Zarni Myo Win | Traditional Dance Troupes In Myanmar

Photo © Zarni Myo Win | All Rights Reserved

Due to my involvement in a long term project documenting Chinese opera in the Chinese diaspora, my "radar' is finely tuned to discover similar examples of music, drama and dance in Asia...and I discovered Myanmar's traditional dancing form.

As in many other Asian countries, music, dance and drama in Myanmar are a part of everyday life in the country, performed on makeshift stages by the side of the road rather than in elegant venues, and with an audience of chattering and cheering locals gathered for the occasion. Fairs and festivals are often cultural as much as religious in appeal, with traveling troupes of artists performing pwe, a distinctive Burmese blend of theatre, song and dance, mixing slapstick comedy with stories from the great Buddhist and Hindu epics.

In contrast with Chinese opera, which is struggling to survive in certain regions of Southeast Asia, a large number of Burmese troupes travel around the country's villages and during pagoda festivals, staging performances throughout the countryside during the dry season. They perform on temporary bamboo stages, whilst audiences sit on mats spread in front of the stage. 

Although the traditional dance-drama in Myanmar is said to have originated from Siam (nowadays Thailand) through the conquest of Ayutthaya in 1767, when a Burmese king returned with royal Siamese dancers, the similarities (at least backstage) with Chinese opera are striking.

It is such troupes that Zarni Myo Win documents in his wonderful Behind The Curtain project. 

Photo © Zarni Myo Win | All Rights Reserved

Zarni Myo Win is an award-winning photographer from Yangon (Myanmar), who travels around his country to document its culture, lifestyle and heritage. He is currently working on a long term photography project on Myanmar's traditional dancing troupes. His passion is to document the lives of Myanmar traditional opera performers, real life of Myanmar people, and patterns and lines in landscape.

I met Zarni in Kuala Lumpur in 2017 when he received the Overall Winner Award in the Travel Photographer Society competition. He also won many photography awards such as Third Place Winner, National Awards, Sony World Photography Awards, First Place Winner, Portrait & Travel Category of Mobile Photo Awards (2017), Second Place Winner, Others Category, IPPAwards (2017) and iPhone Photographer of the Year, IPPAwards (2018).

Unassuming but exceptionally talented, Zarni epitomizes the new and young talent that is emerging from Myanmar, and it is with considerable impatience that I'm waiting to see more of his work...and that of his peers.

Isabel Corthier | Believers : Myanmar

Photo © Isabel Corthier | All Rights Reserved

It's not often that I stumble over a truly wonderful photographic website, and when it happens, I pore over its images very carefully...as long as it takes and relish the opportunity to share it on this blog.

The work of Isabel Corthier is worth poring over; especially that one its themes "Believers" happens to be one that has attracted me for quite a while during my own photographic journey.

For "Believers", Ms Corthier focuses her lens on Ecuador, Ethiopia, Uganda, Nepal and Myanmar. In the latter, her protagonist is a Buddhist nun called
Ayethikar, who at 21 years was sent to the Agayar Tawya nunnery in Yangon because she was sickly.

A few years later, she contracted Hepatitis C after being treated for dental issues. However, Ayethikar accepts her disease with Buddhist acceptance and equanimity.

The nunnery houses 30 nuns; one of which is 7 years old. The nuns arise from sleep at 4:00 am to start their meditation and for their housework.

Temples and monasteries are an integral part of life in Myanmar. It is estimated that they accommodate about half a million males, who are either vocational monks or novices, and around 50,000 nuns. Roughly-speaking, one percent of the population lives in one of the country's monastery or nunnery, completely dependent on the laity for all their material needs.

Ms Corthier's humanitarian work is prolific; her websites galleries include Refugees, Ex-Child Soldiers, Patients, Workers, Daily Life, Survivors and Believers.

Isabel Corthier is a freelance documentary photographer who works internationally for humanitarian organizations. Her work has been used for fundraising campaigns and communications for NGO’s such as Caritas, Trias, Médecins sans Frontières (MSF – Doctors without Borders), Vredeseilanden (VECO), Louvain Coopération, Ondernemers voor Ondernemers, Solid International and more…

Ms Corthier's work has been exhibited in China (Lishui, Pingyao), India (Calcutta), France (Barrobjectif), and Belgium, and some of her pictures have won awards. In 2014 she received the EP European Photographer certificate.

