N  95 Paing Htande 

The last time I visited Bagan was many years ago . I think it was in 2004 , the year Thailand was hit by a destructive Tsunami. I remember this because when we were in Mandalay at my niece Nang Mya Win May’s house the event was shown again and again in the news on TV.

It had been on my mind to visit Bagan again but could not do so all these years. But this year we (with my daughter’s family )decided to go and we did it . We had planned to visit Paing Htande (Paing toddy palm

hut ) on our way back.

Paing Htande has been a  popular   place like many other attractions through facebook. It is on the way to Kyaukpadaung , not very far from Bagan. So not before long we reached the place. The first thing we saw there was the simple signboard and two tourists buses. On branches of trees that grow in front of the main hut were hung old birds’ nests for decoration.

On entering the hut which is roofed with palm leaves I saw some tables occupied by tourists. The tables and seats are made of crude logs of toddy palms with matted palm leaf coverings. The tourists are sipping and savouring sweet toddy palm juice with some other foods.

On the other side of the hut is the place for displaying and selling of products from this place ,mostly palm juggery and foods made from it.

As we got farther into the hut we saw about 3 fireplaces where women were cooking palm juice to make them into juggery. When the palm juice has become thick due to incessant stirring women take a small amount of it and roll them in their hands to make a ball which Burmese people like to eat as dessert after meals.The lump which they take into their hands is surely hot, but they would be used to it I thought.

My mind wanders to things that I have seen in TV documentaries. To the making of all kinds of foods such as cheese, jams, noodles, wines, chocolates, with ultra modern machines and equipments with the most advanced technologies and I realized how much we were far behind and are still living in the primitive ages. Hmmm…. better not to think about our lives, our situation , our country….

In the backyard, at the farthermost place there are the toilets, clean and usuable, even not modernized ones. And there are also decorations with umbrellas, some flower beds, a boat, a cart, some round huts with palm leaf roofing, where people like to take photos. These are fascinating to the eyes of our people and many are excitingly taking photos with these backgrounds.

At one place there is a plaster statue of a Burmese man and not realizing who it is  I took a photo with it.

Then I came to the table where my family had ordered and eating some food .This part is mostly under gourd vine roofing and we can see big green gourds  dangling from the canopy. We tasted some palm juice and ate some fried gourd fritters. It did not cost much.

While we were eating  I asked some girls who were serving about the place and came to know about the owner whose name is Paing Ba Kyi. They said that his statue is over there and then did I realized the statue I had taken photo with is the owner. I also learned that he lives in the village not far from there and that he owns toddy palm groves and land around there.At present he was on pilgrimage with his family. I told them it is a great idea to create such a rest area to attract people and even tourists who are travelling.

We Myanmar people lacks creativity and new ideas. When someone starts a new business and it becomes successful people will try to copy it. So we can see many rest areas like Paing Htande around Bagan with different decorations now.

And in Bagan I don’t know who started it . But we can see many places where small puppets are hung from branches of trees to make the place attractive and so can sell their wares. People just copy one another’s ideas. A place like Paing Htande would be born out of somebody’s idea which I think is Paing Ba Kyi’s.I presume he is not an educated town folk but a simple farmer who had lived in that arid land growing palm trees and earned his living from them. If some educated businessman from a large city started a business like this it would not be much unusual , but as a simple farmer  who lives in the country,  his idea is something that should be acknowledged and appreciated as an entrepreneur.

N 94  My Annual Visit to Yangon

I don’t remember how many years I have come back to live in Taunggyi. But during these years I usually went to stay in Yangon for the winter, because Taunggyi is too cold in the winter months.

But this year I decided to go later and see if I can braveTaunggyi’s winter. And… I saw I can do it quite well. It is nothing much compared to colder places, not to mention the world’s cold places, but only in our country. Even places like Pinlaung, Namsang, Loilem, Mogok, Momeik, and the Chin Hills are colder than Taunggyi. The temperature at those places are only a little degrees above 0* like 3 or 4 degrees . But I found the indoor temperature in my house is over 10* on colder days. I wonder how people can live in sub zero degrees with snow covering everywhere.

So it was on the 6^th of February that I finally went to Yangon. The main reason was I have to do some paper signing at a bank where we have home loan and I also want to do some medical checking. The paper signing work at the bank was done within a few hours after we reached Yangon.

