Major Races
| Myanmar Women
Myanmar Women
Princess Thanbyin was
a learned woman - so learned that she had to teach scriptures to
monks! But as it I was improper for women to be in close sight of
monks, a curtain was drawn between her and the monks during J the
teaching sessions. One young monk was so attracted by her voice
that he resorted to a stratagem to see her face: he added six
apocryphal words to his text and read them out during one teaching
session. The princess remarked from behind the curtain that those
: words were not in the text. The young monk insisted | that they
were and asked her to see them for herself. She fell for the ruse
and lifted the curtain to investigate \ his text. Thus he had a
good view of her at close quarters and fell madly in love with
her. In consequence, he refused to take any food and water but
kept muttering her name all the time - another ploy, no doubt!
When the princess heard about it, she eventually agreed to marry
him to save a life. Most Myanmar women have been kind-hearted like
her to this day. The story of Princess Thanbyin wasn't a myth but
a true story that took place in the Bagan Era several hundred
years ago.
Queen Saw, the chief queen of King
Nara Thihapatei, the-King-who-ran-away-from-the-Chinese, was the
most trusted and valued adviser of her husband, not unlike some US
first ladies of these days. Things went well when he took her
advice and when he ignored it for the very first time, he was
assassinated! When the new King failed to seek her advice or pay
attention to her, she masterminded his downfall!
Queen Suphayarlat, the queen of the
last Myanmar King - Thibaw - was the most powerful figure at the
court of Mandalay just before its downfall - even more powerful
than her husband! The King was 'in love with Daing Khin Khin, a
beautiful young lady, but he dared not take her to be a lesser
queen, so great was his respect for his queen's wishes!
If you want more recent examples, there's
the story of Nagar (dragon) Daw Oo of Mandalay who was one of the
most successful entrepreneurs of Myanmar in modern times. She
became a multi-millionaire as a producer of dragon brand cheroots
and spent millions on acts of charity all over the country. Few
people knew or cared to find out who her husband was or what he
did.
Another renowned Myanmar businesswoman was
Sein (Diamond) Ma Pu of Pyinmanar. As the name suggests, she was
an expert on diamonds and made a huge fortune through buying and
selling them and other enterprises. She set a trend in recent
history in donating mega-bucks by giving a modern ward to the
Yangon General Hospital.
Currently also, there are many Myanmar women of
the e calibre of Dragon Daw Oo and Diamond Ma Pu, playing leading
roles in business, social, religious, educational, medical and
other fields. Some of the best-selling novelists at present are
women. When a husband's income is not enough to support the
family, it is usually the wife who makes up the difference by
running a "house-store", dress-making or selling something. In
fact, most of the shopkeepers and shoppers in Myanmar are women.
Husbands may be "rice-winners" in the majority of the cases, but
it is generally the wives who are the actual managers of the
family economy.
When a Myanmar woman marries, her property
does not pass into the possession of her husband. In case of
divorce, she retains most of what she has brought to the marriage.
When Dragon Daw Oo divorced a husband, he got less than one
percent of her immense wealth and he seemed to be satisfied with
what he got! When a husband dies, everything he leaves behind
belongs to the wife and, only when she passes away, to the
children in equal shares. A Myanmar husband cannot "cut off his
wife with a shilling" on his death.
And when a Myanmar woman marries, she doesn't
have to take her husband's name, nor does she have to use her
father's: she retains her own name all her life.
Traditionally Myanmar women wear a
maxi-like wrap-around nether garment called htameinand a jacket.
At present, however, some Myanmar girls and young women have taken
to wearing Western-style dresses. But most of them turn back to
htamein and jacket or blouse when the novelty of the Western look
has worn off or when they grow older.
One unique feature of Myanmar Women is thanakhar- a
pasty make-up obtained by grinding the bark of the thanakhar plant
with water on a circular slab of stone. It is the secret of
Myanmar women's smooth and blemish-free skin. Most women apply it
to their face at one time or another. Some girls wear it in
circular patches on their cheeks. Some old women wear it from head
to foot! No wonder - it has a fragrant smell and it gives a cool
and soothing feeling to the skin. Besides, it is most probably the
best facial protection against the sun in these days of the holey
ozone layer!
