Andaw, Myanmar

Andaw
Andaw
	Map of Andaw Village (2013)
	Andaw Map of Andaw Village (2013)
	Coordinates: 22°08′12.2″N 94°43′52.9″E / 22.136722°N 94.731361°ECoordinates: 22°08′12.2″N 94°43′52.9″E / 22.136722°N 94.731361°E Fatal error: The format of the coordinate could not be determined. Parsing failed.; ;
Country	Myanmar
Region	Sagaing Region
District	Yinmabin District
Population	~1,100
Time zone	UTC+6.30 (MST)

Andaw is an ethnic Burmese village located in the Sagaing Region of northern Myanmar, 65 kilometres (40 mi) west of Monywa. It is a part of the Yinmabin Township.

History

Oral histories by village elders claim two different origins of the village. According to some accounts, the village could have been settled as early as the Bagan period in the 11th century, when a traveling monk established a rest stop at the current village site. An alternative history dates the village back to 1898, after the Sagaing Rebellion ^[1]. As a result of British crackdown after the rebellion, many people fled and established villages in more peripheral locations of colonial control, and Andaw was one of the villages established at that time.

1994 Dam Campaign

Under the regime of General Than Shwe in the 1990s, the military government began a historic and controversial campaign to build reservoirs and dams in the region. Beginning in 1994, villagers were required to give up their time to dig land for the reservoir. The campaign was particularly unpopular because it required a large number of land confiscations by the government, which left villagers landless and without compensation. There were also reports that civilians were captured as porters to be used in digging, and that there was forced labor. Andaw was one of the many villages impacted by this historic project.

2004 Fire

In 2004, a devastating fire wiped out the northern half of the village, which has since had to be rebuilt. The fire also took a significant toll on the forest just outside of the village, which villagers rely on to provide firewood and wood for building houses. The forest has since been recovering, but villagers note a lack of adequately sized trees of the inpin species, which is the preferred species for constructing houses. After the fire, the village saw a huge influx of donations to help the community rebuild.

Education

Government School

The government school in Andaw currently only serves up to grade 9. The school has been vocal about asking the government to allow high school enrollment, but the Ministry_of_Education_(Myanmar) has not responded to their demand. The Ministry states that the village must have more students before high school enrollment can be allowed.

There are a total of 14 staff, comprised of a middle school head master, 3 assistant head masters, 4 junior assistant teachers, primary teachers, a secretary, and a clerk. The title that staff members receive does not always clearly relate to the role that they play in the school. Teachers must often fill in for one another, regardless of their assigned grade level.

The school receive 1,000,000 kyats yearly, although this amount partially depends on the number of students attending the school. A primary school teacher earns approximately 180,000 kyats per month, which increases by 2000 kyats each year peaking at 10 years.

A former headmaster planted a Thanaka Garden on the schoolgrounds, which is cared for by students and staff members. Last year, the school was able to sell their garden, earning about 300,000 kyats.

As of 2018, there are a total of 183 students enrolled in the government school.

Students that graduate from the government school in Andaw must go to a nearby village for high school. Those that are able to continue their education often go to Monywa University or go to Yangon for higher education.

English School

The English School in Andaw was founded by Sayarma Swe Khaing Thin in 2018. Sayarma is a title used to address a female teacher.

The founder initially wanted to establish a Pre-K school to implement her educational pedagogy and theories. However, due to the village demands, she began to push for the engagement of students of all grade levels in the village. Her lessons prioritize interaction, participation, and communication. During class sessions, students are taught English speaking, listening, and grammar skills.

Tuition for the privately owned English school is 10,000 kyats per student each month. There are a total of 30 students enrolled for the 2019–2020 academic calendar year.

Classes operate weekly, taking place before the government school starts and after its dismissal, around 4 PM to 5 PM and 8PM to 9 PM.

Buddhist Education

Before there was a government school, attending the monastery, or the Sangha, was the primary way villagers would acquire an understanding of basic math, reading, and writing in Burmese. In addition to these academic skills, they would also learn about Buddhist teachings.

The monastery continues to play a role in the lives of younger villagers by offering Dharma school on the weekends, where they focus on strengthening their understanding of the spiritual teaching of Buddhism.

In the summer, the monastery also has programs dedicated to honing academic areas that students still need to understand. The monastery does this by having college students, who are often from the village, volunteer.

Andaw has had 7 head monks. The name of these monk in chronolical order in which they served the village are: Oo Thinbaw, Oo Sandi Ma, Oo Parama, Oo Laba, Oo Wayama, Oo Nadar Thara, Oo Tin Law Ka.

If a novice wants to further pursue a life as a religious individual, they would often continue their study in other places and sometimes to the city under different head monks.

Villagers repeatedly recite and paraphrase the teachings of Oo Tin Law Ka about the important of loving one another and not being greedy over materialistic things. He highlights the importance of having compassion and the importance of giving.

