Culture week in Mandalay

October 27, 2017

The Green Lion

I’m having a debate with some Burmese students I befriended. It’s the weekend and I want to pay for the breakfast we just shared. The bill is about €2 for five pancakes with drinks and these young students and monks (without an income) are adamant that they will cover the cost. In the Netherlands, that amount would buy you one bottle of soda. Small detail is that I know the average teacher at the school get’s paid about 19 Euros. Per month. That’s not a typo. So would you please please please do me the favor and let me pay? But it’s simply not happening. The average Burmese doesn’t want a handout and will share their last dime, as good Buddhists do. This is not at all what I expected. I need a little crash course in Burmese culture, because this crowd is hard to figure out.

Well, funny that you mention it. Guess what I’m doing this week? Culture week in Mandalay. Ha.

It’s an opportunity to slowly settle into Burmese life, before venturing onto a next project. Because really, you’re going to want to settle in. Regardless of how many other cultures you’ve experienced, Myanmar life is quite a spectacle to be seen. You feel like you stepped back about forty years in time. Everywhere you look, people still wear traditional clothing. The window of a electronic shop has radio equipment the Western world stopped selling in the ’80’s.

The week starts off with Culture and language class. Cooking class will follow later. To my ear, the language resembles random sounds, so it’s a bit of a challenge. The least you want to learn is a perfect “hello” and “thank you”, because something as simple as a “Mingalaba” will put a smile on any Burmese face. It shows you’re trying. Later, we head to U Bein bridge for sunset; the longest teakwood bridge in the world. It’s the scene of many wedding shoots and rightfully so. Even many monks come out for a stroll. You can check out tiny fishermen’s houses, that vanish each year when the river gets too high during rainy season. A guy sorta puts his phone in front of my face and takes a picture, as if I wouldn’t notice. I ask if he might like a selfie together and he’s so happy. Tourists are still a rare sight in Myanmar and he was just too shy to ask.

Whenever the weather is best, you head out to Mandalay hill for sunset. On our way there, we stopped at Shwenandaw Monastery. It’s nickname is the Golden Palace Monastery, which seems a bit odd for a dark brown building completely made out of wood. Guess what: It used to be fully guilded. King Mindon used the building as his personal living quarters. It’s said that after the King’s death, his son thought the place was haunted by his father’s spirit. He dismantled it and rebuild it at it’s current location in 1878. You can spend days looking at the detailed wood carvings. The current dark colour gives it a bit of a spooky vibe, which is totally my thing.

Next stop is at Kuthodaw pagoda which contains the world’s biggest book. Wait, what? The terrain is filled with rows and rows of white stone buildings. Each one houses a large carved stone with the Buddha’s teachings: they’re basically 729 massive book pages. The entire place is gorgeous. In the weekends, all the young people from Mandalay come here to do full-on photo shoots in search of the ultimate profile picture. Their traditional clothing is so colourful that it sticks out nicely against the long row of white buildings. The Burmese go all out: twenty different poses, pouting faces, doing the “I’m staring into the distance and pretend not to know my picture is being taken while coincidentally holding a bouquet of flowers”. I later found myself coming back here about four times, taking a seat underneath a large starflower tree, simply observing these shoots. It’s a serene place.

The other participants dragged my ass away to the main event of the day: Mandalay hill. It’s about 1729 steps up to the top. Obviously, I thought I’d die. It actually turned out to be alright, because the hills also has about 1729 benches and wicked viewpoints to take a rest on. Several corners gave a preview of what we were about to see: a view over the entire city, with green trees and temples as far as the eye can see. We were motivated to get there in time for sunset. Once on top, the afternoon light reflected on a thousand mosaic pieces of glass.

On Tuesday, we went to Mandalay Palace, followed with two museums. I’m going to be frank: not my favorite place. It’s not the Burmese fault; the palace got bombed during World War II and almost all of the original buildings burned down. What remains are remade fabrications. Pretty as they are, they’re empty buildings without furniture. However, they do provide an insight in what the former glory used to be. The day is suited to learn more about the history of Myanmar; it’s former Kingdom, the invasion by the British and how the country is rebuilding itself to this day. If you’re a fan of history or politics, Myanmar will give you endless remarkable topics.

When it comes to old things, the day trip to Mingun will get you going. We take the slow boat across the Ayeyarwady river. On the river bank, a lady is washing her clothes and her baby next to a sewage pipe. When we arrive, we are greeted by a farmer with his ox strapped to a bamboo cart. But this is not a farmer; this is the Mingun taxi. My bad. From a distance we can see a massive brown stupa that was never completed. This thing is huge beyond words, and it’s only 1/3 of what is was supposed to be. According to legend, the king would die if the stupa was ever finished. That was in 1790, so it seems pretty safe now, but unfortunately the stupa has been hit hard by several earthquakes. The sides are crumbling down, so it will never see it’s full height. We climb underneath the largest bell in the world and check out a white temple that is a photographers dream. I guess we have some good karma, because the sky is blue beyond words today. Rainy season my ass.

Myanmar has really hit a nerve with me. I catch myself boasting about the school and it’s people to anyone who pretends to want to listen. It’s been two week since I’ve left and I’ve been thinking about this place all the time. I don’t know where my life will take me, but it will surely take me back to Mandalay.