Filed under: art and ideas | Tags: Amir Muhammad, documentarian, filmmaker, Institute of Alternative Histories and Popular Culture, Malaysia, pansodan gallery, Rangoon, Yangon
Pansodan Gallery is pleased to host Amir Muhammad for an afternoon of conversation, thanks to the Institute of Alternative Histories and Popular Culture. Amir Muhammad is a clever writer and witty independent filmmaker based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He has had a had an extraordinary career, which he will discuss on Sunday afternoon. Two of his films, Apa Khabar Orang Kampung (Village People’s Radio Show) and The Last Communist have been banned in Malaysia; others were never submitted to censorship, and so have never been released publicly. They have titles like The Year of Living Vicariously and The Big Durian.
His works have featured in international film festivals including the Sundance Film Festival and the Berlin International Film Festival, and a full retrospective of his work was screened at the 2008 Pesaro Film Festival, Italy. He is a partner at Da Huang Pictures.
He was born in Kuala Lumpur and was educated in law at the University of East Anglia. He has been writing for Malaysian print media since the age of 14, notably the New Straits Times. He notes that this says more about the standard of journalism in Malaysia than about his writing skills.
He has been taking a break from filmmaking for the past five years, and started publishing non-fiction books in under his company Matahari Books. He has written several books, including Yasmin Ahmad‘s Films (2009), Rojak (ZI Publications, 2010), 120 Malay Movies (2010), Malaysian Politicians Say the Darndest Things series (Matahari Books).
The talk will take place in the extension space, at 4 o’clock.
270 Pansodan, third floor (upper block)
Kyauktada, Yangon. Mobile: 0951 30846
Contacts: Phyo Win Latt 095172795, Aung Soe Min 095130846
Travel in Myanmar is full of adventure, humour, frustration and amazement, and Judyth Gregory-Smith, the least self-aggrandising travel writer I have ever read, conveys all this in her new book, Myanmar: A Memoir of Loss and Recovery.
The book is a well-observed account of places and people and her deeper involvement over the course of several years of visits. This is a great book to give to people who enjoy reading about scenes and life in Myanmar in these years, whether they have been here or not, and (aside from its sobering prologue) a highly amusing and deftly written book which freshens our sense of why we love this country so much, even now during the crashing monsoon and heavy weather.
The author will read from the book and answer questions at Pansodan Art Gallery, Tuesday 26 June 2012, at 3:00. Myanmar: A Memoir of Loss and Recovery is available online, has a facebook page with the photographs in colour, and will later be available in quantity on the shelves. For now, we have just the irrepressible writer reading from her work, and talking about her projects.
Filed under: art and ideas | Tags: Aung Soe Min, မျိုးညွန့်ခင်, မြင့်စံမြင့်, ရဲမင်း, အိမ်အေးကျော်, အောင်စိုးမင်း, Carlos Sardiña Galache, Eain Aye Kyaw, ein aye kyaw, myint san myint, myo nyunt khin, pansodan gallery, Rangoon Daily, Sai Htun Oo, Yè Min
The Gallery Owner of Rangoon, by Carlos Sardiña Galache, published in FronteraD. Click here for original article, which features even more pictures. This article has been translated into English and slightly edited for the Web. All photographs are by Carlos Sardiña Galache.
On the first floor of a dilapidated building in
downtown Rangoon, a narrow staircase leads up to a small space that probably hold more contemporary art per square meter than anywhere else in the city: the Pansodan Gallery. Unlike other galleries, such as those at Bogyoke Aung San market that only sell paintings with “exotic” themes to satisfy the wildest orientalist fantasies of tourists, Pansodan reveals an art scene far richer than one would expect in a country like Myanmar (Burma) — mired in poverty, isolated for years from the rest of the world, and tightly controlled by one of the most repressive dictatorships in the world.
In its three years, the gallery, open every day of the week until six in the evening, has become a meeting place for artists and art enthusiasts. Burmese and foreigners all visit the gallery, not only to buy or sell pieces of art, but to have a tea, exchange ideas, attend a poetry reading, or simply to relax for a short while. The gallery’s owner, Aung Soe Min, is a gentle and kind man that welcomes visitors with Burmese hospitality, and always relaxed and happy to answer any questions.Aung Soe Min was born 41 years ago in a small town in central Burma. Testifying to the country’s isolation, he says he never met a foreigner until he was twenty-five years old. After studying engineering, he spent several years in the publishing business and began collecting books. Today it has one of the largest libraries of Burma, and is visited by scholars from around the world.
During those years, Aung Soe Min met numerous writers and artists, and seeing that that the country lacked the “infrastructure and market necessary for artists to distribute their works,” he decided to open his own gallery in 2005. It took him three years, but in 2008, after overcoming many obstacles and using the profits he made from selling “three especially valuable paintings” he was able to buy a property on downtown Pansodan Street, close to the old colonial neighbourhood at the heart of the city, and open his gallery.
