Preserving Ava's Heritage: Supporting Monastic Communities Amidst Challenges
The following submission comes from one of our local team leaders, reflecting on the current challenges being faced throughout his country that often doesn’t garner the appropriate attention. In the heart of Myanmar's historical Ava, the echoes of its past glory are now juxtaposed with the current struggles faced by local communities, including the monastic society. As we look to the future, let's come together to support and preserve the essence of Ava's heritage… which in the writer’s mind, means finding ways to support those monks and nuns now facing hardships.
Many foreigners who know Myanmar, may have heard of Ava, the ancient capital city of Myanmar. Since the 15th Century, Ava had been popular to the Europeans, being described as ‘Court of Ava’ in many books and scripts, which were written in English, Portuguese and other European languages. Tourists of today who have ever been to Myanmar and visited Ava, may remember their beautiful experience riding on a horse-drawn cart on the dusty dirt road among the fields from one ancient stunning temple to another in Ava or Innwa.
Recently, a local travel blogger and news outlet published the news about the financial hardship of the horse cart drivers in Innwa due to the economic collapse and decline of tourism in Myanmar after the military coup. One horse-cart driver told this travel blogger that most of the local horse-cart drivers sold their horses and worked for random jobs such as mason, carpenter and farm laborers, as well as migrating to other parts of the country for their survival. Due to the travel insecurities in the country, even the local tours have not come to Innwa for about three years so far.
I can definitely tell you that this is true. Our friends, the natives of Innwa, told us about how they witnessed the financial hardship of the local people when they visited there the last time. Not only horse cart drivers but also other villagers who live around the stunning old brick walls of the famous ancient Ava and sell or work at different handicraft workshops such as lacquerware, palm-leaf gifts, etc., have faced a decline of tourism to Innwa. A very few tourists from Thailand and China have visited within the last several months. Due to the financial hardship to survive, young villagers from the Ava area have moved or migrated to other areas and cities such as Yangon and Mandalay for jobs. Some young men have moved to those cities to study Korean, Chinese or Japanese to go and work in Korea, China and Japan.
As the society of laity has been hard day by day, there has truly been a directly proportional impact on the society of monastics in Innwa as well. Although the Innwa area was the golden capital city of the Burmese Kings in the past, the people today, who mostly comprise Buddhist people, are facing difficulties now. Like the Buddhist people in other areas of the country, the generous natives of Innwa are still supporting the monastics until last but not really well. Just as in a Burmese proverb meaning, although the generous people there are doing their best to support the monastics, they are even facing hardship for their family to survive. The compassionate abbots of the monasteries where there are a number of residing monks and novices, divide them into different groups and send each group to different villages and some villages are too far from the monastery.
Through our friends who are originally from the Innwa area, we had chances to talk to some abbots who have opened schools for free education for the villagers’ children. One of the abbots of those monastic schools said, “Of course, it’s hard. But we cannot say yeah. We cannot sit and groan. So, we have to send Metta (loving kindness) what we can do. And, this Mano-karma Metta (sending mental loving kindness) isn’t enough. We also have to keep Kāyā-karma Metta (bodily action of loving kindness) to look after and educate our children until the last breath. Right?”
Therefore, we would love to kindly pass this information about the hardship of the monks and nuns in the famous Ava area which brightly shined with a stunning history in the past, deserves now to be taken care with our gratitude to its past successful stand to guard and preserve the Buddha’s Dharma. I am nostalgically thinking about the golden times in my eyes and imagining the images of the monks going in and out of the royal palace of Ava (Court of Ava) for almsfood upon the royal family’s invitation, as well as hearing the ‘noises of gold bracelets’ which the citizens of Ava were wearing around their wrist, while offering almsfood to a big line of monks.
In this time of financial hardship and uncertainty in Myanmar, we are reminded of the rich history and cultural significance of Ava, the ancient capital city that once shone brightly. Now, the local horse cart drivers and villagers around Ava's stunning old brick walls are struggling due to the decline in tourism after the military coup. This economic crisis has had a direct impact on the monastic society in the Ava area.
The generous natives of Ava, who have always supported the monastics, are now facing their own hardships. Monastic schools that provide free education to villagers' children are doing their best to continue their noble mission. However, it's not without challenges.
We kindly ask for your support to help these monks and nuns continue their valuable work in Ava. Your contributions can make a significant difference in providing financial stability, education, and essential resources to the monastic community in this historically significant region. Just as in the past, let's come together to ensure the preservation of the Buddha's Dharma and support the monks and nuns who have been a beacon of hope in these difficult times.