,
Ngapali Beach); and then everywhere else. Food can be quite cheap
(from K1000 for a full stomach) if you stick to the roadside restaurants
with their curry-filled pots or pick-and-point rice dishes. On the other
hand, the restaurants of big hotels or Yangon's expat-oriented scene are
predictably expensive; some only accept US dollars. Other oft-visited
towns have restaurants that cater to travellers, though they are not as
upmarket as some restaurants in Yangon.
Because almost all accommodation options include a free breakfast
of eggs or, on occasion, mohinga many travellers dont venture out
in the morning.
Quick Eats
By far the bulk of eateries throughout Myanmar are basic with concrete
floors, wide-open front for ventilation and often a menu in English.
Burmese eateries are busiest (and many say freshest) at lunch. No menus
Many festivals in Myanmar

involve celebrations.
For more information,
see p340.
78 F O O D & D R I N K W h e re t o E a t & D r i n k
STREET SNACKS: WE DARE YOU

Myanmar thye-za (literally mouth-watering snack) come in an eye-popping array of cheap bitesized snacks that line night markets all around the country. Most of the stuff isnt threatening
multicoloured sticky-rice sweets, poppy-seed cakes, dried salt fish split open and de-boned,
and banana or potato puddings. A bag of the sweet offerings can be taken to a restaurant for a
cheap BYO dessert. Other options, though, are a little more of a challenge to Western stomachs.
Some locals boast that anything that walks on the ground can be eaten, the following list is
testimony to that saying:
items at a wek thaa douk htoe (barbecue stand) these stands are a few tiny plastic stools
around a boiling pot and a circular grill filled with various sliced-up pig organs (liver, intestine,
lung, pancreas, heart, head, lip, ears, nose, tongue); grab and grill and dip in the spicy sauce
for about K20 per piece.
pa-yit kyaw (fried cricket) like the ol adage goes, theres nothing like a 10-pack of fried
crickets for K400 to kick off an evening; sometimes they are sold on a skewer one local
explained how to eat them: take off the head, peel off the wings and gulp it.
bi-laar (beetle) prepared like crickets, except diners suck the stomach out, then chew the
head part.
thin baun poe (larva) these thick, cocoonlike insect larvae, freshly taken from bamboo poles,
are lightly grilled and served still wriggling; a vendor explained, Its best to eat raw because
its good for your stomach, apparently theres a big demand in China for these, so eat them
while you can.
are necessary at most; just go to the line of curries and point to what
you want. A meal comes with a tableful of condiments, all of which are
automatically refilled once you finish them. An all-you-can-eat meal is
about K1000 or K1500. Some basic eateries operate as long as restaurants
(roughly 7am to 8pm or 9pm).
Another abundant option is the (usually) hole-in-the-wall Indian curry
shop, which generally serves veggie dishes only and no beer. You can recognise Muslim (halal) restaurants by the numeral 786 over the door, sometimes flanked by the star-and-crescent symbol. This number represents the
Arabic phrase In the name of Allah the most beneficent and merciful.
Like most Southeast Asians, the people of Myanmar are great graband-go snackers; stands at night markets, selling a host of sweets and
barbecued meals and noodles, get going around 5pm to 8pm or later, and
are generally the liveliest and cheapest eating in Myanmar. Generally you
can get some fried noodles, a few pieces of pork, or sticky rice wrapped in
banana leaf for K100 to K250. Street and market stalls tend to provide the
regional dishes, but youll need to be a little wary of cleanliness.
Restaurants
Most restaurants keep long hours daily, usually from 7am to 9pm or until
the last diner wants to stumble out belly full of curry or beer.
Chinese restaurants are found in most towns, and can be quite appealing after a week or so of Burmese food. Most have similar sprawling
menus, with as many as 50 rice or noodle chicken, pork, lamb, fish, beef
or vegetable dishes. Veggie dishes start at around K500 or K600; meat
dishes about K1000.
SWISHY EATS
More upmarket restaurants sometimes serving a mix of Asian foods,