Sai Htun Oo : Two goldfish
“At that time there were several galleries in Rangoon, but the majority catered exclusively to foreign clients. Burmese people did not even visit many of these galleries, or if they did it was only when accompanying a foreigner. What I’m trying to do here is create a space that’s open to the whole world,” says Aung Soe Min. His purpose isn’t only to “sell paintings, but also awaken Burmese people’s interests in the arts. When people say that I promote artists, I say no, I’m promoting a public.”
It’s not easy being an artist in Burma. The poverty, lack of opportunity, and scarce knowledge of or interest in contemporary art make developing an artistic career far more difficult than in other countries. One of the young artists that displays his work at the Pansodan Gallery, Ein Aye Kyaw, made a hard living painting by commission, especially traditional landscapes after studying zoology and fine arts at the University of Rangoon. He decided to devote himself professionally to art five years ago when he saw a man painting on his street and thought “he’s the only person that really looks tranquil and happy.” That man became his first teacher.
Ein Aye Kyaw with his painting
Ein Aye Kyaw’s paintings are of a simple, impressionist style that he polishes in each painting, depicting ordinary scenes or images that, as he explains, draw you in without your really knowing why – an old taxi in the rain, a child playing in a park, or the strange structure of the Arakanese Kingdom, a half-pagoda, half-military fort palace that came to him after seeing an official building in Naypyidaw, Burma’s new capital that the military junta built in the middle of the jungle six years ago.
Toothed Guitar, by Yè Min
Looking around the gallery, one may find the expressive sculpture by the artist Ye Min: a guitar with teeth in the sound hole biting its own strings. The gallery also exhibits portraits of the Burmese democratic opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, which would have been unthinkable just a few months earlier. In any case, government control over the arts is not as strict as with literature or the press. “The government simply isn’t interested and doesn’t care about art. They don’t help us, but they don’t cause problems either. They ignore us,” comments Aung Soe Min.
But artistic freedom is sometimes constrained by prejudice and bias. Burmese society is profoundly conservative and does not tolerate, for example, the exhibition of nudes, nor is it legal. At the same time, the art world is imbued with a sense of tradition and hierarchy, turning itself into a closed shop where innovation is not
always well received. The rejection of modern art forms in Burmese art dates back to the colonial era, when for many years “Western” influence was considered a threat to the cultural purity of the nation. Painters like Bagyi Aung Soe (1924-1990), considered by many to be the father of modern Burmese art, fought a long cultural battle for the acceptance of artistic ideas that were looked down upon as “foreign” by the purists. From this arose the expression “crazy art” to describe modern and abstract art.
Aung San Suu Kyi portrait by Myint San Myint
This battle has not yet come to an end, but the pieces on exhibit at the Pansodan Gallery show the growing presence of contemporary artistic styles, and that realist art lives side by side with the abstract, the expressionist, or pop. The Burmese artistic scene is very eclectic, and has seen a slight boom in recent years, as well as a surge in interest overseas. Several artists now exhibit their works in neighbouring countries, as well as the United States and United Kingdom.
Myo Nyunt Khin : Shan Dance
Nonetheless, very few Burmese people can buy paintings or sculptures, even though nearly half of the buyers at Pansodan are from Burma. With the art market so underdeveloped, people rarely buy works as an investment, a trait which differentiates them from collectors in other countries. According to Aung Soe Min, for a Burmese person “buying a painting is a personal decision.” Another peculiarity in Burma is that people like to collect, almost obsessively, the largest number of works as possible from a single artist. “They don’t care if they have one hundred paintings from only one painter. Often, they store the paintings and alternate them on the walls of their homes.”
Cover of The Rangoon Daily, 5 December 1964
Mausert is convinced that the project will help shed light on the recent history of Burmese art, especially as the vast majority of painters combine their personal artistic careers with other commercial work like advertising or comics, a very popular genre in the country, however “the artistic value of these commercial works is not decreased when they do more serious art. There is no stigma against painters doing commercial work, and both activities influence each other.”
“The historiography of Burma has suffered many distortions in recent years,” explains Soe Min. “In any case, it is based on the texts, not the images produced by society, which aren’t treated with why importance when it comes time to reconstruct history. Hardly anybody values these kinds of things, and I think they should be conserved in a museum.” Faced with neglect by the government, the conservation of the visual legacy of the country, as well as promotion of cultural and artistic life, depends almost exclusively on the enthusiastic work of people like Aung Soe Min.
Filed under: art and ideas | Tags: မောင်သာလင်း, ရွှေစိုးဟန်, maung tha lin, shwe soe han, shwesoehan
See Shwe Soe Han’s images here. English version of this post coming in December; there are more posts in English (and a bit in Burmese) below.
This is in Unicode; if it is not displaying correctly, download a Unicode font. For a Mac OS 10.7 that should be enough. For pre-2012 Windows and pre-10.7 Macs you may need to download at add-on to your Chrome or Firefox such as Parallel Universe.
