Indawgyi Lake

We are back in Garden Hotel Mandalay, which has electricity and internet – luxuries. Now I can catch up with work I was unable to do at the back-of-beyond-internet.

On 27.02.16 I wrote:

Are we there yet? I didn’t share the question with Win San and Saya Htay who were travelling with me as it was just as long a journey for them as for me. And it was long – nine hours long. We left Monywa in Sagaing Division of Upper Myanmar to travel to Indawgyi Lake in Kachin State near China. Why? Because this is an area of exceptional beauty: mountains as well as lake and owing to its remoteness, it has not been explored by many visitors. We had thought we would reach Mohnyin not far from the Lake in one day, but as darkness fell it seemed more sensible to overnight at Inntaw and cross the border into Kachin State next day. 

Win San, Saya Htay and I are in Longton, in Kachin State in the north east of Myanmar, not far from China. Myitgyinar is the capital and the people there are mainly Kachin. Longton is next to Indawgyi Lake and the people are mainly Shan and mainly poor.

Our journey here was a seven-hour drive from Inntaw. The road was mostly good, but the bridge crossings were not. They are preparing for the rainy season and had broken down most bridges to make them bigger. Would we have to get out and push crossed my mind several times. One truck ‘fell down in the river’ we were told which proved a diversion while they pulled it out.

Indawgyi Lake is 16 miles long and eight miles across and is 750 metres above sea level.. The Lake and surroundings have not been developed. There are no shops or hotels. The choice of accommodation is a concrete Government Rest House with a room with an inside bathroom, or Indaw Mahar Guesthouse, Lonton Village, Indawgyi Area (+95 9 3615 2269 – in case you want to go there). We opted for the latter. It has 24-hour electricity, which only went off for an hour or two at a time. No internet.

I am writing this looking across the huge blue expanse of water. A cormorant is on a post hoping a fish will swim by, as is a kingfisher with a long red bill. Gulls are wheeling over boats taking local people to the pagoda. Around the Lake there is Water Hyacinth, which is a scourge in many parts of the world as it is invasive and prolific and clogs up waterways – but here it just occurs around the edge of the Lake.

There is an unusual story about this area. There are several versions, some more unusual than others. Apparently in BC 184, which was the time of the dragons, there was no Lake. There was a village of 10,000 houses and 1,000 monasteries. But the villagers were not Shan or Kachin. They were Ta Man Ti or magic people. They carried a blanket with them and if they took it off, it could be seen that they were half tiger and half human. They had no religion, no Buddhism, no rules or laws. Miraculously,  there was just one Buddhist woman.

One night, widow Daw Aye Moan was visited by a good nat in a dream. It is rare to hear of a good nat. Nats are part of Myanmar’s spirit world. They are the spirits of people who usually came to a sticky end and therefore want to make trouble for people still living. There are 37 main nats in Myanmar. There is one for each village or town, one for each profession or job. In some places there may be a nat for each house. The spirit world of nats is as alive to the Myanmar people as the Buddha and his teaching and is much older.

The good nat told widow Daw Aye Moan that everyone in the village must leave within a week otherwise they would die. Daw Aye Moan spent every day giving this message to the villagers. But nobody believed her.  Eventually, she knew she must leave so she did, taking her two children and her two buffaloes with her. tbc