CRACKDOWN

Leaders Seek To
Rebuild Trust in Lashio
Khin Myo Chit in
Centenary Book
Faded Glory: At Home
In Heritage Buildings
Mandalay Marionettes:
A New Generation
TheIrrawaddy
www.irrawaddy.org
April 2015
JOURNEY
TO MIN HLA
FORT
NATURAL
MEDICINES
MARKET
EXPANDS
THE
STUDENT
CRACKDOWN
TheIrrawaddy
The Irrawaddy magazine has covered Myanmar, its
neighbors and Southeast Asia since 1993.
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Aung Zaw
EDITOR (English Edition): Kyaw Zwa Moe
Contents
Vol.22 No.4
6|
People
Sone Thin Par
ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Sandy Barron
COPY DESK: Paul Vrieze; Andrew D. Kaspar; David
Kay; Feliz Solomon; Sean Gleeson
8|
CONTRIBUTORS to this issue: Kyaw Zwa Moe;
Kyaw Phyo Tha; Zarni Mann; Kyaw Hsu Mon;
Bertil Lintner; Min Zin; Yu Mon Kyaw; Oliver
Gruen; Simon Lewis; Nora Swe; Nyein Nyein; Feliz
Solomon; Sean Gleeson; Steve Tickner; Andrew. D
Kaspar; Paul Vrieze; Thet Ko Ko; Wei Yan Aung; San
Yamin Aung, Kyaw Kha; Khin Oo Tha.
10 |
News Highlights
12 |
In Focus
14 |
Viewpoint
PHOTOGRAPHERS: JPaing; Sai Zaw; Hein Htet; Teza
Hlaing; Steve Tickner; Timo Jaworr
Quotes and Cartoon
LAYOUT DESIGNER: Banjong Banriankit
SENIOR MANAGER: Win Thu (Regional Ofice)
MANAGER: Phyo Thu Htet (Yangon Bureau)
LIFESTYLE
49 |
REGIONAL HEADQUARTERS MAILING ADDRESS:
The Irrawaddy, P.O. Box 242, CMU Post Ofice,
Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand.
YANGON BUREAU: Building No 170/175, Room No
806, MGW Tower, Bo Aung Kyaw Street (Middle
Block), Botataung Township, Yangon, Myanmar.
TEL: 01 388521, 01 389762
52 |
SUBSCRIPTIONS: subscriptions@irrawaddy.org
55 |
Memoir
U Khin Nyunt has a new autobiography
PRINTER: Chotana Printing (Chiang Mai, Thailand)
PUBLISHER LICENSE: 13215047701213
March of the Marionettes
Women puppeteers are taking center
stage in propelling a once dying art form
EMAIL: editors@irrawaddy.org
SALES&ADVERTISING: advertising@irrawaddy.org
Relics of Resistance
Forgotten forts mark the dying days of
Myanmar’s last royal dynasty
56 |
Colorful People
Writer Khin Myo Chit and her husband
Khin Maung Latt are celebrated in a new
book
58 |
Living Histories
Human stories behind some of Yangon’s
beautiful but neglected old buildings
62 |
A Taste of North India
Bawarchi comes with high expectations,
and it doesn't disappoint
64 |
COVER PHOTO: Steve Tickner / The Irrawaddy
4
TheIrrawaddy
Backpage
Forgotten Resting Place
April 2015
FEATURES
16 | Life: Precious Dreams
Miners in the Mogok valley hope to
unearth that one giant gem
20 | Communities: Lashio Works
to Build Trust
P-39
An interfaith group works to foster
good relations in the northern town
24 | COVER
History Lessons
After the recent violent crackdown at Letpadan,
Bertil Lintner relects on the historic role
of student activism in Myanmar
28 | COVER
The Thamaga Factor
Min Zin on the signiicance
of the word for ‘union’
34 | Feature: Crafting a Better Life
P-49
A small enterprise is busting barriers
for people living with a disability
BUSINESS
39 | Interview: Medicine, Naturally
42 | Decor: Antique Furniture
Enjoys Renaissance
P-56
Retro wares ind new customers
44 | Signposts: Yoma Gets Go-Ahead
REGIONAL
46 | Thailand: Floating Homes Tested
In a region plagued by seasonal looding,
amphibious architecture offers
new alternatives
April 2015
P-58
TheIrrawaddy
5
‘Hey Guys, Tu
Singer Sone Thin
Par spoke to the
Irrawaddy's Yu Mon
Kyaw recently about
why she believes
in more rights for
women—and help from
men
You were part of a concert in
Yangon on International Women’s
Day in March, with Oxfam. What
made you decide to take part in it
and other activities organized by
the charity group?