I did the medical check up the next day. I have some problems with my heart, narrowing of the arteries.. I had planned to check up with my nephew Sai Kyaw Tay Zar who is now a cardiologist. He examined me with echo machine and told me the result is not so bad, to do some more checking after some months and gave me prescriptions for some medicine.

On the 8^th I attended the wedding ceremony of another nephew Sai Kyaw, who is the brother of Sai Kyaw Tay Zar. Sai Kyaw lives in the US and also the bride’s parents and they are going to US after a few days. The wedding was held at the pool side of Sedona Hotel. This was my first time there and everything was nice and pretty for me. The bride and groom, the environment, the preparations and agenda, and also the food. I wish the couple to have a long, happy and pleasant life together in the US.

On the 10^th I attended another wedding which was held at Pandittayama Monastery near our house. Hsun was offered to Sanghas and yogi’s , and guests were treated with buffet lunch in commemoration of their wedding. The bride Aye Aye Myint is my daughter’s friend and we also met with some other friends at the ceremony.

The next day we had a gathering of friends whom we had lived together in Kunhing. Not many of them but only five. We had lunch together at my house, and we talked about our past and present lives. To meet friends and having some talks is a pleasant and happy thing to do. It is nice because it means that we are still alive and can go about, even some including me are not quite well and healthy enough. We cannot meet like this if we are gone forever. Next year if I am well enough I will have a more bigger gathering with people whom we lived together in Kunhing.

When I didn’t go out I did some dusting and cleaning at home. Because the house had undergone major alterations and repairs there is dust everywhere, but this time it was a lot better. I did some organizing of the wardrobes in my room and the book cabinets.

As I love books I collected some starting  from long ago. I still have Reader’s Digest and novels from my school days and Time magazines of 40 years ago. I keep my books in cabinets with unsystematic catalogues. Whether systematic or not I can know how many books I have and how many I have lost (but I don’t have many ).  I have lost more during  my absense but  I don’t let this trouble me. Anyway nothing is permanent in this world, but it is distressing that my children, my grand children are not reading books anymore.  (Exception…Nang Nang and Naung Naung who has started to read , but they read English books only )

I had asked my granddaughter Baby to send me to bookshops and she did so one Thursday when she didn’t have tuition. Because we left late and of traffic it was time to eat lunch when we reached downtown. So I was taken to 800 bowls Restaurant where we had noodles and dumplings. Then we went to Sarpay Beikman , the Goveernment’s bookshop where I bought some books to take home.

A short walk on the platform around there brought me memories of long ago. When I was young I liked walking on the platforms where there are vendors selling everything. I would walk on these platforms tirelessly looking at inexpensive things and buying some upon seeing things I needed. During this short walking I saw a book I had wanted( Pascal Khoo Thwe’s From the Land of Green Ghost …. a book I had read its translation and had liked )and I bought it happily. Though I had wanted to go to other bookshops I cannot do so because to go from one place to another in the downtown area is not a simple and easy thing to do but a complicated and time consuming thing .

I didn’t want to go back home without visiting at least one new shopping mall. So I was taken to Junction City . It was my first visit there and upon entering it I couldn’t help mention that it looks like a shopping mall in  neighbouring foreign countries.It is a modernized one with some garden like decorations and a plant wall where people were taking photos.But most shops are selling branded items and the prices are not cheap.

Many shopping malls like this one are sprouting here and there around Yangon . And we are hearing that our country is facing economic recession at the moment. But there also is a wide gap between the rich and the poor. So shopping malls and branded things will be for the elite, the rich and the upper class people only.

I had posted about my one and only visit to Signature restaurant on the bank of Kandawgyi Lake in my facebook account. So my daughter and her friend commented they will send me again when I come to Yangon the next time.And they really did send me there on the last day of my stay. I don’t like to go out much ,but it is nice to do so sometimes. We ate those foreign foods and took pictures with the nice surroundings there. The pleasant weather and environment,the food , the relaxation I had, all are great experience for me. Thank you…Ying, and Hnin Yu Khine for sending me to a nice place like this. Let us go to another nice place when I come again next year……

N 93  The Arakan – Bengali crisis  : in the eye of a Myanmar citizen

Myanmar is a small country in south east Asia with an area of 261228 sq miles and 52 million population. It borders China in the east and Bengaladesh in the west ( not to mention other countries that it is not having problems with ) Over 130 ethnic groups are living in Myanmar. And so because we are not one and the same race there are problems naturally.

