Man Pan Li Su Village & Aung Myn Tar Yar Palaung Village, Northern Shan State

Pineapples were a feature on the road from Hsipaw to the Li Su village of Man Pan half way to Kyauk Me. There were dozens of fields filled with thousands of them, row beside row. The farmers around were also growing corn, rice, peanuts, eggplants, chilli and salad vegetables. This is buffalo country: men were leading two or three on long ropes each off to work in the fields for the day. 

It was a surprise to be greeted by a church on our way into the village, rather than a pagoda. The Li Su people are Roman Catholic. Ay Myint, who was one of the first people to receive glasses, wanted to see better in order to read her bible more clearly. She showed it to us. It was called The Lisu Common Language Bible and was divided into chapters and verses. The script was not in Burmese. The Li Su have their own language and some also speak English. Each word in the bible comprised two Roman capital letters one way up, followed by two Roman capital letters upside down!

 I was intrigued to see Ay Myint had a bookmark showing she had reached more than half-way.

In a scamper children arrived and we had the ‘first-time to see a foreigner’ syndrome with children too scared to approach me. They ran in all directions – I am truly a scary sight.

The head of the village rocked in – literally. The poor man walked with a zimmer frame, as he had a stroke one year ago. One arm was completely paralyzed and one leg was so stiff he limped badly. He was already wearing glasses and though he tried some of ours, he was satisfied with the ones he already had. One by one the children reappeared and stayed around intrigued by the photos on my computer.

Each of the older Li Su women wore their traditional dress of blue tunic over black pants. The tunics are decorated with many different coloured stripes of appliqued fabric. This work was intricate, excellent and must take hours to complete.  The turban they wear is their crowning glory. It is many metres long. Guffaws of laughter erupted from the children when one lady – obviously a good sport – removed her turban then slowly and carefully wound it round and round her head again. She wanted to look her best for the photo!

One young man took it upon himself to help Saya Htay – which was great. He took one pair of glasses after another out of their pouch gave it to a villager and put it back when they wished to try another. He wore an interesting tee shirt proclaiming: unique bright of paradise park! He had no need for glasses, but was delighted when we found a pair of sunglasses for him. We cracked the usual joke about ‘movie star’ and everyone laughed. There was only one young lady in the village at the time. She was noticeable as the only woman not wearing traditional dress. Avo Mu was 18 and thrilled to receive sunglasses. She sat lovingly polishing the lenses with the pouch.

Ami Ho squeaked in fright when she tried on her first pair of glasses – they were obviously not right for her eyes, then squeaked with delight when she found that anigyi glasses helped her. An old man leaning heavily on his stick arrived. U Kyaw Thin Go found that anigyi helped him. A woman who was particularly pleased with her anigyi glasses was a tailor. We watched her sewing incredibly narrow coloured applique stripes on the tunic she was making. It was particularly rewarding for us to see how the glasses would assist her job. A doctor told U Lon Ba that his glasses were not powerful enough for him any more and he should have new ones. As the man had no money, this was impossible. He found a pair of bi-focal that helped him. In Man Pan village we gave away 20 pairs of glasses and thought there would be many grateful prayers given that night at the church.

The last village we visited in Northern Shan State was Aung Myn Tar Yar close to Kyauk Me. It is a Palaung village, but a golden Palaung rather than a silver Palaung. Sure enough the belt around the women’s hips was of gold coloured cane, not silver. The people here did not own land. They had been moved here from another part of the State where there was fighting and were given permission to stay. This meant they can only be workers helping those who own the land with any type of job that comes their way. Most were involved with corn: either husking it, drying it or packing it into sacks to be sent to China. One curious coincidence was that the oldest lady in the village actually came from Nam Pam a village near Hsipaw we visited a few days ago. Daw Ay Sai was 85 and had come here to live with relatives. She told us she never dreamed she would be able to have glasses and they made her very happy. She thanked me for being a good nat that had come to their village that day.

At last, it was time for us to leave Northern Shan State and head for Mandalay and Saya Htay’s village where we will discuss the Clean Water Project. In all we have travelled about 850 miles and given away 120 pairs of glasses.

