Min Maw Kun & a Group of His Friends at Their Ordination Ceremony

The photo shows the actor Min Maw Kun, photographer Wunna Khwar Nee and his friends at their ordination ceremony at a Burmese monastery. Yet, the appearances of the “new monks” raised an eyebrow among the Burmese Buddhist community.

Irrawaddy wrote:

Although their heads are shaved and they are wearing religious robes, most of the young men are displaying fashionable tattoos with motifs such as dragons and scorpions, as well as Old School and tribal tattoo patterns. Some of the men smile cheekily at the camera while others hug or pose provocatively.

The photo was first posted on Niknayman's blog, who questioned the intention of the actor.

Saffron robes are revered, and they are only worn by monks, who are regarded as the sons of Lord Buddha. Those in the photo shouldn't be wearing saffron robes, and posing with those facial expression and fake tattoos. Such a thing like this shouldn't happen for any reason.

Afterward, the photo was copied and re-posted on several Burmese blogs. Many Burmese were outraged by this photo. This included Ashin CandoBhaSaCara, a revered monk who lives in US. He had written an article, with the title “Why Did Actor Min Maw Kun Insulted Our Religion Like This?”, appeared on many Burmese blogs. In the article, he explained about the duties and responsibilties of a Buddhist monk, and told the wrongdoings of the actor by breaking all those rules of a monk.

An actor has to respect the public. He has to do the right things while avoiding the wrong things. Min Maw Kun and his friends had lost his value by doing a disdainful act such as this. His father, (actor) Zin Wine is also responsible for this, for the acts of the children is directly held responsible to the parents. Also, the head monk and the monastery who had put robes on these people is also very foolish. The monk who held the ordination ceremony might not actually know about this foolish act. However, everyone with a sane mind would know that this act is not in anyway acceptable in Buddhist culture. This just show what kind of person the actor Min Maw Kun is, who is making videos that will educate the public.

However, on Radio Free Asia Burmese website, the actor Min Maw Kun said that he had no other reason for taking those photos, and that he had expressed his apology for his behaviour.

I have no reason to offend Buddhism. I have no reason to offend the monks either. They are the jewels that we should be worshipping. Sure, we put tattoos on our bodies, but that's just us being youths. I became a monk along with my son, and we went though the ordination ceremony together. The photos were taken while we were cleaning at the monastery just as a memoir. It was taken about 2 years ago. Since people are talking about this, all I have to do is be cautious of my actions. I have no other intentions, and I  was just being a youth. For that, I want to express my apologies to all the monks.

Collapsed Danoke Pagoda (from New Era Journal)

The 180-foot Danoke Pagoda is situated in Dala Township, which is across the Yangon River, in Yangon Division. The pagoda was originally damaged during Cyclone Nargis, so it had been going under renovation.

Just on May 7th, 2009, there had been an umbrella-hoisting ceremony at Danoke Pagoda, which was attended by military leader Senior General Than Shwe's wife.

The New Era Journal reported:

An old woman who lives in Danoke Village near the pagoda said, “What happened was around 2pm, the hti-taw (ornamental finial of the pagoda) collapsed first, yet there was no strong wind blowing. At that time, the renovation team on scaffolding tried to adjust the collapsed hti-taw again. About 10 minutes later, I heard a roar and the whole top part of the pagoda collapsed, raising dust and everything turned black. I was lucky, but one of my sons who was working injured his skull, and another son had a bruise on his shoulder and a backache.”

Eyewitnesses said there were about 100 people at the pagoda at that time, including the pagoda renovation team, and those who volunteers at the pagoda on Saturday and Sunday. Among them were navy officers who were volunteering at the pagoda, and many of them were also injured.

An eyewitness said to New Era Journal:

“The pagoda was going through its final stage, ready to be covered with gold leaf, so there were a lot of people on the scaffolding. So it was difficult to jump down and escape. There are at least 50 people still trapped under the rubble. About 50 injured were carried off as in-patients to hospitals.”