Beside having its own internal problems during these few years a problem that would shake the whole country arise. Bengaladesh that borders Myanmar is a country so densely populated with 156 million , that some overflow its border to spill over into our country.

There is history that over a hundred years ago Bengalis were brought into Myanmar to work in the fields and as thay have been living for many generations that they were recognized by the government as its citizens. But as population boomed in Bengaladesh to make lives hard , people from Bengaladesh poured into Myanmar by waves. They called themselves Rohingyas  and demand that they were given citizenship by Myanmar government. Some obtained identity  cards by bribing the corrupt immigration department and some were given by power holding parties in exchange to vote for them in the election.

But many remain unrecognized and are  trying to become Myanmar citizens . Sometimes conflicts break out between the Arakanese and Bengalis . There are much differences between the native Arakanese and the Bengalis.  The most distinct characteristic is that the Arakans are devout Buddhists and the Bengalis  are mostly Muslims. A few years ago a spark was ignited by the Bengalis  when a group of Bengalis raped and kill an Arakan girl. This incident led to killings on both sides and brought in organizations like UNHCR to investigate in the case.

But whoever came they insist that Myanmar recognize the Bengalis as its citizens , which the government is  denying , as they are not our citizens rightfully, but unlawful immigrants. If a consensus is to be made among the citizens of Myanmar nobody will want to receive them as one of our nationalities.

But with their traditions and beliefs their population is growing fast with many families having over 10 members, that their population surpassed the Rakhines  or other ethnic groups and Hindus like in Maungdaw.

The latest incident that happened on 25^th August was started by the so called Rohingya. They have formed an extremist insurgent group and on 25^th August held coordinated attacks on several police posts where 12 members of security forces  and at least 77 rohingyas were reportedly killed. Later some Rakhine , Hindus , and members of small ethnic groups were also found to be killed by Muslims.

So Myanmar military forces had to come in to do clearance operation.Who will stay calm and immobile when our security forces were being attacked and our people being killed . So counter attack and clearing territories were made.There may be killings and burning of villages , where insurgents had been hiding , which usually happen in wars. But in the Muslim world including the UNHCR high commissioner  condemned the army’s action. They accused the army of burning villages , rape, ethnic cleansing,. Some said 3000 Muslims were killed.

 I don’t believe what they said. 3000 is ridiculous and it cannot be said ethnic cleansing. How can the military wipe out the Rohingyas whose population is over one million in Myanmar. Over 40000 fled to Bengaladesh is right. Reports that Bengalis burned their own houses were also heard , and that is to put the blame on Myanmar military and to get sympathy and funds from outside.

To flee to Bengaladesh is a right thing to do in my opinion. They had come from that country and it is the right place they should be. Why would they want to come and live in Myanmar. As I have said the Myanmar (Arakan ) people are very different from them , by race, by religion, language, customs, beliefs, and everything. These two races cannot live together for sure.

If we permit them to come and live in our land  , the first thing that will happen is that they will overwhelm our population in a few decades, by their quickly multiplying population because their religion allow men to have multiple wives with unlimited children.. And there is a threat to our country , a threat of Islamisation.

We have seen whole countries changed it’s religion from Buddhism to Islam. The countries along the Silk Road such as Western China, Kazakhstan, Uzbekhistan, Afghanistan, to Syria and Turkey were Buddhists or Christian Countries at first. But when they were  conquered They were turned into Islamic countries, by Islamic leaders and merchants who traded along the Silk Road.

So every country has to be careful to retain its land and religion, and not to become victims of Islamisation. They have plans to overwhelm the world with every means they can use.

These days countries have to face the refugee problems. These refugees are mostly muslims. On grounds of human rights countries are receiving refugees. Looking at violent incidents around the world  like bomb exploding, stabbing with knives, drive motor vehicles into crowds and such like are mostly perpetrated by Islamist extremists. The attack of the WTC  New York in 2009 which killed 3000 people was the biggest deed they had done. And they are warning the world that more are to come.

