BURMESE PUPPET



Burmese marionette theatre – or yok-thei pwe – was developed during the reign of King Bagydaw in the early nineteenth century and was the forerunner of live theatre. There are still a few master puppeteers in Burma, but the skill is dying out and efforts have been made to train youngsters in the art.

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THE PADAUNG


The Padaung
The Padaung are found in a 150-square-mile area of Kayah State and Shan State, west of the Salween river and around the Pekon hills, which rise to 5,000 feet. For centuries they have been objects of curiosity and were once brought to the palace of the King of Mandalay for inspection. They are part of the Kayan subgroup of Karens. Although known in the world as Padaung, they call themselves Ka-Kaung, which means people who live on top of the hill.


The Padaungs are often nicknamed ‘giraffe women’ or the ‘long-necked Karens’ because of the custom of encasing the neck in brass coils. The practice is fast disappearing, and today can only be found in a few villages. When a girl is aged between five and nine, her neck is rubbed with ointment said to be made of dog fat, coconut milk and royal jelly, and the first neck ring is fitted. After two years, the next set of coils is added and every year therefore she gains a new set until she marries.

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LAKE INLE



Intha people can be found living on or around Lake Inle in Shan State. Speaking a distinctive and unusual Burmese dialect, there is mystery over their origins in this area. Like the Pa-Os and Taungyos, it is thought that they are arrived from Lower Burma many centuries ago. By one account, they are descendants of southern Burmese who migrated north during the reign of the King Narapatisithu (1174-1210), although some scholars believe they stem from slaves taken captive during on-and-off wars with the Mons and Tavoyans.
The Intha are famous for their highly individual rowing technique. Fisherman wrap a paddle around one hand and leg and use this to propel the boat, while balancing precariously on the other. This position leaves them with one hand free, allowing them to drop a large conical new over passing fish in the shallow waters of the lake.

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Popa


  • Mount Popa is an volcano whose outer casing of soil has been washed away, exposing the rock core which rises 1,500 feet above the plains outside  Bagan. Traditionally,  every Burmese king would make a pilgrimage to Mount  Popa, the legendary home of the Nats or spirits. To consult them before his reign could begin. Pilgrims visit Mount Popa in the Burmese month of nayon (May to June) to celebrate the annual festival of spirits.Of the thirty-seven Nats, the two most revered are the Mahagiri Nats who live in Mount Popa. Legend has it that they were a brother and sister who lived in the sixth century; the brother was reputedly burned alive in a flowering jasmine tree by the king, and his grief-stricken sister, the king’s wife, threw herself into the same fire.

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Kyaikitiyo Pagoda


Kyaikitiyo Pagoda is, along with Bagan and the Shwedagon, one of country’s most wondrous sites. A small stupa is perched on the top of the gargantuan ‘Golden Rock’, a huge boulder covered in gold leaf which a balances precariously on the edge of a cliff at the top of Mt Kyaikto. At dawn, as pilgrims light incense and fires around its base, the huge golden dome shimmers in the early morning light, catching the first rays of sunshine.

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Dhammayangyi _BAGAN


Dhammayangyi  Pagoda was built by King Narathu in the mid - twelfth century and is the largest of the pagodas found on the plains of Bagan. The so-called city of ‘four million temples’ on the banks of the Irrawaddy  River was founded in the mid - ninth century by the Burmese and was sacked by Kublai Khan and his Mongol armies in 1287. Today, the ancient city is uninhabited and the remnants of thousands of temples, Nat shrines and pagodas stand alone across the arid plains. The reclining Buddha is a common pose, representing the Buddha’s attainment of nirvana.

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Burmese or Myanmar


The Burmese
The upper and central plains of Burma are the traditional home of the Burma, a Tibeto-Burma people who migrated from the north and China- India borderlands up until the eleventh century AD. The Burmese ( or Bamas or Myanmar ) established their greatest capital at Pagan between 1044 and 1287 AD on the banks of the Irrawaddy. Later capitals were built at Ava, Amarapura, Sagaing, Mandalay, and Toungoo.
Today, Burmese form the largest ethnic group in the country, with 50 million people – about 60 percent of the population – speaking only their language, Burmese. In the past century, many minority groups, especially Mons and Karens, has become assimilated as Burmese migrants spread into new areas.
Like the Mons, the rich culture of the Burmese, who are strongly Buddhist, shows influences of Indian civilizations. These include Pali script (derived from Sanskrit), cosmetology, philosophy and statecraft, art, medicine and architecture.


