N45   Water Wasting Festival   (Part  2 )

    

But if we think of the water they use for pleasure we will see that it is very wasteful and senseless . Generally we can say  that water is not scarce in our country , but one place and another place , one region and another region are not the same. Water is more plentiful in Lower Burma than the middle part where it is arid. But even then I heard that in some parts of the Irrawaddy Delta drinkable water is scarce.

     

   If we look more widely at the world there are many places where water is a problem. Half of the world’s population does not have access to save pure drinking water and there are many places where using of water is limited. Even some developed countries like Singapore do not have enough usable water resources, so that she has to buy from neighbouring countries . In  Australia too water is not plentiful, so use of water for a single person is limited. There had been countries that went to war because of unequal devision of water like Syria and Jordan.

    

 

  I had once watched a documentary film about Indian women who have to carry water. As is their custom Indian men do not care to carry water for household use. So the burden fall on the weaker sex , the women. Women old and young had to carry water for household use and also for their animals, whether it may be near or far. The northwestern part of India Bihar and Uttar Pradesh are arid regions where water is very scarce . Women have to carry water from very far places like 7 or 8 kilometres by balancing pots and pans on their heads. One time is not enough for the entire household. They have to do that tiring errand many times a day. Girls start to go with their mothers from about the age of 8 carrying the amount of water they can. But in that region water is not pure. They can only get salinated water which is salty and bitter and there are people who haven’t taste a drink of pure drinkable water all their lives. Pity them.

     

  So, what I want to say is, “Should we waste our water because it is plentiful “ And plentiful is not even the right word . People in big cities Yangon and Mandalay and Taunggyi all have experienced times when there is not enough water to use. At such times we have to buy water from cars and carts . But even if we have money to buy, if there is no place to draw water from who will come and sell to us? Water is a resource that can be depleted. We can see and hear about streams and lakes that have gone dry.

    

     If we look at countries which celebrate Thingyan such as Thailand, Laos , Cambodia , China no country uses pipes or hoses to throw water on each other. They just use buckets and bowls and water guns only. Splashing water this way will save much water.

   

  So should we follow customs and traditions that will make our lives become difficult, that is futile for the sake of pleasure? This way of water splashing came into life not very long ago in our country and we can change it back to our old ways again.

    

  But if only we have the sense and heart to do so……..

N44           Water Wasting Festival

Everybody accept that Thingyan Festival is the most distinctive and enjoyable seasonal event of the whole year in Myanmar. It marks the end of Myanmar  calendar year and welcoming the new year. All Buddhists celebrated Thingyan according to their ages and regional customs. Old people concentrated in making meritorious deeds such as going to pagodas and monasteries with offerings, observing Sabbath, giving alms to Sanghas and the needies, free fishes and birds and so on. Some middle aged and young people also does some of these good deeds. But many young people have their hearts on merrymaking only which sometimes  lead them to negative results.

   

  The most significant activity of Thingyan is the water splashing activity. People splash water on each other during the 3 or 4 days of Thingyan. In olden days it was done with good intention , to get cool from the summer time heat, to wash away the dirt of the ending year etc. People even used fragrant water which was put in silver bowl to splash on each other. Some used a bunch of Eugenia leaves to soak water from the bowl and tap the shoulder of another gently and courteously.

     

But nowadays the custom has changed. In big cities big pandals are erected here and there. Water pipes  are installed in a row and young people pay a certain price to get on to the pandal and use the pipe to soak passers by who are moving on foot or by motor cars and are already soaked. The force of water coming from the pipes are made to be strong and piercing , so we can say that they are intended to hurt people. Some young people uses tin cans and throw  water forcefully at other people to make them feel pain. Sometimes water throwers put ice in their water to make people  feel cold. All these actions are not for good purposes, but to do harm to others. So where can we find good intentions of the Thingyan Festival.

    

Some of the activities performed in the pandals are good. Like singing and dancing. Many people including tourists like to watch and enjoy . It gives people happiness and pleasure to watch these performances. But dresses worn by some performers are getting bad to worse and are much criticized by many lately. The dresses are getting much western, more scanty, more revealing and with the use of alcohol and drugs the people on the stage become wild and out of control . There is nothing good to gain for these behaviours. Young people who have some sensitivities should not think only for pleasure but avoid pitfalls by over enjoying themselves.

    

My actual aim in writing this blog is about water. As the name of this festival is water festival , plenty of water has to be used for it. If we are celebrating this festival in the old way the water used will not be too much. But who started to do the way they do today in the cities we don’t know. I mean the  way they splash water with pipes and even fire hoses as they are doing now. By this way much amount of water has to be used for the contentment of people fruitlessly. I think by myself what enjoyment do they have by splashing people who are already soaked again and again. I had watched people celebrating water splashing festival of Thailand Laos and Sipsongpanna of China. They don’t use pipes as we do but they splash water on each other using bowls and pails and waterguns only.

To be continued…….