A red-cross volunteer at the scene said:

“So far, there have been 5 deaths. The bodies have already been carried out. There are still people who are buried and we're trying to save them.”

The above quotes from New Era Journal article were translation done by the author. The original article was written in Burmese language.

Mandalay's 150th Anniversary Celebration

Mandalay is the capital city of Mandalay Division, and is the 2nd largest city in Myanmar.

Ye Lwin Oo wrote in his blog the background story of how Mandalay was founded:

Rich with cultural heritage, Mandalay, also known as Yadanabon, was historically built by King Mindon in 1857, standing as the last royal capital of Myanmar.

In 1857 Mandalay was set up in an empty area, because, according to an ancient prophecy, in that exact place a town would come into existence on occasion of the 2,400th jubilee of Buddhism.

King Mindon decided to fulfill the prophecy and during his reign in the Kingdom of Amarapura he issued a royal order on 13 January, A.D 1857 to establish a new kingdom. The Ceremony of Ascending the Throne was celebrated in July, 1858. The royal city and the kingdom were demarcated. The whole royal city was called Lay Kyun Aung Mye (”Victorious Land over the Four Islands”) and the royal palace, the Mya Nan San Kyaw (”The Royal Emerald Palace”). The kingdom was called the Kingdom of Yadanabon, along with other name Ratanapura, means “The Bejeweled Site”. Later it was called Mandalay after the Mandalay Hill, 2.5km far to the north east of the royal palace, and today the name still exists. The name “Mandalay” is a derivative of the Pali word “Mandala”, which means “a plains land”and also that of the Pali word “Mandare”, which means “an auspicious land”.

The event attracted many onlookers, photographers as well as bloggers. Nyi Min San, one photographer/blogger wrote in his blog:

The (parade) will begin from Mingalar Bridge (73rd St.) and will be walking along the 26th St., passing the pavilion built in front of MCDC (Mandalay City Development Council) City Hall, until the corner near Sedona Hotel. Then they will turn back, and walk back to the City Hall. When we reached Mingalar Bridge, there were a lot of photographers there. There must have been hundreds of them there. We joined those photographers, and we took photos and they were also taking photos. Many of them had worn white shirt & longyi, so when we looked at them from far away, everyone was white. When I touched my camera, I couldn't stop myself (from taking photos)…..

Mg Hla, another blogger from Mandalay wrote:

…. (In the past) The 100th Anniversary Festival was held as a state-level festival, but this 150th Anniversary was only held as a division-level. I didn't know when the ceremony will start, so I asked some journalists, and they told me that it will start at 8am. So I took half-day leave from work, and went there to take some photos. For the ceremony, real horses were used just like in the ancient times, but the elephants were kyauk-se elephants (puppet elephants with real people inside to move around). They originally planned to use real elephants, but they didn't want the elephants to be frightened by the crowd and run away, so they only used puppet elephants.

The quotes of Nyi Min San and Mg Hla, mentioned in the post, were translations done by the author. The original quotes were written in Burmese language.

]]> http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/05/18/myanmar-150th-anniversary-of-the-founding-of-mandalay-city/feed/ 0 http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/05/08/myanmar-rogue-wind-blasted-through-mandalay-city/ http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/05/08/myanmar-rogue-wind-blasted-through-mandalay-city/#comments Fri, 08 May 2009 01:28:27 +0000 tan http://globalvoicesonline.org/?p=72992 MgHla wrote that on May 6, 2009, a rogue wind blasted through Mandalay, the third capital city of Myanmar.