ရွှေစိုးဟန်က ရွှေစိုးဟန်ပါပဲ
၁
“နှစ်တစ်ရာ (ရာစုတစ်ခေတ်) အတွင်းမှာ အာလုံးဟာခေတ်ပြိုင်တွေချည်းဖြစ်တယ်”
အဲဒီစကားကို ကွယ်လွန်သူ ဆရာကြည်အောင်က ပြောခဲ့တယ်။
အဲသလိုဆို….ဆရာဒဂုန်တာရာကနေ…ကိုမိုဃ်းဇော်…ကိုကြည်မောင်သန်းတို့လို မော်ဒန်လူငယ်တွေထိ အားလုံးဟာခေတ်ပြိုင်ပဲပေါ့… သဘောတူရဲ့လား…လက်ခံနိုင်ရဲ့လား… မောင်လေးအောင်လည်းခေတ်မကုန်သေးဘူး။ မောင်သင်းခိုင်လည်း ခေတ်မကုန်သေးဘူး။ အောင်ချိမ့်လည်း ခေတ်မကုန်သေးဘူး.. ဖေါ်ဝေးလည်းခေတ်မကုန်သေးဘူး။ မောင််ချောနွယ်လည်း ခေတ်မကုန်သေးဘူး အဲသလိုပြောရင်သဘောတူမှာလား ထခုန်ငြင်းမှာလား။ ကဗျာဆရာတွေဘယ်လောက်သဘောထားကြီးနိုင်သလဲ။
၂
ကဗျာဆရာတွေ ဘယ်လောက်သဘောထားကြီးနိုင်သလဲ
အဲဒါကိုတွေးမိတဲ့အခါ ပန်းချီဆရာ ဗဂျီအောင်စိုးပြောတဲ့စကားကိုပြေးသတိရမိတယ်။
“ရွှေစိုးဟန်က ရွှေစိုးဟန်ပါပဲ” တဲ့
ဆရာဗဂျီအောင်စိုးကို ” ဆရာနဲ့ ရွှေစိုးဟန်ဟာ ခေတ်ပြိုင်လား ” လို့သွားမေးစရာမလိုပါ။ ဆရာဗဂျီအောင်စိုးကိုယ်တိုင်က-
“ရွှေစိုးဟန်ဟာ ဗဂျီအောင်စိုးရဲ့တပည့်မဟုတ်ပါဘူး
ရွှေစိုးဟန်က ရွှေစိုးဟန်ပါပဲ
ကျွန်တော်နဲ့တွေ့လို့ ရွှေစိုးဟန်ဖြစ်တာမဟုတ်ပါဘူး
ရွှေစိုးဟန်ဖြစ်လာမယ့်သူက ရွှေစိုးဟန်ဖြစ်လာမှာပါပဲ” အဲသလိုပြောခဲ့ဖူးတယ်။
ဆက်မပြောပေမယ့် ဆရာဗဂျီအောင်စိုးရဲ့စိ်တ်ထဲက ပြောလိုက်တဲ့ စကားကိုကျွန်တောကြားလိုက်ရသလို
“ဗဂျီအောင်စိုးလည်း ဗဂျီအောင်စိုးရဲ့ကိုယ်ပိုင်စတိုင်နဲ့
ရွှေစိုးဟန်လည်း ရွှေစိုးဟန်ရဲ့ကိုယ်ပိုင်စတိုင်နဲ့”
ဟုတ်တယ် သူ့နှုတ်ဖျားက မပြောလိုက်ပေမယ့်သူ့မျက်နှာက အဲသလိုပြောတယ်လို့ယုံကြည်တယ်။ ဒီစကားရဲ့ အရင်းအမြစ်ဟာ “အားလုံးခေတ်ပြိုင်ပါပဲ” လို့လက်ခံထားတဲ့ အဇ္စုတ္တမှာ ရှိနေတယ်လို့ ကျွန်တော်ယုံတယ်။
၃
မဂ္ဂဇင်းထဲမှာ သရုပ်ဖော်ပုံတွေကို ကြည့်ရင် (လက်မှတ်ထိုးမထား နာမည်ဖေါ်ပြမထားခဲ့ရင်တောင်) ဒါ ဗဂျီအောင်စိုးလက်ရာ… ဒါ စန်းလွင်…. ဒါ အုန်းလွင်…ဒါ ဘလုံလေး…ဒါ ဦးဘကြည်…ဒါ မြတ်ကျော်…ဒါ ပန်းချီမောင်ငွေထွန်း…ဒါ လှစိုး…..ဒါ ကိုလေး…ဒါ သောင်းဟန်…ဒါ တင်လှဝင်း (ထင်)…ဒါ ကျော်သောင်း…. ဒါ စံတိုး၊ မောင်ဒီပြောနိုင်တယ်။ လိုင်းကိုမြင်တာနဲ့ သူတို့စတိုင်ဟန်ကိုပါသိပြီးသား အဲသလိုပါပဲ ကျော်ဖြူစံ၊ မုတ်သုန်၊ တဂိုးမျိုး၊ ဖေညွှန့်ဝေ၊ ရွှေစိုးဟန် မြင်ရုံနဲ့သိတယ်။ သူတို့မူ သူတို့ဟန်က ရှိပြီးသားပေါ်လွင်ပြီးသား ‘ ခေတ်ပြိုင် ‘ လို့ပြောနိုင်တဲ့ရင်ခုန်သံချင်းတူညီနေတာမို့ မတူတာက လက်ရာ ကိုယ့်လက်ရာကိုယ့်အနုပညာနဲ့ ခေတ်ပြိုင်ကာလကိုထင်ဟပ်နေပြီးသား။
၄
၁၉၈၂ နောက်ပိုင်းမှာ ဒိုင်ယာရီ ရေးလေ့ကို အကြောင်းမညီညွတ်လို့ စွန့်လွှတ်ခဲ့ပေမယ့် ဆရာဗဂျီအောင်စိုးရဲ့ ‘ ရွှေစိုးဟန်က ရွှေစိုးဟန်ပါပဲ ‘ ဆိုတဲ့စကားကို ရန်ကုန်မင်္ဂလာဒုံမှာ ကျွန်တော်တို့ မိသားစုဘဝသောင်တင်နေတုန်းကာလ (၁၉၈၃-၈၅) အတွင်း နေ့တစ်နေ့မှာ ကြားခွင့်ရခဲ့တာပါ။
