Despite having been in the country less than a week I have learnt an enormous amount about the extraordinary Bamar culture. Having travelled around South East Asia last year, it was clear before we’d even left the empty airport that this country would be vastly different to any I’d visited before. Since then I’ve seen a country almost completely isolated from the western world, probably in part due to its tourism industry being vastly inferior to that of its South-East Asian counterparts. I have met some extraordinary people with fascinating skills, humble expectations and intriguing opinions. Given the media attention to the Rohingya crisis on the western border, it has shocked me how easy it would be to believe that nothing untoward is happening in Myanmar.
Perhaps the most challenging aspect of the last week has been the language barrier. I have had 3 different drivers who have spoken only a very basic level of English. The best English I have heard was from a 15-year-old girl who claimed she spoke 6 languages having learnt them from the tourists she had met. Surprisingly, the monastery school she attended did not provide any English lessons and this appears not to be an anomaly. It is clear that the Burmese people who do speak English learn it through their own means. However, this doesn’t seem like it would be much of an issue with the lack of western tourists I have observed. With the exception of the very commercialised tour around the 3 ancient cities, I have not seen more than 2 tourists together at one time. In Ava, one of the ancient cities, tourism fuels the local economy with horse cart tours an essential way to get around and the sale of trinkets to tourists who lack the stomach to reject the persistent sales pitch, such as my companion. This minimal contribution from tourists seems to sustain the small islands population, but from initial observations this seems like the exception in Burma. Having said this, July is low season for tourism and it would be interesting to see if the high season brought more westerners.
On the whole, traditional forms of employment still dominate over tourism, such as hand weaving and wood carving. I visited a weaving shop and observed the local women making the traditional Burmese skirt, known as a longhi, with tiny intricate details. Having learned that the painstaking process of completing just one longhi takes over a month, I was shocked to see the cheap price tag attached to such exquisite items being sold at prices as cheap as $6. Similarly, the wood carving was a meticulous and skilled process with equally affordable finished products. The Burmese people I have come across don’t seem to be driven by money and are desperate to please. For example, in the hotel where the porters are more than willing to carry my bags, fix the air conditioning and fill up my waters with no expectation of a tip. It will be interesting to see if this is still the case in 10-20 years when the country is more economically developed.
Unsurprisingly I have visited many temples, pagodas and stupas in the past week. Strangely, many of the largest pagodas have become commercialised. They’re littered with stalls selling plastic toys and classic tourist market wares, even within the no shoe and sock zone. This scene wasn’t just limited to pagodas. At the Mahagandhayon monastic institution, where over a thousand monks eat every morning, tourists gather everyday with their guides to goggle at the queuing monks like a human zoo. It felt awkward to be part of this intrusive experience and the young monks looked clearly uncomfortable with the endless photographs. On the flip side I have also encountered monks taking advantage of the increasing number of tourists. On a few occasions I was explicitly asked for money by young monks. I was surprised by this because I was told by a Buddhist monk, during my time in Thailand, that they should never beg and instead should quietly give you a chance to earn merit by helping to provide for their meals. Through further research I have learnt that in Burma they follow the traditions of Theravada Buddhism which contains a monastic rule that says monks are not allowed to touch money. I can’t help but be confused by the contradictions. Whereas the early morning collection of alms involves groups of monks walking single file along streets while locals filled their bowls with food, the monks asking explicitly for money were usually alone or in pairs, suggesting they were working independently of official monastic activity. I wonder whether as Burma modernizes and food prices increase some monks are struggling to meet their basic needs as less locals provide for them, or whether with the increase in foreigners some monks are taking the chance to make extra on the side. Either way, I do not know if this is an isolated issue in Mandalay or whether this kind of thing is prevalent throughout the whole country.
With the recent unrest it would be ignorant to not mention the political situation. Throughout the past century the political environment has been unstable and despite the recent landslide victory of democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi it appears that the nation is still firmly in the hands of the military junta. The recent Rohingya Muslim crisis is a prime example of the lead taken by the military. In 2016-17 the Burmese armed forces and police cracked down on the Rohingya people in the Rakhine state, responding to the attacks on the border by unidentified insurgents. This continued persecution of the Rohingya Muslims has been labelled by the UN as ethnic cleansing but the Burmese government has dismissed UN claims of crimes against humanity in the region with their current official position stating that the Rohingya people are not a national indigenous race, making them illegal immigrants. Some have gesticulated that Aung San Suu Kyi’s lack of action is due to fear that her infant government is still at the mercy of the military. Whatever the cause, she has been met with worldwide criticism from institutions such as the University of Oxford, of which she is an alumni, and notable individuals like Bob Geldof. Despite reading online that locals were not supposed to discuss politics with foreigners I was curious to see what they had to say on the matter. I asked one of our taxi drivers what his opinions were and his response was surprising. After a long pause he insinuated, with his limited English, that it was the Muslims who were the root cause of the problems in the area as they “like to fight”. He went on to saythat he preferred the current government as the previous military government had overseen a rise in poverty – they’ve “made breakfast, lunch, dinner hard”. However this is not a view held by everyone. The 15-year-old girl we met in Ava said she felt that the government was letting her down as she couldn’t afford to go to university and the government had no policies to help, despite her obvious intelligence. I acknowledge that this is only the response of 2 people with very limited English, but it is interesting to see the conflicting political opinions.
My time in Burma has only just begun and yet I have learnt so much about Bamar culture, traditions and politics. I hope that as tourism grows it does not destroy the unique Burmese way of life, as it so often does. They are an extraordinary population and I feel privileged to have the chance to experience a small, authentic slice of it.
Diplomacy Diversion 