others specialising (Italian, Thai etc) can be found in Bagan, Mandalay,
F O O D & D R I N K W h e re t o E a t & D r i n k 79
Inle Lake and (especially) Yangon. Also, most top-end hotels, too, offer
plusher eating places, sometimes set around the pool. Such comfort is
rarer to come by off the beaten track. In Yangon, a dish at a Japanese,
Korean or Italian restaurant, for example, can cost up to US$10. A hot
pizza at Nyaung U, in Bagan, is about K1200 or K1500.
Upscale hotel restaurants usually have a few Bamar dishes on their
menus but these will be toned-down versions of the real thing, with less
chilli and seasonings, and theyll usually come with fewer accompanying dishes.
Drinking Venues
Outside Yangon, drinking gets done at restaurants or open-air barbecue restaurants sometimes called in Burmese-English, cutely, beer
stations. Opening hours are therefore the same as for restaurants. All
but Indian restaurants keep cold bottles of Tiger and Myanmar beer
handy (charging from K1000 to K1200 in basic restaurants, upwards
to K3000 in swankier ones). Its perfectly fine to linger for hours and
down a few beers.
Men and women dont often intermingle at restaurants, so in many
places you may see red-faced men lingering over a slowly amassing number
of empty bottles, with full ones always kept nearby by waiting staff.
More upmarket restaurants will serve foreign wines and mix cocktails.
For information on Yangons lively drinking scene, including expat
hang-outs and places where many famous Myanmar musicians go to get
blitzed, see p118.
Teashops
At all times of day youll see locals sitting in teashops, where the tea
flows freely and the assorted pastries are very inexpensive. Teashops are
an important social institution in Myanmar, serving as meeting places
for friends, family and business associates, as well as a source of cheap
nutrition and caffeine.
The shops come in all shapes and sizes, indoor and outdoor, morningoriented and evening-oriented. The morning teashops are typically open
from 5am to 5pm, and generally serve the best-quality tea; many will also
serve Burmese-style coffee. Evening teashops open from 4pm or 5pm and
stay open till 11pm or later even all night in some places, particularly
near train or bus stations that have late-night activity.
MYANMARS TOP FIVE RESTAURANTS
Sandys Myanmar Cuisine, Yangon (p112) If youre tired of streetside stalls serving mohinga
(noodles and chicken/fish), this stylish colonial building serves excellent Burmese fare on its
outdoor patio overlooking Kandawgyi Lake.
Grilled squid at a private open-air restaurant, Ngapali Beach (p316) Fresh squid dunked in
chilli/garlic sauce is probably Myanmars best meal.
Seik Tie Kye Restaurant (p199) You and three pals can share a giant steaming hotpot of
chicken and beancurd then order fresh ice-cream chasers for about K2000 each.
Aroma 2, Nyaung U (p271) Fresh Indian curries fish, mutton, veggie come on banana-leaf
plates; the best stuff needs to be ordered a day ahead.
Burmese Cuisine, Hsipaw (p212) Sure the names obvious, but this hole-in-the-wall fills a
host of pots with tasty curries; best is the pumpkin for K300 a plate.
80 F O O D & D R I N K Ve g e t a r i a n s & Ve g a n s
The quality of tea can vary dramatically from one teashop to the next.
The best use only fresh, top-quality Indian-style tea for every brewing
cycle, while the worst recycle tea leaves until the flavour and colour are
gone. A cup of tea, served with condensed milk, is K100 to K200.
You can get hot Chinese-style tea at many restaurants for free with food;
most restaurants do not serve Indian tea (aka Burmese tea) with milk.
EAT YOUR WORDS
F O O D & D R I N K E a t Y o u r W o r d s 81
For some general Burmese phrases and pronunciation guidelines see the
Language chapter on p379.
Useful Phrases
FINDING FOOD
Is there a ... near here?

Myanmars teashops are
often excellent places to
go for breakfast.
ORDERING DELICIOUS TEA
Getting tea with milk at a teashop can be one of the countrys great challenges. Some servers know the English word tea, but you may end up
with Chinese-style tea (and no milk) unless youre willing to point-andnod at fellow sippers tables, or learn a couple of phrases.
lpeqye tea water, will come with a dollop of condensed milk
cho bouk less sweet version of lpeqye
kyauk padaung very sweet, the phrase comes from a famous sugarpalmgrowing region near Bagan
VEGETARIANS & VEGANS

Vegetarians will be able to find fare at most restaurants in Myanmar. Even
meaty barbecues have a few skewered vegetables that can be grilled up.
The easiest way to convey your needs is saying I cant eat meat (th
ms-nain-b). In some cases, saying no chicken, no pork, no fish in English gets the point across. Some Indian or Nepali restaurants are vegan.
Throughout the regional chapters, we highlight some particularly good
vegetarian options or restaurants.
EATING WITH KIDS

You wont find childrens menus in Myanmar restaurants, but staff will
be happy to serve kids and can offer smaller portions on request. Some
more traveller-oriented restaurants have bonus features such as puppet
shows or live music that may add to the fun.
HABITS & CUSTOMS

