Myanmar (Burma)

By Janet Eastman

October 2005

YANGON, MYANMAR. A 76-carat diamond that is bigger than a bloated snow globe is towering over my head and I’m supposed to be meditating on Buddha and the simple life. Crowded next to me in this forest of golden temples and gem-laced shrines are the devoutly religious, praying for a better life, and a handful of mesmerized tourists, soaking in the exotic.

This is Myanmar, a country with more zigzags than are embroidered on the colorful sarongs and longyis worn by 50-million residents.

Over its long history, this isolated country has been ruled by grandiose kings who erected mountain-high monuments of gold, and then fastidious British colonialists who named it Burma and mined its rice and rubies. Since the 1960s, a military junta has been in charge, guided by superstition and psychics.

Overnight, the generals switched traffic direction from the left-hand side to the right, issued new currency in lucky denominations of nine, outlawed scooters in Yangon and in November [2005], moved government headquarters from historic Yangon, the capital since 1885, to a remote city carved from the jungle.  

Of all Myanmar’s unexpected twists, however, this is the most amazing: Outsiders, including a growing number from the United States, want to visit. One tour operator has seen a 25% increase in American tourists each year since his company opened a branch there in 2002.

“I return because it is the most traditional of Southeast Asia countries,” says John Barker, an expert on Burmese textiles who lives in Ashland, Oregon. He stopped for pleasure in Yangon in October [2005] and to research a textile and cultural tour he might lead next year.

“All the political and economic problems of the last 30 years have preserved their indigenous cultures,” Barker says while admiring the antiques in Yoyamay Ethnographic Textile Gallery in the busy Scott Market on Bogyoke Aung San Road.  “The temples are superb, the mountains, lakes and coastline are beautiful and the hospitality and goodness of the people is really uplifting.”

There are more than 2,000 ornate temples and monasteries in Bagan alone. No village is without a shrine, mostly to Buddha, but just as often to nats, mischievous spirits that are placated with cigarettes and liquor.

Payas, bell-shaped or cubed religious structures, have endured as skyline landmarks over the centuries. Building addresses mark their distance from the golden Sule Paya in the center of Yangon.

Nearby, the Shwedagon Paya, which is as tall as the Statue of Liberty, is layered in tens of thousands of gold shingles. Ribbons of diamonds and rubies wrap around it like lights on a Christmas tree. A gold-and-silver flag vane turns with 2,500 precious stones. Nothing, however, distracts from the diamond orb on the top.

At sunset here, women – delicate and small as are most Burmese, their cheeks adorned with swirls of yellow thanakha paste – push flimsy mops across the marble floor inside the compound  to earn merit. Wealthy, powerful generals earn it by building terraced pavilions that compete for passersby’ attention. Monks and others ambulate clockwise around the walled grounds, pausing to meditate in front of planetary posts honoring days of the week. Shopkeepers along the entrance steps sell incense and flowers. Bells chime.

Erected in the 6th century, the massive Shwedagon Paya is guarded by a chinthe, a half lion-half dragon statue, and for the last five decades, by the military government’s watchful, eavesdropping soldiers.

For a poor country, where a meal at a teashop or cafe is a dollar or two, there are public places with tremendous displays of material wealth, especially in Yangon.

On exhibit at the Myanma Gems Museum & Gems Mart are chunks of rough rubies, Burmese jade and emeralds. A natural pearl weighing 45.06 mommes that was found in Myanmar Pearl Island in 2001 is encased near a star sapphire weighing 63,000 carats, a 329-carat peridot and a 21,450-carat rough ruby.

Although precious stones found of a significant size have to be turned over to the State, government-approved  jewelers sell lesser versions on the floors above the museum. Guards at the gate write down visitors’ names and passport numbers.

On one floor of the cavernous National Museum is the gold throne used by the last Burmese king, rescued from a palace in Mandalay that was bombed during WWII. On another floor is an exhibit of the elaborate clothing worn by many of the 135 different ethnic groups in this battle-weary country. Outside of Yangon is the manicured Htauk Kyant War Memorial Cemetery, where 2,700 WWII Allied and Commonwealth Forces soldiers were buried.

Go, Yes or No?

Isolated Myanmar is on the other side of the earth, washed by the Bay of Bengal and capped by the Himalayas. But the hardest part about traveling there is deciding to go.

Because of its government’s human rights abuses, the United States, European Union and Japan have imposed economic sanctions that restrict trade. Credit and debit cards issued by U.S. banks cannot be used in the country and Americans are not allowed to bring back any products of Burmese origin other than informational materials and original artwork.

