The Water Buffalo Nat Pwe Spirit Festival Part 2

From Pakokko and our clean and very reasonably priced ($35) and wonderfully wi-fi connected Royal Palace Hotel, we drive first to Myaing then on to Sin Sein village for the Water Buffalo nat pwe.

The village roads are difficult. Bullock carts leave their ironed out wheel tracks one each side of the road, but the middle is scuffed up and with no rain becomes like concrete which makes a scary scraping noise on the underside of Win San’s taxi. Other huge ruts in the middle must be negotiated with heart stopping slowness too. Hopefully, no rain today.

We go to the house where nagadaws are dressing in their sparkly sequined gowns and arresting make-up – and these are just the men.

Every year at this same village, the same man will carry the buffalo nat head. Nobody else is ever allowed to carry it or even touch it or they will die. (I accidentally touched it yesterday and today I have a cold, so you never know). The escorts with bowls collect money from each house and the money will go to repairing the Buffalo Nat house.

We arrive at the stage. All morning one local nagadaw at a time will dance. This afternoon, many nagadaws representing some of the pantheon of 37 nats will be dancing. The orchestra revs up. Nats Ko Myo Shin, Ko Gyi Kyaw and Ame Ye Shin all have their own music. The nagadaws will advise the orchestra which nat they are representing and the musicians will make the appropriate choices.

Cymbals crash nagadaws twist and twirl. The audience is becoming excited too: they tuck money into the nagadaws’ headdress. Oh, this is different, one nagadaw lights two cigarettes in her mouth at once. She puffs a couple of times and, thus blessed, they are given away in the audience. Each nagadaw takes swigs from bottles of Johnnie Walker (or similar). Some well-dressed matrons have taken to the floor, along with some decidedly squiffy looking men. I guess this beats peanut farming on a Sunday afternoon.

In the past, I had been led to believe, that the nagadaws drank and drank until they fell down in a trance and whatever emanated from their mouth were the wise words of the nat. Here I am reliably informed that no, the nagadaws are not talking large gulps of liquor they are inviting the audience to do so. They are not drunk and it is the words of the songs that are the words of the nat. Armed with this information I am sure I will better understand the goings on at the next nat pwe that I attend.

Kuk Sen Shen Wa Village near Na Pu Taw near Pathein, Ayeyarwady Division

Ne Lin Aung at OK9 Teashop in Pathein where we eat our breakfast has been into thanaka in a big way this morning. He is a teashop waiter and is 13 years old. He attended primary school for two years but (as with many children) he had to leave when his parents couldn’t afford the fees and couldn’t afford to keep him. He had to leave the village and send money back once a month. Only monastery education is free in Myanmar and though the curriculum is the same, only children who live near the monastery can attend. Ne Lin Aung has worked at OK9 for only one month and he tells Win San that when he drops something or does other things wrong they beat him. Also, because he is new, the other boys are picking on him. He was so needing affection I wanted to take him home: that being impossible we slipped some presents into his shirt pocket. Hopefully his work life will improve as he gets more experience, though whether he will ever rise above being a waiter is another question.

Today we are visiting fishing villages near Na Pu Taw about an hour from Pathein. Here the Ayeyarwady River is about three miles wide. We’d heard that the village was poor partly because it is remote from the markets of Pathein and partly because it is beneath the water when the Ayeyarwady overflows - and it is doing this right now. In a teashop in Na Pu Taw Win San negotiates with boat drivers ad eventually we get one who doesn’t envisage our making his fortune – and off we go. The sky is a promising navy blue – promising a huge rainstorm I suspect.

After half an hour we arrive at Kuk Sen Shen Wa village. We sit on the floor of a tiny hut above the water, Saya Htay sets up shop and goes into business. She hands out one pair of glasses after another trying to remember who has tried which. This is not always easy as sometimes a pair or two get handed from one person to another. She is endlessly patient and encouraging and no she doesn’t mind a bit if someone insists on trying on at least seven pairs. Win San meanwhile is hearing the history of the many pairs of eyes and translating some to me as I sit taking down names and ages of all and sundry who receive the glasses.

Some on FB may be thinking omg will she ever stop posting pics of people wearing Used-Glasses. Soon. I just felt that people who had been kind enough to donate their glasses might be interested to see who had received them.

The first to try some awegyi glasses is sixty-four year old Daw Theingyi. Her husband had a stroke some years ago and is paralysed. She supports them by cooking and then selling fried onions to the other villagers. Daw Nu (52) and Daw Saw Yi (60) also choose awegyi and Daw Tan Dan Htay (44) who is a tailor chooses anigyi, which will be good for her close work. The first man arrives: U Thein Thein (65). He like all the men and most of the women of Kuk Sen Shen Wa village is a fisherman. When throwing nets he needs to see exactly where the fish are. Daw Kin Ma (52) and Daw Kin Nin Twy 43 choose suitable glasses. The head of the village is U Kin Juyi (55). He saw a doctor five years ago who wanted to operate on his eyes. He could not afford this so has hardly been able to read since then. Now he can.