Another scent you might get from a Myanmar woman
- especially an elderly one - is that of coconut oil, a
traditional hair-oil of Myanmar women. It is said to be very good
for the hair. To be sure, some sophisticated women have discarded
thanakhar'm favour of foreign-made make-ups and very few apply
coconut oil to their hair these days.
Traditionally, Myanmar women show deference
to their husbands, regarding them as "gods of the front part of
the house". The implication may be that they look upon themselves
as "goddesses of the rear part"! The conventional wisdom is that
men are bread-winners and women are home-makers. Of course, the
roles are reversed sometimes. At such times - in most cases - the
man plays the second fiddle willingly, considering himself to be
in a cushy position to have found a rice-winning wife! The marital
division of labour in Myanmar is this simple: those who can lead,
lead,- those who can't, follow! OK? There is no battle of the
sexes here. That's why our divorce rates are so low compared to
those of highly sophisticated societies.
Another reason is that we Myanmars are not
obsessed with sex, especially the women most of whom consider it
their bounden duty to be demure and chaste. Of course, there are
now some girls and young women who are bold or even brazen by old
standards. In this age of global tourism and instant information,
fashions and practices are highly contagious! No country can stem
the tide of change even if it is for the worse. But the fact is
that virgins still abound in our country. Dating is frowned upon
and promiscuity is a definite no-no. Romantic relationships are
formed, to be sure, but both sides mostly hope that they are for
good. Playing the field is never the intention of most young
people here. Most young lovers go steady as long as they can -
until he leads her to the altar, in most cases. Many of them don't
go all the way before marriage and many women remain virgins until
their wedding nights because, to most men and women here,
virginity is the most highly prized gift a woman can present to
her husband.
Our religion and upbringing have a lot to
do with this attitude of ours. Buddhism teaches that sex is
something to be repressed. Doesn't it lie at the root of many a
crime? Abstinence from adultery is one of the five basic precepts
that Buddhists are expected and urged to keep. When Buddhists
observe sabbath on sabbath-days which occur once a week, they have
to abstain from sex totally! Adultery by a woman or unfaithfulness
to her husband, is considered to be the most heinous social crime.
Besides, the people here are not bombarded with reminders of sex
by advertising, the media and the books because pornography is
strictly censored here- a practice that must be repulsive to
"liberated", permissive, Western thinking of today. On the other
hand, most parents here imbue their daughters with a sense of
modesty. The general understanding here is that good girls don't
flirt or date promiscuously. Is there any wonder that there are so
many virgins here?
Most Myanmar women are religious. Their
daily chores include offering alms-food, water, flowers, lights
and incense before the image of the Buddha at home, offering rice
and curry to monks and novices on alms-receiving rounds, and
praying. Women invariably comprise the majority of all
congregations and they outnumber men at meditation centres too. We
often hear someone say: "If you do this good deed, you will become
a god in the next existence, with five hundred goddesses on either
side." Women must be very pious indeed to outnumber men one to a
thousand in the abode of gods!
The five traditional duties of a Myanmar woman '
are to do household chores, to keep away things securely, to be
faithful to her husband, to share what she can with her husband's
relations and her own, and to work hard.
Now that you know the traditional duties of a
Myanmar woman, you may be curious to know what are her husband's.
Here they are: to be free from disregard towards her, to place his
earnings at her disposal, to abstain from having affairs with
other women, to feed and clothe her and to be kind and loving to
her. Old-fashioned, maybe, but definitely nice, aren't they?
To sum up, Myanmar women play a vital role in society
even if they accept the leadership role of men as a matter of
fact. Women with ability can and do rise to great heights. Most of
them seem to be happy with their lot - to be junior partners in
marriage. This is a little-known secret of happy marriages that
most Myanmar women - and men - enjoy. In deserving cases, women
become de facto heads of the family. They take it for granted
that, generally speaking, males are stronger than females - which
is a fact in virtually all of the animal kingdom - and few of them
begrudge their husbands the leading role. They enjoy rights and
freedoms rarely equalled in many other parts of the world. So they
seem to have little use for Women's Lib Movement raging in some
advanced countries.
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