At home, most families take their meals sitting on reed mats around a
low, round table about 30cm in height. In restaurants, chairs and tables
are more common. The entire meal is served at once, rather than in
courses. In basic Bamar restaurants, each individual diner in a group
typically orders a small plate of curry for himself or herself, while side
dishes are shared among the whole party. This contrasts with China and
Thailand, for example, where every dish is usually shared.
Traditionally, Bamar food is eaten with the fingers, much like in India,
usually with the right hand (but using the left doesnt seem to be a taboo
as it is in India). Nowadays, its also common for urban Myanmar people
to eat with a kyn or hkayin (fork) and zn (tablespoon). These are always
available at Bamar restaurants and almost always given to foreign diners.
DOS & DONTS
A fork is held in the left hand and used as a probe to push food onto the spoon; you eat from
the spoon.
If youre invited to a home, its common for the hostess and children to not eat at the table.
Locals tend to focus on the flavours, not table talk, during meals.
If youre asked to join someone at a restaurant, they will expect to pay for the meal.
... dinhma shdhl?
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Please bring (a) ...

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Food Glossary
MEALS
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lunch
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mneqsa
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TYPICAL BURMESE DISHES
mhhnaq
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kk'o;"axYixYk'
kk'o;"k='
kk'o;"ek;'
h='"
amEo;"h='"
kk'o;"h='"
h='"oI"h='"rkh
' ='"
oI"cuh='"
h='"xYi
zn'elH;'h='"xYi
zy'NHc'mYi"h='"xYi
mun'tI
mun'h='"x:"
beef in gravy
sweet chicken
grilled chicken (satay)
fried chicken
curry
beef curry
chicken curry
vegetable curry
soup (clear or mild)
sizzling rice soup
12-taste soup
Mandalay mount-ti (noodles & chicken/fish)
mohinga (noodles and chicken/fish)
82 F O O D & D R I N K E a t Y o u r W o r d s
munsijaw
munzn
ngdhouq
ngban(douq)
tmn
kaukhnynban
ontmn
t mn-gyaw
tnthmun
weqthni
mun'zIek;''
mun'zn'"
=:"ou='
=:"ep:='"(qup')
qm='"
ek;k'H='"ep:='"
aun'"qm='"
qm='"ek;'
qn'"oI"mun'
vk'o;"nI
sweet fried-rice pancakes

sticky rice cake with jaggery (palm sugar)
fish salad
steamed fish (in banana leaves)
rice
steamed sticky rice
coconut rice
fried rice
toddy-palm sugar cake
red pork
amEo;"
kk'o;"
xru
=:"
=:"xU
=:"rH'
p='ly'c;erotv:
p'kI"=:"
oel;k'ep:='"
vk'o;"
beef
chicken
shellfish
fish
catfish
eel
seafood
squid
carp
pork
.U"oI"
kk'on'nI
egfIqup'
h='"oI"h='"rk'
mi
=Hk'epY;fU"
kul;"pE
xrm'"oI"
xrm'"xYw'oI"
mun'l;wv:
pn'"egfI
fruoI"
pEoI"
ep;='"fU"
zucchini/gourd
onion
cabbage
vegetables
mushrooms
banana flower
chick peas
eggplant/aubergine
tomato
carrot
cauliflower
pumpkin
beans
corn (cob)
oj;oI"
kk'em;k'oI"
kJEek;oI"
dU"r='"oI"
lui='xYI"oI"
liem;'oI"
mk'mn'"oI"
mn'kY'"oI"
n;nt'oI"
=Hk'epY;oI"
aun'"oI"
pn'"oI"
ep:='mun'oI"
erH;k'oI"
eq;pt'oI"
custard apple (influence fruit)