I didn’t mean that all muslim people are extremists. Maybe only a handful is a threat to mankind. But this handful like the IS is dangerous enough and the fast multiplying population is also one thing countries should think about.

At present we are facing criticism and condemnation from outside. The latest incident was not incited by the Rakhine people but by the Rohingyas who surely have military background behind them. Some said that they have plans to establish their own territory in Rakhine. To let them encroach into our country is impossible . It would be violating our sovereignty.

All foreign organizations including the UN or UNHCR have no right to put pressure on Myanmar, to let Bengalis come and settle here. This is not their country. They came from Bengaladesh and Bengaladesh should take them in or go to other Muslim countries.

This is my view concerning the Bengalis and I believe all Myanmar people believe like this. We don’t have any desire to receive any people from outside far more who can be a threat to our race our religion, our culture and our lives.

N    92   Bell’s Palsy   

I usually write blogs after I returned from a trip. There are much to write and also easy as I have to relate what I have experienced  only. But as I said in my last blog, for some reasons I did not post the blog about my trip to Gawranji Island. It was not actually that I had not written about it , but I did wrote it on some sleepless nights and only shoved  it somewhere because I felt hurt and resentful just to think about it. After I returned from Gawranji Island , on the 2^nd morning I got Bell Palsy. Some may  know about this disease and some may not.  So I will relate about this disease in this blog.

On the 2^nd morning I returned from Gawranji Island I was stricken by this disease. I did not know something was wrong with me as I did not feel sick. Only when I was drinking coffee and later mohnhinga I felt that I could not take in the food well, but some came out from the corner of my mouth. Then somebody told me that my mouth was not in the right position, but drooping down. Actually the left side of my face was like that, like it was being pulled down , the eye brow, the eye, the mouth and even the nose. I had seen some people who had this disease ,but had not dreamt I would become a victim of this disease.

So as usual , when something is wrong with your body you have to find the cure. On the first day I saw a doctor and a specialist who told me I had Bell’s Palsy , that it could be cured and gave me some medicines.

The next day I was also taken to YGH, but by the urging of my eldest daughter who happened to be in Bangkok we flew to Bangkok and to Praram 9 Hospital where I was hospitalized immediately. Every examination that need to be done was done on me including the MRI. I was given intravenous medicine without a break, and nurses came and gave me medicine regularly. If there was a special medicine to take like steroid (Prednisalone ) the doctor informed me beforehand. Bell’s Palsy cannot be cured in a few days.. So after 2 nights and 1 day I was discharged from hospital with a follow up to be done after 3 days.

So when I went for the checkup on  the appointed day the doctor explained to me about my condition, that I would have to do exercises when I got home , The exercises I had to do were shown to me by a physiotherapist.

So when I got home I took treatment from 2 physiotherapists who guided me to do facial exercises and also with the stimulating machine.

Gradually my face became nearly normal again, but cannot say I fully recovered. The signs of Bell’s Palsy still remain on my face and I can feel the strain in my mouth and cheek and also the eye which seems to get narrower than it used to be .

How much trouble had this disease caused me; time ,money, and feelings of pain,distress, and resentfulness. There is a saying in Myanmar ; A thwar ma taw ta hlan which means a single step can be critical. Did my journey to Gawranji Island brought this unfortunate fate to me.Myanmar people think that exposing the face to wind cause this disease, and that was exactly what I had done. But western medicine does not say like that.This is how they define the meaning of Bell’s Palsy…..

Bell’s Palsy is a condition in which the muscles on one side of the face become weak or paralyzed. It affects only one side of the face at a time, causing it to droop or become stiff on that side.

Its caused by some kind of trauma to the 7^th cranial nerve. This is also called facial nerve. Bell’s Palsy can happen to anyone*. But it seems to occur more often in people who have Diabetes or are recovering from viral infections.Most  of the times symtoms are only temporily

*B P can happen to anyone old or young, male or female. The famous actress  Angelina Jolie also suffered from this disease. She said that she was cured by means of acupuncture.