Thadingyut Festival at Hsipaw, Northern Shan State.

 Every year in October Hsipaw has a festival at which each of the villages in Northern Shan State brings in trucks loaded with presents to give away at the monasteries. This year 500 villages donated 500 truck-loads. This is a serious size festival.  

Heading the procession was a nagadaw dressed in white. Nagadaws are the human representation of nats, which are part of the all important and very much alive spirit world of Myanmar. Bo Bo Gyi is the nat that represents the town of Hsipaw. He ensures that everything at the festival will go smoothly. Everyone will be happy: singing and dancing with no fighting to spoil the show. We were particularly pleased to see Palaung villagers wearing their festival finery.

 Some floats comprised big, modern trucks, others were smaller and less modern, and some were ancient tractors with no bonnets. Often a man had to get down to wind up the engine, cranking it into life! Every float blared music, some came from loudspeakers and some had on board traditional musicians beating drums and clashing cymbals. Tall bamboo screens carrying the presents stood on the floats giving the population of Hsipaw an idea of all that the villagers were giving to the monasteries. Items on the screens comprised: umbrellas, crockery, clocks, electric fans, buckets, food carriers, furry brown cushion covers, pink plastic drawer dividers and huge towels bearing pictures of snarling tigers. Several trucks had notices announcing how many kyat their village was donating and one truck bore a zedi built entirely of 1,000 kyat notes! All bore pictures of the Buddha.

These huge screens would be taken off the trucks later at the pagoda in Hsipaw.

A float came by throbbing with music. Teenage boys in jeans, white shirts and incongruously long black ties bounced up and down keeping the beat. Other young boys favoured elasticated camouflage pants so tight they were the exact opposite of the baggy Shan pants the older generation wore.

The procession was static for a while. Each truck was given a number in Hsipaw denoting their village. This evening they would receive a number (pulled out by lucky draw) denoting the monastery to which their gifts would go and to which, wherever it was, they had to deliver them. The procession rolled on again.

Trucks had started moving this morning at 10.00 am and will not finish until around mid-night. After this, one imagines the singers, dancers, drivers and movers of the bamboo screens will all collapse with fatigue. Fortunately, as this is the time of Thadingyut, the Festival of Light, the next day is a holiday giving everyone time to recover.

Nam Kyang Palaung Village, Northern Shan State

 We left Mandalay at 10.00 am to arrive in Hsipaw in Northern Shan State after six to seven hours driving. From Hsipaw we would visit Palaung, Lisu and Shan villages to give away the re-cycled glasses. The Palaung and Lisu are ethnic minorities and as with many minorities they are very poor.

The road we took headed up the mountains towards China. It had the usual perpendicular mountain bends so I tried to concentrate instead on the marvellous view of Mandalay far below. Huge trucks were plying both ways. Trucks coming from China were bringing down, televisions, mobile phones, computers, radios, bicycles, motorbikes and much plastic ware. Trucks going up from Myanmar were taking food: beans, maize, water melon, tomato, cauliflower and huge quantities of rice. There will be no truckloads of teak going to China after the end of this year as the new government has decreed that Myanmar teak should stay in Myanmar.

We arrived at Pyin Oo Lwin, which is 3,538 feet above sea level. This was a welcome ‘change of air’ station at the time of the British, when they worked here in the last century, as it is much cooler than Mandalay. Pony carts and colonial buildings were all around including the Purcell Tower completed in 1936. Pwin Oo Lwin is home to several of the army’s academies and we thought it a nice place in which to study, as it is cool and scenic with towering trees flowering profusely all year round.

We passed Peik Chin Myaung with its waterfall and caves, but had no time to linger, as Hsipaw was still 120 miles distant. At Naung Cho we stopped for lunch and for me it had to be Shan kaoswe - certainly the best recipe for noodles.

