about Myanmar

There is hardly another or better word to describe this unique country. Having seen only the most visited tourist locations, I can say that, compared to other countries in South East Asia, Myanmar is the most exotic of them. With the aid of a guide that took me to off the beaten path, gave lots of background information (that I did not find in any tourist book) an ate with me in local restaurants, my experience in Myanmar is a treasure for life. The Myanmar people call their country "the golden land ", this is very true. Pagodas and temples are scattered all over the country and visible from everywhere, whether you are on foot, on a boat or on an airplane. But other descriptions are also applicable; people smile a lot, people are friendly and helpfull and seem to have an enormous drive to make the best out of their situation. The most striking thing however is their deep religious attitude. No matter what temple you visit, there are people praying everywhere. Even the thousand year old temples in Bagan are frequented by devotees, young and old. Buddhism is very alive, my first impression was to compare Myanmar to a deep religious country like Iran. It is this aspect that made the biggest impression on me and with this, the question why. My answer is: the isolation of the country and the refuge that praying may give to poverty and a suppressive government.

Is it right to visit Myanmar?

Madame Aung San Suu Kye, leader of the National League for Democracy and the only righteous person to speak for everything that is opposing the government, has said very clearly that visiting Myanmar means supporting the government and should therefore be avoided. She has asked tourists to stay away from Myanmar as long as the military is ruling the country and to have patience; the temples will outlive the government [1], [2]. Western countries have decided not to do business with Myanmar, attempting to isolate the government and force it to democratic elections. Most of the trade and business of Western countries has indeed left Myanmar, causing many ordinary people to lose jobs. The biggest income for the military government is generated by its oil and gas exploration which is still continuing - this is a certain hypocritical behaviour of the Western countries. Beside that, the government turns more and more to China, North Korea and Russia. Another approach in changing the governments attitude is by dialogue and by opening up the country. Everywhere signs can be read from the government reading "we will crush any enemy of the union" - apparently the government feels itself cornered. Please do not misunderstand me, I am no supporter of the Myanmar government, but not everything they do is wrong. With over 93 different ethnic groups, many of them fighting an armed struggle for independence, there has to be some order to keep the country united. Opening up the country will expose it to outside influences, will make people discover about the world outside, may weaken the government and spark a motion that even the Myanmar government with all its guns cannot stop. Visiting Myanmar is a way of opening up the country. All local people that I spoke to long for a better life, both material and mental, and were very keen on hearing about life elsewhere, like mine. When talking about ordinary things like food, school, work, coming home, children etcetera I found out that most people have a great demand on information from abroad. It is these contacts that made my holiday most special. What a wonderful, kind and respectable people in this country!

Since my visit in 2008, much has happened. The military government has found a way to cooperate with Madame Aung San Suu Kye, allowing her a place in parliament, pretending that she is in charge of the nation, and thereby realising the goal of a lesser isolated position in the world. Foreign investments, influx of tourists, and participating in international affairs (for the time being limited to that of ASEAN) should stumulate the economy and standard of living. However, Madame Aung San Suu Kye has run into troubles by the Rohingya disaster of 2017, unmasking her as an even-minded ruler and unmasking Buddhism as a religion of peace - which it clearly, like every religion, not is. Lets hope her quiet Asian-style diplomacy has enough time to yield succes before the ferocious verbal hammering of Western nations provides too much of an alibi for the military to step in and grab full power again.

Visiting a country that is so isolated is precious and is much more worthwhile after preparing well. Of course, tickets, visa, hotels, health care etcetera is part of every preparation, but preparation about he country was mostly done by reading and searching the internet. The books I used were Lonely Planet Myanmar (Burma) (9th edition), Insight Guides Burma - Myanmar (2006) and Birma from KIT Publishers Amsterdam. The internet proved to be a very lively and actual source of information, numerous sites were visited with travel stories, pictures and movies with Wikipedia and Wiki-travel as good follow-ups. During my holiday I followed a few themes and pursued a few goals. Important theme was a trace back in Myanmar history while traveling form Yangon to Mandaly to Bagan. The second theme was about king Hsinbyushin, who gave a bitter blow to the Thai kingdom of Ayutthaya in 1767 and erected the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon to its present height two years later. Regarded in Myanmar as a great warrior and gentleman-king, in Thailand he is considered an ordinary robber and destructor of art. The third theme was to experience the "Indianazation" of Myanmar, which is much stronger than in Thailand. (Indianization is the amount of cultural and spiritual influence by India, one of the two great powers in Asia, the other being China. Chinese infuence is much stronger in the other neighbour of Thailand, Vietnam; this influence is called Sinicization).

Goals were a personal (and thus subjective) comparison of Bagan with Angkor in Cambodia, close contact to local people (preferably visiting at home) and, of course, to relax, wonder around, enjoy, get amazed.