Oxfam invited me. At irst, I did not
know much about them, but later I
came to know that they provide much
support to women, and I accepted their
invitation gladly. The first activity I
took part in was a song composition
contest. There were many songs and
we had had great dificulty in choosing
the best of the best. We chose four and
I sang one, with younger singers. Since
then, I hadn’t been involved in Oxfam
activities until I accepted the decision
to sing on International Women’s Day.
PHOTO: AUNG KYAW MOE / NEW IMAGE
6
TheIrrawaddy
I am an ethnic woman and I am
proud that I was able to work with an
organization that is working for women.
I am glad that I had the chance to
participate. It is worthwhile singing the
songs if Myanmar women who listen
to them get positive encouragement.
Though we are calling for the
advancement of women, it is impossible
April 2015
12
TheIrrawaddy
April 2015
IN FOCUS
Historic
Landing
Solar Impulse 2, an aircraft powered entirely by
solar energy, made a successful landing at Mandalay’s Tada-U Airport
on Mar. 19. Traditional
dancers, cheerleaders
and bands performed at
the airport to greet the
plane and President U
Thein Sein traveled to
Mandalay the following
morning to meet the pilots. Bertrand Piccard
and Andre Borschberg are
taking turns to pilot the
aircraft on an attempt to
circumnavigate the globe.
PHOTO: TEZA HLAING / THE IRRAWADDY
April 2015
TheIrrawaddy
13
VIEWPOINT
An Uneasy
Alliance
Rhetoric around the brotherly bond
between Myanmar and China masks
recurrent tensions
By KYAW ZWA MOE
copper mine project; and the now
suspended Myitsone dam.
Many of these projects were signed
off under the previous military regime,
when Myanmar was still perceived as a
villain on the world stage.
Naypyitaw’s old guard may in fact
retain a sense of gratitude towards
China, which continued to funnel
investment into the country while the
Myanmar Army was internationally
ostracized for committing gross human
rights violations against its population.
For its own geopolitical motives,
China was one of the country’s few
staunch supporters and served as
a shield—both economically and in
international forums such as the
UN Security Council—to protect the
repressive military regime.
While a Western bloc led by the
US and the EU imposed sanctions for
over two decades, China built up ties,
extending not only economic support
but also military weapons and training.
Without Beijing, the junta would have
struggled to survive.
Old Ties
yanmar and China
have long stressed
the “pauk-phaw” or
“fraternal” nature of
their bilateral relationship. But the
comforting catchphrase belies the
often uneasy reality. While at pains
to maintain strong ties with its giant
neighbor, successive Myanmar leaders
have often viewed the country with
which they share a 1,250 mile border
as a potential threat.
On Mar. 13, relations faced their
latest source of tension when, according
to Beijing, a Myanmar aircraft dropped
a bomb on a sugarcane ield in Yunnan
province, killing five civilians and
wounding eight others. The Myanmar
military has been engaged in heavy
ighting with a Kokang rebel group, the
Myanmar National Democratic Alliance
Army, in the town of Laukkai, close to
the Chinese border, since Feb. 9.
M
14
TheIrrawaddy
S o me obs e rve rs have voice d
concern that the ongoing conflict in
the Kokang Special Region, right on
China’s doorstep, would ratchet up
tensions between the two nations. This
is possible, but leaders on both sides
will likely seek to hose down concerns
and protect their shared economic and
strategic interests.
While Naypyitaw obviously remains
the younger sibling in the so-called
fraternal relationship, equally, China
cannot afford to lose or neglect its
weaker yet strategically invaluable
neighbor.