N  91   Gawranji Island   (   part 2   )

The motor cycle carriers suggested we should take a boat to cruise around and go to a place called Crocodile Head . So we got on our motor cycle and went to a fishing village where we can hire a boat. Some got a fishing trawler for us and we got on it to go and see the sea. We were taken to Croccodile head which really lives up to its name but we didn’t get down onto the sandy beach. We just cruise around the turquoise green water taking in the beautiful scenery. We also saw palm leaves huts among palm trees along the shore. 

So this is the lives  of people living near the sea and making their livelihood from the sea, I thought. Quite different from our highlander people ‘s lives. But everywhere the lives of the grassroot people are not easy. As our people struggle with land , these people have  to struggle with the sea which make their lives more dangerous than ours.I also thought about the lives of American farmers which I often see on TV, who do all their farmwork by machine, and work on vast lands. When will our country be developed and lives of people become easier? Its unthinkable until now….

As we were going back that day we paid for the boat and started for town  in our cars with the motorists trailing behind. We were going to have lunch at a motorist house.It was about 1 when we really sat down for lunch. How astonished we were when we saw the table laid for us.It was so full that some dishes had to be laid aside. We tasted all kinds of seafood which can be bought in Nga Yoke Kaung. I remembered I ate some goung which I hadn’t eaten before but the kamar ( mother of pearl ) was more delicious. Though we had paid for the food we noticed that they had done the best to cook for us and with much sincerity, that we thank them from the bottom of our hearts.

Our return journey was delayed at one place where repairing of the road was being done . They were covering the road with stones and was not still pressed by a bulldozer. So when a car tried to go up the ascending road the wheels slipped and cannot go up. Only after trying many times  and a delay of nearly one hour did we succeed in crossing that part.

  Nga Yoke Kaung is still much in need of good roads. And it will need time to become a developed resort. At present it is lacking all kinds of facilities and infrastructures. But with money and energy it can become a resort town like Ngwe Saung or Ngapali…..

N 90       The Gawranji Island

It is going to be 2 years this coming January that I had travelled to the Gawranji Island. I had written a travelogue about it but for some reasons I did not  post  it . But now I want to write about something and  as nothing will come to my mind that I come to think about posting it on my blogpost. I looked for the blog I had written but could not find it anywhere . Maybe I had discarded it as rubbish. So I decided to write it again all over.

It was in January 2016. We saw some posts about Gawranji Island in facebook and as it can be reached by car via Pathein we called some friends ( Ko Aung and Aye Aye Thi as usual ) and decided to go and visit there. So our 2 cars started for Pathein early in the morning but it took more than an hour to get out of the city.

After passing some delta towns and Pathein we reached Nga Yoke Kaung township  where Gawranji Island is. After that the smooth and wide road becomes narrower with rough surface and more ups and downs . The journey from Yangon  to  Nga Yoke Kaung is 200 miles and with the not so good road it took us nearly the whole day and we reached Nga Yoke Kaung at about  5pm. What  people said that it took 8 hours is really true.

 Nga Yoke Kaung is a small unattractive town. We lodged at a guesthouse which they said  is the only one in town. As it was still  daylight  we were taken by some folks to see the beach and sunset which is not far away. We saw palm groves lining the shore but a little distant from the water edge. The sand is not white , so it is not very attractive.

Electricity is available only till 10 pm there. As I can’t sleep without light we paid the guest house owner for the petrol he had to use to run the generator the whole night.

The next morning we were taken to the main attraction places by motor cycle carriers.Each had to ride at the back of the motorist holding tight to him.Thanks that I had brought a pair of pants and sneakers with me. A short ride took us to the water edge where all people and motor cycles had to go onto a boat which would take us to the place where we would continue by motor cycles.

The road over which the motor cycles were driven was rough and narrow as it goes over rice fields and rough terrains. Sometimes passed over sand when the motorist told me not to put my feet down while he steered the vehicle skillfully.

The place we were taken is  a beautiful place, which looks like an island with a wide sandy beach. But  the sand here also is  not white. From the sandy beach,  in the inner part of the island is a rocky island on which stood a gold gilded pagoda. Somebody said we have to climb over 300 steps to get to the top and that we can get a good view  around from there. I cannot climb that high and some were not so energetic that we decided not to go up.

We saw some photographers and some models doing photo shooting with a group of local children  using an old boat as a background. It seemed that they would not finish quickly , so we took some advantage with them. Asking their permission we all took some pictures with the children and the old boat, and so we got some nice photos to take home.

to be continued…..