မှတ်မှတ်ရရ မြိုင်က ပန်းချီဆရာ ၀င်းမောင် (ခဝဲခြံမှာနေတုန်းကာလ ဝင်းမောင်မောင်) လည်းကျွန်တော်နဲ့အတူ မင်္ဂလာဒုံနေရန်ကုန်ထဲဆင်းလာတဲ့ နေ့တစ်နေ့၊ ကန်တော်ကလေးမြန်မာ့ဂုဏ်ရည်လမ်းထဲက ‘ သဘင် ‘ မဂ္ဂဇင်းတိုက်ဆီအလာ အယ်ဒီတာ ကိုချစ်ဦးညို နဲ့အတူ ပန်းချီဆရာ တစ်သိုက်ရှိနေနှင့်တာကိုတွေ့လိုက်ရတယ်။ ဗဂျီအောင်စိုး ကိုဒီ ဖေညွန့်ဝေ သူတို့သုံးယောက်
နားလေးနေပြီဖြစ်တဲ့ဆရာဗဂျီအောင်စိုးကို ကိုဒီက နှုတ်နဲ့ စကားပြောတာမဟုတ်ဘဲ စာနဲ့ ရေးပြ စကားပြောနေတဲ့အချိန်မှာ ကျွန်တော်တို့ရောက်သွားခဲ့တာ ဆရာဗဂျီအောင်စိုးကတော့ နှုတ်နဲ့ပဲ စကားပြန်ပေးပါတယ်။
အဲသလိုမဟုတ်ပါဘူး ကိုဒီ့ကျေးဇူးလည်း ကျွန်တော့်မှာ ရှိပါတယ်။ ကိုဒီ့ဆီကလည်း ကျွန်တော်ယူရတာပါပဲ “
“အဲသလိုမဟုတ်ပါဘူး ကျွန်တော့အိမ်မှာနေခဲ့တာမှန်ပေမယ့် ရွှေစိုးဟန်က ရွှေစိုးဟန်ပါပဲ”
“ရွှေစိုးဟန်ဟာ ဗဂျီအောင်စိုးရဲ့တပည့်မဟုတ်ပါဘူး
ရွှေစိုးဟန်က ရွှေစိုးဟန်ပါပဲ
ကျွန်တော်နဲ့တွေ့လို့ ရွှေစိုးဟန်ဖြစ်တာ မဟုတ်ပါဘူး
ရွှေစိုးဟန်ဖြစ်လာမယ့်သူဟာ ရွှေစိုးဟန်ဖြစ်လာမှာပါပဲ”
၅
ရွှေစိုးဟန်ဆိုတာဘာလဲ
“ပြော့ပျောင်းတဲ့ ကောက်ကြောင်းနဲ့ ရိုးရာဟန်မပျက်စေဘဲ အညာကျေးလက်ရဲ့ ရနံ့၊ အသံနဲ့ ဟန်ကို ပန်းချီထဲမှာ စုပ်ယူပြီး ပရိတ်သတ်ရင်ထဲ ပို့ပေးနေတဲ့ ပန်းချီဆရာတွေထဲက တစ်ယောက်အပါအဝင်” လို့ကျွန်တော့စိတ်ထဲမှာ မှတ်ချက်ချလိုက်မိတယ်။
ဒီလိုတွေးနေရင်းပြောနေရင်းက-
အညာကျေးတောက ဖုတ်ထောင်းထောင်းထနေတဲ့ ရွာလမ်းကြောင်းမှာ နွားအုပ်ကြီးကို ရွှေစိုးဟန်ကမောင်းထုတ်လိုက်တာလားကျောင်းနေတာလား မပြောတတ် ကျွန်တော့ဆီပဲ နွားအုပ်ကြီးပြေးလာတော့သလိုလို
(အဲဒီတုန်းက လွတ်လွတ်လပ်လပ် ပြောရဲတဲ့ လူငယ်တွေပီပီ “နွားမှာတော့ ရွှေစိုးဟန်အပိုင်ဆုံးပဲ” လို့တောင် ဘောင်စည်းမထားဘဲပြောခဲ့မိသေး)
ရန်ကုန်ရောက်ပန်းချီရာ ဖြစ်လာပေမယ့် နှုတ်ခမ်းထူထူ ပွင့်ဟဟနဲ့ (ရွာလွမ်းလို့လားမသိ) ငေးငေါင်ငေါင်နေလေ့ရှိတဲ့ အညာသားရွှေစိုးဟန်ကိုလွမ်းဆွတ်မြင်ယောင်ရင်း……။
(မောင်သာလင်း)
၃.၈.၂၀၁၁
(မောင်သာလင်းရဲ့ ကဗျာရေးသက် ၄၇ နှစ်ပြည့်နေ့နဲ့
Filed under: art and ideas, exhibit | Tags: ခင်မောင်ယဉ်, ခင်မောင်ရင်, Khin Maung Yin, khin mg yin, kin maung yin, kin mg yin, kmy
13 July 2011 at the British Council Library in Yangon. (Bring photo ID)
A famous and admired artist in Myanmar will often be known as a ‘master’. The term implies that he or she has achieved much and is revered as a teacher and exemplar of the art. In English at least it also has a hierarchical air about it, a suggestion of status and rigidity, a hint of an old orthodoxy.
In the case of Kin Maung Yin nothing could be further from the truth – he is justly famous for his informality and lack of pretension. His free-thinking and generosity have endeared him to generations of students and collectors alike – he remains at heart a bohemian with little time for the trappings of wealth and fame.
