People & culture 4

Chin



Hi. I am Khin who currently live in USA. Sorry for taking long time to write people and culture 4 because I am busy with midterm exam within these weeks. Today I want to talk abot Chin people.

Another term for Chin people is Zomei. There are 153 languages in Chin people. Most of Chin male's name start with Salai or Lia and Chin female's name start with Mai or Taang. They are very innocent and look no worry and tension in their life. Chin people lives are peaceful and simple. In Chin culture, Gayal is very important to trade the things and marry the girl.



Chin women used to have the custom of tattooing (Payae) on the face. The marriage life of Chin people is interesting. After the couple married, they make knife, bow, arrow by themselves and wait for give birth the baby boy. If the wife do not give birth a son, husband can marry up to five wives.

The famous Chin dance is bamboo dance. The dancers dance among the bamboo poles that are hitting together. This dance is very difficult and it needs coordinating between dancers and bamboo holders. In Chin national day, they dance the bamboo dance.

Source: google
www.youtube.com
www.myanmar2.com

People & Culture 3

Karen




Hi. Friend. I am khin who currently study in Capitol College. Today I want to write about Karen people. Actually my blood is a little bit mix with Karen race. My grand-father's mother from mother side is Karen. So I can say that I am Karen too. When I was young, my grandfather's relative taught me how to speak Karen language. I can speak a little bit when I was young. But now I forgot everything. I feel really bad for that.

The Karen people prefer to settle down in the foothills of the mountain. They are very quiet and nice people. Karen people are more than 10 percentage of total population in Burma. There are two main Karen groups Sagaw Karen and Po Karen. In Sagaw Karen group, male's name start with “Saw” and female's name start with “Naw”. In Po Karen group, male's name starts with “Mann” and female's name starts with “Nann”.

The marriages in Karen people are normally arranged. After marriage, a husband will follow to his wife’s home. The Karen dance, Done Yane is very popular and they use this dance in the Karen New Year festival and others.

People & culture 2

Kayah



Hi I would like to introduce myself again. My name is Khin. I want to carry on writing about people in my country, Burma. I already wrote about the Kachin people in my People and culture 1 article. I hope you will enjoy to read that. Now I want to talk about Kayah people.

They are known as Red Karen because of their colored head cloths or shawls. There are many ethics groups in Kayah. The women who wear the brass rings on their neck, arms and legs known as Padaung people are in the Kayah groups. They prefer to call them Kayan. The purpose of wearing ring is for beauty. The ring are started to apply the young girls whose become about five years old.



Kayah people used to call their name using their grandparents’ name. Most of the grandmother and granddaughter share the same name. The traditional Kayah house is on stilts and cattle and pigs are bred under it. There is no window in original Kayah house because their state is cold most of the time.



The national symbol of Kayah state is Kinnare bird that is half human and half bird. Kinnare bird is symbol for love. It means the Kayah people are faithful and caring the other people. Now Kayah has very few population percentage in Burma. The famous festival of Kayah is the Kutobo or Flad Mast festival. It held between March and May.

people and culture 6

Rakhine


Hi. I am Khin. I am really sorry for delay by sending the articles in my blog. I am really busy within these weeks with all my school projects. Today, I want to write about Rakhine people. They are also known as Arakanese. They are 4 percentage of Burma population. According to the Rakhine history, Rakhine is come from Pali word that is Rakshasa means people who keep their race. The majority of Rakhine are Buddhist. They are one of the first groups who follow the Buddha in South East Asia. Rakhine language is very similar to Bamar language with a little bit difference with pronunciation and vocabulary differences. Rakhine families live together under one roof. The men and older people have the most respect in family but the women actively make the family decision. The marriages in Rakhine people are mostly arranged. Monogamy is the practice to their culture. When a couple married, the man moved to the wife’s family house. In Rakhine community, Monk is the highest position and Rakhine treat monks with utmost respect in their culture. The famous festival in Rakhine is Thin bok Swoon means offer food to Buddha. It held around November. In festival, they offer food, oil lamps and flower to Buddha images. They believed that this ceremony can bring peace and prosperity to the whole country and health and happiness can come to the people. This traditional ceremony started about two thousand years ago and they still continue to present time. The dance offering oil lamps to Buddha is the famous dance of Rakhine people.