N   89    The Age Old Buddha Statues and Pagodas of Wan

                        Sing (Shan State )                                                       

I came to know about this place not long ago.On the new year day of our Burmese calendar (17/5/17 ) we went to the Shan State Buddhist University with offerings for the monastery as is our custom. It was a rainy day and there were only a few devotees at the monastery. So we had a leisurely talk with the monk who received the offerings and gave blessings. While talking about my late travel to Merng Nawng , Merng Hsu and Hai Par waterfall he mentioned that there is an unknown place in Wan Sing which has many old Buddha statues and some pagodas. These were built by Sawti Shans some centuries ago and as they did not reside there anymore there are no one to take care of the place and with some evil persons who tried to rob and destroy the Buddha statues this place had gone to ruins. So it is needing some donors and some restoration.

I became interested in this place and asked a friend who have some connections to Wan Sing to get me some photos of the place. Before long I received the photos and I saw that they really looks old and very much needed  to be restored. On the advice to go and see it myself  and offering to drive the car by SHT the 4 of us drove to Wan Sing on the 29^th of May.

Wan Sing is 20 miles from Kholam which is 105 miles from Taunggyi. USTS who is a native of Wan Sing and a benefactor of the pagodas joined us at Namsang and we all went together.

We reached Wan Sing before noon, after having lunch at Kholam. The elders of WanSing village and some villagers who had heard that donors who will help restore the place and  were pleased with the news had gathered at a place to take us to the religious ground.

The distance to the pagodas is about 5/6 miles and it is not a paved road road but a dusty one and very narrow but on flat land.That 5/6 miles took us more than half an hour.

The first glance at the place made us perceive that the place is really old and decrepit and urgently in need of renovation. After alighting from our cars and climbing a few steps we came to a place built by UTS for paying homage to the statues. And then the monks whom the Abbot of Kholam had brought, led us to paying homage to the Buddha.

After the monks had left we took a look around. We heard that there are about 540 statues and actually it looks like there really are. But most are not complete figures but are ruined without heads or limbs. The people there said only about a hundred figures are in complete state.

The  figures are stucked so closely to each other with no uniformity in size, some big some small, some in sitting posture , and  a few  reclining. I didn’t notice any standing Buddha. The faces look antique enough and what we heard that they were built 2 or 3 centuries ago seems correct. The builders were Sawti Shans who worship only the Buddha and his teachings , and so they don’t have Sanghas. They also have strict rules of life and lives accordingly to them. But they had left this place to live anywhere else  and so there is no one to take care of this place, that they had gone to ruins.Evil people had also ransacked and looted the place in search of valuables.

But what I heard that there is no roof over the statues was wrong. Actually the statues are under 2 halls with steep roofing , but the tin roofs are so old and rusty. Some of the wooden poles had been covered with gold leaves but even these were not free from the hands of the looters. Only traces of gold can be seen now over their black lacquer foundation. Some elders said that out of the 540 statues only about a hundred are in good condition. And to our amazement the robes of some of the statues are intrically adorned with pieces of coloured glass to make them more attractive.

Outside these 2 halls , scattered over the not so big compound  are some medium sized pagodas. Altogether 22 of them. Not one is complete with umbrella. Naturally all look age old and covered with moss and dirt. Some with bricks loosened at their foot. As the pagodas were opened on one side the looters entered from the entrance and dug the centre part of the

pagoda in search of valuables.

After seeing what have to be seen we gathered at a zayat of Wan Sing’s biggest monastery and had a talk about renovating  the place. I promised to raise 5 million kyats and with donations from friends and relatives and donors, I told them we would  be able to do some really needy repair work. The villagers were glad that some one appeared to help with repairing the decrepit place of worship. They said that they would form a committee and start work at once. Firstly to widen the narrow road to the place . And then a barb wire fence around it and later other repair works.

Until now I had received some funds for these works. But if more donations will come in this place can become a neat and attractive place of worship and visit. It will be nice if a big donor come out so that the 2 very old  halls can be replaced by new ones. But any amount is going to be a help to renovate the hidden Wan Sing Buddhas and Pagodas, So I invite friends and relatives and donors to join me in this merit making work to add a place of attraction to our Shanland.

31/5/17