Saturday, August 3, 2013

The Irrawaddy Magazine

The Irrawaddy Magazine

A Mandalay Designer’s Journey From Currency to Cultural Homage

Posted: 02 Aug 2013 07:45 PM PDT

Designer Aye Myint is pictured at his home in Amarapura, Mandalay Division. (Photo: Zarni Mann / The Irrawaddy)

MANDALAY — As Burma shakes its decades-long isolation from the outside world and unleashes the forces of globalization and modernity, one artist says he fears for the resilience of the country's traditional cultural mores.

"Although our country is moving forward to the modern world, we need to preserve our tradition and culture," says Aye Myint, a respected Burmese designer.

Aye Myint, once responsible crafting the images on Burma's currency, is now widely known for his traditional art designs, inspired largely by styles found in ancient stone carvings and murals in the country that date back to the sixth century.

Drawing on ancient artwork found around much of Mandalay and on the pagodas and stupas of the ancient Burmese capital Bagan, the 84-year-old told The Irrawaddy that his love for traditional Burmese wood and stone carving, blacksmithing, goldsmithing, and painting motivated him to become a designer himself.

"All of these traditional arts have their own designs," Aye Myint said. "I first fell in love with the floral pattern wood carvings on the pagodas and temples of Ava and Sagaing. During a trip with veteran artists and my mentor U Khin Maung to Pagan [Bagan], I decided to be a traditional designer as I witnessed many beautiful traditional artworks there."

In 1954, he began his career as a traditional art designer, joining the Saung Dar traditional weaving academy in Amarapura, Mandalay Division, where he studied screen printing. His artistic talents were eventually noticed by government officials, who enlisted him to design the country's currency.

"It was around 1970 that I was appointed to draw the designs of the Burmese currency, notes and coins. Firstly, I had to go to Japan and England to learn about the designing of money. I had to draw the designs for one kyat notes, five kyats notes and 10 kyats notes with General Aung San's face on them," he said.

"Being a currency designer is full of secrets. You can't even discuss the business with your family or colleagues for security reasons. I had to designs stamps, lottery tickets as well."

Wazi, site of the national mint in Magwe Division, was a facility built with technological assistance from Germany under the former military government.

But Aye Myint's gig as the country's currency designer was not to last.

"I was forced to resign because of some misunderstandings with the generals of the time. They thought that I was too proud and assumed that I was a political activist," he said. "Some of my colleagues urged me to submit an appeal, but I didn't want to do that because I had done nothing wrong."

With nothing left for him in Wazi, Aye Myint traveled to Rangoon, where he struggled to make a living but managed to secure steady work drawing cover designs for Buddhist literary magazines. After 11 years in Rangoon, he decided to settle down at Amarapura, located 11 km north of Mandalay city.

"I just wanted to live a simple life free from greed, stress and pride. The rise in the cost of living in Rangoon was another reason," he said as he offered a tour of his modest home on the west bank of the famous Taungthaman Lake.

Starting in 1990, his design skills began appearing in the traditional ornamentation of some of Burma's sacred Buddhist sites. One of his more prominent designs is the southern stairway of Shwedagon Pagoda in Rangoon. The new golden umbrella of Mandalay's Maha Myat Muni Buddha image is also his work.

Aye Myint is currently preparing to issue a collection of his magazine cover designs over the years, under the title "A Hundred Images and a Hundred Notes."

"I always wanted to produce this book so the younger generation could learn to love the tradition and to hand over the heritage," he said. "There have been some delays with the censorship board. There is no other problem at the board but just a delay due to their working style, as everyone knows. … But hopefully, I can get this book to readers very soon."

Now a consultant for the preservation of Mandalay's ancient Shwe Nan Daw Kyaung Monastery, Aye Myint said Burma's heritage must be preserved with care and attention to history.

"Although every country is moving forward with development in every sector, it is essential to preserve the culture and heritage. Some may think that culture needs no preservation, but that is a bad idea for future generations," he said.

He points to Mandalay, which has seen rapid change and development over the last decade.

"Mandalay has developed to the point where you can't find traditional attire and customs among some youth," Aye Myint said.

"On the other hand, there are youth who love the modern world but still maintain the culture and there are many areas that still maintain the tradition. For example, an industry such as stone carving is not going to fade away because we see orders from abroad for huge Buddha statues as the country now opens to international relations."

Aye Myint urged young people to study their heritage, and called on government to encourage the preservation of Burma's traditional arts and culture.

"As the country moves on amid globalization, youth must learn modern lessons but must not forget and must maintain what we have, and not regard our ancient heritage as rubbish," he said.

"I would like to urge professionals to write books and theses as well. Our country needs many books on the culture and traditional arts. The lack of books with professional input is one of the weaknesses; it's why we struggle to foster young generations' interest."

