Myanmar - Culture Smart!: The Essential Guide to Customs & Culture

by Kyi Kyi May, Culture Smart!

Overview

Myanmar, as Burma is now known, is strategically situated between the world's two most populous nations—China and India—and its distinctive ancient culture shares some traditions with both countries. Hidden away from the eyes of the world for half a century by its military rulers' policy of self-isolation, "the Burmese Way to Socialism," with a new democratic parliament and civilian government Myanmar is undergoing important changes as it approaches its next elections in 2015. Its most famous political detainee, Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel peace laureate, has been released after nearly twenty years of house arrest. The present administration faces teething problems in politics, governance, education, its dealings with over a hundred ethnic groups, and its society. At the same time, progress has been made with the emergence of a free press, the release of political prisoners, and the reemergence of the long-lost voice of the man and woman on the street. The country is opening up to tourism and business. The Burmese people are by nature friendly and polite, and are traditionally easy-going and peaceable. Most are devout Buddhists, and there are pagodas and meditation centers all over the country. They are also great lovers of fun, entertainments, and festivals—in fact, there is a festival for each Myanmar calendar month. Culture Smart! Myanmar provides much needed information about a country taking its first steps to becoming an important player on the world stage. It offers invaluable insights into the inner life of the Burmese, their history, traditions, attitudes, and work ethic, and gives practical advice on what to expect and how to behave in different circumstances. While their hosts may be naturally polite and accommodating, foreign visitors will have to go through a steep learning curve to understand the dos and don'ts of Burmese social customs. This book serves as an essential guide for Western tourists and entrepreneurs who are interested in visiting or doing business in this beautiful, enigmatic, and resource-rich country.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781857336986
Publisher:	Kuperard
Publication date:	07/01/2015
Series:	Culture Smart! , #63
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	168
File size:	8 MB

About the Author

Kyi Kyi May was born and brought up Myanmar, where she attended Rangoon Arts and Science University and gained a M.Sc. in Zoology. She became a print journalist before joining the BBC Burmese Service in London as a producer and gained a BA (Hons) degree in Politics, Philosophy and History at Birkbeck College, University of London. As a BBC producer, a field reporter, and later as head of the Burmese Service, she has written and broadcast many current affairs and feature programs for Burmese listeners of all ages.

Read an Excerpt

Myanmar (Burma)

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By Kyi Kyi May, Nicholas Nugent

Bravo Ltd

Copyright © 2015 Kuperard
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-85733-698-6

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CHAPTER 1

LAND & PEOPLE

GEOGRAPHY

Myanmar is situated on the west of the Southeast Asian peninsula, bordering India on the northwest and China on the northeast. Bangladesh lies to the west and Thailand and Laos to the east. The country has a 1,770-mile (2,832-km) coastline that faces west and borders the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea.

The country used to be known as Burma. Following a military coup, the military rulers ordained in 1989 that it should in future be known internationally as Myanmar, which is close to its Burmese-language name, Myanma. This reflects the fact that the land is populated by many different peoples, not just the Burmese who make up the overwhelming majority. "Bama" continues to be used in Burmese as the country's colloquial name, and internationally "Burma" remains in common use. The word "Burmese" is widely used to describe both the dominant language and Myanmar's inhabitants — not totally accurately in the second instance. The adjective "Myanmarese," is, in any case, rather unwieldy in English.

The names in English of several of the country's cities have also changed. For example, the main commercial city and former capital, Rangoon, is now known as Yangon in both Burmese and English; the historical city of Pagan is now usually written as Bagan, while Pegu, another historical city, is written as Bago. Mandalay, the former royal capital in the heart of the country, has retained its original name. In 2005 the newly built city of Naypyidaw in the central plain became Myanmar's new capital.

Myanmar is roughly the size of the state of Texas, and larger than any European country, excluding Russia, with an area of 261,228 square miles (678,500 sq. km). It is the largest country in mainland Southeast Asia, but is also one of the poorest. Its shape resembles that of a kite, with a long tail drifting down the peninsula toward Malaysia.

Myanmar's most prominent geographical feature is the 1,350-mile (2,170-km) Irrawaddy River, or Ayeyarwaddy, flowing north to south, which Rudyard Kipling famously called "the Road to Mandalay." Other important rivers nourishing this rice-growing land are the Salween and the Chindwin. The rivers serve as Myanmar's arteries, while the mountain ranges of East Yoma, Bago Yoma, and West Yoma stand like sentries on guard duty. Myanmar's highest peak, Hkakabo Razi in Kachin State, reaches 19,295 feet (5,881 m). Snow-capped mountain ranges mark Myanmar's northernmost frontier with China.

