N65 Slash and Burn agriculture  (Part 2 )

   

  After hearing her explanation I came to know that we cannot think people ignorant even if they are common folks. They know about it because it concerns their livelihood.

   

  Come to think about it . Who is to blame for this wrong way of agriculture? Who is responsible for it ? Beside deforestation there  are also other negative aspects of slash and burn method such as erosion, nutrient loss, biodiversity loss, among others. And because the place used is shifting every year the unusable land is growing bigger until all our land will be exhausted and become barren. Then what  will become of our people ? What will they do for their livelihood ? How will they earn their living ?

  

  If people have more knowledge, they may find some way to replace the method. But the land they are working are not their own and the people who use this method are poor common people with little or no knowledge at all. So in my opinion I think the government should do something about it .

      

I have heard that Chaing Mai was a place notorious for its practice of slash and burn agriculture. But when I was there some years ago , while we were climbing Loi Inthanon, the highest point, I saw no sign of slash and burn agriculture and heard someone explained to me that the government imposed strict laws concerning tree cutting and take actions about it. All other countries including China, who let illegal logs from our country flows freely into theirs is making sure that their country remains green and taking measures to prevent desertification.

    

But what is our government doing? I’ve never heard about people being educated or new method of agriculture introduced or so into our state. Some people for their livelihood grow opium but they don’t enjoy much profit from this cultivation either. Only the druglords get the most profit, and as for the people many become drug addicts and our country’s image is stained as a drug producing country.Many people had left our state to work in low paying, lowly jobs in neighboring countries.

     

An efficient government should take into account the country people’s welfare and do something to help them. There are many developed countries who are willing to come and help our people with technology, advice or financially like some NGOs are doing around Taunggyi,  but this kind of help does not reach far flung places.

    

  So it is not strange that people are wishing to have a new government who will do their utmost for the people including to save the country from becoming desertland  and heighten the country’s image. 

N 64  Slash and Burn agriculture  Part 1

     

This time when I went back to my hometown Kunhing it coincided with the time when people were doing slash and burn. So the whole environment was blurry with either dense or thin smoke , that the Shan people call this time  “khao merng moe “or time when the countryside is blurred or unclear.

   

   During this time when we look at the roadside we will see plots of land , whether they be flat or on hillsides being cleared , trees cut down and burned and so are still in the smouldering state from which smoke rose and veiled the environment to become a hazy state.

   

In olden days the trees people had to fall down were much bigger than now, but as we all know there are not much big trees left because of excessive logging , but only small trees and even these, people cannot leave them to grow into big ones as the land is needed for cropping. So among the negative aspects that slash and burn agriculture brings deforestation give the most ruinous effect.

     

Seeing this ancient agriculture method still in use and thinking about its consequences my heart ached   and could not help worrying for our country’s future.

  

  In the evening sitting in a bamboo hut while we were attending a novitiating ceremony in Kunhing we happened to talk about bamboo. Only last year one nephew Sai Hong told us about how people were digging bamboo shoots, dried them and send them to China by trucks . So he was worried that there will be no bamboo left to build traditional huts like this for the novitiating ceremonies  which are held every year . I said it was lucky that there are bamboos to be used to this day.

   

   And the I brought up the slash and burn method of agriculture, that I had seen burning plots with smouldering trees all along the way and that it was a shame to waste all those  land and trees .Even the small trees that are left after the big ones were fallen are burnt again , so what will become of our land in the future , only bare hills and mountains and our country will gradually become desert land together with all the bad consequences.

      

I was amazed when one ordinary elderly woman replied that only some people in our area own fields that can be cultivated according to its seasons and that they can be called a little well off people. But there are many people who does not own a field or land that can be cultivated but  has to grow rice , their staple food for their subsistence using slash and burn method . To grow rice with this  method is not an easy job, so in the Shan language it is called “hai “ which means  “cry “ . To earn a crop people who cultivate has to cry. She added that our Shan people have no choice but when the season comes have to go and look for a place to grow their precious rice.

to be continued….

N 63 Vientane   Part 2

The next day we hired the same car which was driven by Mr Ek ( Thatsadaphone Thamdy ) for sightseeing. Although Vientiane was not so crowded yesterday, it was the opposite today.( Monday  ) There were many people and traffic on the road and in some places there even were traffic jams.

    

 The first place we visited was of course the most famous place and landmark , the Patuxai. Ek translated to us that Patu is door (same as our Tai language )and xai is win . As  Lao had been a French colony it is not strange that the monument is a kind of Arch de Triomphe , somewhat French design mix with Lao architecture. It was built between 1957 and 1968 and is dedicated to the Laotians who were killed in the fight to gain independence from France as well as from the nations who occupied Laos earlier, Siam and Japan . It is an impressive building with a vast paved ground and we happily took photos as everybody would.

    

 Next we visited Phra Tat Luang which is also a landmark of Vientiane. It is a temple built in 1566 by a Lao King with simple design, but is all gold plated. We reached there before the temple opens at about 9 and so we had to stroll around the compound which is also vast with exquisite Thai style temples, Buddha statues, and also a statue of a king.

   

 After that we visited some more Lao temples including  Wat Sisaket which is the oldest surviving monastery built between 1819 and 1824by King Anon. This wat is famous for its cloister wall housing 1000 tiny Buddha images (not numerous as Mohnyin Thanbokde )and rows of seated Buddhas.

