Fifty Viss

A collection of all things Burmese. viss.wordpress.com

[fiftyviss]

Burmese became the 74th language to be translated in Google, as of yesterday! How do the translations fare? Here's my initial take.

[thedailyexplorer-blog]

Cafe men, Yangon.

[stevemccurrystudios-deactivated]

A woman reads in her shop in Yangon, Burma.  

[vacilandoelmundo]

Bagan, Myanmar

[cseasucb-deactivated20161107]

VIDEO: Describing a research project partially developed at UC Irvine that looks at how people use money in modern-day Burma.

[mondoloni]

Shwedagon at 5 AM.- Rangoon, Myanmar, may 2014.

[jamescharlick]

City Living (by jamescharlick)

Yangon (also known as Rangoon, and meaning “End of Strife”) is a former capital of Myanmar (Burma). Although the military government has officially relocated the capital to Naypyidaw since March 2006, Yangon, with a population of over five million, continues to be the country’s largest city and the most important commercial centre.

Yangon’s infrastructure is undeveloped compared to those of other major cities in Southeast Asia, and while many high-rise residential and commercial buildings have been constructed or renovated throughout downtown and Greater Yangon in the past two decades, many remain in poor states of repair and most satellite towns that ring the city continue to be deeply impoverished.

I really like this type of photo and I’d have liked to get more similar shots, but taking photos from the hotel balcony means you need to stay in more than one place to get more than one photo. Which we didn’t.

[otherworldbuddha]

[buddhabe]

Young monk, Mandalay, Burma (Joe Messina)  

[sleasca-blog]

More on Myanmar reform. For the entire post head over to GlobalPost

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Portland-based filmmaker Michael Parisien takes a tour through Burma.

[fiftyviss]

Here’s one other final, sobering statistic: If Myanmar’s economy does manage to grow 7%-8% per year for a long stretch, it might still only hit GDP per capita of $2,000–$3,000 by 2030. [...] But it’s still a far cry from its peers. Malaysia’s GDP per capita in 2010 on a purchasing power parity basis was nearly $15,000.

"Myanmar’s Growing, but Has a Long Way to Go," Wall Street Journal.

[fiftyviss]

A play on different perspectives, playing on the fact that a Burmese character can be rotated 4 different ways to form different letters.

TOP: This is the letter "nga!" (င) It can only be that! LEFT: This is the letter "ga!" (ဂ) Surely. RIGHT: That's the letter "pa!" (ပ) Yes. Yes. Yes. BOTTOM: That's "one!" (၁) Sure you're right?

Cartoon by Aung San Kyaw.

[ohmyfoodcoma]

The Burmese American community gathered this past May to celebrate the sacred umbrella hoisting ceremony at the Thondrarama Brahma Vihara monastery (aka the Azusa monastery)!

Beautiful costumes, yummy food, and a transplanted tradition dating centuries.

Read my account in its entirety here!

[fiftyviss]

Word choice in President Thein Sein's state of the union address (2012).

[fiftyviss]

Outline of a Burmese throne c. Konbaung dynasty.

[fiftyviss]

A postcard I scanned from my dad's collection.

Caption reads: Obeisance Dance Solo. Burma National Dance, Burma