Myanmar’s own pro-democratic supporters, the National League for Democracy –  which is lead by Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace laureate who has been under house arrest most of the last 16 years – advocate a tourism boycott of government-run transportation and facilities to punish the military junta’s refusal to step aside after 82% of voters asked for their removal in 1990.

In September, 2005 former Czech president Vaclav Havel and Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa pleaded with the United Nations Security Council to demand that Myanmar’s government release Suu Kyi and 1,100 other political prisoners, and that democracy – which the country experienced briefly after World War II -- be restored.

But some Burmese, including Ma Thanegi, a pro-democracy activist and former political prisoner, say sanctions and boycotts hurt citizens, not the generals who govern.

Some experts estimates that sanctions have forced 60,000 textile workers out of work. With most of the government’s money going to support a large army, little is left for health care or education.

In this deeply religious country, boys and girls spend years in monasteries to learn to read and write. In the morning, they take their alms bowls to the streets to beg for food, which is an important precept of Buddhism.  Some of them decide to devote their lives to Buddha and a monastic existence.

Poverty and the increase in foreign visitors, however, have created “pseudo monks,” men and women who engage visitors at tourists sights and ask for money or sponsorship to leave the country. Traditional monks, guided by their abbots, keep their eyes downcast and will not invite a female to their room.

Generals who wanted to erase the country’s British colonial past once made it illegal to teach English. British-issued names of the country, cities and the main river were also changed. But after a 20-year hiatus, English is being taught again. There is a need for multilingual guides to escort tourists who are ready to exchange needed foreign currency for Burmese kyats.

Tourists who go to Myanmar are greeted in the cities by merchants who ask, “Do you like our country?” and in the villages by barefoot children underneath yellow acacia trees who call out run-on sentences as if reciting from a phrase book: “Hello, good morning, I love you!”

Over the last few years, the government has paved the way for tourists. There are modern airports, smooth roads, ornamental landscaping, nightlights on the lakes and pagodas.

And fewer restrictions. Visitors no longer have to exchange $200 [U.S.] for foreign exchange certificates to enter the country and visas can be obtained through the Myanmar Embassy in Washington, D.C. or by applying online for a pre-approved visa on arrival (www.mewashingtondc.com).

There are also fewer no-access areas. Golden Rock, a gold-leafed boulder balancing on the edge of a cliff in Kyaiktiyo, used to be off-limits to foreigners. Now, visitors can hike up to the top of Mt. Kyaikto to see it, but only men can touch this sacred Buddhist monument.

Dozens of accommodations are managed by foreign firms, from upscale hotels in the cities to mountain lodges, beach resorts and $3-a-night hostels. The VS Orient Express has 3- and 4-night cruises from temple-rich Bagan to lyrical Mandalay. Rudyard Kipling, who never stepped foot in the country but romanticized it in a poem, call the main trade route – the Ayeyarwady River -- the “road” to Mandalay, “where the flyin’ fishes play…..”

Although there are limits to who can receive a license to buy a satellite dish, most tourist hotels pick up CNN, BBC, HBO, even “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.” In the past, everyone watched either government-controlled TV with upbeat programs with titles of “Nice and Sweet Song” or nothing.

“In Yangon, there are more cars and wealth, and a bigger gap between the rich and poor, but the people’s kindness has not changed,” says Kevin McGrath, who worked for the United Nations in Myanmar from 1982 to 1988. He and his wife, Olga, have returned several times since. “They are pious, devout people. Despite all their problems, they have gentility, dignity and forbearance.”

The McGraths said they did not see as many soldiers on the streets as there used to be. “Time to time you’ll see a solider in uniform with a gun, but you have to look carefully to find him,” says Kevin McGrath. “But if you cross the line, he’ll find you.”

Possessing drugs and political information are still serious crimes. But most visitors who do something that isn’t allowed – such as trying to walk past Suu Kyi’s house – will simply be motioned by soldiers to turn around.

Nicolas Mulley, director of Destination Asia Myanmar, has lived in the country since 2002. Most of his clients, he says, are Americans who are well educated, well traveled and “have a desire to discover the real Asia and see a culture and landscape that is harder to find these days.”

His tours include participating in a lunchtime ceremony with young monks and novices at the Kalaywa Monastery in Yangon, viewing the treasured payas of Bagan, meeting tapestry weavers and silversmiths in Mandalay and floating in Inle Lake on a boat powered by an Intha, a lake dweller who stands on one leg and rows with the other leg wrapped around an oar.