      

 Wat Ho Phra Keow is also a stunning wat in Vientiane. We learned that it was built in the mid 16^th century by King Sethathirath to house the emerald Buddha but was destroyed and plundered by the Siamese and the Emerald Buddha wound up in Bangkok where it remains today. ( reminds me of the Mahamyatmuni or Rakkhine Buddha Image ) When we went to visit this Wat we cannot go in as it was being under renovation. We visited some more wats namely Wat Si Muang, Wat Ong Teu, Mahawihan, and Phra That Dam.

    

 After visiting these wats I asked Ek how far is Buddha Park which is one of the tourists attraction site  I had seen  on the internet. He said about 25 kilometers out of town and we have to go back the way we came into the city. As we were tired of visiting the temples I asked him to take us there. So we got into the car and started the long ride towards the place gazing at the roadside where the scene is quite similar to our countryside. At length we caught a glimpse of the Mekong river and buildings on the Thai side a little far away and finally reached Buddha Park.

  

  Buddha Park may be the most attraction for Western tourists who are not interested in wats or temples because it is a sculpture park displaying   old looking statues including a huge 40 meter high reclining Buddha statue.

    

  It was built in 1958 by a monk who studied both Buddhism and Hinduism. This explains why his park is full not only of Buddha images but also Hindu Gods. The most outstanding ones include Indra, the king of Hindu Gods riding the three headed elephant, a 4 armed deity sitting on a horse and an artistic deity with 12 faces and many hands each holding interesting objects. They are all equally important not only  because of their enormous size but because they are full of interesting details and interesting motifs.

  

   After a leisurely look around and taking photographs we left for the city once more .     Once in the city Ek took us to lunch at a Lao eatery . It has pleasant surroundings with fountains and thatched huts. When we ordered Lao food we found out that Lao food is so simple like sticky rice eaten out of old fashioned bamboo containers and grilled or fried chicken, fish and pork. But maybe they have more varieties that we don’t know because we don’t order. But we felt satisfied that we had tasted Lao food.

    

 We also visited the only shopping mall that Vientiane has to offer. The Morning Market or Talat Sao as it was called. After that we went back to our hotel to have some rest telling Ek to come for us at 5 to go to the Mekong Riverside Park.

  

   When we got to the Riverside Park it was not crowded yet and we took our place at a roadside shop and ordered some food. We saw the Mekong in the distance because there is a wide stretch of land in between. A gentle breeze was blowing from the river and the colorful flags from the flagpoles lining the road were fluttering in the breeze. The good weather and the pretty scene made us felt satisfied with the environment.

    

 After some time we were served our dinner , which was quite good but when we prepared to pay the bill we saw that it was a little too expensive . We said among ourselves that things and food are not as cheap as in Bangkok, but only hotel fees and car hire fares.

  

  Our last half day in Vientiane was a misery. We had planned to visit the Museum and some other places . But the day was a rainy one and we cannot go out as we were afraid to fall ill. When the rain  was a little lighter  we went to the shopping mall again and spend our remaining hours in a coffee shop and some look around until it was time to go to our hotel for checkout .

 ref....historical facts from int;

        

N 62 Vientiane Part 1

N 62   Vientiane   ( Part 1 )

There are two places I want to visit in Laos . The capital Vientiane and the old city Luang Prabang. I cannot go to Luang Prabang this time , but I decided to take my group of 10 people  (  including me ) to Vientiane within  my trip to Thailand.

   

  After 4 nights in Bangkok we boarded the domestic Nok Airline bound for Udon Thani in the north. The flight took about one hour and we landed at the airport , so different from Bangkok airports because of it’s size and quietness. Our flight is called fly and ride because after the flight the airline will also take responsibility to transfer us to the border by car.

    

After waiting for a few minutes they took us to a ten seater to go to Nongkai which is the border town, and about 34 kilometers from Udon Thani. When we reached there we got off the car and queued at the Thai immigration for scrutiny.

     

I was worried that we will have to walk in the hot sun when we cross the buffer zone like in Cambodia but was much relieved to know that for 20 baht each person a bus will take us to the Lao immigration.

    

   There was not a long queue at the Lao immigration and did not take much long to have our passport stamped because we had already obtained visas from the Lao embassy in Yangon. We can get visa on arrival here but as were afraid this will take a long time we already got them before coming here.

After that a minivan owner approached us and offer to take us to Vientiane for 400 baht. About the currency we can use either the Thai baht or Lao kip . One baht is the equivalent of 250 kip.

    

  It took about half an hour to reach the city and when we reached there it was past time for lunch, so we told our driver to take us somewhere for lunch. We had Vietnamese noodle which he said is the best in the city and then we headed to our hotel which was already booked online.

   

  We told him that our hotel was Douangchan Plaza but he took us to Douangchan Palace, so we had to drive through the city to get to our hotel. It was so quiet with a little traffic that we wondered why a city should be like this. Later we came to know it was like this because it was Sunday. We thought it is like Taunggyi and even then the buildings in Taunggyi are more modernized and higher than here.

     

Finally we reached our hotel which is not situated on the riverfront or in the heart of the city but I should say in the suburb.

   

  Oh I forgot to mention one thing. When we were on our way into the city we came to a bridge when my hubby who had been here once  told me that we were going to cross the Mekong and to get ready to take photos . I became excited to see Mekong once more and took many photos of it.

   

We rested for sometime in the hotel and in the evening went to the riverside thinking about eating there , but what we saw surprised us because the place which had been quiet with a few traffic was bustling now and crowded with people that we can find no place to eat. There also is a night market selling clothing  and souvenirs . So for our dinner we had to drive back into the city and eat at a Chinese restaurant.