Chinese economic interests in
the country run deep and Beijing is
acutely aware of the importance of
keeping Naypyitaw on-side. Beijingbacked projects in Myanmar include
the Kyaukphyu to Kunming oil and
gas dual pipelines; a string of planned
controversial dams; the Letpadaung
In December 1949, Myanmar was
the first non-communist country to
recognize the communist-led People’s
Republic of China, shortly after it was
proclaimed. Under Prime Minister U
Nu in the early 1950s, a few years after
Myanmar regained its independence
from the British, the term pauk-phaw
was irst used to describe the brotherly
Sino-Myanmar relationship.
Behind the rhetoric, Myanmar
leaders were always attuned to the
pragmatic realization that the country’s
much larger, stronger neighbor could
seek to assert its influence through
threats or force. The researcher Maung
Aung Myoe wrote in his book “In the
Name of Pauk-Phaw: Myanmar’s
China Policy Since 1948” that in
December 1970, dictator Gen. Ne Win
had remarked that “the real threat for
Myanmar was China.”
Maung Aung Myoe wrote that
Gen. Ne Win cautioned the military
to maintain a defensive posture in its
military operations along the border
April 2015
FEATURE
Precious
Dreams
Deposits are thinning, but miners in the Mogok
valley still hope to unearth that one giant gem
By KYAW HSU MON / MOGOK, Mandalay Region
Krishna took a midday break
from his long and arduous
shift digging for rubies in
the vast San Taw Win mine
in central Myanmar’s Mogok valley. A
descendant of Gurkha soldiers, born
in Myanmar and now in his 50s, U
Krishna said the work is hard but he
holds out hope of landing that one giant
gem that would make him rich.
“Looking out for high-quality rubies
is my only purpose in my life as a
miner,” he said, sitting near the edge of
the gaping hole where he spends much
of his time.
U
Located about 126 miles north of
Mandalay city, Mogok is a rich valley
known the world over for its ine rubies
and other gems such as sapphire,
lapis lazuli and moonstone. The area
is peppered with dozens of varieties
of other semi-precious stones, but
some said the deposits are noticeably
thinning.
Locals have mined the area by
hand since the British colonial era,
setting up modest mining operations
and marketing some of the world’s
inest gems on their own. Those small
businesses began winding down
ALL PHOTOS: THAW HEIN HTET / THE IRRAWADDY
A trader checks out a stone in Mogok.
16
TheIrrawaddy
Traders meet customers on a chilly morning.
around 1988, when the then-ruling
military junta offered up large-scale
mining concessions and forbade small,
independent digging.
But while joint venture mining
irms have been striking it rich, locals
said they have gotten a rough deal.
After two decades of large-scale
mining, many said they have seen
severe environmental and health
impacts, a decline in local employment
opportunities and a shortage of the
finest quality stones that they once
found in abundance.
“I haven’t seen any of the best
quality rubies here recently,” U Krishna
said, sitting down on a midday break to
April 2015
Above: A Muslim religious leader at prayer in a Lashio mosque. Right: Buddhist monks walking on an alms-round in the town.
Below right: Dr. Tin Aung of the Islamic Religious Association in Lashio.
Lashio Works
to Build Trust
Since inter-community clashes broke out in the
northern town almost two years ago, a group of
religious leaders and youth has worked hard to
rebuild good relations
By ZARNI MANN / LASHIO
s Lashio town became a
refuge for thousands of
people fleeing fighting
between the government
and Kokang rebels around Laukkai
on the Chinese border in February
A
20
TheIrrawaddy
and March, religious and community
leaders rallied to provide aid and
shelter in monasteries, schools and
other buildings.
It was just the latest challenge for
local leaders who for almost two years
ALL PHOTOS: THAW HEIN HTET / THE IRRAWADDY
FEATURE
have been working quietly behind
the scenes to mend the fallout from a
previous crisis to hit the town.
In May 2013 inter-community
clashes in Lashio left one person dead
and others injured. Though the lare-up
which followed a spate of similar events
in other parts of the country quickly
died down, tensions were left in its
wake between communities that had
previously lived peacefully side by side.