Since 2015 she has worked as a Fujifilm X-Ambassador for Fujifilm Belgium.

Lee Cohen | A Three Hour Tour

A Three Hour Tour by Lee Cohen on Exposure
The Circular Railway is a local commuter rail network that serves the Yangon (previously known as Rangoon) metropolitan area. It extends over 28 miles, and serves 39 stations in a loop system.

The railway has about 200 coaches, runs 20 times and is said to sell 100,000 to 150,000 tickets daily. The loop, which takes about three hours to complete is heavily utilized by lower-income commuters, as it is (along with buses) the cheapest method of transportation in Yangon. It is also a way to see many areas of Yangon.

It runs daily from 3:45 am to 10:15 pm, and the  cost of a ticket for a distance of 15 miles is about $ 0.18, and for over 15 miles is $ 0.37. These prices are for the locals. The cost for a one-way tocket for non_burmese is $ 1.00.

The circular train stops at each and every station for only a minute or two, forcing passengers to quickly clamber on board, with all sorts of luggage and belongings. It returns back to Yangon’s city station before making the same journey over and over again (about 20 times) throughout the day.

The young boy seen on the cover of the Exposure gallery (above) has his face smothered with thanaka; a cream made by ground bark, and used by the Burmese  for over 2000 years. It is known for giving a cooling sensation, and for providing protection from sunburn.

Lee Cohen has taken the Circular Railway and narrates his experience. He also does not recommend tourists buy the more expensive air-conditioned train/cars, which the locals do not ride. The worthwhile experience is to rub shoulders and interact with the locals who ride the cheaper cars.

Lee Cohen has been working on educational issues around the world for the past ten years. he has a background in policy, monitoring and evaluation, creative and non-fiction writing, and documentary photography.

NEOCHA | The Puppets of Myanmar

Photo © Chan Qu | Courtesy NEOCHA 

The string puppets of Myanmar (previously known as Burma) are called Yoke Thé ( meaning "miniatures"). It originated from royal patronage and were gradually adapted for the wider populace.

The puppets or marionettes are intricately made, and require considerable dexterity as they are "controlled" by 18 or 19 wires for male and female characters respectively, especially as each puppet can only be controlled by only one puppeteer.

It is thought that Burmese marionettes originated around 1780 and were introduced to the courts of the time by a Minister of Royal Entertainment, U Thaw. Little has changed since the creation of the art, and puppet characters are still used today. However, the art went into decline during the colonization of Upper Burma by the British in November 1885 following the Third Anglo-Burmese War.

It is said that because the puppets were mere wooden dolls, their ‘speech’, although voiced by humans, was allowed more freedom during the various reigns of monarchs, and even during the more recent periods. It is curious that all thorough Myanmar's history, the puppets were the only ones who enjoyed some freedom of speech. 

Interestingly, as puppet troupes traveled from village to village in the olden days that had no newspapers or radio, their shows brought news of the capital and other larger towns through the puppets' songs and stories to villagers. Puppet shows were also used to express discontent with the rulers, but cloaked by the voices of the puppets.

A typical Burmese puppet troupe has 27 character figures. These puppets are carved, polished, sanded and painted, before being dressed in hand-stitched costumes; the entire process requires around twenty days of production from start to finish.

You can read more about this art form on NEOCHA.

View this short movie till its end...the agility of the puppeteers is breathtaking.

NEOCHA was stablished in 2006 by a group of Shanghai-based musicians, visual artists, programmers, and entrepreneurs, and has grown to become an award-winning company dedicated to celebrating culture and creativity in Asia.

Its online magazine tells stories by and of these creators, and shares them with a global audience on a new multilingual platform that showcases and celebrates Asia’s burgeoning creative class.