It seemed that a greater proportion of people in Kuk Sen Shen Wa village has bad eyesight compared to other villages we have visited. We wondered why and various theories were suggested. Perhaps poor diet, or the constant sharp contrast between the colour of the water and the sun hitting the water, perhaps spending much of their time up to their waist in water with the sun beating down on their heads. More fishermen walk in. U Sa Tu Ya (39) U Saw Min (45), U The Gyi (57) had one eye sunken and discoloured. About 25 years ago he was ill with a very high fever and a white spot appeared in his eye. He was happy with his glasses. Other folk who received Used-Glasses were U Yaw Win (61) who was a fisherman as well as Daw San Da Win (41) who grows padi as does Daw Yin Yin (48) who was wearing lots of thanaka against sunburn.

As we left, the smiles on the villagers’ faces said it all.

We gave away 17 pairs of glasses at Kuk Sen Shen Wa and over the past the past two weeks we have travelled over 700 miles and given away approximately more than 110 pairs of reading or long-distance Used-Glasses. We have also given away many pair of sunglasses that the people of KL kindly donated. On our last day we still had 40 pairs of Used-Glasses and envisaged giving them away to three villages. But nature intervened. As we left Kuk Sen Shen Wa the first of many thunder-clouds clapped and we ran for the boat. As boat driver Ko Gyi Soe Win was soaked to the skin (we were mostly under cover) we gave him a pair of sunglasses as well as his fare!

A boat driver in the teashop at Na Pu Taw threw more possible light on why this fishing village had almost uniformly poor eyesight, even though only one had had an illness that prompted it. Perhaps poor diet was a contributing factor. There were no crops or animals other than goats and the latter are used only for milk. Their only way of eating and earning is by fishing, so weather plays a part. This village has literally hand to mouth existence. If they catch nothing, they don’t eat and of course they don’t earn either. Many of the villagers had not even been to Na Pu Taw, which is very close. Why? Because they have no money.

He explained how they lived in fear in the rainy season. They are not far from the area where hundreds of people drowned and homes were swept away by Cyclone Nargis. 

The headman had told us he warned the people through a loudspeaker whenever he heard high winds approaching. But what can we do, he said, we live on an island in the Ayeyarwady River, we have nowhere else to go.

Photos of villages near Pathein

Photos of villages near Pathein

Villages on the water near Pathein

I am exhausted and I am sure Saya Htay and Win San must be too, but they are stoic and don’t admit it. Today is our penultimate for giving away the Used-Glasses and we went by boat to visit Ma Gyi Tan village enjoying riverside scenery on the way.

U Che Zyi was understandably retired at 78. He chose awegyi glasses as he wanted to see far away. U Kay Win (61) chose anigyi reading glasses as did two ladies who did the village laundry, Daw Thein U (73) and Daw San (67).

It is wonderful that the people do not just accept the glasses because they are free. If they don’t help their eyes they return them to Saya Htay.

We move to Pa Da Seine village. Here I worry that Saya Htay is going to slip into the mud beneath U Thein Htay’s hut, which has the river lapping at its base. Fortunately she didn’t slide in and he was happy with his glasses. Ko Sye Ala is a young man of 28. When he was five, playing with his friends he had an accident, which severely affected his right eye. I thought the eye was blind and there would be no improvement by his having glasses. I was wrong. His thumbs up sign and beaming smile said it all. The eye was not blind, just hazy and the glasses corrected this. We were all very happy.

On the road to Pathein

The last time I was in Pathein in Ayeyarwady Division on the western edge of Myanmar was about 2006. In those days I travelled alone as I was trying to recover from the death of Richard. How much better it is now that I travel with members of my Myanmar family. I learn much more and I don’t get lost, which is a big plus.  

This morning I wondered how I could break the news to Saya Htay and Win San that I didn’t think we could make our target to visit villages in the Ayeyarwady Delta affected by Cyclone Nargis. Why? Because my map showed that the distance between Pakokku and Minbu was less than a third of the distance compared to Minbu and Pathein. We were simply running out of time as I leave the country at the beginning of August.

Before I could become the prophet of doom about not having time to get to the Delta Win San, who is always joyful and optimistic, told how he met a taxi driver while washing the car and the driver gave him news of the road. He had just returned from Pathein and reported that the road was good and it should take us about four hours. I agreed that it was wonderful news.

We arrived at Pathein nine and a half hours later.

We travelled through Chauk that, like Minbu, has petrol oil mining rigs. From Chauk it all goes to China with the payment going straight to the old government. Now things are changing. As did teak, so it will be with oil – the money will go to the people.

Long stretches of the road are being made up. To see women and children, in particular, struggling with huge rocks in the heat of mid-day is awful. I learn the men are paid Kyat10,000 (approximately $9)  a day, women Kyat 5,000 and children Kyat 2,000.