Since then, local leaders have
worked hard to maintain peace and
good relations between the different
religious communities. They have
focused on rebuilding trust and on
making common cause against the
power of rumors to ignite tensions.
It hasn’t always been easy, especially
during the irst few months after the
clashes, said Ko Myo, a Buddhist
community leader.
Soon after the May 2013 events, an
informal interfaith group was formed
that included Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu
and Christian religious leaders as well
April 2015
History
Lessons
After the recent violent crackdown
at Letpadan, Bertil Lintner
relects on the historic signiicance
of student protest in Myanmar
PHOTO: JPAING / THE IRRAWADDY
24
TheIrrawaddy
Police at Letpadan attack a vehicle bearing images of Thakin Ba Hein, Preside
Aung Kyaw who was killed in protests in 1938.
April 2015
The Thamaga
Factor
The word for ‘union’ continues to carry great
historical weight
By MIN ZIN
“
T
hamaga,” a Myanmar
word adopted from the
Pali language, carries
incredible political and
moral weight in Myanmar. Literally, it
means union; association; and society.
In the context of the country's modern
history, it unambiguously signifies
the student union, its spirit and its
long-standing symbol of the ighting
peacock lag.
From the independence movement
in the early twentieth century to the
democracy movement of the late 1980s,
student unions, or Thamaga, have not
only challenged autocrats in Myanmar
but also given birth to new leadership
in national politics.
It is little wonder, then, that when
police staged a violent crackdown on
unarmed student protesters and their
supporters on March 10 in Letpadan
town, 90 miles north of Yangon, they
targeted flag-waving demonstrators
irst and vengefully stamped on their
ighting peacock lags.
The protests had intensiied since
January when thousands of students,
including high schoolers, began to
march—in some cases for hundreds
of miles—from major provincial cities
towards Yangon. They did so in protest
over the new National Education Law,
passed in September 2014, which they
believe is explicitly designed to inhibit
the formation of student Thamaga and
curb academic freedom.
After a series of talks with student
28
TheIrrawaddy
representatives, the government
agreed to amend the controversial law
and a special parliamentary committee
began debating the proposed changes.
But the students pulled out of the
discussions in the irst week of March,
in response to a police blockade of
their main protest group in Letpadan,
Bago Region.
On March 5, in Yangon, police and
pro-government plainclothes thugs
violently dispersed a protest held in
support of the students blockaded in
the north. Five days later, at Letpadan,
after negotiations about a continued
march broke down, police beat students
and their supporters, injuring dozens.
At least 127 people were arrested.
Political Fallout
In the past, the regime has
successfully combined harsh
crackdowns with political ploys to
weaken the opposition, confuse the
public, and defuse international
pressure. Perhaps Naypyitaw is now
reading from this same familiar
playbook. If so, we can expect several
rounds of talks between President
U Thein Sein or Commander-inChief Snr.-Gen. Min Aung Hlaing and
National League for Democracy (NLD)
leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.
Though these talks are not likely
to facilitate a political breakthrough,
they will eclipse the earlier headlines
about students being beaten and
April 2015
ALL PHOTOS: TIMO JAWORR / THE IRRAWADDY
Left: Daw San San Oo and her colleagues at work making cards.
Above: The group holds a meeting, using sign language so everyone can join in.
Crafting a
Better Life
A small enterprise is busting barriers
for people living with a disability
By FELIZ SOLOMON / YANGON
aking a living has never
been easy for Daw San
San Oo, who at 44
has lived most of her
life with a prosthetic leg and one
functioning eye. When she was about
5 years old, an untreated ulcer in her
toe soon became a brutal infection,
coursing through the right side of her
body. After three amputations, little
was left of her leg and her vision was
permanently impaired.
Despite living very close to a
primary school, Daw San San Oo was
M
wntown Yangon
April 2015
not allowed to enroll. She never went
to school and she never learned how to
read or write. Eventually, she taught
herself to count as being able to read
numbers and count cash was necessary
for just about any kind of job. She spent
years eking out a living as a vegetable
vendor, but the work was hard and the
income unstable.
“I was tired all the time,” she
recalled, sitting on the loor of a small
wooden house in Dala Township,
just across the river from the heart of
Yangon.