Trupal Pandya | The Last Headhunters

Photo © Trupal Pandya - All Rights Reserved

The Konyaks are found in Myanmar, in a couple of districts of India's Arunachal and Nagaland, India. They are known in Arunachal as Wancho Konyak. In Nagaland, there are sixteen major indigenous tribes with different cultures and traditions. The most fascinating of these tribes are the Konyaks; the largest in number, identifiable by their tattooed faces and a history of fierce headhunting. Headhunting was important place in the Konyaks' tradition and culture.

For the Konyak, killing an enemy and bringing back the head used to be considered a rite​​ of passage, and was rewarded with a tattoo on the face or chest of the warrior. The more tattoos the fiercer (and more respected and feared) was the warrior.

During the 1970's, the Konyaks converted to Christianity and consequently many ​traditional practices and rituals have vanished. What now remains are​ ​a few old men with faded tattoos.These men are idling about certain villages, smoking opium​ and sharing stories about their glorious past.

The Last Headhunters is a series fascinating portraits of the Konyaks by Indian photographer Trupal Pandya.

Trupal has a bachelor’s degree in photography from the Fashion Institute of Technology (NYC), and started his photography a few years ago.  He participated in the Eddie Adams Workshop in 2014 and interned with Steve McCurry. His work was published in CNN, Huffington post and National Geographic Magazine and he has been on an assignment with the United Nations to Iraq to photograph the refugee camps.

His portfolio includes pictures of the tribes of Omo Valley in Ethiopia, Huaorani people of the Amazon Rainforest, Headhunters, Brokpas, Aghoris, eunuchs and shepherds in India. He has traveled to countries like Ethiopia, Ecuador, India, Iraq, and Sri Lanka mainly focusing on communities that are standing on the edge of modernization. 

Berta Tilmantaitė | Burma - Myanmar

Photo © Berta Tilmantaitė -All Rights Reserved

I am saddened by the recent news of a major earthquake affecting Myanmar, and at the loss of life and at the reported damage to over 150 historic pagodas in Bagan...so I was glad to have noticed the work of Berta Tilmantaitė on my Facebook timeline-wall.

It's not as much on Bagan and its pagodas, but is a visual and musical journey through Myanmar, specifically while Berta and a friend were traveling on a public boat from Yangon to Pathein, and onwards to Bagan. They stayed on the deck with all other people - locals, traveling to small villages along the river. I recall taking this public boat at dawn from Mandalay to Bagan, and it was a wonderful trip.

Berta Tilmantaité is a Lithuanian multimedia journalist, photographer and videographer. Her visual stories from different parts of the world often focus on the connection between human and nature. Berta has BA in Journalism from Vilnius University (Lithuania), also took a course in Photojournalism at Danish School of Media and Journalism. She holds MA in International Multimedia Journalism (University of Bolton/Beijing Foreign Studies University). Currently Berta works as a freelance multimedia journalist and photographer. Her work has been published in various media outlets, such as National Geographic, Al Jazeera, Geographical, GEO, Rhythms Monthly, China daily and others. She also occasionally lectures at Vilnius University and VGT University in Vilnius, Lithuania

Wayne Thomas | Myanmar (on Storehouse)

Photo © Wayne Thomas-All Rights Reserved

I'm a great fan of Storehouse, a visual storytelling application for the iPad, which is an easy way to create, share, and discover beautiful stories by combining photographs, videos clips, and text. In fact, I've produced two stories on Storehouse so far, and the number of views on one of them just blew my mind...over 5500 views in a matter of a few weeks.

And I'm glad to see that other photographers have preceded me, and have followed suit. One of these photographers is Wayne Thomas, whose Myanmar, A Nation in Transition has just been published a few days ago. I hope this post will propel his multimedia essay's readership/viewership even further.

It's a great combination of still photographs, short video clips (about 5 of them that loop continuously) and a couple of panoramic photographs of Yangon's Shwedagon Pagoda and of the Kyaiktiyo Pagoda's Golden Rock.

The most arresting photograph in the essay is Wayne's photograph of a woman whose face is completely covered in thick thanakha paste, and some sort of brown-black "third eye" in the center of her forehead. I've never seen anyone with that much thanakha paste before.

Wayne Thomas describes himself as a traveler, storyteller and a grower of facial hair. He traveled to Myanmar and writes that it's a developing country sought after by opportunity seeking corporations and travelers hoping to step back in time.

