BURMA NOTES
Inle Lake, Burma. This is the first of a "Notes" series, a running commentary on where I am as I make my way across the world to the Vegas Rendezvous in late April. We start in Burma, where I have been for the past week. These are my impressions so far.
*Burma – 25 years ago the socialist military dictatorship insisted the name be changed to "Myanmar," but I along with most everyone else still call it Burma – is just emerging from a hermit socialism isolated from the world, and at a breakneck pace.
The contrast can be jarring. You see oxcarts with the farmer holding the reins to the oxen in one hand, and making a cell phone call with the other. But overall, the "energy" of Burma is one of gentle serenity. Even in Rangoon where the traffic is horrendous, there’s no road rage of any kind, no honking horns.
Outside of Rangoon, almost no one drives fast, frantic to get where they are going. People proceed at a measured pace, they don’t race; everyone makes room for everyone, whether an oxcart, a pedicab, a motorbike, car, bus or truck. Every smile is returned, and every wave. It’s easy to see why the British fell in love with Burma – it’s the people, their gentleness, their serenity of soul.
*There are no beggars, no homeless sleeping on streets, no one with their hand out demanding baksheesh like the vast majority of Third World countries. The Burmese government provides no welfare other than basic health and medical care. This is consciously purposeful – people and families are expected to take care of one another, and not have the government do it for them.
*Burmese are extraordinarily productive, especially in agriculture. The land is amazingly fertile, with Burmese farmers and gardeners extracting an absolute cornucopia of every vegetable, fruit and agricultural product you can think of.
*Streets are swept clean, there’s little litter from Rangoon to the villages. Local markets are remarkably clean. So are people. I’ve yet to see anyone in rags, or dirty clothes. Very few people smoke. Cars are small but new and well cared for. I can’t recall seeing any junkheap rattletraps on the road.
*The Burmese language has a unique written script, with all ads, signs, and billboards in it – but curiously, a majority are also in English. From cosmetics to beer, in cities and small villages, you see ads and signs in English. A surprising number of people speak English. How did this happen so fast? They’ve been isolated from the world almost completely and English not taught in schools for three generations until very recently.
*Being a British colony, people once drove on the wrong/left side of the road – but years ago the dictatorship decreed they should henceforth drive on the right side. Yet all cars were right-hand drive – and most still are. Makes for very tricky driving, yet I haven’t seen one accident.
*Religion is omnipresent. I have never seen any other country with so many religious temples – they are everywhere. In every village, on every mountaintop there’s a pagoda – or several. Burma is an incredibly devout Buddhist country. You can’t drive anywhere for more than a few miles and not see people on the roadside playing music, dancing and shaking metal bowls asking for donations to build another local pagoda.
It is totally voluntary, no one ever gets demanding or upset if you don’t give something. But here’s what really gets your attention.
The Brits brought the Anglican church and Christian missionaries of various denominations. They also brought Indians to work the sugar cane plantations – most of whom were Hindu but others Moslem. China is next door so there are Chinese traders. As a result, in any small town, you’ll see Chinese temples, Moslem mosques, Hindu temples, Christian churches of all kinds (Catholic, Anglican, Baptist, Methodist, Evangelical, even Armenian) – amidst the plethora of pagodas and statues of Buddha.
And it’s all totally frictionless. This is the single most powerful impression I have of Burma: the astounding religious freedom, the peace between religions. Why can’t Moslems be like this in every country they dominate? It’s a question they need to ask themselves.
This religious freedom applies to the hill tribes of differing ethnicities. Yesterday, I was in a remote Padaung village where the women wear up to 20 or more brass rings around their necks – the so-called "giraffe women." The Padaung are not Buddhists but adhere to their ancient spirit religion, a form of what anthropologists call animism. No problem. You can believe whatever you want in Burma as long as its peaceful.
Padaung women wear their rings in order to look like the goddess they worship, Nih-gaw Mah-doe (spelling is phonetic), the Dragon Princess with her beautiful long neck.
There are problems of course, lots of them. We’ll get to that next week. For right now, however, I wanted to give you a glimpse of what is so captivating about Burma and the Burmese people. I’m sorry I can’t load any pictures as I have very poor connectivity. I hope I can show you with pictures next week what I’m talking about.
That’s it for now. Many thanks to Jack Kelly for his great Half-Full Reports, and to Miko for making sure TTP runs smoothly. See you next week.
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