For comments by participants of a recent program, see this short video, filmed and produced by Sotaro Hata: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLUxhIq2QGk
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- In Bangkok, Prof. Thitinan of Chulalongkorn University talks of Myanmar’s difficult relations with the region; later we meet with his students
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- Larry Jagan, long-time correspondent on Myanmar affairs, discusses his findings over lunch
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- In Yangon, students guide us to their favorite sites -
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- - Including the famed Shwedagon Pagoda
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- Of course, not every moment was serious
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- Our new local friends take us to markets that foreighners don’t usually find -
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- - and to typical street scenes -
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- - and to the local teashops, which serve as center of social life
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- Myanmar food includes aspects of the cuisine of its three neighbors, China, Thailand and India
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- Along the way we share thoughts about what we’re experiencing
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- Japanese and Taiwanese participants compare notes
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- Our constant companions in Yangon: the local students,
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- who teach us the finer points of chinlone, played with a ball of woven reeds
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- Making friends at an orphanage
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- Mandalay exposes us to Myanmar’s rich history and culture
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- On our way to Mandalay Hill
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- The students of Mandalay’s Phaung Daw Oo School welcome us -
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- - show their great enthusiasm for learning -
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- - listen eagerly -
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- - and overwhelm us with their excitement
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- Taking a quiet moment to contemplate the plains of Bagan and the over 2000 pagodas, temples and stupas working what once was the world center of Theravada Buddhism.
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- We share dinner with a local family and learn firsthand the lives of typical Burmese -
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- - and explore a local market
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- Talking at a local farmhouse. By now, some of our members have adopted the Burmese approach to skin care, using thanaka powder