As most Asians we, the people of Myanmar eat rice. It is our staple food.To eat rice for meals rice has to be cooked with water.When rice cookers are available as it is now , it is easy to cook rice,and it takes only a few minutes. But needless to say,cooking cannot be done without electricity.
When eaten at a meal rice is not eaten by itself.It is eaten with curries, which have to be cooked seperately.A meat or fish dish, a fried or salad vegetable dish, and some kind of soup make a complete meal for many people. Those who can’t afford much,will have to do with anything,whether it be some grains of salt,a lump of ngapi,( fermented and pounded fish ) and some chillies.
A wide varieties of rice are grown in Myanmar. The rice produced differ by their appearance, how much they will expand when cooking (most people like rice that expands much because they can feed more, and are called ou tat ) . Some are fragrant that the best kind of rice is called Paw Hsan Hmway. Hmway means fragrant.The price of rice varies according to their properties. 2024
Being a Shan I like Shan rice which is stickier than Myanmar rice of the Myanmar lowlands. Shan people of the last era even ate the real sticky rice.To cook the sticky rice we have to soak the rice the whole night.In the morning it is put into a wooden or bamboo steamer and steam for about an hour.When it is cooked the rice is spread on a bamboo mat to let out some steam.Then the rice is put back into the steamer ready to eat. When people need to go somewhere, like to farms, rice is put in bamboo containers and carried with them, along with a packet of curry to eat with the rice.
Actually what I want to write is about the rice which is grown in the Shan States and is called Shan rice. The Shan rice is softer and less sticky than the sticky rice.This rice is grown all over Shan State by wet method on flatlands ( in fields by irrigation system or rain dependent ). But in hilly regions it is grown , depending on rain wholly and is called Taungyar Hsan.Rice grown in fields is of better quality than rice grown on hilly places.
There is a place in Southern Shan State where they grow rice in a unique way.I doubt if there are other places which grow like this. There is a small town called Nawng Wawn which is about 30 miles from Taunggyi.It is at the mouth of a lake called Pone Inn.This Pone Inn is like the famous Inlay Lake of Nyaung Shwe.It is quite long and we can travel along it by motor boat.I had gone along this lake once passing through houses and villages until it ends at the foot of Mwaydaw Katku. I was so amazed to know that we can reach Katku by 2 ways. By land and then by waterway.But this waterway can be used only in the rainy season. So Pone Inn is said to be 6 months dry and 6 months wet. The people who live on it live like the Innthar of Inlay Lake.Their houses are on dry land and on water according to the season. They have boats and they travel by boats as necessary.
As rice in our country is grown in the rainy season , in Pone Inn it is also grown likewise. The paddy plants start to grow when the water is not too deep. But as the rainy season continues,the rice plants also grow. At about harvest time the plants have grown so tall,out of the water level .Their tops heavy with paddy seeds, that they’re bending down.
To harvest farmers have to paddle around in boats and cut the parts with grains with sickles, put them in their boats and take them to the prepared place where lines supported by bamboo poles are already made . Here the paddy plants which are tied into bunches are thrown onto the lines and leave there until they are dried.When they are dried they will be taken to dry land, mostly at the farmer’s house to be thrashed and stored for consumption or sold.
This Pone Inn district with its unique way of paddy cultivation has been a considerable rice producing area in the Shan State . It has contributed in supplying rice for a part of the Shan State.The Shan people living there enjoy a satisfactory livelihood with traditional religious and boat rowing festivals held from time to time. But the sad thing they are facing now is because of the deadly floods of this year rice could not be cultivated again. Like other flooded places people have lost most of their belongings and I read that they can’t even buy seeds for next year cultivation. It is sad, but we cannot do anything to relieve the troubles.
We will just have to hope that there will be a turning point that will enable their lives to become normal again…..
Photos credit to. …. Shan Queen photographer and original owners…..
6th October
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