Wai Yan Hpone

FOR Westerners, Cupid, the Roman god of love, is the one who helps them open their hearts. For Myanmar Buddhists, naphuza , or the Brahma’s writing on the brows of every baby on the sixth day after birth, is the main factor that predetermines their future better-halves. Whether fixed by Cupid’s arrow, the Brahma’s brow writing or one’s kamma from a past life, marriage is seen by most Myanmar Buddhists as one of three enduring things in one’s life. Along with the other two, the building of a pagoda and tattooing, it is regarded as a once-in-a-lifetime occasion. So significant is marriage for Myanmar people that planning for and conducting the wedding day’s ceremonies and celebrations is one of the most important tasks of an entire lifetime. Modern lifestyles and needs, however, are beginning to change many of the traditional wedding practices that have held forth among Myanmar’s couples for generations. First among the changes is how a new marriage is recognised by the communi...

Mandalay royal moat and city wall (Pic: Tourism Myanmar) I wish you ever pay a visit to Shwe Man once It’s an enjoyable place, it’s our iconic city So beautiful with waters shimmering And emerald-green palace walls With turrets and banquettes Surrounded by the moat All bright in the sunlight reflecting HUMMING Shwe Man Si Tho [To Golden Mandalay], a famous song in praise of Mandalay, I set foot on the grounds of our former royal city. Surrounded by the dark Shan Plateau far to the east, Mandalay Hill to the north, and the Sagaing Hills across the Irrawaddy River to the west, enchanting Mandalay immediately captivated me, a Yangonite. My former doubts about the city’s reputation, expounded in many songs and poems, suddenly disappeared. I felt like a foreigner experiencing Myanmar for the first time. Women riding motorcycles; old, nearly empty reconstructed wooden-frame Chevrolet buses from World War II that moved slowly; beautifully designed buildings; clean streets intersecting at righ...