delivering goods by hand-pulled cart in Mandalay market

Cultural Insights: Quintessentially Burmese Customs

Every country has some customs, daily habits and/or traditions that are unique to their nation. Those unique traits are partly what makes traveling the world so intriguing.

While traveling around Myanmar in 2000 and again in 2103, I couldn’t help but notice several curious customs that I had not seen anywhere else in Asia, despite having lived and traveled here for over 22 years. Following are four traditions that I’ve come to think of as quintessentially Burmese customs.

Burmese girl wearing typical Myanmar ‘make up’

1. Burmese ‘make-up’

Many Burmese people apply a pale yellow paste to their faces, in squares, circles, blobs, streaks or any other ‘design’. They say it makes the skin feel cool. Mainly women, but also young men, proudly wear the yellow paste throughout the day. Mothers also often apply it to babies and young children.

To western eyes it looks very strange, perhaps clownish or ridiculous, and certainly inexplicable. The closest thing we have to it in the western world is women’s make-up, but that is applied very smoothly and tidily, following fairly narrow ‘rules’ for beautiful application.

With western make-up it’s essential that the foundation matches the person’s skin color and is applied very smoothly with no blotches, streaks or inconsistencies. Blush is dusted lightly over cheekbones. Creativity comes in generally only with eye shadows, where women are free to choose colors, design and heaviness. Stray just a bit from these ‘rules’ and most people will consider you clownish looking.

That’s all quite different from the Burmese yellow paste ‘make-up’. Each person can choose, according to their own tastes, where on the face to apply it, how heavily, how smoothly and in which design. The paste often ends abruptly at the edges of the face or even in a smudge, which would all be seen as mistakes with western make-up. And needless to say, the pale yellow paste most definitely does not match the skin.

All in all, it looks very curious to westerners.

What do you think of it?

gruesome smile of a Burmese man who chews betel

Betel – Chewing Snuff

Burmese people have beautiful teeth – straight, white, full sets of gleaming white teeth that produce beautiful smiles.

Except for those who chew betel. Their mouths and teeth are stained a bright blood red. Their teeth are in various states of decay, separated by wide gaps and lined in black. It’s a gruesome sight when they smile.

They chew betel for a high, of course. Many of them seem sluggish and dim-witted. I’m not sure if the betel over time damages their thinking capacity, rendering them somewhat stupid, or if they’re just stoned in a fog.

Betel is not exclusive to Burma by any means. Indians and some Indonesians, mostly in rural areas, chew betel. Because of its popularity with Indians, you’ll see people chewing it around SE Asia wherever Indian communities exist: Singapore and parts of Malaysia.

But unlike these other SE Asian countries, in Myanmar you’ll see betel chewing continuously. So much so that the habit will become one defining Burmese characteristic of any trip to the country.

typical street side tea stall in Myanmar

Miniature Tables & Chairs

Burmese people seem especially fond of sitting at tiny child-size table & chair sets. All over the country at tea shops and local restaurants you’ll see local adults sitting on low stools built more for 3-year olds, their legs positioned like grasshoppers, knees pointing skyward. There they perch, sipping tea, chatting with friends and eating steaming bowls of noodles, looking quite content.

I’m not quite sure how they developed this custom or why they find it comfortable. Certainly Burmese people are smaller in stature than westerners, but that doesn’t quite account for their puny chairs , which are clearly ‘too small’ for them, at least from a western perspective.

The only other country where I’ve seen such super tiny chairs & tables was Vietnam.

In any event, its a real curiosity while traveling around Myanmar.

Try out the tiny chairs and tables yourself at a local tea shop. Who knows, maybe you’ll like them too. Perhaps you could even let me know their appeal.

Indian Burmese men wearing longis

Longis

Longis – men’s sarongs, worn in place of pants, are most certainly not exclusively Burmese either. Indians, Sri Lankans, Indonesians, Malaysians, Laotians and Thais in rural areas all wear longis to some extent.

However in Myanmar, the majority of men still wear longis as their main form of dress. They haven’t yet converted over to western pants like most other SE Asian men have. So more than any in other Asian country, you’ll see men wearing longis.

QUESTIONS:

If you’ve traveled through Myanmar, which of these Burmese customs did you find most interesting or odd?

Do you have any other quintessentially Burmese customs to add to this list?

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You might also enjoy:

Stories from the People of Myanmar

Great Reasons to Visit Myanmar

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