BootsnAll Travel Community

RE: http://www.bootsnall.com/articles/04-03/the-monk-revolution-myanmar.html

I really enjoyed this article--it brought back so vividly the juxtaposition of Burmese folks' wide smiles with the pain of their situation.

Cheers,

Shannon

The use of idioms in the dialogue was great. The Burmese love idioms. I don't speak Burmese, but apparently the liberal use of idioms is the mark of an eloquent speaker. Every other person I met asked if I could teach them some ...

Yes, the Burmese love their idioms--and since a lot of times they're using pre-war British English primers to learn English from, the results can sometimes be comical. Reminds me of an old encyclopedia entry I saw, where the semaphore alphabet was used to signal to a ship, "Sir, your tea is ready."

Oh dear. I really hope that these are not the monks real names. I also had the opportunity to discuss the state of things with people while I was in Myanmar, but they were adamant that I don't use their real names. In addition to the supposed spy-on-every-corner street belief, it’s also widely believed that the government has an army of people scanning the Internet to keep track of dissident progress abroad, maintaining a visa-blacklist of journalists and other visiting trouble-makers and track down whoever may be working with these people within Myanmar. I don’t know if this is true, but after my visit, I’ll believe anything. I guess the ultimate test will be when/if I ever try to apply for a visa again.

The city of Mandalay is particularly touchy since the government runs most everything. I was relieved to see that the location of their monastery was not divulged.

Otherwise, yes, she nailed it. Great story.