The Shan plateau has its famous natural attraction, Inle Lake, situated 2,900 feet (880 m) above sea level. A freshwater lake, where the inhabitants live in stilted homes surrounded by floating islands, Inle Lake is nearly fourteen miles (22.4 km) long and more than six miles (10.2 km) across at its widest point. A unique feature of the lake is the way the people who live on its shores, the Inthas, use their legs to paddle their boats.

CLIMATE

Myanmar stretches from the sparsely populated mountainous north, where it borders China, to the tropical south, and there are huge variations in climate. In the extreme north winters can be bitterly cold, but the inhabited parts of the country never experience extreme cold.

There are three seasons a year. Most of the country lies within the tropics and enjoys a hot season from March to mid-May, with temperatures reaching 95°F (35°C). The rainy season begins from the third week of May, when monsoon rains envelop the country. The rains are heaviest during July and August, and taper off in October. The cool months are from November to February. While temperatures at this time dip below the freezing point in the north, for Yangon and other big cities in central Myanmar it is pleasantly warm, around 68–77°F (20–25°C).

THE PEOPLE

Myanmar's population of more than fifty million is made up of about 135 indigenous races spread all over the country. The largest group is the Bama, or Burmese, race, which constitutes about 69 percent of the population. The next most numerous are the Shan (about 9 percent), the Kayin, or Karen (7 percent), and the Rakhine, Mon, Chin, Kachin, and Kayah. Less numerous groups include the Salon, Kaman, Mio, Jingphaw, Lisu, Paye, Po, Sakaw, Pa-O, Kokang, Danu, and Palaung, who live mostly in the northern hilly areas or the southern part of the country. The largest nonindigenous race is the Chinese, believed to constitute around 3.5 percent of the population, many of whom have arrived recently. A significant number of people of Indian origin arrived in colonial times, when Burma came under British-ruled India. The largest concentration of people lives in Yangon, which has a population of six million, and the nearby Irrawaddy Delta.

STATES AND REGIONS

Myanmar is divided into seven states and seven regions. Each state and region has an assembly, or hluttaw, and a state or regional government led by its own prime minister.

The states are ethnically based: Kachin, Kayah, Kayin (Karen), Chin, Mon, Rakhine (formerly Arakan), and the largest, Shan State.

The remainder of the country is divided into regions, of which Yangon, the most populous, is the business hub. The historical region of Mandalay is renowned for its traditional crafts and arts. Its inhabitants are proud of their culture and traditions. The other regions are Ayeyarwaddy, Sagaing, Magway, Bago, and Tanintharyi.

As a Myanmar saying has it, Mandalay is known for its sagar (words), Yangon for its ah-kywar (boast), and Mawlamyine, the capital of Mon, for its ah-sar (food).

Until 2005 Yangon, formerly known as Rangoon, was Myanmar's capital. It remains the largest and most heavily populated city and the country's main commercial center. With its neat colonial architecture, it used to be a fairly quiet backwater compared to other Southeast Asian capitals. Nowadays, with the relaxation of international sanctions, it has become a bustling business center with an ever-expanding population and has several satellite towns or suburbs. Besides business and, at least for now, foreign embassies, Yangon is a center of learning and a transport hub from which trains and buses connect with all parts of the country. It is also home to the golden Shwedagon Pagoda, the most sacred Buddhist structure in Myanmar, which gave the city its earlier name, Dagon.

The new capital, Naypyidaw, two hundred miles north of Yangon, was built only ten years ago and boasts six-lane-wide roads, a new parliament, various government ministries, housing for government staff, a replica of the Shwedagon Pagoda, a zoological garden, many big hotels, and a huge shopping mall for its residents. It is vast, but looks rather like a ghost town because the ministries are quite far from one another and there is very little traffic on the roads. Apart from government workers, families have been reluctant to uproot themselves and resettle in the new capital. Many government officials, even ministers, have to manage two homes, one for him (most ministers are male) in Naypyidaw and another for his wife and children who have stayed behind in Yangon. Situated in a semi-desert-like region, Naypyidaw is a very hot town — temperatures can rise to 105°F (41°C) in April — with few attractions to encourage permanent residency.