Photo from the blog of MgHla

He wrote:

“After I attended a seminar, I came back to the office around 4pm. On the way, I saw that there was a whirlwind of wind, and there were a lot of dust.  Not soon after I had reached the office, around 4:30pm, the wind became stronger, and it also started to rain. Probably because the wind was too strong, the rain was not coming down from above, but going side-ways. It was very noisy also. Thankfully, it only lasted about 30 minutes. If it had gone on for about 3 or 4 hours, it would have been like being in Nargis cyclone. When I came back from work, I saw the billboard on the corner of 80th St. & 35th St. on the ground. I heard that the backside of a car was also crushed under the billboard, but when I passed near there, the car was not there anymore. A signboard advertising engine oil became wrinkled at the corners. Small billboards on 35th St. railroad overpass also either fell or broke. It is time for the Municipal to check the integrity of the billboards. They should scrutinize the permits being handed out to erect billboards over our heads….”

The quote mentioned in the post is a translation done by the author. The original quote is written in Burmese language.

On September 5, 1987, under the regime of General Ne Win, (U) Sein Lwin, The Secretary of Union Council signed an order that dissolved the bills issued by The Bank of the Union of Myanmar, which are: 25 Kyats, 35 Kyats, and 75 Kyats.

Niknayman wrote:

That September 5th was a Saturday. The time when Myanma Radio announced the withdrawal of the bills was at 11am. Since it was a Saturday, the people were out on the streets to visit places, friends or to go shopping and the people who had been preparing hastily to go out all froze in place when the news was announced on the radio. Within a couple of hours, everyone just stopped. The streets became empty, and it was as if some terrible fate had fallen.

After the withdrawl of those currency bills, the new currency bills of 45 Kyats and 90 Kyats were released. However, the government made no motion of exchanging the bills that had been abolished.

The new currency bills (45 Ks. and 90 Ks.) were divisible by 9, and that no. 9 is considered lucky for General Ne Win. Also, the pictures of Sayar San and Thakhin Phoe Hla Gyi (two Burmese revolutionists during the colonial era) had been placed on the bills, instead of pictures of General Aung San (whose pictures had been on all 3 abolished bills).

Myanmar Kyat. Picture from the Flickr page of shnnn

Niknayman wrote about the plight of people and the citizens:

The poor citizens, middle-class citizens, government workers, and private companies suffered a great loss because of this currency abolishment while the people and the families who were closely associated with the government and the families of the ministries were notified about this secretly, so they went ahead to exchange their cash money with gold and jewels, and also went ahead and bought rice, cooking oil and cooking necessities and stored them. It was only the ordinary citizens of the country who had to suffer from the affects of this currency withdrawal.

Young students, who came (to Yangon) from all around the country and lived in dormitories, faced a blockade of financial aid from their parents, and faced difficulties in paying tuition fees and living expanses. The eradication of currency bills without a solid explanation was just like robbing from the people created many problems for the people and also for the students. These reasons were why the people and the students were highly dissatisfied with General Ne Win's regime, and participated enthusiastically in 1988 Revolution.

The quotes mentioned in the post are translations done by the author. The original quotes are written in Burmese language.

In spite of these restrictions on people carrying cameras and taking pictures, some have gone out to record the extent of the damages. There is anger over the failure of authorities to evacuate the affected villages, even when they were allegedly aware of the impending cyclone and the possible devastation it could cause. The following images, uploaded by YouTube user aungsayapyi may affect sensitive people: they are very graphic, include dead bodies and should be viewed with discretion and an adult's consent:

YouTube user AfterNargisYgn has been uploading a multi-part series of videos featuring images of the effects of the Cyclone in Yangon, Myanmar's largest city, previously known as Rangoon. People removing downed trees, wading through waters and drying up their mattresses, clothing and in general trying to clean up and move on.

YouTube user Burma4u uploaded a video of the aftermath in Latbutta, with Cyclone Nargis' victims crowded in refugee shelters, trying to sleep as they mull over what will happen to them in the near and far future.