Roads in rural Myanmar are normally one lane, so for an oncoming vehicle one has to slow down and run two wheels along the verge. The verge is usually several centimetres below the road so the slowing down can be at walking pace, which increases the time taken to get anywhere.

There are many other users of the road besides motorists. Flocks of goats decide to cross once they see a car. Cattle are other slow-down features. If a calf is separated from its mother they all mill around the centre of the road until the lost has been found. Dogs play Russian roulette with the traffic and an occasional toddler causes a heart-stopping braking.

The scenery changes as we travel further south. In the dry zone it is all cactus, toddy palms ground crops of peanuts, yellow beans and sesame.

There are also some Eucalypt trees which surprises me as Eucalypts are known to suck up surrounding water which I would not have thought a good idea in such an arid area. Then I learn that the Chinese like Eucalypts as their wood makes fine furniture, which can be of the same high standard as that of teak.

I am puzzled to hear from Win San that many of what I take to be tributaries of the Ayeyarwady, or small rivers, he calls canals. Having started life in England I think canals always as man-made waterways with steep sides, lock gates and much organisation. Here canals may be hugely wide watercourses that dwindle to small streams or burgeon into rushing torrents when there are storms in the mountains or indeed on any other higher ground. So, on many occasions when I ask if this is the Ayeyarwady the reply comes back: no it’s a canal.

The further south we drive the more lush the scenery becomes. Teak lines the road and it is flowering. Bamboo towers upwards, its lower branches scrambling over everything. All is green but in many shades and degrees of intensity. Rice in the paddies varies between emerald as it grows and a piercing yellow-green as the ripe seeds emerge.

The rainy season commenced some time ago here and the Ayeyarwady (old name Irrawaddy and known as the The Road to Mandalay) has burst its banks. Villages both sides of the road are under water and what I took to be a fair with people selling goods from tiny huts almost in the road turns out to be the villagers trying to sell their produce to passing motorists. The people of Myanmar have so much to contend with it is amazing that they are so cheerful or at least give the impression that all is well come what may.

The Water Buffalo Nat Pwe Spirit Festival Part 1,

The Water Buffalo Nat Pwe Spirit Festival Part 1,

Today we attended the first day of the Water Buffalo Nat Pwe Spirit Festival in Sin Sein village, near Myaing in Magwe Division.

In the 13^th century the then king of Bagan, King Anawratha, was converted to Buddhism but he did not command his people to give up their spirit worship, which is much older than Buddhism. Consequently there are several nat pwe in various parts of Myanmar during the year. Some nats like Ko Myo Shin from Shan State and Ko Gyi Kyaw from Magwe Division are male and others like Amay Yea Yin (the middle statue) are female. Respects will be paid to each at the pwe.

I knew King Anawratha had been killed by a buffalo, but did not know the story behind it as was told to us today. Apparently, one day King Anawratha cut out a large chunk of a toddy palm tree – which bears a slight resemblance to the head of a buffalo. The toddy tree nat was incensed. He did not understand why the King would do this to his tree and he vowed he would kill the king. After a few years the toddy tree nat turned into Phoe Min Gyi, the Buffalo nat. One day, word got around inside the palace that there was a wild buffalo roaming around and everyone should be careful. The king was not careful enough and the Buffalo tossed him on its horns and killed him.  Ko Myo Sin from Shan State eventually tracked down the Buffalo and was able to control him, which is the reason for the celebration of the Buffalo Nat today.

We arrive at the stage assembled by the villagers. At one end are the village musicians. They beat drums of various sizes, clash cymbals, trumpet on a horn and, best of all a young man is playing hauntingly on a 17-gong instrument.  We have come to watch the nagadaw dancing. A nagadaw is the medium of a nat. He (or she) will be plied with money, cigarettes and, eventually alcohol, then whatever s\he says will really be the nat speaking. Here comes one now, she is in pale blue powered with sequins. A helper gives her two cigarettes. She smokes both at the same time. Next she accepts notes (money) and drinks in cans. All this time, the band is playing ever louder and faster, she is whirling, Oh – she has noticed a bottle of whisky and a bottle of brandy on a table. Quick as a flash she gulps some down. Now she offers it to a whole row of women. I wonder if she will come this way? 

I couldn’t think why they insisted on having this nat pwe at this time every year, because it always rains. But then I learn this was why the Buffalo nat paraded up and down each lane. It was to get rain. I’m happy for the crops, but will we get out? Win San comforts me by saying a couple of bullock carts would be able to pull us out. That could be worth a photo.

A man is eager for us to see the monastery and of course we agree. We climb the stairs and a monk opens a substantial locked screen door. Standing inside are four gold-leaf-covered standing Buddha statues. Two are familiar because they are depicted as living in the time of the 13^th century Buddha Gaudama. The other two, one very tall, are most unusual because they wear crowns. We were told they dated from the time of the previous Buddha, Dipinkara, in the 8^th century. Apparently the government would like them to go into a museum. So far the monks’ wishes have prevailed.