A BRIEF HISTORY

The territory of Myanmar has been inhabited for thousands of years, as shown by fossil remains unearthed near Pon Taung in the south and the wall paintings of Pyadalin Cave in the north. The country's recorded history can be traced back around 2,500 years when, according to legend, Mon settlers from Central Asia laid the foundation stone of the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon, which remains a key symbol of the country. The Mon are credited with establishing Buddhism in Myanmar around the fifth century BCE. Subsequent history revolves around the major historic cities of Bagan (Pagan) and Mandalay in the center and Bago (Pegu) and Yangon in the Irrawaddy Delta region. Each in turn was the center of a kingdom or dynasty.

The Golden Age of Bagan

The Bagan dynasty lasted from 107 CE until the end of the thirteenth century. Of the fifty-five monarchs who ruled from Bagan, King Anawrahta, the forty-second, was the most famous. It was Anawrahta, who acceded to the throne in 1044, who created the first Myanmar Empire by overrunning the earlier Mon capital of Thaton in 1057. As Myanmar historians like to point out, this was nine years before William the Conqueror became king of England. Anawrahta was responsible for propagating Buddhism across the country. Today around 90 percent of the inhabitants practice Theravada Buddhism, whose values and attitudes are regarded as identical to those of Myanmar itself.

Bagan's golden age came under Anawrahta's successor, Kyanzittha, who ordered the construction of many Buddhist pagodas. By the early twelfth century Bagan was known as the city of four million pagodas. A century and a half later the first Myanmar Empire came to an end following further invasions from the north. First came the Shan people, who settled in what is now the Shan State. They were followed by Kublai Khan's Mongol army, who looted and set fire to Bagan in 1287.

The European Merchants

There followed a period of two hundred and fifty years with the Mon, the Shan, and the Arakanese in the west each establishing smaller kingdoms, often fighting wars against each other. Toward the end of this period of city-states, European travelers started to arrive. First came the Venetian merchant Nicolo do Conti, who visited Bago in lower Myanmar in 1435, and Portuguese merchants followed once Vasco da Gama had pioneered the route to Asia around the Cape of Good Hope in 1498.

The Second Myanmar Empire

Determination by King Tabinshweti of Bago to regain control of his territory from a Portuguese trader, Philip De Brito, led to the establishment of the second Myanmar Empire in 1541, besieging the port of Martaban, whose ruler had signed an agreement granting the Portuguese trading rights. This did not stop the Portuguese trading with Martaban and with another port along the Bay of Bengal coast in Arakan, and later at Syriam, near Bago. By this time, Portuguese traders and missionaries were established in Goa, in India, the capital of Portugal's eastern empire, and Malacca, down the peninsula from Myanmar. A later ruler, King Bayint Naung, expanded the country by waging war with Siam from 1550 to 1581 and annexing Chiang Mai and Ayuthia. Myanmar at this time extended from Chittagong in present-day Bangladesh as far as Ayuthia, to the north of the present-day Thai capital of Bangkok. Later it was ruled from the city of Ava, near Mandalay. The empire collapsed as a result of internal rivalries in 1752.

The Third Myanmar Empire

The third Myanmar Empire was founded in 1755 by King Alaungphaya, a Bama, or Burmese, after he defeated the Mon. He set about expelling the foreign traders, who by this time included the French and British as well as the Portuguese. Alaungphaya chose Yangon, meaning "the end of strife," as his capital. One of his successors, Hsinbyushin, sacked Ayuthia, by then Siam's capital, while his successor, Bodawpaya, conquered Arakan in the west of Myanmar. He moved his capital to Amarapura, between Ava and Mandalay, in 1760. This was thirty years before George Washington became the first president of the United States.

British Rule

Almost a century later, the British waged what is sometimes called the First Anglo-Burmese War, capturing lower Myanmar and annexing Tenasserim Division, adjacent to Siam. The war ended with the signing in 1826 of the treaty of Yandabo under which the Myanmar King Bagyidaw ceded Tennasserim in the south, as well as Arakan, Assam, and Manipur in the west, to the British.

The Second Anglo-Burmese War took place in 1852 and was followed by the rule of King Mindon, whose seat was firstly Amarapura and then Mandalay. He was a great patron of Buddhist teaching, and ordered the writing of the Burmese Buddhist scripture, the Tripitaka, which was engraved in the Pali language on 729 marble slabs to commemorate the Fifth Buddhist Synod. Situated at the base of Mandalay Hill's southeast stairway, it is sometimes described as the world's largest book. To Myanmar people it is Kuthodaw Pagoda, and represents an appeal by the king for a return to the values of Buddhism.