The next notable site was the Gokhteik Bridge, which spans the giant Gokhteik Gorge. The train line runs over the bridge not the road, which runs some way away and gives a good view of this monumental project that was completed by the British in the last century. The mountains are also monumental and the road truly terrifying. We were competing with articulated 18-20 wheel trucks and there were often several queuing at S-bends. At times we had to reverse which made it even more hair-raising. A benefit of these inhospitable mountains is that they are still covered in forest. The severity of the mountains has saved the trees. Doubtless it is too difficult to fell and transport them.

At last the mountains gave way to lowlands around Naung Pain. The earth is red and fertile here for farming. I noticed field after field of maize with the crop still standing though brown and withered. I learned the cobs are intentionally left to dry on the plant. When completely dry they will be harvested and then transported to China to be made into popcorn!

A small pickup truck passed us bearing no number plates. He would be in trouble if the police caught him I said knowledgeably. The police won’t catch him Win San assured me because they are mafia! They are the Wa and Gokan Shan and they live around the border with China. They do as they like. They fight with guns, deal in opium and have other illegal pursuits. Hmm this trip may have more than the usual excitements. We arrived at last at Hsipaw, which is 1,398 feet above sea level after seven hours driving.

Next day we continued our drive to Lashio, which is our northernmost destination this time. Lashio is the capital of Northern Shan State and about one and a half hours north of Hsipaw. It is noted for its hot springs and the Man Su Pagoda. The huge fire stations at both Hsipaw and Lashio led me to believe they must have some serious fires here. Sure enough as we drove through we noted the remains of the market, school and houses. The Palaung live around Lashio and some of them are called the Silver Palaung so called for the amount of silver they wear which is mined at Nan Ma Two only about three hours away. When dressed in their best they wear a long row of silver coins down their blouse from the neck to the waist. The coins have no currency now as they date from the time of the British, but they remain interestingly ornamental. The Silver Palaung also wear silver bracelets, earrings and belts of varying width. Some we saw must have measured more than 12 inches.

We were bound for Nam Kyang a Silver Palaung village. On the way we passed lychee orchards, banana plantations, much papaya, a plant I didn’t recognize that turned out to be used for the wrappers of cheroots and forest after forest of teak, thankfully too young to be felled. The red-brown earth around here makes the best pottery in Myanmar.

At Nam Kyang, Kin Lay Myind, the headman’s daughter showed us around. She took us to every house where there were people who had poor eyesight. It was a big village of 300 houses built mainly of bamboo; some are longhouses where two or three families live. They are farmers with maize or sweetcorn as their main crop. Every field was filled with the tall brown plants and corn kernels lay drying outside every house spread on tarpaulins.

Many of the villagers were out working on their land at the time we arrived but Ly Swe was home as he had a stroke about a year ago and was paralyzed down one side.

He had no money to go to Lashio hospital so had to recover as best he could on his own. We climbed a rickety bamboo ladder and sat down beside the pig food while he tried on the glasses! A pair of awegyi long distance glasses proved best for him.

At the next house we met Jam La who is only 60 years old but his eyesight is so poor he couldn’t see well enough to tend his garden so remains in the house. Win San suggested he smile when he took his photo. How can I smile, he said, I don’t have teeth! Saya Htay showed him how to put the glasses away in their little box when he wasn’t wearing them, but he said he preferred wearing them full time! He asked if we had medicine to go with the glasses. We assured him he did not need medicine to go with them.

At the next house, two ladies greeted us, both were wearing their traditional dress. Their long skirts were black with thin horizontal stripes in red. Their jackets were navy blue trimmed with a wide pink band. Ay Pat and Pa San Ker both farm vegetables and had just come in from their gardens. Anigyi close range glasses were best for one of them and awegyi for the other. Ar Kan arrived dressed in his black Shan pants and tunic. Suddenly a shout and hissing noises erupt. Below us, under the house, and with our concentration centred on the glasses chickens were raiding the vegetable garden.

Jam is 70 but she still grows maize and was husking the cobs in her house. She found awegyi helped her both near and far. Word had spread around and many children as well as As Si arrived. He was very interested in what we were doing, but said he didn’t want any glasses because he had no money. We assured him no money was necessary.