“All of these special activities have a degree of cultural interaction,” says Mulley. “We find that what really makes Myanmar such a special country are the local people. Every person who visits Myanmar says that they did not expect to discover such an amazing country or meet such friendly people, and the word is slowly spreading.”

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INFOBOX

Myanmar

TELEPHONES:

To call the numbers below from the U.S., dial 011 (the international dialing code), 95 (country code for Myanmar) and the local number.

WHERE TO STAY:

Yangon:

Kandawgyi Palace Hotel, Kan Yeik Tha Road, Yangon. (951) 249-255-9; www.kandawgyipalace.co. An attractive teak-framed hotel with 200 rooms on the scenic Kandawgyi Lake. Rooms start at $160.

Pansea Orient-Express Hotels’ The Governor’s Residence, 35 Taw Win Road, Yangon. (951) 229 860; www.pansea.com. This 45-room hotel on a resort-like setting is in a mansion-filled neighborhood used by foreign diplomats. Rooms start at $160.

The Strand, 92 Strand Road, Yangon. (951) 243 377; www.ghmhotels.com. Built in 1896 by the Sarkies brothers, who managed Raffles in Singapore, this hotel was recently remodeled and has an attractive art gallery. It is expensive (published rates start at $450 [US]) and the location near the Yangon River requires a taxi getaway to the city’s main attraction.

Traders Hotel, 223 Sule Pagoda Road, Yangon. (951) 242 828; www.tradersyangon.com.mm. [businesscentre@tradersyangon.com.mm] Modern business hotel in the city center with 500 Western-style large rooms, afternoon high tea, vigorous $14 massages in its well-equipped spa and self-serve washing machines and dryers. $108 walk-in rate includes an international breakfast buffet.

Bagan:

Bagan Thande Hotel

Thazin Garden Hotel, Bagan.

Thiripyitsaya Sakura Hotel, Bagan.

Mandalay:

Mandalay Hill Resort Hotel

Royal Park View Hotel,

Mandalay Swan Hotel

Sedona Hotel Mandalay, 26th and 66th Streets, Mandalay.

Inle Lake:

Paradise Inle Resort

WHERE TO EAT:

Yangon:

Green Elephant, 519A Pyay Road, Yangon. (951) 531 231. Two story open-air restaurant, perfect for rainy afternoons. Rich, not spicy beef curry, peanut-sesame salad and fried bananas and tamarind flake candy.

Le Planteur, 16 Sawmaha Street, Yangon. (951) 549 389; www.leplanteur.com. French-Indochine cuisine in a luscious converted colonial estate near K Lake.

Sabai Sabai Thai Restaurant, 232 Dhama Zedi Road, Yangon. (951) 525 526. Authentic Thai eggrolls and Phad Thai.

Bagan:

Nandar Restaurant

TO LEARN MORE:

Embassy of Myanmar, (202) 332-9045; www.mewashingtondc.com.

--Janet Eastman

[sidebar]

I went to Myanmar in October 2005 as a journalism professor with Semester at Sea, an academic program that takes American college students around the world aboard a cruise ship. In its half-century history, this was the first time the organization has stayed in this highly sanctioned, military-ruled country.

Due to our size -- almost 1,000 students, staff and crew – we temporarily tripled the number of Americans in Myanmar.

During the six days we were docked in Yangon, we roamed around the country, from well-traveled roads in southern Yangon, central Mandalay, Bagan and Inle Lake to remote villages and even an elephant camp in Taungoo, where the mighty beasts are trained to transport teak.

We rode in public buses, ferries and taxies (stripped-down ‘70s Toyota Corollas) and flew out of efficient new airports.

Despite warnings from guidebooks and the Yangon-based American consulate, Patrick Murphy, we felt safe. Unlike other stops on our Fall semester voyage to Venezuela, Brazil, South Africa, Mauritius and India, no one was robbed or attacked, and the beggars and street hawkers didn’t overwhelm us.

We saw no more armed police than in other countries. Most of them stoically stood guard at government buildings, embassies and restricted areas such as university campuses and near the rundown home of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. If one of us ventured too close, we were signaled to turn around.

American tourists I met on the streets of Yangon as well as a Dallas teacher who has lived there for three months said they had the same feeling of safety.

I hope to return.

--Janet Eastman

YOU CAN SEE PHOTOS JANET EASTMAN TOOK WHILE TRAVELING THE WORLD AT www.flickr.com/photos/janeteastman