“Maps are useful…, but you have to travel and explore to understand [the real] landscape.”
(Sayadaw U Jotika, Snow in the Summer)
We arrived in Yangon, Myanmar (Burma) on February 19 and stayed five days. Some voyagers chose to travel to other areas of the country. We stayed in Yangon. Transportation was particularly challenging in this port. The ship docked in a remote, industrial area; the shuttle bus to the city took 1.5-2 hours, one way, on a rutted, dusty roadway. The city is undergoing a big road-building project, financed by Japan.
We took Semester at Sea (SAS) field trips, including a city orientation tour, visits to monasteries, pagodas, and markets. On the city tour, we visited the renowned, impressive, golden Shwedagon Pagoda. On a long day trip, we visited Bago. One day, we had an unplanned “field trip” to learn about the country’s health care system, one of Larry’s areas of interest! As is bound to happen with this many people traveling intensely, a student got sick and was admitted to a local hospital, where she received excellent care. Another faculty member stayed with her overnight. Then, we volunteered to go help her at discharge and accompany her back to the ship.
Our last day, we went into the city to seek out art galleries and have lunch at the popular Rangoon Tea House. We happened upon a cooperative of local artisans and bought a few items. We were particularly conscientious in this port to support independent businesses.
Beauty: In the Eye of the Beholder
A student said her initial impression was that Burma was dirty and poor. She elaborated that she felt badly about that impression, after she met so many wonderful people and saw more of the country’s natural beauty. We commented that both are true. Burma has a particular beauty! AND, it has high levels of poverty, and the roads and streets were dirty. Burma has the widest income gap between the rich and poor in the world.
By now, we’re convinced that plastic is a curse of the planet. And, nowhere was that more evident than in Burma. The rural roads were lined with primitive, temporary shacks that house road workers and their families, with accompanying trash (mostly plastic). City streets had similar debris. And, the plastic chairs! Ugh!
However, traveling the roads into the city, we observed the beauty of rural countryside, especially in such an “undeveloped” country. One of the students remarked that Burma was her favorite country so far, because it is “raw” in its development process. The farm fields, unique trees, river life, livestock, and birds provided a tapestry that made those long rides meditative, albeit bumpy!
In travel, the people we encounter leave the most lasting impressions. The long ride and other encounters made us admire such hard-working people. The labor of construction, farming, and fishing were especially evident, as much of that labor would be mechanized in other countries. However, as we learned from our Bago tour guide, “Joe,” this human labor is cheaper than machines. The workers are paid the equivalent of $1.50 a day.
Joe included our SAS group in a beautiful spiral of kindness. He gave us a sheet of paper with a Burmese phrase. Then, we were assigned to find this food item in the Bago open market and we were given enough Kyat (Burmese money) to do so. He explained that the exercise was to encourage us to interact and learn that the Burmese are helpful and kind. Indeed, that was our experience. (Otherwise, we’d never have found our assigned eggplant!) Then, on the road trip back to the ship, Joe invited us to share the bounty from the market with some of the laborers on the roadside. Joe explained that he started this project when he saw some of these workers begging for water.
As an expression of appreciation to Joe for sharing this experience, we spontaneously decided to give him a SAS tote bag (which Larry donated) and collected fun snacks for him to give his young daughter. (He is a big fan of SAS.) We gave this token to him, with the wish that his kindness karma would return to him and that his daughter would grow up in a world of peace.
Buddhism: The Good, the Bad…
Joe’s Buddhist faith shone through in his actions and much of his presentation to us related to Buddhism. We’ve traveled a lot. And, we’ve never experienced a more overtly religious region (with the possible exception of the U.S. rural South). Buddhism permeated. Pagodas are everywhere. Our field trips featured Buddhist monasteries. Notably, in numerous ways, we learned that sexism thrives in Buddhism in Myanmar. For example, a guide told a story of how a woman “tempted” the Buddha, and, thus, women are constrained from participating in certain aspects of Buddhism. (Sound familiar?)
Joe, and all our tour guides, referenced Buddhism, frequently. The public markets had numerous Buddhist-related items. The tour busses had Buddhist-related decals and symbols prominently displayed.
In heavy traffic, one of our taxi drivers continued chanting his prayers, along with a recording, and doing his prayer beads. Periodically, he clasped his hands and bowed his head. Obviously, he was up-to-date with his religious rituals and was prepared to meet his Maker; we just didn’t necessarily wish to accompany him on that part of the journey! We were relieved to arrive at our (thankfully, not final!) destination.
Monasteries are everywhere! There are over 500,000 full-time monks in Myanmar. Every young male is expected to spend some time as a monk and can decide whether to stay or leave. The monasteries are a central part of the community culture. We witnessed the daily ritual of the monks going out into the community to collect food. Giving them food is seen as a way to invite good karma. The monasteries serve as either teaching or meditation sites. Larry’s class visited a meditation monastery and Erlene participated in a learning exchange with a monastery that teaches English and other languages. Other field trips included visits to monasteries and one nunnery. Nunneries seem to be quite secondary to monasteries. (Again, sound familiar?)
Brutality…and the Ugly
As some of you may know, Myanmar is experiencing a religious-political crisis—which is primarily occurring in the west, and we traveled in the south. We, and many of the SAS Voyagers, did not know the extent of the horror. A wonderful student club, “Humanizing Headlines,” showed a compelling documentary, Myanmar’s Killing Fields. We highly recommend this documentary done by Dateline in spring, 2018. Be warned: It’s graphic. It documents the Myanmar military government, with radical Buddhists, committing “crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing, and genocide” in displacing, raping, and murdering Rohingya Muslims.
We, and many on the SAS Voyagers, were conflicted about going to this country and how to respond. For instance, some companies are choosing to divest. Although companies like KFC remain, we learned that Starbucks ditched their plans to locate there, due to the escalating crisis. If Starbucks (which is everywhere!) won’t go there, should we?
The Journey Continues
Our one word for 2019 is “Journey.” At a street bookstore in Yangon, we picked up A Map of the Journey by Sayadaw U Jotika, a well-known Burmese monk. He writes, “So we are all related, connected. We cannot harm anybody without harming ourselves or harming somebody else. Not harming is very important” (p.16).
We left Burma conflicted about how to respond to the situation there, personally, ethically, and politically. What prevents harm? Should we have gone? Should companies divest or invest? What is the role of the global community? And, countless other questions. We did decide to thank Starbucks for this stance and donate to Human Rights Watch.
We also left Burma, having explored the landscape, knowing it is more than just a dot on a map. We beheld the beauty of the faces of everyday people and kindness of hearts. We saw the stark poverty. We felt the dangerous effects of fundamentalist religion being mixed with governmental powers. We understand the complexities a bit more—and how those complexities are not limited to Burma. Our questions continue, as does the connection that travel underscores.