He's right.

Konstantino Hatzisarros | Burma

Photo © Konstantino Hatzisarros-All Rights Reserved

Ah...Burma (or Myanmar!) It's on the mind of many travel photographers...on their itinerary, or their bucket list...some describe it as a fusion of South and East Asia influences, whether cultural, culinary or physical characteristics.

International tourism to Myanmar is mushrooming to unseen parallels after  being virtually closed off to the rest of the world for almost 60 years. It moved from a military to a more democratic government, and the influx of tourism has increased from 300,000 visitors in 2010 to about a million last year, with 7,000,000 tourists  forecast to visit the country by 2020.

I was fortunate to photograph in Myanmar in 2001 and 2002...when few tourists ventured to these magnificent country; at a time when the choice in hotels was limited and the dial-up internet was almost non-existent.

New York-based Konstantino Hatzisarros brings us his large sized photographs of his travels to Myanmar, including a few of the Chin minorities. While the practice of facial tattooing has largely ceased years ago, some Chin women can still be found bearing these, as it was a rite of passage for them as youngsters. However, the new generation are shunning the practice.

The ritual was officially banned by the then socialist regime in the 1960s, and the tattoos became increasingly rare as Christian missionaries converted the previously animist communities.

Sara O'Brien Callow | The Yangon Loop

Photo © Sara O'Brien Callow-All Rights Reserved

One of my regrets while photographing in Myanmar (twice!) some 10 years ago was missing the Yangon Circular Railway. It's a local commuter rail network that extends for about 30 miles with 39 stations. It has about 200 coaches, runs 20 times and sells 100,000 to 150,000 tickets daily. It takes some three hours to complete, and is a great way to see a cross section of life in Yangon.

The cost of a ticket is the equivalent of $0.09 for the Burmese, and $1.00 for foreigners, regardless of the length of the journey

Like Sara's above photograph and the rest of her photo essay The Yangon Loop, it provides photographers a wonderful opportunity to visually capture the people of Yangon....chatting, sleeping, selling vegetables and tea...etc.

A Foundry Photojournalism Workshop alum, Sara O'Brien Callow started out her photography career in 2011 when working at an Elephant Park in Northern Thailand. It wasn't long before she dedicated herself to documentary photography. Currently based in Melbourne, she has numerous projects in development as well as focusing on the completion of her tertiary studies. 

Also take a look at Sara's Project Grey, which she began during her time at the Elephant Park in 2011 and has been developed further in 2013 with plans to continue in early 2015. It's probably the project closest to her heart.

Sara has taken part in numerous workshops under the guidance of; Andrea Bruce, James Whitlow Delano, Les Walking, Maggie Steber, Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb.

Berta upe Tilmantaitė | Myanmar

Photo © Berta upe Tilmantaite- All Rights Reserved

Viewing Vimeo's Staff Pick "A Handful of Myanmar" made me realize that it had been quite a while since I posted photographs or video of this wonderful country.

Myanmar is currently one of the hottest travel destinations. Tour groups, solo tourists, travel photographers are flocking to this wonderful Asian nation, and its hotels are virtually overbooked. Some may say that this influx of tourism (mostly Western), which increased almost 90% over the past 3 years, will eventually be detrimental to its culture, character and personality. Despite the recent cancellation of large tour groups from the US, the UK, Australia and France, Myanmar is planning for a significant tourist influx in the coming couple of years.

A far cry from when I visited in 2001 and 2002, when tourists were few...partly put off by the country's poor infrastructure and by the notion that tourism helped to retain the military junta in power.

Berta upe Tilmantaite is a Lithuanian multimedia journalist, photographer and story teller, currently based in Vilnius. She obtained her MA in International Multimedia Journalism from the University of Bolton / Beijing Foreign Studies University (Beijing) after graduating from Vilnius University.

I am featuring her work from Myanmar here, but also explore her other galleries of the Himalaya region, Tibet, Indonesia, Borneo, Mongolia, Thailand, Georgia and Portugal. Her video titled A Handful of Myanmar was a Vimeo Staff Pick.