Life in Myanmar : Embracing Her Culture

** This post is also due to appear on Vanity Shack sooooon!

Don't we look royale? :)

Mingalabar!  

Last week, MOH and I did something rather crazy to celebrate our 3^rd year wedding anniversary – our first celebration in Yangon. We went to get some wedding portraitures done in full traditional Myanmar costumes – along with the headgear and make-up and a fake bun. Oh – and not forgetting the Myanmar props too. It wasn’t really planned. We were doing our usual Sunday walkabout in town and stumbled across the photo studio and at the spur of the moment, we decided to do it.

It was actually rather fun – despite the fact that I do have problems with make-up and I insisted on not having any hairspray for my … err fake bun. The outcome was some pretty funny wedding portraits of the both of us. What was even more joyful was the fact that the entire crew was simply delighted that we did this. This donning of their traditional costumes and taking wedding photos – wedding is a really big thing here in Myanmar. The crew was excited, chattering away and bringing out all the selection of jewelleries, fake buns no exception.

MOH got dressed in the traditional men's attire – a silk longyi, specifically the taung shay longyi, a long sleeve stiff collared shirt, the head-dress known as the gaung baung, complete with matching velvet slippers. And the girls dressed me up rather excitedly in matching htain-me-thein, which is a three-piece ensemble consisting of the angyi (top blouse) and the longyi. Instead of a veil, the Myanmar women have a shawl that is hand-stitched with the finest blings you can imagine. Of course, for the photo shoot, it was just bling-bling. I don’t think it would matter too much if I, say… accidentally dropped one of the crystals from my blouse or my shawl. Apparently, the sparkly effects of the blings are pretty important for the brides here.

Now, there were 3 other groups of customers at the studio the other day and when they saw us elegantly dressed in the full traditional get-up, they gave their smiles and nods of approval. They were equally excited, clapping their hands and all that. We were amused. We were probably one of the first few foreigners who have done this. Though, I suspected some of the excitement was more because I was walking like a robot! Man, the baju was seriously tight and I know not how to walk in a longyi. What’s more, there was a very heavy shawl trailing behind me. I was afraid of tripping over it and shredding it to pieces. This demure-like attire just wasn’t me. But well, we were here to have fun, and have fun we did.

When the photo shoot commenced, we had even more laughs – from ourselves, the photographer and our willing audiences. The photographer was posing us from head to fingers right down to our toes. It was hilarious! We laughed so much, he laughed too. But MOH says, go with the flow. And mind you, they don’t quite fancy shots where we weren’t looking at the camera. “Look here please! Look here please!”

 To say Myanmar is rich in culture is understating it. Culture comes in many forms and we’re not just talking about the traditional ones (which is heavily influenced by Buddhism). There’s also other “cultures” such as umbrellas. Umbrella is a common culture here in Myanmar. Everyone – young, old, cool, nerdy – carries an umbrella. The most popular sales promotion giveaways are umbrellas – particularly during the monsoon season (which some advertisers call the “Monsoon Sale”. LOL!). Raincoats are mostly confined to security guards, traffic police or trishaw-riders. I’ve never really carried an umbrella in my life. I found them to be ‘uncool’ and just cumbersome. I still try not to here – more for the cumbersome factor rather than the cool factor since it obviously isn’t cool NOT to have an umbrella with you, but on the occasion where I have to, then I take one along with me. MOH has a small single one and we bought a medium-sized one too – for when we are walking together :)

The second most popular giveaway for sales promotion is the tiffin lunchboxes. This is also a big culture here. Everyone, from blue collar to white collar, from executives to management carries a lunchbox to work. Well, ok, almost everyone :) They even have ‘lunch baskets’ for sale at the supermarkets – it consists of a basket that holds your tiffin, your drink bottle, your snack as well as your small brolly. These are sold as sets at the supermarkets. Very cute. I got a pretty nice thermos lunchbox for MOH for him to take to work. As for me, as much as I want to get one of these lunch basket sets myself (sooo cute!!), I don’t work full day and as such, have no need to bring a lunchbox.

I’m still learning the language. And despite the teacher’s and my regular taxi driver’s best efforts in helping me with the language, I am doubtful that I can master it. Though I think the language does open the door to learning more of Myanmar and her culture – both the traditional and the non-traditional ones.

MOH and I are having a lot of fun learning about Myanmar’s culture. It’s good that it is almost unspoilt for now, and we wonder when the waves of development would wash these cultures ashore. Till that happens, we’ll continue learning and exploring Myanmar by embracing it. I think it’ll be a matter of time before MOH wears a longyi to work. But me – no, no. I cannot be walking like a robot all day. The Myanmar traditional wear for females really gives a sense of ‘female-ness’ and for those who knows me – I can do this for 2 hours. Anything more than that, I might start swearing. That won’t be very cultural.

So, till the next time around folks! I hope to be introducing some of Myanmar’s cuisine to you in the next article. But for now – enjoy our traditional wedding pix on my FB page and have a great time ROFL!