….and “not the for the average tourist’, so says the fly sheet on a travel guide that I bought in Yangon: Myanmar – Burma in Style: An Illustrated History & Guide by Caroline Courtauld and published by Odyssey Books & Maps 2013 and referred to in the postings that follow as ‘guidebook’.
Although I have had a few days to think about it, I was only saying yesterday to some friends on board – How do you capture the mystery and beauty of both the people and the country that is Myanmar – aka Burma? Well to begin with I’m going to paraphrase some of the introductory comments from this guidebook.
I had already reached the conclusion as we sailed up the Bago River to dock in Rangoon that “Visually Myanmar is unique” – it was everything I had expected and more. Everywhere I travelled over the next few days I was delighted by the casual ‘almost unintended beauty’ of the countryside and the people. This is a country of soft brown backgrounds, contrasting with vivid green paddies (Rice fields), ‘noble Tamarind trees’ – that enigmatic spice that has become so fashionable in modern British cooking – and “above all white and golden pagodas gracing hills and plains like a cascade of jewels”.
Yet again as this guidebook points out, maybe the abiding beauty of Myanmar ‘lies in her people who exude, style, grace and vivacity’, who smile constantly and greet and welcome you as a friend and demonstrate an engaging sense of timelessness and ‘other-worldliness’. Attributes that derive, I have concluded, from the influence of Buddhism and the search for ‘karma’ but more of this later.
As my guidebook comments - to the casual tourist it would be too easy to overlook the Myanmar has had an often violent history and that it is only since August 2011 that Myanmar has begun the process of democratisation away from military rule. As I have witnessed the initial signs are encouraging but it is a long and fragile road and I, like many, hope that in so doing commercialisation will not destroy the charm and beauty of this country and its people.
The golden tower dominating the skyline is the Shwedagon Stupa in Yangon, a famous and historic landmark built over 2,500 year's ago and the subject of a separate posting.
No comments:
Post a Comment