Win San had brought photos of the villagers that he took when he came here five years ago. Kin Lay Myind showed them to everyone and asked if they knew this person or that person. We had envisaged giving a coat of mine and a blanket to a very old couple, but they died last year. Fortunately there were other elderly people who could need them.

An excited lady bounced down the rickety bamboo steps of her house (good, I thought, I won’t have to climb them) Ay Mam gave a wide betel smile when she found glasses that helped her. Yi Pan was wearing most of the traditional dress ,which obviously does not hamper them in their movements. A young woman wearing a wide silver belt laughed when she saw Si Ang try on a brand new pair that one of Lesley’s friends had given. Movie star we all chortled and the women laughed too. A surprise was to see one elderly lady, Kyar, had blue eyes – the first we had seen. Her left eye was blind, but the glasses corrected the haziness of the other eye. By this time children had arrived from all over the village. We had small gifts to give away including toothbrushes with small tubes of toothpaste. One small boy had to be persuaded that he shouldn’t eat the toothpaste! Next door, 75year old Ey Twe hardly lifted her eyes from the garment she was sewing as we sat down beside her. She was stunned when she tried on anigyi and found she could see her stitches more clearly. She told us she would be able to do much more work from now on. The next lady, Et Chen, explained she could see in the daytime, but not at night. We gave her glasses, but couldn’t stay the night to see if they would work!

By this time, we had given away all of the glasses that Lesley’s friends had donated and were now giving away those from MCG, the Malaysian Culture Group.

We met a man who was shelling corn kernels under his house. Saya Htay listened to his story and gave him a pair of anigyi. U Pu grins when he sees a picture of a pagoda on the leaflet she handed him. A Pang finds anigyi helps him too. Very sadly, his little daughter was born blind. It was heartrending to see her being led around the house by one of her siblings. As we walked on, U San Swe on a motorbike drew up. He had heard of the glasses and could we help him too. Of course we could.

If a Palaung tells you it is only a short walk out of the village, don’t believe them. A short walk to a Palaung is a trek where I am concerned. Kin Lay Myind told us she very much wanted us to meet a very old couple who lived outside the village because they had no land, no money, nor any family. We walked down lanes and across fields and eventually reached the dilapidated bamboo house of Ey Yi and his wife both of whom are 80. Ey Yi was deaf, but once Win San had shown him how to put on the glasses he couldn’t take them off. He stared into the distance and could see the village in the background which he had obviously not been able to see for many years. We left the coat and blanket with them and they were happy with them but they were more than happy with the masterful present Saya Htay had in her bag. It was a bag of biscuits and the old lady hugged them to her chest exclaiming her thanks and delight.

They could not buy biscuits or anything else in the village as they had no money.

The walk back to the village seemed shorter because it was mostly down hill. We called in to say goodbye to the headman, U Aung Sa, who was wearing a pair of glasses donated by MCG folk. And so ended a very successful visit to the Palaung village of Nam Kyang. 

The Elephant Dancing Festival at Kyaukse

Elephants have been hugely important in Myanmar history. From the time of King Anawrahtha in the 11^th century elephants have been used to pay respects to the Buddha from the tops of hills and to ask for help, particularly at harvest time. At the time of the kings, they used real elephants. Today at Kyaukse, an hour from Mandalay, specially constructed elephants will be used in a competition, played group by group. Tomorrow, on the full-moon day of Thadingyut, the man-made elephants will pay respects to the Buddha from the top of nearby Shwe Tha Lyaung mountain.

There are three categories of elephants participating in the competition: Sequinned Elephant, Traditional Elephant, and Young Elephant. The winners of each group will receive many thousands of kyats so these are prizes for which it is worth competing.

The government owns all the elephants now and they are used in felling and hauling teak trees, clearing the land and generally helping out in rural areas. Elephants remain largely in forest reserves, though they can be hired for $100 for the ceremony of shin pyu at which all Myanmar boys are inducted into the monastery as part of their religious training.