Government

Political structure

Village leadership is shared between the village headman and the village monk, although both have very separate responsibilities. The main responsibilities of the village headman include taking charge of development projects in the village, bettering the livelihood of villagers, conflict resolution, keeping the peace, and problem-solving. He is the chief political figure in the village. In contrast, the monk takes leadership of all religious ceremonies, events, and issues that arise in the village.

Village leadership is organized into a hierarchy, with the headman at the top. Below him are about 7 or 8 elders and 25 heads of households. When a decision must be made that impacts the entire village, the headman calls a meeting of all these leaders to help inform the decision.

Elections

Elections take place in Andaw once every 5 years. At this time, the village votes on whether to re-elect the current headman or to elect a new headman in his place. In the past, voting was carried out by one representative for each group of 10 households. However, the current headman changed this rule in 2017 in an effort to make elections more democratic. Voting is now done by one representative from each household, such that each house counts as one vote.

In the 2015 election which elected the current headman into power, there was a significant shift in local power dynamics. At this time, the previous headman, U Chit Win, a member of the Union Solidarity and Development Party, influenced household heads to vote against the new incoming headman, U Myint Aung, in the election for village track authority. A village track has a combination of up to five villages. The head of these five villages is the village track authority whose signature covers important decision for five villages. The previous headman was pro-military and anti-National League for Democracy, so he was upset by the election of the very pro-democracy U Myint Aung. As a result of the previous headman's influence, U Myint Aung lost the election for township authority, and now the headman of Let Ka Bya village has final authority over both villages in the Yinmabin Township.

Role of the headman

The headman is the chief political authority in the village. Headmen are elected by the villagers on the basis of their trustworthiness and accountability. The headman is responsible for keeping the peace in the village, but he also heads a number of committees that provide important functions for the village. The current headman is the president of the Water and Electricity Committees, and he works with the school headmaster to spearhead Health and Education programs. The headman also manages funding provided by the government to aid farmers. Farmers are able to take out government loans of 150,000 kyats per 1 acre of rice, or 100,000 kyats per acre of beans, the management of which all goes through the village headman.

Development

Development overall has not significantly reached Andaw, partially because Andaw itself does not have any paved roads, and few of its residents own cars. Monywa, the largest city in the Sagaing_Region, is about a 2-hour drive from Andaw, with paved roads most of the way. In emergencies, the village shares an ambulance that is kept at the temple.

Electricity

Electricity arrived in Andaw in the fall of 2019. Before electricity, villagers relied on solar panels, and many still do. Currently, 35 out of the 245 households have electricity. When the project started, electricity was given to the first people who could put down a payment of 500,000 Kyat for the initial installment. There are an additional 5 community spaces that have electricity: street lights, the monastery, the government school, the well, and the clinic. For these community spaces, there is a representative from the village who is in charge of the payment and refunded by the government. For example, the headmaster of the school pays the electricity bill each month, and is refunded every 3 months for the expenses. For the remaining 200+ households, the government will hold an auction for private companies to bid on which company gets to provide electricity for the rest of the village.

When making decisions about the electricity, the village has a committee with 30 members. These members hire one individual whose job is to connect electricity to houses, monitor the meters, and distribute the bills to every household. Electricity bills typically range from between 1,500 - 60,000 Kyats per month, with the water tower household having the highest bill every month, as of early 2020. While there is no imposed limit on electricity usage, villagers tend to limit electricity based on expenses.

Electricity usage is primarily in the household, especially for cooking. Rice cookers and water kettles are common, with stove tops slowly making an introduction. Many people who do not yet have electricity in their houses already own rice cookers in preparation for the day that they to have access to it. Still, some villagers prefer to cook over a fire, especially when preparing tea. Buddhist household shrines are often adorned with string lights that flash bright colors, which have been around since the introduction of solar-powered electricity.

Water

Until 2018, two reservoirs at the edges of the village plus a few wells were the only water sources for the village of Andaw. These reservoirs are located on the Western and Northern sides of the village. They are now places where the oxen go to graze, and are no longer sources of clean drinking water. In 2018, a water tower was constructed, pulling water from 800 feet underground. The whole village chipped in to pay for the main pipeline, and then individual families paid to have their houses connected with plumbing. By law, this water tower can only be used for drinking water. As a result, the water tower and plumbing is not currently connected to any farms. The water tower is located on the Western side of the village, and is monitored by one household. The most significant difference since 2018, according to villagers, is that people use a lot more water than they used to, as it is seen as an infinite resource compared to what they had before. Villagers view the new water system to be much more kind for oxen, since they don't have to carry water back and forth from the reservoirs every day.

Agriculture

Farming

Andaw is a subsistence-based society where most people grow food for their own consumption. Many also farm Cash_crops such as chili_pepper, lentils, sunflowers, chickpea and peanuts. Farms are typically a walk or oxen-cart ride away from the village. Most families work their farms themselves, but can also hire others hourly to work the farm. Beyond farming, villagers can also work separating chili_pepper, lentils, sunflowers, chickpea or peanuts from their shells. Chili_peppers are set out to dry as they are worth more in the market when dried. These practices can be seen as pastimes as they are social endeavors, as well as work as they can be paid.