In 1885, sixty years after the British had annexed lower Burma, the third Myanmar Empire ended when King Thibaw was dethroned after falling out with the British overlords. It did not help that he was in negotiations with the French, who were seeking access to China via the Irrawaddy. Myanmar schoolchildren are taught that King Thibaw was treated by the British "like a little bird or chick," and exiled to Ratnagiri in western India, together with Queen Supyalat and their young daughters. Myanmar was now firmly under British rule and administered as a province of British India. Regions such as Assam and Manipur were incorporated into India, never to return. Myanmar remained under British rule for the next sixty-two years, apart from the period of 1941–45 during the Second World War, when the Japanese army was in control.

The British created the administrative structure that prevails to this day, broadly allowing minorities such as the Karen, the Kachin, the Chin, and the Shan to govern their own territories. British supervision was exercised through regional civil servants whose power was enforced by an army recruited from India. During this time merchants and moneylenders from India settled in Myanmar, helping its economic development and trade, especially that of rice, which was Myanmar's key attraction for the British. In the early years of British rule, there were several unsuccessful revolts led by princelings and patriots loyal to the last king.

The early twentieth century saw the birth of a nationalist movement named the Young Men's Buddhist Association (YMBA). This movement campaigned for greater autonomy or home rule and was implicated in insurrection against the British during the 1930s, which ultimately led, in 1937, to Burma's becoming a separate colony, no longer part of British India. Later another nationalist movement, known at first as the "Thakin group," came into being in the 1930s. From this emerged the "Thirty Comrades," led by university student Aung San. Some of the comrades received training in guerrilla warfare from the Japanese.

The Second World War

Myanmar was so far from the European battlefields that the British dubbed its fight against the Japanese army in the jungle as "the forgotten war," though it was intense, with heavy loss of life. The Japanese army entered Myanmar from the south in December 1941, and advanced rapidly, pushing back British Indian forces across the country's western border. Allied units under American General Joseph Stilwell retreated over the northern border to China, where they were supported by the Chinese army of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek.

The British retained a presence in the north under General William Slim, but effectively Japan took control of Myanmar as the country's new colonial power. One of the best-known campaigns by the Allies was led by the British General Orde Wingate and his largely indigenous army, known as "Chindits" after the chinthes, the mythical lions that stand guard outside pagodas. They pushed through the jungle, ultimately contributing to the Japanese retreat. They developed a style of jungle warfare applied during later conflicts, such as those in Malaysia, Indonesia, and Vietnam. Fighting conditions in the malaria-infested jungle were far from ideal, and casualties were heavy.

Japan Takes Control

The Japanese notoriously used Allied prisoners of war to build a railway from Siam, now renamed Thailand, to Myanmar across the famous Kwai River. Meanwhile, General Stilwell worked with thousands of local citizens to build the Ledo Road to connect northern Myanmar with Assam in India as well as China's Yunnan province. Both these arteries had more to do with transporting the troops of their respective armies and supplying them than with directly benefiting the people of Myanmar. Until the Ledo Road was completed, American aircraft flew in thousands of tons of supplies by airfields in Yunnan and Assam. Meanwhile, an Allied air war was being fought against the Japanese army by the "Flying Tigers" under General Claire Lee Chennault. They claimed to have destroyed 1,200 Japanese aircraft, though their own losses of nearly 600 planes were considerable, too.

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from Myanmar (Burma) by Kyi Kyi May, Nicholas Nugent. Copyright © 2015 Kuperard. Excerpted by permission of Bravo Ltd.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Contents

Cover,
Title Page,
Copyright,
About the Authors,
Map of Myanmar,
Introduction,
Key Facts,
Chapter 1: LAND AND PEOPLE,
Chapter 2: VALUES AND ATTITUDES,
Chapter 3: RELIGION, FESTIVALS, AND TRADITIONS,
Chapter 4: MAKING FRIENDS,
Chapter 5: AT HOME,
Chapter 6: TIME OUT,
Chapter 7: TRAVEL, HEALTH, AND SAFETY,
Chapter 8: BUSINESS BRIEFING,
Chapter 9: COMMUNICATING,
Further Reading,
Acknowledgments,