29.07.2013

Hsipaw, pronounced Teebaw by the locals, is in the Northern Shan State of Myanmar. In the old days each village or group of villages and even towns were ruled by their own sawbwa or Shan Prince, but when Ne Win came to power in 1962 all power had to be in his hands and more than 30 sawbwa disappeared. The sawbwa of Hsipaw had been at university in America and brought back an American wife. They had two children and were ahead of their time in granting to the villagers the land on which they worked. But Sao Kya Seng was a victim of the purge: he attended a meeting in Yangon and never returned. His wife, Inge Sargent, searched for news of him for months, but in the end she was advised to return to America. Mr Donald, a relative of the sabwa, stayed on in the palace and over the years told the tale to countless visitors. For this, in 2005, he was removed to prison. For a long time the palace was closed, but it is now open to visitors at 4.00 each afternoon.

Kyaung Payn is a Shan village of 84 houses extending a mile along the bank of the Dotthawady River. Mango orchards were fruiting prolifically, though the mangoes were still green. The orchards were flanked by jackfruit, bananas, pomelo and custard apples. The villagers were also growing beans and sweetcorn, and yellow and white pumpkins ran riot across the land in places even climbing trees. Pumpkin are especially good to grow as the curling new shoots can be harvested many times until the pumpkin is ready to eat.

We stood to watch as a woman, who was minding her shop, was also making flags. Her hut was in the shade of a grove of bamboo and it was these that she was gradually harvesting for her home industry. She managed the whole process by hand by herself. Once she had cut the bamboo into very thin slivers, she dyed them bright mauve and stuck short paper streamers at the top. These she would sell at the market: 100 pieces for 200 kyat (about 20 cents). Villagers would buy them as an offering on their own Buddha image in their house or would take them to the paya (pagoda) or monastery.

While watching the woman making flags a man, perhaps hoping we were doctors, showed me large white patches on his brown legs. His lips were unusual too: the bottom lip turned over and was bright pink. He had been to the clinic, where he was given tablets to take three times a day for six months. He had not been told the name of his ailment, but it was thought it could be leprosy. The clinic was free so it was advice not money that he needed.  Next time he goes to the clinic he will ask them.

After Hsipaw we were to go to Namhsan, but there is fighting there. Lashio is quiet and we will go there instead.

Lashio was pivotal in WWII as it was the start of the Burma Road. Doubtless there was much fighting then and coincidentally there was fighting here – with different adversaries – last month and one enormous many storey building was burned to a black shell. 

The National Kandawgyi Gardens at Pyin Oo Lwin

26 July 2013

I don’t know why there’s so little fanfare over the botanical garden in Pyin Oo Lwin: it is stunningly beautiful, well laid out and organized with all trees and plants appropriately labeled with their genus and specific names. The gardens are huge with 589 species of local and foreign trees, including Oaks, Eucalyptus, Pine and 75 species of Bamboo. Near the lake is an orchid house with 300 species though few were in flower as it is a cool autumn up here.

A surprise was to see a small army of women sweeping every last lawn and men scooping up the leaves and taking them off in a truck. As far as I could make out, the sweeping is done daily and not because there was an upcoming festival. The National Kandawgyi Gardens, named for the large lake lying in the centre was founded by the British and opened in 1924. At that time, Britain was administering Burma and Pyin Oo Lwin, 69 kilometres from Mandalay and 3,538 feet above sea level was a popular hill station when the rest of the country was sweltering.

Another surprising find was a Fossil Wood Museum. As it happens most of the petrified prehistoric items on display were from Pakokko District, Magwe Region where Win Kyaing comes from. A petrified prehistoric elephant Stegodon at 2,000,000 years seemed hugely old, until the next exhibit comprising an intricate pattern of recognizable roots was dated between 5,000,000 – 15,000,000 years old. Some of the rocks in the museum and outside in the rock garden shone as if newly varnished and polished: these surfaces were the effect of petrification of the bark of trees.

Dragonflies were weaving over garden beds of scarlet Salvias, pink Petunias and yellow Pansies and Win Kyaing told me some Myanmar folk- lore: apparently when dragonflies fly low, it’s going to rain. And it did rain that afternoon. Another rain tale is if Quails build their nest with the opening facing north, the rain and wind will come from the south for the whole year and the next year may be completely the opposite.

We left the best exhibit until last: the walk-in aviary. A few species were caged, such as the Cockatiels, but most birds flew free. Peacocks and many species of pheasant strutted their stuff on the forest floor, while a Lady Amhearst’s pheasant with glittering plumage looked on. Although not cordoned off, it seemed there was an Australian corner. Here Brolgas and Cranes mingled among Sacred Ibis while in the lake sailed Australia’s black Mute Swans.

The most confiding bird was the Great Hornbill. He was enormous with a wingspan of maybe two metres. He wore his tall yellow casque like a hat. He was a fastidious groomer with spotless white fluffy feathered ‘pantaloons’. Unafraid and ignoring us, he let us stand almost in touching distance. However, one glance at the enormous scimitar shaped bill put that thought out of our heads.

I told Win Kyaing how one of the species of Hornbill nests in a tree and the male closes the hole with mud leaving just one spot through which he feeds her. The female remains incubating the eggs into chicks and then the male sets her free. Of course if the male dies, the female and any offspring die too. A Myanmar bird named Lwone Kyin takes to suicide if its partner dies. It throws itself again and against a cliff until it dies.

Aung San Museum

23 July 2013

The Bogyoke (General) Aung San Museum is set in the family's home in Yangon. The first thing that struck me was how quiet visitors were as we pondered the tragedies that this family has endured. General Aung San lived in the house for only two years until his assassination in July 1947, when he was 32 years old. The wooden house is large, as befits a Supreme Commander of the Burmese army, albeit such a young one, and includes extensive grounds and a library of over 200 books. A particularly poignant room was the children's bedroom with their three little beds in a row. One was for Aung San Suu Kyi and another for a brother who was drowned in a pond in the garden. An overall impression is how close Aung San and his wife Daw Kin Kyi were to their three small children. There are large photographs of Aung San in uniform, but many more of the family group smiling happily, unaware of the tragedies that would befall them. Short speeches Aung San gave are recorded in framed pictures. The most telling was his advice that unless the different ethnic minorities joined together with the majority Bamar, the country would not run smoothly. Those words, uttered more than 60 years ago, are just as applicable today. Hopefully, and soon, a better day will dawn.