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Geography of Burma


The varied and rugged geography of Burma has done much to shape the vibrant ethnic diversity that exists in the country today. Across the centuries the great horseshoe of mountains that surround the central Irrawaddy River valley has acted as a defense barrier to the invading armies of foreign powers. Simultaneously, the same mountains and deep river valleys have witnessed the constant migration of different ethnic peoples of almost every kind. Some have passed through, some have intermarried or merged with other cultures and peoples along the way, while others have retreated into remote mountains and forests, where many unique cultures have evolved and still survive.
The different terrains often reflect the histories and economies of the different ethnic peoples. In the far north of Burma, where the Kachins and Nagas live, there are snow-capped peaks which stretch into the foothills of the Himalayas, while in the far south, amongst the Mons, Tavoyans and Salum sea- gypsies of Tenasserim, there are lush rain forests and intense tropical heat. On the fertile plains of the Irrawaddy Delta rice is the major crop, and this fact earned Burma the nickname of the ‘rice-bowl of Asia’ in British days. But rich natural resources still remain, whether in the jade mines of Kachin State, the ruby mines of Shan State, or in the unexploited seas off the Rakhine coast.
Settlement patterns have also had an important impact on the development of social and political cultures.  While the Mons and Burmans settled on the sun-baked central plains, practicing wet-rice cultivation and establishing great city- kingdoms, the Shan  occupied highlands valleys across the north- neast Mountains, where many small fiefdoms and constantly changing confederations emerged. Further up the mountains, minority peoples such as the Kachins,  Was and Chins remained mostly in the forests where they practiced shifting cultivation in villages that were often autonomous
.
In the process of such movements, individual ethnic groups developed a very different array of local cultures. Karen migrants, for an example, who passed into south-east Burma down the eastern Salween River valley mostly stayed in hills, where an extraordinary variety of sub-cultures evolved in the rugged mountains of Kayah State and hill-tracts above Toungoo. By contrast, Karen settlers who moved down the central Irrawaddy and Sittang River valleys into the plains areas of Lower Burma changed over the centuries to wet-rice cultivation, Buddhism and many of the daily practices of their Mon and Burman neighbors.From this complex past, ethnic places and names have yet to become standardized. Burma has itself been known by different names and pronunciations in the past, as have cities, such as Rangoon and Sittwe, or different peoples, including the Shan or Padaung. In 1989, the ruling State Law and Order Restoration Council changed the name of Burma to Myanmar for official international usage. It also introduced new transliterations for many other names, including Bama for Burman or Burmese, Ayeyarwady for Irrawaddy, Pathein for Bassein, and Mawlamyine for Moulmein. Such titlesw, however, are yet to be widely known.

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The United Nations

As the successor of the ill-starred League of Nations, the Allied powers amidst the furies of war, prepared plans for another experiment in international cooperation-the United Nations. Victories on the battlefield, it was widely assumed, would be followed by common victories for peace, progress and prosperity. “A world organization to control lawlessness,” remarked the British diplomatist, Sir Alexander Cadogan, “is as essential as traffic regulations to control our modern traffic.” The finishing touches were put upon the constitution or Charter of the U.N. in the spring of 1945 at a conference in San Francisco- thus an international ideal cherished over the centuries by isolated thinkers and men of good will was implemented afresh. Fifty-one governments promptly ratified the charter and twenty-five more came in later.

Built upon the experience with the League of Nations, the U.N. embraced six principal branches and over thirty subsidiary agencies or committees. The major elements were a General Assembly, a Security Council, an Economic and Social Council, a Trusteeship Council, a Secretariat and an International Court of Justice.

The General Assembly was the common parliament of all the member nations. Under the Charter, members were committed to promote “international cooperation in the political field,” in “the economic, social, cultural, educational and health fields,” and to aid ” in the realization of human rights and fundamental freedoms for all,” Admission of new states rested with the Assembly; with the consent of the Security Council, the Assembly was empowered to suspend any member . Normally the Assembly would meet once a year, through a session might be called at any time either by the Security Council or by a majority on the U.N. members. Each country would cast one vote in the Assembly. The Security Council resembled international executive committees, functioning continuously. It contained representatives of the “Big Five”-the United States, Britain, the U.S.S.R., France and China-each holding a seat permanently, and six other countries chosen for two for two year terms by the Assembly.