TheIrrawaddy
35
ANTIQUES: New Interest in Old Furniture
Business
ALL PHOTOS: SAI ZAW / THE IRRAWADDY
 MEDICINE  RETRO REVIVAL  SIGNPOSTS
DOING IT
NATURALLY
By KYAW HSU MON / YANGON
April 2015
TheIrrawaddy
39
REGIONAL | THAILAND
Floating
Homes Tested
in Thailand
In a region plagued by seasonal looding,
amphibious architecture offers new
alternatives
By ALISA TANG / AYUTTHAYA, THAILAND
estled among hundreds of
identical white and brown
two-storey homes crammed
in this neighborhood for
factory workers is a house with a trick—
one not immediately apparent from its
green-painted drywall and grey shade
panels.
Hidden under the house and its
wraparound porch are steel pontoons
illed with Styrofoam. These can lift the
structure three metres off the ground if
this area, two hours north of Bangkok,
loods as it did in 2011 when two-thirds
of the country was inundated, affecting
a ifth of its 67 million people.
The 2.8 million baht (US$86,000)
amphibious house in Ban Sang village
is one way architects, developers and
governments around the world are
brainstorming solutions as climate
change brews storms, loods and rising
sea levels that threaten communities in
low-lying coastal cities.
“We can try to build walls to keep
the water out, but that might not be a
sustainable permanent solution,” said
architect Chuta Sinthuphan of SiteSpeciic Co. Ltd, the irm that designed
and built the house for Thailand’s
National Housing Authority.
“It’s better not to ight nature, but
to work with nature, and amphibious
architecture is one answer,” said Chuta,
who is organizing the irst international
conference on amphibious architecture
in Bangkok in late August.
Asia is the region most affected by
disasters, with 714,000 deaths from
natural disasters between 2004 and
2013—more than triple the previous
decade—and economic losses topping
$560 billion, according to the United
Nations.
Some 2.1 billion people live in the
region’s fast-growing cities and towns,
and many of these urban areas are
located in vulnerable low-lying coastal
areas and river deltas, with the poorest
and most marginalized communities
often waterlogged year-round.
For Thailand, which endures annual
loods during its monsoon season, the
worsening lood risks became clear in
2011 as panicked Bangkok residents
rushed to sandbag and build retaining
walls to keep their homes from looding.
N
46
TheIrrawaddy
Food vendors push their carts through a looded street of Sena district in Ayutthaya province
in October, 2013.
April 2015
Culture: Women Pull the Strings
Lifestyle
g
 DESTINATIONS
 KHIN MYO CHIT
 TASTE OF INDIA
RELICS OF
RESISTANCE
Forgotten forts along the Ayeyarwady River
mark the dying days of Myanmar’s last
royal dynasty
ALL PHOTOS: TEZA HLAING / THE IRRAWADDY
By ZARNI MANN / MIN HLA, MAGWE REGION
April 2015
A view of the Ayeyarwady
Locals
and
visitors
alike
enjoy
River
from
Min Hla
Fort
the
town's splendid 49
views
TheIrrawaddy
LIFESTYLE | CULTURE
Women puppeteers are
taking centre stage in
propelling a once dying
art form
March of the
By NYEIN NYEIN / MANDALAY
M
a Toe Toe was in her
twenties when a
senior male
puppeteer and close
friend irst taught her the art
form that would eventually
become her profession.
“I was introduced to puppetry
in 1998, and I soon got hooked,”
recalled the puppeteer who now
manipulates the strings nightly at
the Mandalay Marionettes Theater
and whose sister is a harpist with the
group.
Traditional puppetry was once
performed as entertainment for
Myanmar’s royalty and on street
stages during carnivals and events,
including Buddhist full moon days.
The shows thought to date back
to the late 1700s were also popular
among rural populations, and
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TheIrrawaddy
performances often lasted an entire
night.