rambutan (cocksomb fruit)
pomelo
durian
lychee
orange
plum (damson)
tamarind
pineapple
banana
coconut
apple (flower fruit)
breadfruit
lemon
avocado (butter fruit)
MEAT & SEAFOOD
mhdh
ceqth
ky
ng
ngku
ngshn
pinlehza/yethaqtwa
pyijng
thlauqpan
weqth
VEGETABLES
bdh
ceqthunni
gawbidouq
hndhhnyweq
hmo
hngpywb
klbh
kyndh
kynjindh
mounlawa
pn-gawpi
pyoundh
phdh
pyanb
FRUIT
wzath
ceqmauqth
cwhgwdh
dyndh
laincdh
leinmawdh
meqmndh
mjdh
nanaqth
ngpywdh
ondh
pndh
paunmundh
shauqth
twbaqth
thanbyadh
thiqth/ath
thyeqdh
thnbwdh
F O O D & D R I N K E a t Y o u r W o r d s 83
opr;oI"
oc'oI"aoI"
ork'oI"
oe.;oI"
lime
fruit
mango
papaya (boat-shaped fruit)
SPICES & CONDIMENTS
ceqthunbyu
gyn
hnn
hnnye
kal twbaq
knya
meiqthlin
myebh(jaw)
nannanbin
nganpyaye
ngyouqth
ngyouqye
onn
palaz
phnganpyaye
twbaq
thagu
ton
s
snwn
shalkaye
thj
th/tp
kk'on'f
gY='"
NHm'"
NH='"r'
kul;"eq;pt'
km'"y;
mit'ol='
empE(ek;')
nnp='
=p;r'
=rut'oI"
=rut'r'
aun'"Niu
f:l;ec
pE=p;r'
eq;pt'
o;gU
qu"
z;"
zN='"
rH;lk;r'
ok;"
tuihU"tuif"
garlic
ginger
sesame
rose syrup
ghee
betel quid
galangal (white gingerlike root)
peanuts (fried)
coriander
fish sauce
chilli
chilli sauce
coconut cream
cardamon
soy sauce
butter
sago/tapioca
lime (for betel)
salt
turmeric
vinegar
sugar
tofu (beancurd)
ark'
.ilp'r'efY;'r'
.Iy;
kr'
liem;'r'
N;"Nui
aun'"r'
zuid:
qn'"r'
opr;r'
er
on'er
erea"
erxYk'ea"
ereN"
alcohol
soft drink
beer
sugarcane juice
orange juice
milk
coconut juice
soda water
toddy
lime juice
water
bottled water (clean water)
cold water
boiled cold water
hot water
ek;'fI
ok;"nE
NuizInE
N;"NuinE
lk'fk'r'km'"
ereN"km'"
lk'fk'r'
coffee
with sugar
with condensed milk
with milk
green tea (plain)
COLD DRINKS
yeq
blaqye/pyawye
biya/tbln
canye
leinmawye
nwn
onye
soda
tnye
thanbyaye
ye
thnye
ye
yejeq
yenw
HOT DRINKS
kawfi
dhjnh
nsnh
nwnnh
lpeqyejn/
yenwjn
leqpeqye
tea (Indian)

84
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WHERE HUMANS BEGAN?

History of Burma (1925),

The Rakhaing claim the

1st century BC5th century AD

the Ayeyarwady River delta across Thailand to Cambodia. They developed

THE FIRST BURMA

SECOND BURMESE EMPIRE

The Travellers History of

BURMAS LAST KINGS

BURMAS GREATEST KING

what eventually became Bangkok. His successor, Bodawpaya (another

studied in India and returned to Myanmar in 1921, promoted religious

Aung San & WWII

MAJOR WWII SITES IN MYANMAR

Democracy is the only

U NU & EARLY WOES

Burma: Prospects for

After being forced into

NE WIN & THE ROAD TO SOCIALISM

In 1989, Slorc changed

1990 ELECTION & THE NLD

Had the NLD been

Aung San Suu Kyi has

Feeling it had effectively dealt with the opposition, the government

THE WRITINGS OF AUNG SAN SUU KYI

Aung San Suu Kyi

THE WORLD & MYANMAR

Although Ne Win had

Initially after 1988, the West established embargoes on arms sales

Lonely Planet Publications

Lonely Planet Publications

Living Silence: Burma

Although isolated, subjugated and poor, the Myanmar people can be

TOP FIVE FIRST QUESTIONS ASKED

DOS & DONTS

How to say thanks? C-z-bh.

In the cities, large apartment blocks are connected to more-or-less

STATES & DIVISIONS OF MYANMAR

of pride and prejudice cause friction between

The Chin inhabits the mountainous region (mostly corresponding with

Travellers can visit the

Presently the only place

The Rakhaing (formerly called Arakanese), who make up about 4% of the

It is only possible to visit

Besides the ruins at

Many parts of Shan State

With a guide, you can

by the British. Nowadays rumours abound of the 20,000-strong United

the U Nu period, Buddhism functioned as a state religion of sorts as

Theravada Buddhism (also followed in Cambodia, Laos, Sri Lanka and

Many visitors come to

At many stupas, worshippers pour one glassful of

Devout Buddhists in Myanmar adhere to five lay precepts, or moral rules

NUMBER NINE, NUMBER NINE

laypeople, and keep only 10 precepts the same number observed by

Monastic communities are called kyaungtaik, hpongyi-kyaung, or simply

Some of the following books are available in Yangon: