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.
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