The Security Council resembled an international executive commit, functioning continuously. It contained representatives of the “Big Five”-the United States, Britain, the U.S.S.R., France and China-each holding a seat permanently, and six other countries chosen for two year terms by the Assembly. To the Security Council was assigned the responsibility to investigate quarrels between nations or any situation that might lead to international friction and to propose pacific accommodations.

In case of a persistent threat to peace, the Council might summon U.N. members to apply diplomatic and economic sanctions against the offending country. If necessary, collective armed action might be ordered.

Advisory to the Security Council were a Military Staff Committee and a special atomic Energy Commission, authorized in 1946. The Military Staff Committee, made up of the Chiefs of Staff of the “Big Five,” would command armed contingents put at the disposal of the Council by member nations. (No forces have ever actually been assigned to the Council.) Composed of delegates from the eleven states in the Security Council and from Canada, the Atomic Energy Commission was empowered to deal with international questions and plans bearing upon atomic energy.

Responsibility for carrying out the social and economic objectives of the Charter was entrusted to the Economic and Social Council. Included in the declared purposes was improvement of standards of living and health, betterment of conditions of employment around the globe and international cooperation in educational and cultural affairs. The Assembly would periodically pick eighteen countries to send representatives to the council.

Among the specialized agencies, which operated autonomously, was an Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the center of liaison for intellectual cooperation and research in scientific and social areas. The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) had charge of raising levels of nutrition and bettering the lot of rural populations. A legacy from the League, the International Labor Organization (ILO), sought to improve social conditions of industrial workers of the world. In the realm of finance, an International Bank would provide loans for reconstruction and development projects which were normally unattractive to private foreign capital. An International Refugee Organization (IRO), which assumed the burden of a wartime relief organization spoken of as UNRRA, would care for refugees and displaced persons on the hunt for new homes.

The Trusteeship Council supervised the administration of three classes of dependent lands: pre-war mandated areas, certain territories detached from enemy countries after the Second World War, and any other parcels that might voluntarily be turned over to the jurisdiction of the Council. This body operated under the general authority of the Assembly, except that any territory designated as a “strategic area” passed to the control of the Security Council.

Each government holding a trust territory was pledged to promote the welfare of the area, including measures looking to eventual self-government or independence. Annual reports on conditions in the trusteeships would be transmitted to Council officials, who were privileged to inspect trust areas, if they cared to do so. The Big Five held seats in this Council as well as representatives from other countries holding trusteeships; still others might be named by the Assembly.

The Secretary-General of the U.N. was the executive director of the permanent secretariat, which assisted in the activities of the whole organization. Not only would he act as secretary at meetings of the Assembly and of the three most important Councils, but he might bring before the Security Council any issue that he felt constituted a danger to peace. As first incumbent of this vital and delicate office, the Assembly, on recommendation of the Security Council, elected Trygve Lie, a colorful, broadminded and affable son of Norway. Hundreds of men and women, recruited without regard to nationality, were employed in the various divisions of the U.N.

The International Court of Justice would arbitrate international controversies submitted to it and act as counsel to the U.N. on legal matters. It had no power to force governments to accept its jurisdiction. Fifteen judges would be chosen by the Assembly and the Security Council, and cases would be heard at the Hague Peace Palace, the homes of the original tribunal for disputes between nations.

Altogether the institutionalism of the U.N. was quite elaborate, the end product in fact of a lengthy process of experience and experiment. Checks and balance were provided, as in the Constitutional of the United States, though there was no supreme court to rule on jurisdictional questions. It was plain that the “Big Five” would determine the performance of the U.N. Their power would be exercised principally in the Security Council. An affirmative vote by each of the Big Five was required on any proposition, save questions of procedure; which is to say that collective military action would not be invoked against any of the stronger nations. Stated otherwise, a negative vote or veto by the representative of nay of the Big Five countries could tie the hands of the Security Council on any major decision. It was assumed, however, that the veto would be used sparingly, as a measure of last resort to avoid war between the leading powers. Amendments to the Charter would come into force only after approval by two-thirds of the Assembly and ratification by a similar proportion of member states, including all of the Big Five.

The ability of the United Nations to serve as an effective instrument of security and peace would depend in reality upon the policies and the diplomacy pursued by Soviet Russia, the United States and Britain. In and of itself the United Nations commanded no more authority, no more power than the leading members chose to give it. Well before the U.N. was installed in 1952 in its resplendent home in New York City, the expectations of the more optimistic partisans of the infant institution had been belied. How that came to pass-the failures as well as the achievements of the U.N.-falls in the pages that follow.


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