We park the car in Kyaukse and follow a mobile band dressed all in white with green headscarves. We try to keep behind them as they make a thin channel in the otherwise masses of jostling people who are all making their way to the elephant dancing ground. All are looking their best. The women are wearing brilliantly coloured longyis, some are striped, others have stars and some are twinkling with sequins. Food stalls line both sides of the lane selling sweetcorn, peanuts, fruit, cakes, biscuits and all kinds of fizzy and energizing drinks.

We enter the elephant dance floor through a gate guarded by elephants (stone ones). We manage to find places in the tiers of seats under a plastic roof, which will help to shade us or keep us dry if it rains. October is the end of the rainy seasons – but you never know.

The sequined elephant is wearing richly embossed gold and orange velvet and tapestry on his back and chest. Below stomach level, the fabric is more restrained and hides the two men who are working hard to make the elephant’s whirling and twirling movements, twisting his head this way and that. The elephants face is of paper or papier mache, a malleable mixture of paper and glue. The eye is particularly distinctive: in some of them it looks quite fierce.

These man-made elephants have a framework of bamboo, but bamboo is not hardy and the frames will not last from one season to the next: so new ones must be made each year. Diminishing forests of bamboo have pushed the prices well above that which even groups of people can afford.  So now the elephant makers cannot sell new elephants. Instead, they have resorted to hiring them out for the day. Either way, if their elephant wins for his good dancing, costume, decoration or appearance in general, the owner of the elephant or the hirer of the elephant receives a prize. This is about $700 for first place followed by $400 and about $150 for second and third places.

Along with each elephant comes the group’s singer and band, which plays at the only decibels Myanmar people know- loud and LOUDER. The sequined elephant’s turn ends and the band escorts the elephant off the field. It is then lifted bodily onto its waiting truck and another elephant arrives.

This elephant is a traditional elephant and it looks (somewhat) as it would appear in the forest. The elephant trainer, or sin oozie, has his kettle and cooking pots hanging down on either side of its back. This elephant will be judged not for its luxurious appearance, but from its realistic movements. Its trunk moves up and down as it would in the forest as he begins to stomp along. The band accompanying this performance is keeping the beat with bamboo clappers about two foot long – easily obtainable in the forests around Kyaukse. This elephant has not one but two sin oozies and they are trying to catch him as they do after he has spent the night, hobbled by his front legs, in the forest. The elephant is resisting though not charging nor running away. At last the elephant goes down on bent knees and one sin oozie pretends to climb on board. Mercifully for the two men inside he is only pretending. The sin oozies then romp around the stage to show how clever they are and the crowd claps its approval. If we don’t clap loud enough or long enough they mimic handclaps until we do!

The next group of bandsmen enter wearing navy longyis, white shirts and pink headscarves. This band has a woman singer. Women have been notably absent in all other respects in the festival so it is good to see there is a place for at least one. Doubtless they work hard behind the scenes as do all Myanmar women. This elephant comes in the young elephant category. It toddles in wearing a shiny red satin scarf around its head, neck and shoulders. Lots of pink straps extend over its body and its ears flap around limply at every turn. Now the clappers and drums beat delightedly and are accompanied this time by a trumpet. The young elephant kneels endearingly forward onto its knees and wriggles its large bottom. The chairman of the band explains the ways to catch an elephant, which could come in handy should we ever need to catch one. This young elephant does not take as long to be caught as the adults. Next, and beloved by the audience, is a very young elephant. We note that the band comprises young students and unbelievably the sin oozie is about five years old! Young he may be, but his poise and accomplishments are notable.

Next an imperious elephant stalks on and regally and condescendingly bows to the audience. This band has an outsize gong and a very deep drum in addition to the usual instruments. This performance is a nagadaw’s dance. Nagadaws are the human representatives of a nat and nats are part of Myanmar’s very important spirit world.

All of the performances last about half an hour and we realize there are many, many more performances still to go. By noon, the sun is beating down remorselessly. We wonder how the groups keep going, but they have to – and we don’t. So at last we leave the Elephant Dancing Festival remembering that tomorrow the elephant groups and all the villagers will climb Shwe Tha Lyaung mountain. They will donate offerings at the pagoda which, together with the work and the love that has gone into making the elephants and the festival will help them gain their way to wei nei ya:  nirvana.