Under the previous military
junta, Myanmar’s marionette operas
became a dying art and were only
performed for a handful of foreign
tourists. For some years, Ma Toe
Toe worked primarily entertaining
April 2015
ALL PHOTOS: NYEIN NYEIN / THE IRRAWADDY
e Marionettes
The revival is owed most to the
chair of the Myanmar Puppeteer
Association Daw Ma Ma Naing,
who co-founded the Mandalay
Marionettes Theater in 1990.
Public interest is growing again
at last, she said.
“These days, the art is
transforming,” she said, explaining
that puppetry is now also taking
on current issues such as health
awareness and human traficking.
Beginning earlier this year,
puppeteers now perform shows twice
a month at the Mandalay National
Theater. One performance is a
45-minute awareness-raising drama,
“Tear from the Sky,” which explores
the issue of child traficking, Daw Ma
Ma Naing said.
The troupe appeared at an event
to mark the 100th birthday of Gen.
Aung San in Nat Mauk, Magwe
Region, in February, together
with the Yangon-based Htwe Oo
Myanmar Puppetry group.
Left: Ma Toe Toe and Ma Han Su Yin
Below: Marionettes at rest backstage
tourists at hotels in Bagan in central
Myanmar and her career looked
precarious.
Now with nascent political
and economic reforms since 2011
and a boom in tourist arrivals, the
culturally signiicant art form is
back in the spotlight and the role of
April 2015
the puppeteer is increasingly being
viewed as a potential career option
for young artists, including women.
In September 2014, the
Myanmar Puppeteer Association
was formed, and performances now
take place in some schools and at
the National Theatre in Mandalay.
TheIrrawaddy
53
LIFESTYLE | BOOKS
Colorful People
The lives of renowned writer Khin Myo Chit and her husband Khin
Maung Latt are celebrated in a new book released on the centenary
of their birth
ALL PHOTOS: COURTESY JUNIOR WIN
By NORA SWE / YANGON
U Khin Maung Latt at the couple's Yangon home in 1965
Daw Khin Myo Chit at home in 1967
W
riters seek
inspiration where
they can, but rarely
do strategies that
don’t involve just buckling down
at a desk actually work.
So it was when renowned writer
Khin Myo Chit sought to ‘meet’ with
ghosts of times past to help her write
the book “Anawrahta of Burma.”
Alas, no ghosts appeared during
Khin Myo Chit’s meditation sessions
under a tree, says her grand-daughter
Junior Win, who tried a similar
56
TheIrrawaddy
gambit while rummaging about in
history herself.
Researching the 100-year-old
story of Daw Khin Myo Chit and
her husband U Khin Maung Latt,
Junior Win closed her eyes and tried
“meeting them in a dream” to ind out
what they would like to say.
The ghost-summons attempt
didn’t work for her either. So now
she just has to hope that the couple,
whose lives crossed many signiicant
events in Myanmar in the previous
century, would be satisied with her
efforts at “digging through their
April 2015
LIFESTYLE | BOOKS
ALL PHOTOS: TIMOTHY WEBSTER
Living
Histories
A richly textured new book captures the
human stories behind many of Yangon’s
beautiful but neglected old buildings
By THE IRRAWADDY
The aerial roots of
a Banyan tree make
themselves at home
on a façade on
Natmauk Road.
58
TheIrrawaddy
April 2015
Daw Shwe Yin goes through old family photographs as her family prepares to move out from
their aged yet still elegant 50th Street apartment.
T
here is a Burmese
saying that you will
have your golden
umbrella once in
your lifetime,” says Daw Thida,
who has lived all her life in a
once all-teak wooden house
called the Pinlon Lodge on
Kabar Aye Pagoda Road.
“
Daw Thida’s formerly prosperous
trading family bought the property in
1950 from a relative of the lamboyant
Chinese tycoon Lim Chin Tsong.
April 2015
When she was a girl, the house
hummed with the noise and bustle
of relatives, visitors, servants and
nannies. But after the family’s importexport business was nationalized,
gradually, “we seemed to become
poor,” says the granddaughter of
nationalist Daw Kyin Ein who was
a founder of the Burmese Women’s
Association in 1919.
Today, ceramic tiles dated from
1886 occasionally fall from the roof
and the home's intricate parquet
looring “sounds like a xylophone.”
TheIrrawaddy
59