Burma Business Roundup (August 03)

Posted: 02 Aug 2013 07:28 PM PDT

Indian State Bank Aims to Compete With China in Burma Loans

India's state Export-Import Bank is planning to invest US$800 million in Burma in an effort to compete for business with neighboring China, said a Bloomberg report.

The money, in the form of loans, will be used to modernize the Rangoon-Mandalay railway line and finance a vehicle assembly factory for India's budget carmaker Tata Motors.

"Exim Bank of India faces an uneven contest as China Development Bank, which has a loan book more than three times the size of the World Bank, and the Export-Import Bank of China offer cheap loans to snare business," said Bloomberg.

The Indian bank's executive director in Mumbai, David Rasquinha, was quoted as saying that China has been beating India globally on investments and has already loaned about $2.4 billion in Burma.

But in Burma it will be necessary for India to take a long-term view, Rasquinha told Bloomberg.

"The pie is so big [in Burma] that there's room for all of us," he said. "China has large amounts of money available and can lend at very low rates, but they can't finance every single project."

No other details of the Tata factory have yet been made public. Earlier this year Tata opened offices and a showroom in Rangoon.

Thai Oil Spill a Warning for Burma as Tourism, Energy Compete

Environment and tourism groups say the oil spill that has polluted holiday beaches in the Gulf of Thailand is a warning to Burma about the risks of two important industries trying to coexist.

The spill from an oil rig sent tens of thousands of gallons of thick crude oil onto pristine white beaches on the Thai holiday island of Samet this week, and is believed to have wrecked the island's tourism business for the rest of this year.

It happened as Burma prepares to intensify the exploration of its offshore waters for oil and natural gas by licensing mostly foreign firms to develop 30 sea blocks covering tens of thousands of kilometers.

Burma's coastal holiday resort industry is also just beginning to expand.

"From what happened [on Samet], we can say that this is a good example and alarming that we are not ready for such an incident," Greenpeace Southeast Asia manager Ply Pirom told the Voice of America. "Especially if you look at PTT, which is one of the leading companies in Thailand and globally, they are seen to be not really well-prepared for such an incident."

A PTT subsidiary was responsible for the Gulf of Thailand spill. Its sister company, PTTEP, already operates in Burmese waters and has bid for some of the 30 Bay of Bengal blocks now on offer.

The Samet oil spill is not the first major environmental disaster involving the publicly listed PTT, which is also state-owned, said tourism industry newspaper TTR Weekly.

"In 2009, another PTT subsidiary [PTTEP] was involved in the Montara oil spill, one of Australia's worst oil disasters, in the Timor Sea," the newspaper said.

Teak Wood Cutting Declines in Readiness for 2014 Export Ban

Burma plans to export 186,000 tons of teak wood this year—80,000 tons less than in 2012, according to the forestry ministry.

The reduction in output this year is part of the government's efforts to conserve valuable forest timber, said Win Tun, minister for environmental conservation and forestry.

The cutting and export of other forest timber will also be reduced in the current financial year, said Win Tun, down to 787,000 tons, compared with 1.35 million tons in the 2012-13 financial year.

Burma has already decreed that the export of unprocessed teak and other timber will be stopped from April next year to help conserve the country's forests.

Environmental NGOs have long protested that Burma's forests are shrinking due to illegal logging, much of it to feed the Chinese wood industry.

According to Win Tun, action has been taken to curb illegal loggers.

From April next year, only wood products such as furniture will be legally exported.

Indonesian State Firm Bids to Operate Farms in Burma

Indonesia's state-owned agricultural industries are bidding to operate farms and sell fertilizers in Burma.

The Pupuk Indonesia Holding Company (PIHC) and subsidiary Pupuk Sriwidjaja are "surveying the potential market" in Burma, reported The Jakarta Post newspaper.

"Should things go well, we want our state-owned companies to not only sell fertilizer but also manage their own plots of land in [Burma]," Deputy Agriculture Minister Rusman Heriawan was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

PIHC has already sold 40,000 tons of fertilizer and aims to sell 180,000 tons by the end of 2013 through dealings with the Myanmar Agribusiness Public Corporation, the newspaper reported.

"[Burma] has a promising market as they have millions of hectares [acres] of rice fields and good quality water for irrigation, with low yields due to poor fertilization," Rusman told The Jakarta Post.

Internet Link Mended but Burma still Dependent on Single Router

The state company Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) said disruptions to Burma's Internet connections and speed were caused by a damaged cable, which has now been mended.

Disruption began in mid-July and MPT originally said the problem would take one month to repair. However, on Wednesday it claimed to have fixed the damage, blamed on a half kilometer of "leaking" at an underground cable near the Irrawaddy Delta city Pyapon.

Until new contract winners move into Burma to expand the country's wireless and telecommunications system, there is only one Internet link with the outside world, MPT said.

MPT has signed one agreement with China Unicom to add at least one more Internet router into Burma, but no time frame for its installation has been announced.

The cause of the damaged line was not disclosed but it resulted in a 60 percent reduction in power, said MPT.
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