Common livestock that people raise include chickens, pigs, and oxen. Livestock practices are fairly hands-off, as most chickens are not kept in coops and instead allowed to roam. Pigs are kept in pens, and pig feed can be gathered at the village headman's house. Oxen are used to transport people around from farm to village, and carry large amounts of goods.

Flora

Many families use their household land and gardens to plant flora that serve them a great many purposes. Below are some of the most prevalent plants unique not just to Andaw but to the entire region, as well.

Most of the plants that are identified can be categorized into three main groups according to how they are used by the villagers of Andaw. The three categories are medicine, food or consumption, and aestheticism.

Plants that are believed to have medicinal properties have been transported from other villages or the wild if they were not naturally grown in the village. The beliefs that they can treat certain illness are orally passed down from the old to the young and vertically through socialization.

Villagers also grow plants to eat, and some of these plants also believed to serve multi – purpose functions, meaning they are also medicinal_plants. This means the categorization is not definite.

Some of the plants are just merely for aesthetic purposes. They are at times intentionally planted and at other times, are not.

Below is a list of plants found in Andaw:

Medicine
Common Name	Scientific Name
Locoweed	Tragacanth
Betel Leaf	Betel
Gale of the Wind	Phyllanthus niruri
Roselle	Hibiscus sabdariffa/Roselle_(plant)Roselle (plant)
Bitter Root	Gentian[1]
Cotton Milk Plant	Wattakaka volubilis Stapf[2] Archived 2017-12-18 at the Wayback Machine

Food
Common Name	Scientific Name
Toddy Palm Tree	Borassus flabellifer
Papaya	Carica papaya
River Tamarind	Leucaena leucocephala
Drumstick Tree/ Horseradish Tree	Moringa oleifera
Spinach	Spinacia oleracea
Chili	Capsicum annuum
Mango	Mango
Jackfruit	Artocarpus heterophyllus
Taro	Colocasia esculenta
Sugar Cane	Saccharum officinarum
Guava	Psidium guajava
Basil	Ocimum basilicum
Bitter Guord	Momordica charantia
Tamarind	Tamarindus indica
Tomato	Solanum lycopersicum
Cilantro/Coriander	Coriandrum sativum
Water Spinach	Ipomoea aquatica
Indian Trumpet	Oroxylum indicum
Rambutan	Nephelium lappaceum
Gway Dock	Dregea volubilis
Shikakai	Acacia concinna
Cassod Tree	Senna siamea
Broom Creeper	Cocculus hirsutus

Aesthetics
Common Name	Scientific Name
Jasmine	Jasminum grandiflorum
Devil's Ivy	Epipremnum aureum
Chinese Rose	Rosa chinensis
Thanaka Tree	Hesperethusa crenulata

Religion

Buddhism

Like many areas in Burma, Buddhism is quite prevalent and affects many aspects of life in Andaw. As J.L Christian states, “Buddhism has come into the life of these people as religion has rarely affected the life of any other nation”. This is certainly the case in Andaw. There are shrines inside nearly every household on the east side of the residence. These shrines often include flowers, candles, and various representations of Buddha.

Temple

The temple is a central hub of the village. The village monastery is located within the temple compound. The temple was constructed in the 1940s during World War II. The teak posts of the temple were logged from the forest surrounding the village. Donations from villagers are often appropriated towards temple upkeep and improvements. Since the advent of electricity, the temple has added colorful flashing LED lights that spiral up the temple. Other upkeep includes repainting the gold pagoda and money for the monastery school.

Cemetery

Just northwest of the village lies the village cemetery. Caskets are built here and bodies are buried after death. There is a small pagoda which is where the head monk will be buried when he dies.

Ahlu ceremony

The Ahlu ceremony is a key tenet of Buddhist culture in Andaw. An Ahlu is the celebration of young children who are becoming novices (boys) and nuns (girls). An Ahlu celebrates the children of one extended family, which can often include up to 50 or more children. If the family can afford it, each child rides on a horse through the village in a large parade. Ahead of them are traditional Burmese dancers, a Burmese orchestra, flower girls, several flag bearers, and two large gongs. Ahlus start at the village temple, and make their way throughout the village and end at the house of the family hosting the Ahlu. Villagers are then invited to eat meals at this house for two days. Usually breakfast and dinner are served the day of the Ahlu as well as breakfast the following day. All villagers are invited and expected to eat a meal at this house, and people are welcome to bring rice and curries home to feed their family if they feel they need to. Ahlus tend to occur during the colder season, and at the peak of Ahlu season there can be Ahlus more than once per week in Andaw.

References

↑ ASHTON, S. R. “A REBELLION IN BURMA: THE SAGAING UPRISING OF 1910.” The British Library Journal, vol. 15, no. 1, 1989, pp. 71–89.