His art mirrors the man. In his abstracts there is a sensual abandon to the pleasure of colour and shape, whilst his landscapes seek the essential form of the world rather than its accumulating details. In landscapes as rich and fecund as Myanmar and with a visual heritage rich in inventive and almost baroque detail Kin Maung Yin pares us back to simplicity and essence. The portraits serve not as mere photographic record, but the capturing in paint of the spirit of the sitter. It was the great founding father of 20th century sculpture, Constantin Brancussi who said that ‘Simplicity is at root complexity.’ This might stand as a useful introduction to the art of Kin Maung Yin; his works are as open and inviting as the man himself.
A little more about Kin Maung Yin from his 2010 exhibit at Pansodan here, and in a Burmese and English blog post here, and his website here.
At two in the afternoon of Sunday 6 March poets will gather at Panosdan Gallery to read to poetry lovers — that could be you. Most poets will read their own work on one or two languages (all will be presented in Burmese and English).
Among the poems read will be ones by Padetha Raza and Seinda Kyawthu U Aw. These will not be read by the poets, who are long dead, but their poems live on and have been beautifully translated in a collaboration between Sayagyi and the well-known poetry translator, Keith Bosley. A rare chance to get a sense of personal life in the Nyaung Yan and early Konbaung periods (1700s).
If you want to read up on it this afternoon, I suggest you download this Introduction to Myanmar Poetry by Dragan Janeković. It starts off in Serbian, but skip to page 18 for English, and find plenty of poems in English, Burmese and of course Serbian in the second half.
286 Pansodan, first floor (upper block), Kyauktada, Yangon. Mobile: 0951 30846
For a quick view of upcoming events at Pansodan, you can cast a glance on our facebook page.
ကန်တော်မင်းကျောင်းဆရာတော် (၁၄၃၈-၁၅၁၃)
လောကသာရပျို့မှ
ညောင်ပင်ကြီးနှယ်ကျင့်စဖွယ်
ကျောင်းတော်ခရီး၊ လမ်းမကြီး၌၊
ပင်ထီးပညောင်၊ မြစ်တစ်ထောင်နှင့်၊
မြားမြောင်ခက်လက်၊ ရွက်လည်းစိပ်စိပ်၊
စေ့စေ့သိပ်လျက်၊ ရိပ်လည်းမြိုင်မြိုင်၊
လေမနိုင်လျှင်၊ ပွင့်ခိုင်သီးမှည့်၊
အပြည့်ကျေး ငှက်၊ စားလျက်သောင်းသဲ
KANDAW MINKYAUNG SAYADAW (1438-1513)
A Big Banyan Tree
Excerpt from “Lokathara Pyo”
A prominent solitary banyan tree
Grows near the road.