Shan



Shan people are largest minority group in Burma. They are known as Tai means freeman. There are about 35 types of Shan people. 75 percentage of Shan population are Buddhist. They are gentle and peaceful people. Their culture is related with Chinese and Thai. But they have their own language, literature and history. Their greeting style is placing the palms together in front of the face. Shan people are not practice arranged marriage. Once the girl chose the man, the man has to meet with girl’s parents to get the approval. The groom has to give gifts to bride’s side. After the couple had approval from parents, they try to establish their independent household.

The famous ceremony for Shan people is Taunggyi Balloon festival. Taunggyi is the name of the city of Shan state. At that time, they launched many balloons in the shape of animals or many kinds of styles to the sky. It held around November.

One group of Shan people named Intha are very famous in Burma. They live in Inle lake mean small lake in Shan state. The transportation on the lakes is small boat. Their rowing style of the boat is unique. They stand at the stern on one leg and wrapping the other leg around the oar.

People and culture 1.

People in Burma




My name is Khin. I am a citizen of Burma. Today I want to write about people who live in Burma. There are 135 races in Burma. The major races are Kachin, Kayah, Karen, Chin, Mon, Burma, Rakhine and Shan. There are also other races like me.

Kachin



Kachin is derived from Red Soil. Jinghpaw is the other term for Kachin people. They are very friendly. Most of them are Christian.











They are good dancers and the "Manaw" dance is very popular. They normally dance this Manaw Dance at the Manaw festival. I do not have the chance to see the Manaw dance personally until now. But I had seen before on TV when I lived in Burma. It's very beautiful. Manaw Festival celebrates around first week of January every year. At that time, many people from all over the places of Burma join the festival. In the picture, you can see many people are dancing in the field.



To marry Kachin female, male have to offer the dowry to her parents. Quantity and quality are depended on the demand from the bride’s parents. They are very honest and pure in heart. They like to treat the guest in their homes or help the poor people.



Photo sources:

www.myanmartravelinformation.com
www.travelsmyanmar.com
www.myanmarpolestar.com

language

Language



Hi. I am Khin who can speak Burmese langauge fluently. The official language of my country is Burmese language. There are 33 characters in Burmese language.


In Burma, we need to learn Burmese language from kindergarten. Burmese character is look like cycle. See the picture. Most of people use Burmese language to communicate with one another.



There are also many ethnic groups in Myanmar such as the Mon, Shan, Pa-O and many others who continue to speak their own languages. And also have Chinese and Indian. I am a Chinese Burma. My great grand-father is originally come from China. He came to Burma to make business and finally he settle down in Burma because he fall in love with Burmese girl who will become my great grand-mother. In my family, even we are Chinese Burma, we cannot speak Chinese and do not follow Chinese culture. In Burma, it is very rare to find anyone who does not speak Burmese.

What is Burma / Myanmar?

Hi. My name is Khin who was born in Burma. Burma is very beautiful country with full of natural resources. Myanmar (former Burma) is located in South East Asia. It is bordered by China, Thailand, Lao, India and Bangladesh.
Our population is about 52.4 millions. 89.2 percent of population believes in Buddhism and there are also Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Chinese and some animists. There are many races in Burma. The major races are 8 races. I will explain details in next topic. 80% of Myanmar speaks the official Myanmar language.
Burma has tropical climate with three seasons: the hot season; summer from March to April, the rainy season, from May to October; the cool season; winter from November to February. The weather in Burma is not cold or hot as here. When I live in Burma, I did not have chance to see snow.

Currently Burma is ruled by Military dictator. But it is not always this way. If we see the history of Myanmar (Burma), the first Empire of Burma was founded in 1044 A.D by King Anawrahta. The second Burma Empire is founded in mid 16 century by King Bayinnaung. The Last Burma Dynasty was founded in 1752 by King Alaungpaya. After three Anglo-Myanmar Wars in 1825, 1852 and 1885, Burma became British colony. At the Second World War, Burma was controlled by Japan from 1942 to 1945. Burma was granted independence in January 4th in 1948 because an effort of leader Aung San, the father of country.He was assassinated before independence. From 1950 to 1962 Myanmar was led by Prime Minster U Nu. At that time, the government had to deal with rebelling by ethics groups. In 1962, General Ne Win took over the control. Myanmar became under the military control. In 1974, General Ne Win announced himself as President of Myanmar (Burma). From 1947 to 1988, Burma was ruled by socialist system.

In 1988, people are not happy with socialism and asked to end the socialism to change the democratic system. In August 1988, a big huge uprising happened in Burma's history around the country. Military took over the power of nation again at that time and they change Burma into Myanmar. But we, Burmese people like to use Burma. Until now, Burma is ruled by military government.