N 7 : The Cherry trees of Taunggyi

Taunggyi is a pretty town or maybe can be called a city because it has grown too much now. Round about 1900 it is only a small Taungthu (as the Pa-ohs are called then) village. The English moved their camp from Maing Thauk where there was much diseases and fevers to Taunggyi which is higher than Maing Thauk. And so a small town is born.

According to a book (Quiet Skies on Salween, the book which I translated into Burmese) there were many cherry trees in Taunggyi then. It says if you look down on the town from the crag (which is the top of the mountain on the east of the town) you will see a sea of pink colour. The mountainsides and the surrounding places are covered with pink blossom cherry trees.

It was still like that around the 50s and the 60s when I grow up in Taunggyi. I still remember that cherry trees lined up along the Main Road and it was very pretty when they bloom in December to February.

But the bad thing about cherry trees is that after the blossoming season has ended there appear thousands and thousands of worms from the trees. Some are dangling from the branches and the streets are strewn with live and dead worms so that people who are walking on the sidewalks cannot avoid treading on them.

I have seen cherry trees which lined the boulevards in Tokyo and also in the US (Washington I think) on TV. They celebrate cherry flower festival there and during that time many people visited and enjoy the pretty cherry blossoms and have picnics in the grounds.

The cherry flowers there are not the same as ours. Ours are smaller and the colour is pink whereas theirs are bigger and white. I think they are not natural like ours and are hybrid. I wonder if worms do or do not break out after the season is over. 

However cherry blossoms are very pretty. Our city was once called “Cherry Flower City”. But as for now it may not be right to call it so. Our cherry trees were cut down by citizens and municipal alike, so that only a few remains in Taunggyi.

I wish the officials whose duties are to maintain the city should think about planting new (and new species from abroad) and restore the city according to its old name “The Cherry Flower City".