With its thousand roots
And its multitude of branches, Its leaves thickly set
Gives abundant shade
The wind cannot overcome it.
Its branches
Bend with young and ripe fruit
Birds come twittering to eat.
Translation by Dragan Janeković
Filed under: art and ideas | Tags: avaparabaiq, burmese font, burmese parabaik, burmese parabike, myanmar font, myanmar parabaik, myanmar parabike, parabaik, parabaik font, parabike, parabike font, thein maung
Thanks to everyone who showed up despite the pouring rain for the reading.
I have made a new font for the Journal of Burma Studies cover redesign, after looking at parabaik (folding paper manuscripts); 
below are a few links to some parabaiks with particularly good script or design. You can download the font by clicking here. If you use it somewhere, be so kind as to let me know. (To download the Unicode Parabaik font, click here) it is easy to type if you know the Avalaser or NIU font layouts. Look for some variations on the characters on the J, K, x, X, option-e, and | keys. I would love to do a Unicode version, but that is too much work for a hobbyist like me.
Here are some links to parabaik images, for research or pure appreciation.
http://taweb.aichi-u.ac.jp/DMSEH/Vol_1/ITOH093-03.jpg
http://taweb.aichi-u.ac.jp/DMSEH/vol_2/vol2/UMMT-1789.jpg
http://taweb.aichi-u.ac.jp/DMSEH/vol_2/vol2/UMMT-1918.jpg
http://www.elibrary.com.mm/parabike/html-sub/html-02/109.htm
http://tiny.tw/9Ww (Northern Illinois University collection parabaik about cats)
Amazing tattoo manual with very beautiful handwriting, NIU collection
http://tinyurl.com/68vm2oz (NIU palm leaf manuscript)
http://tiny.tw/9Um (British Library tattoo manual, see image below)
http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O63684/manuscript-parabaik/ (at the Victoria and Albert Museum)
Filed under: art and ideas | Tags: autobiography, burma, judyth gregory-smith, mo tejani, myanmar, travelogue
The next Art and Ideas evening will start at 5pm on Sunday, 16 August. There will be two authors speaking and reading from their work, Mo Tejani and Judyth Gregory–Smith.
Along with an evening with two very funny, very friendly writers, you can enjoy my newest bright blue herbal tea.
Judyth Gregory–Smith A trishaw called Kinny: journeys in Myanmar (Now retitled Myanmar: A Memoir Of Loss And Recovery
Ms Gregory–Smith is a veteran travel journalist with numerous publications in international periodicals, and two books on Sulawesi — Sulawesi: Ujung Pandang to Kendari and Southeast Sulawesi – Islands of Surprises.
‘A Trishaw called Kinny: Journeys in Myanmar’ is an intimate, detailed travelogue packed with first-hand information. One theme of the book is royal cities. She explores and tells about their fascinating histories: numerous royal wives, abundant royal children and the massacre by each new king of his relatives to thwart any pretenders to the throne.
Her sharp observations and wit are put to good use in modern Myanmar, so different from its neighbours.
When she was planning a trip to Myanmar, she had tried to buy such a book to supplement the guide-books, but there were no travelogues later than the beginning of the 20th century. The books she could find were mainly on the political situation. Perhaps as a result, she the trip ended up being rich in unintended adventure travel experience. And soon there will be such a book.
Quote from ‘A Trishaw called Kinny: Journeys in Myanmar’
Richard and I first visited Myanmar, then called Burma, in 1987. Our passions were travel, nature, birds, other cultures and each other. The list is not in order. We were on leave from the Australian High Commission in Papua New Guinea.
“Wouldn’t it be good to see what my opposite number is doing in the Embassy in Burma?’ he’d said, which in Richard-speak really meant ‘Wouldn’t it be good to traipse through jungles and swamps to study Burma’s rainforest birds and animals.’Richard’s opposite number in Burma was on my side. He arranged civilized visits to the Strand, the Shwedagon, Pegu, Pagan and Mandalay. No swamps. The powers-that-were permitted a visa for only two-weeks, but that was enough to fall in love with the country.
We vowed to return. And I did. Alone. Richard died in 2001. Had it not been for my daughter, I might not have returned. Fiona and her partner Patrick work for the International Committee of the Red Cross and were posted there. To spend time with them and my grandchildren, I would return to Myanmar.
This book – a geographical, historical and personal journey – also charts my own journey of recovery and self-discovery after the death of Richard. I travel alone throughout Myanmar visiting not only the well-known pagodas and monasteries, but also isolated villages, farming communities and schools. I use public transport, stay at family-run guesthouses and meet with the local people who are rich in culture, but poor in material possessions.
