I Dream of Myanmar

A Country of Many Faces

This summer I had the honor and privilege of visiting Myanmar (Burma). Prior to this, I had only naively heard of Myanmar in passing through colleagues who had visited on vacation (since opening up to tourism) and through the much popular Anthony Bourdain special. Since then, my eyes have been opened to a country that has had one of the most tumultuous political, economic, military, religious histories in the world. The country and people are incredibly beautiful, though the state of transparency and democracy in Myanmar is extremely fragile. I would encourage those who haven’t heard of Myanmar or it’s history to read up. It’s really a shame that in today’s day and age, more people know about Keeping Up with the Kardashians than the story of Myanmar.

To that end, these are three items that I wanted to share about the country (and of course, there are many, many others):

Bagan: the city that tramples on enemies. The Mandalay region of Myanmar houses one of the most beautiful cities in the world called Bagan. The city was the capital of the Kingdom of Pagan, where during the peak of the kingdom over 10,000 Buddhist temples, pagodas, and monasteries were constructed. Even today, there remain 2,229 temples and pagodas with magnificent architecture. Many have equated the city as equal in attraction to Angkor Wat in Cambodia. Having been to both places, my vote is for Bagan where the sheer magnitude of 2,000+ temples and pagodas set across a beautiful horizon is astounding.

Aung San Suu Kyi: vision of democracy. Aung San Suu Kyi is a Myanmar political leader, chairperson for the National League for Democracy (“NLD”), and one of the most influential women in the world. Although the NLD won the majority of national votes and seats in Parliament in the 90's, the ruling military regime refused to recognize the results and Aung San Suu Kyi was placed under house arrest for almost 15 years. During her house arrest, she had to make the bold decision to choose her country over her husband and family (her husband passed away from cancer in the UK, but she feared she would be refused re-entry if she left to visit). In 1991, she was honored with the Nobel Peace Prize. In 2013, she announced that she wanted to run for the presidency in Myanmar’s 2015 election.

Muslims: persecution of a group. Myanmar has a Buddhist majority and the Theravada tradition is practiced by 89% of the country’s population. The Muslim minority consists of the Rohingya people and the descendants of Muslim immigrants. The Muslim population in Myanmar has been subject to persecution since as early as 1550 AD through restrictions on Muslim subjects and as recently as July 2014 when riots broke out on the streets. Amesty International has even recognized that the persecution of Muslims in Myanmar is a human rights violation.

Myanmar can be associated with the beautiful people, food, and surroundings and just as easily with extreme unrest within the government, economy, and ethnic groups. I would suggest studying up on all facets of what makes Myanmar. For those who may eventually visit, I would highly encourage researching all travel services to ensure that the flow of funds goes to the appropriate individuals.

With that, I leave a quote from Aung San Suu Kyi that “Freedom and democracy are dreams you never give up.” Hence, I look optimistically toward a better and brighter future for Myanmar.