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The Archives
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01.11.08Burmese NamesUnlike western names, there is no family name in Myanmar. Women keep their maiden names upon marriage, and children can have names which bear no relation to their parents’ names. Burmese names are either one, two or three syllables. One syllable names (e.g. Ba, Mya, Hla) are no longer in used as they are so outdated although you can still find this name in some older people. Two syllable names (e.g. Zaw Moe, Khin Hla, Tin Oo, Tin Naing, Thet Wai) are mostly found in middle aged people. They are considered outdated by many parents. Three syllable names are ...
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01.09.08Nhit-Lone, Thone-LoneWell, nhit-lone and thone-lone are illegal lotteries popular and widespread in Myanmar. Nhit-lone means two-digit and thone-lone means three-digit. Although thone-lone has been around in Myanmar for more than twenty years, nhit-lone gained popularity just a few years ago. To play thone-lone (three-digit), the lottery ticket vendors use the last three digit of the Thai National Lottery. This Thai lottery is held once every two weeks, so thone-lone's winning number is also announced every two weeks. Winner gets 600 times the amount he paid for the ticket. To play nhit-lone, the vendors used, in the past, the last two digits ...
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01.08.08Payae Facial TattooPeople in Chin Hills used to have the custom of tattooing (Payae) the face of the women. Nobody is really sure how the custom became established, but a legend was that hundreds of years ago, Burmese kings and nobles used to come to Chin Hills and hunt for the beautiful Chin girls, as the fame of their beauty reached the court of Burma. To avoid their women being captured by the Burmese, they had no way but to destroy this beauty. This they done by tattooing the face of young girls.Although nobody could authenticate the validity of this story, ...
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07.17.07Teashops in MyanmarTeashops are important and integral part of life in Myanmar. As a foreigner who first arrives to Myanmar, you will be surprised to see so many teashops in Yangon and everywhere in Myanmar. They are everywhere in every street. And there are always customers in every teashop. Nowhere in South-East Asia would you find such a large number of teashop. When I was young, there were not as many teashops as now. And the attitude of our parents was that “sitting at a teashop” is a waste of time. We, me and my friends, were always told not to sit ...