Mo Tejani A Chameleon’s Tale: true stories of a global refugee
Mohezin (“Mo”) Tejani—an Indian Shia Muslim by
a chameleon\’s tale, design by Doug Morton, 72 Studio
ancestry—was expelled from Idi Amin’s Uganda in 1972. Torn apart from his family and exiled from the continent of his birth, he was suddenly left homeless, with little sense of his own cultural identity. As a refugee, he first fled to England and then to America in the early seventies. Fluent in eight languages, he has spent twenty years working in refugee camps in Asia, training rural farmers in Central America, educating First Nation tribes in Canada, and coordinating poverty reduction projects in Africa.
Over the last five years, Mo has returned to his childhood passion–writing. The first volume of his memoirs, “A Chameleon’s Tale: True Stories of a Global Refugee” is a reflection of his life of travel and the continued search for a place he can call home. As one reviewer noted, Tejani is “a cross-cultural Jack Kerouac”
Mo currently resides in Chiang Mai, Thailand and writes feature articles, poetry, and essays for various magazines worldwide. A Chameleon’s Tale was chosen as a finalist for a PEN Book Award in 2007. In 2004, his “stalking interview” in Bangkok with Nobel Laureate V.S. Naipaul appeared in Untamed Travel Magazine, distributed all over Southeast Asia. The second volume of his travel memoirs, Global Crossroads, due for publication in 2010, focuses on the psychological alienation of exile and ultimately the liberation from his own cultural chains.
Quote from A Chameleon’s Tale
Children were everywhere in the streets of Vietnam…. On the sandy beach, a grouop of five cornered me: two boys with Chiclets and imported cigarettes, adn three girls with fresh pineapples, oranges, and dragon fruit, all in season…. On a whim, I decided to try an experiment with [the] gang of entrepreneurs.
“If I promise to buy two things from each of you, you must agree to play on the beach for the next two hours. Okay?”
They all looked at mu suspiciously at first. The questions were endless. What was I up to? How could they be sure I would keep my promise at the end of the two hours? What if their mothers caught them playing on the beach and not selling their quota for the day? They must leave before five o’clock for Hoi An City Hall to sell to the workers on their way home.
Once assured that I was sincere in my offer, they had a private meeting among themselves. When they came back, Tranh mad eme specify the two things I would buy from each of them, the price I would pay for each item, and when the playing time would be over. Finally, after twenty minutes, we concluded our negotiations.
Twenty minutes. Smiles all around. Back in 1973, it took Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho twenty days — while the killing continued on both sides — to agree on which directions the tables they sat at would face during the peace treaty in Paris. Later that year, both men were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating the end of the war. Kissinger accepted the award; Le Duc Tho did not.
Read reviews of the book in the Chiang Mai Mail here, and in Book Review Journal here.
About the event
As always, a portion of the sales from the event will be donated to local organisation Cultural Canvas, which provides art experiences for disadvantaged children in and around Chiang Mai.
Location: click me for google map
Find Suriya Gallery in the western part of Chiang Mai, Thailand near Chiang Mai University, on Huay Kaew Road. It is at No. 2, Hotel Bua Luang, Soi Bua Luang (the same soi as Holiday Garden), off Huay Kaew Road. Look for the spray-paint Suriya Art Gallery sign before you get to the hotel gate, or park in the Nice Nails/Mr Chan and Miss Pauline’s Pizza parking lot at the mouth of the soi, and walk through the gate, keeping to the left, to No. 2.
Filed under: art and ideas, food | Tags: burma, censorship, jacqueline suter, modern art, myanmar
Hide and Seek: Social Commentary in Contemporary Burmese Art
See the Chiang Mai Mail’s write-up of the talk here.
As always, ten per cent of any art sales, and 20 per cent of any other sales will be donated to a local organisation, Cultural Canvas, to provide art experiences for the children of migrants in Chiang Mai.
This event is free and open to all.
Filed under: art and ideas | Tags: alexandra green, anein, bagan, burma, jataka, mural, myanmar, pagan, temple painting, thai, theravada buddhism
Alexandra Green gave an illustrated talk exploring the Buddhist subject matter of Thai and Burmese wall paintings from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. A summary of the talk as written up in the Chiang Mai Mail newspaper is here.
The murals are largely composed of illustrations of the Jataka stories, the life of Gotama Buddha, the spiritual planes of the universe which address the concept of rebirth, celestial beings, mythical creatures, and Himavanta Forest. Delving into the layout of the wall paintings, the significance of the images is revealed. The imagery is more complex than immediately apparent. Strong links to popular beliefs emerge, even in the context of sacred stories.
You can read Dr Green’s research on paintings at Tilokaguru cave-temple in Sagaing online in the SOAS Bulletin of Burma Research here.
Her most recent book is Eclectic Collecting: Art from Burma in the Denison Museum.
