Life and Society @Myanmar: Dec.27, 2014-Jan. 1, 2015

Following the story of "Pagodas, temples and landscape", I write a story on the "life and the society" of Myanmar.

It was interesting to see how the country was rapidly changing.

The economy was still less-developed and the old lifestyle remained. The monks and temples played important roles. 

Still, new economic development started and the waves of new life style began to creep into the society. The mobile phones were already popular. 

I felt strong energy of the people and the society for future changes.

There is a view that Myanmar is 20-30 years behind China and Vietnam in economic development. I agree to the idea. The cities and towns were messy. 

Automobiles were old and trucks were used for public transportation. People rode on the rear decks (See also the photo 2nd from the top). 

People shop in the local markets and at the open-air stools along the streets. 

Yangon’s Bogyoke Aung San Market, the city’s largest market, looked old.

The presence of the temples and the pagodas is big. There are stalls in and around the temples and the pagodas. I saw people buying tanaka, a tree trunk used for cosmetics, at the stalls in the Kaungmudaw Paya in Sagain, near Mandalay. Families gathered in the building of Shwethalyaung Buddha and enjoyed picnic and daytime sleep(the 3rd photo from the top).

Monks and nuns were everywhere. Monks walked around the cities in the early morning to do their morning services. Kids were taking courses to learn the teaching of Buddha in the temples using their winter holidays (See also the top photo).

The waves of IT (information technology) revolution swept into the traditional lives. People used mobile phones and smart phones everywhere (even in the praying places). 

The monks also used IT goods in sacred places.

Electronic shops opened one after another in central Yangon.

I met the pictures of Aung San Suu Kyi in many places including the open-air shops in the street, local markets, souvenir shops in the airport and restaurants. 

I also visited her house in Yangon. She was absent in the day, but I found some visitors gathering in front of the gate. 

I could connect any internet sites from Yangon although the data transmission speed was slow. The bookshop I visited in Yangon had various books in
both English and Myanmar language. They sold George Owell's 1984, too.