An insightful video about the Burmese people's future has come from myochitmyanmar, another YouTube user who has uploaded a video with some English subtitles, interviewing Laputta survivors and refugees on their current situation: at the refugee camps, on the streets: rice donations and clothing hand-outs for children, private initiatives done without the State Peace and Development Council who governs them. Meanwhile, a picture on Burma News shows what looks like Red Cross aid, which is supposed to be for Cyclone refugees, being sold on the streets.

The following video, also from aungsayapyi shows how people are experiencing life in the refugee camps with donations from private donations, and a Military General's arrival, carrying promises instead of clothing, food or water. They proceed to tell refugees that the people who died, died because of bad karma, and that they should consider themselves lucky to be alive. They give some recommendations about grouping themselves according to villages and then leave. It has been subtitled in English for a better understanding of the events:

In the YouTube Blog they've also highlighted the video community's efforts to help Myanmar and provide aid, and they highlight both news networks and private initiatives who are documenting the cyclone and letting the world know what is going on in this small Southeast Asian country. For example, Nightwatcher1982 of the Netherlands has promised that for every video response to his video he gets, he will donate $5 to the Red Cross, and if it's a good video, he'll donate $10:

Global Voices Online has been providing extensive coverage of the disaster, aggregating information from different citizen media sources in the region on what is happening with food aid, water and the refugee situation as death tolls continue to rise. Please don't hesitate to go over to our Special Myanmar Cyclone Coverage page and read the posts that the amazing team of volunteer authors have been writing with translations from Burmese blogs telling first hand accounts of life in Myanmar right now. You can also follow our Myanmar feed on twitter.

There will also be a global blog action day on behalf of the Burmese victims on May 17th, when people are asked to tell others about the crisis in Myanmar, and some are already organizing fundraisers and events.

Books such as

• Ramayana in Burmese Literature and Arts,
  
• The General Condition of the People of British Burma at the time of the Deposition of King Thibaw,
  
• Myanmar and Historical Writing, and more can be found on the website.

Nyi Lynn Seck has step by step instructions on how to download from the University of Washington's site.

Some 300 monks who were arrested a few days ago were delivered to a garage just out side of Insein GTI College. The soldiers are reported to be trying to force the monks to ” give up the secular life, to disrobe - become a layperson and no longer honour the ethics of being a monk.”

It is considered to be a sin to just give up being monkhood without valid reasons. The soldiers are trying to significantly lower their influence on people down, to shame them.

DVB also mentioned that soldiers ordered the “most senior monk in Insein” to come over and read pali scriptures that will begin the process of “shaming the monks” to make monks change into laypersons. However, the monks, who are supposed to repeat the pali scriptures read by the senior monks, refused to repeat them and after a while, the senior monk said that he can't convert them into laypersons and that it just won't happen and refused and supposedly left.

There are reports that the soldiers are also beating the monks in Insein. When a plumber came to fix the water pipes in the place, a monk looked up to see him and a soldier is said to have hit him with his belt.

There was also a report that when the army truck with these monks passed by cars on the street, one driver made the mistake of honking (probably in fear) and the soldiers stopped the truck and arrested the driver who honked.

There are also reports that a monk with wounds on his feet was brought to the general hospital and the soldiers ordered the doctors to not treat the monk until he converted back to a layperson. The monk then replied that he will not revert to become a layperson and preferred to die from his wounds.

Apparently, the hospital staff had to get the permission of the Deputy Prime Minister Dr. Mya Oo to be able to finally treat the monk.

Witnesses report that soldiers have surrounded the entrances and exits of the general hospital and are interrogating everyone who is visiting.

The video footage shows a Myanmar citizen welcoming his family's arrival in Singapore and proclaiming their happiness at being in a stable Singapore, and then shows another Myanmar national exclaiming that even though there are curfews set, they were doing OK and things weren't that bad. “Overall quite ok lah,” claimed one man. “Oh, yeah, everything is fine… The airport, the security and erm, things are functioning fine.. all normal,” said one man who appears to be an airline pilot (not a Myanmar national).