Alexandra Green is a curator in the Asia Department at the British Museum. Previously, she has been a research assistant professor in the Department of Fine Arts at the University of Hong Kong, where she worked on a book on Burmese murals and a project comparing Thai and Burmese wall paintings, and Dr. Green has been director and curator of Asian Art at the Denison Museum at Denison University in Granville, Ohio, USA. In addition to publishing articles on Burmese murals, she has edited two volumes on Burmese art, including “Burma: Art and Archaeology” for the British Museum Press and “Eclectic Collecting: Art from Burma in the Denison Museum”, published by Singapore University Press. Dr. Green’s Ph.D. is from the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, UK.
As always, ten per cent of any art sales, and 20 per cent of any other sales will be donated to a local organisation, Cultural Canvas, to provide art experiences for the children of migrants in Chiang Mai.
For info: suriyagallery@gmail.com
Filed under: art and ideas | Tags: 72Studio, alexandra green, bagan, bryce beemer, jacqueline suter, lanna, lokanat, modern art, pagan, temple paintings
Lokanat
Three people are preparing Art and Ideas talks for the next months. On Sunday 15 March, Alexandra Green will talk about Burmese and Lanna temple paintings (talk description coming soon). You can read up on Pagan at this site: http://www.timemap.net/~hudson/pagan.htm
We will then have another talk toward the art side of art and ideas: Jacqueline Suter will speak about buried social commentary in modern Burmese art. Back in the ideas direction, Bryce Beemer will talk about Siamese war captives in Burman capitals. That will take us up to Songkran, and perhaps beyond. When possible, talks will take place on Sunday evenings.
Boat race
A few writers have also agreed (or half agreed) to give talks, but their dates are yet uncertain.
Thanks to 72Studio, Chiang Mai for image processing.
Filed under: art and ideas
Last night’s Art and Ideas night was much enjoyed by all thanks to Amporn’s efforts. I have recorded the talk and will check the sound quality. I will try to edit out the tour busses, and eventually will post it on this site.
The next evening (this Friday, 13 February, 6pm) will be a different style — the presenter is a history teacher who was working in Pakistan during the Danish cartoons matter; now he is in Yangon. He will talk about:
THAT WHAT SHALL NOT BE NAMED: PERSONAL AND POLITICAL FREEDOM IN PAKISTAN AND BURMA
A history teacher who has taught at high schools in both Pakistan and Burma, will lead a discussion around the subject of personal and political freedom in each of these countries.
The discussion will be introduced through Robert’s personal observations and experiences, through photographs taken in both countries, and through through his understanding of the history of each of these fairly new countries. Among the topics considered will be politics, religion, and gender.
·· · <> · ··
I hope the discussion will broaden out to what cannot be named in certain societies or in our own countries, and what the effect of that is on a larger level.
Filed under: art and ideas | Tags: amporn jirattikorn, art and ideas, shan migrants
Dr Amporn Jirattikorn will draw on her interesting research on the world of Shan migrants in Thailand to discuss the shifting perception of Shans in Thailand. They are seen at times as ethnic brothers who deserve support and sympathy, and as aliens who are grudgingly tolerated and put to use.
This will be related to the experiences of Shan prisoners in a Chiang Mai prison. These long-term prisoners create a national experience among themselves through radio, media, music, and literature, with a tenuous link to the outside world. An informal presentation will be followed by discussion. Ten per cent of any art sales, and 20 per cent of any other sales will be donated to a local organisation, Cultural Canvas, to provide art experiences for the children of migrants in Chiang Mai. Or choose to donate to a fund to provide medical care to people crossing the border for medical care. See homepage.mac.com/inkish/Pansodan/AnipoAppeal.ppt.htm for one case. at
There were two things. First, I miss my life in Yangon, where I never knew what face might be behind the knock on the door. With communications there so poor (we had no phone until recently) few bother to make a date, whether visiting from Yangon or the countryside. And people would just send their friends without telling us, or people would hear about us and just show up. It got so that anyone looking foreign who was wanding in our street in downtown Yangon looking lost might be ushered up our staircase by well-meaning neighbours. There were a few people who were looking for someone entirely different.
They might just be friendly, or might be there to look at our library, to talk business, to look at art, to chat about their field.
Second, Chiang Mai, a city with several universities, many intellectuals, and a large number of expats working, retired, or other who in their own countries would be going to public lectures. Or giving them. Thai lectures are inaccessible to many of us, but there is a big enough English-speaking community that there should be plenty of interest in talks and readings.
Also, I wanted to do something to support humanitarian work. So … Art and Ideas, talks and readings in the gallery, with profits to Cultural Canvas or to provide medical treatment for those who need it at a hospital where one of my friends is working.
Check here on Pansuriya for dates and topics. I’ve just started and I already have Amporn Jirittakorn talking about Shan migrants from an athropological point of view, three writers reading from their work, and Alexandra Green on temple paintings, and Bryce Beemer on Siamese war captives in the Burmese sphere.
And that’s before I really started trying. Have any ideas you’d like to see? People you’d like to see talk? Email me or leave comments.
Check this blog for events planned.
