Biculturally Aware! Burma or Myanmar – What’s in a Name? Before I visited last year, I generally referred to the country as Burma. Now that Ive returned, I tend to use Myanmar because thats what people seem to call it there. However, I find that many people don’t recognise the name Myanmar, and so I have to follow-up with, aka Burma. Both names are problematic. Burma is the name that was used by the English colonisers. The Burman or Burmese are the majority ethnic group and thus in addition to Burma evoking memories of colonial subjugation, the name also excludes the many other ethnic groups in the country. Myanma is another term for the Burman so it is still ethnically exclusive. The official name of the country is now Myanmar changed by the government in 1998. Many people refuse to accept this name as it was given by an anti-democratic government that they say has no right to change the countrys name. Aung San Suu Kyi, the NLD, and other pro-democracy groups thus tend to use Burma. Entering the Monastery In Myanmar there are about 400,000 Buddhist monks, many as young as 5 or 6. Some are sent to the monasteries by their parents who cant afford to house and feed them but many choose the monkhood on their own, having grown up hearing the stories of Buddha. Monks can leave the monastery at any time and most men enter the monastery at some point in their life (even if just for a week at a time). While they are in the monastery, men must remain celibate, but once they leave they are free to have families. (photo attached) Bagan Bagan was once the centre of a powerful empire that stretched from Chiang Mai (Thailand) to Chittagong (Bangladesh). At one time. 4,000 temples, pagodas and stupas were built on the plains of Bagan. About 2,000 remain today. (photo attached) Lotus “silk” In a floating building on Inle Lake, sits a silk factory. One of their specialities is making “silk” out of the stems of lotus flowers. This is an extremely time lengthy procedure. Extracting the lotus fibers from the stem to make the thread is an enormously time consuming process. One person can extract about 25g of fibers per day. It takes about 1kg to make a lotus fiber shirt. Thats 40 days of just breaking lotus stems! Forget about spinning the fibers into thread, weaving and dyeing. As you can imagine however, the finished product is simply stunning. Thank you Ashley for sharing your Bicultural Awareness!
Posted on: Mon, 20 Oct 2014 06:35:51 +0000
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