After the above comments, you can see the Straits Times reporter saying “talking to some people who were just in Yangon a few hours ago, it seems like the situation is not as bad as what we see on media reports. Other than a curfew, people were free to move around and it was business as usual at the airport.”

Then the Myanmar nationals leaving for Yangon are interviewed. Both women interviewed seem to think that things are not so serious and that they were going to be in safe areas. “Situation is not quite too bad lah.” said one young Myanmar woman.

The reporter then asks: “What are you expecting to see when you get out of the airport?” The young woman then replies: “I think everything is going to be OK.”

MoeMaKa Media has reported this reaction to the video:

“All over the world, Myanmar nationals and others have been showing support for the peaceful protests in Myanmar and the military junta's violent reactions towards it. (Such as the protests in front of Myanmar embassy in Thailand)

Myanmar nationals living in Singapore also showed solidarity and support for those back home by holding prayer sessions at the Burmese monasteries here. However, while everyone is worried about the situation in Burma, the above video from The Straits Times show Myanmar nationals happily stating that they are happy to be in Singapore and how things are “not so bad” back there besides the curfews and how everything seems to be calm, while smiling at the cameras.”

MoeMaKa reports that a Myanmar blogger situated in Singapore sent him photos comparing the real situation in Myanmar and the Myanmar nationals arriving from Yangon and going back to Yangon making light of the situation.

MoeMaKa states that that blogger also posed the question of how Myanmar Nationals living here in Singapore are going to protect and upkeep the nationalism, language (culture) and religion of Myanmar and that it was high time for Myanmar nationals living in Singapore to answer this question in a clear manner.

(I think that the blogger is trying to say that Myanmar nationals all need to unite in solidarity and be clear on the kind of statements they want to make to the world at this difficult time)

Kaduang has posted an eyewitness account of yesterdays happening in capital Yangoon.

While they are trying to stop us, another military truck appeared from the Myanmar Archers Association Ward and shot gun fires. Some people were hit. I had to jump over the brick wall and ran into the school. I met other fellows who came and hid in the school. They said two people were shot while they were jumping over the wall. There were lots of gun fires either aiming at protestors or on the sky. During that time, the school wasn’t over yet. There were parents who came and picked their children up. They even shot gunfires during that time. How bad were they!

The blogger has pictures on another post.

Flickr user naingankyatha has posted more images.

Translations from some Burmese language blogs:

Soe Moe wrote

KaDaung - Yangon Messages from CBox

Nay Nay Naing - Bloody Day 27 Sept 2007

Update:
Most of the latest news (real + unconfirmed rumors) are dropped into the comment boxes or Cboxes.

Ever since blogspot domain is being blocked, the Myanmar netizens are making an excellent use of CBox as their news reporting medium.
Many bloggers' Cboxes have been filled with various news especially Niknayman's Cbox.

Now someone has created another CBox ie. http://burmanews.cbox.ws/
to translate all those messages from Niknayman Cbox in english for international outlookers. Currently they are asking for translators for newly created CBox to post in english.

Latest news: http://niknayman.cbox.ws/
Translated news from niknayman cbox:

The following are some of the confirmed news from various sources.

* BaganNet (ISP) and many local phone lines (mobile + landlines) were disconnected today.
* Synrg3 alerted photographers and media to be careful.”Soldiers were investigating the places where people took photos. They also checked all the computer systems from Traders and Sarkura hotels.”
* The UN Designated Official in Rangoon has estiblished a 24 hr hotline in case of emergency,especially during curfew hrs, the numbers to call are; 01 554 597 or 01 554 625
* It was suspected that those soldiers who shot Japanese Journalist and protesters yesterday were said to be prisoners who were forced to handle situation in place of real soldiers; due to their appearances ie. no proper boots (unconfirmed).

The links and translated excerpts from Burmese blogs sent in by a Burmese netizen who wishes to remain anonymous.