MEETING DOINGNAK-CHAKMA RELATIVES IN BURMA
My friends and constant companions of the last few days had hardly dropped me off at Yangon (Rangoon) airport, when I started visualizing my next visit. To see places and meet people I didn’t have the time to, on this occasion.
I had spent about a week in Rangoon (the “R” of the Rakhine and other languages becomes “Y” in Burmese), in the first week of November (2014). I had some free time after a three-day conference in the city hosted by the Myanmar Human Rights Commission and the Forest Peoples Programme.
I had wished to go to Bagan (Pagan), the region of Buddhist chedis (Jadi in Chakma) and temples, but it was too far away. I tried and failed to get plane or bus tickets to Taungyi in Shan State. It was festival time and all seats were sold out.
I settled for a day trip to the Mt. Kyaiktiyo Pagoda, at the HANGING ROCK site in MON STATE; the third popular site of Buddhist pilgrimage in Burma, after the Shwe Dagon Pagoda (which I visited) and the Mahamuni Pagoda.
Buddha images from Rakhine State generally follow the MAHAMUNI style of sculpture.
The Mahamuni temples in Rangunia and in Manickchari (Khargrachari District) - established by the Mong Raja - house Buddha images of the Mahamuni style. The Buddha image at the Rajvihar in Rangamati, on Rajbari Island - installed by my great grandfather Raja Bhuvan Mohan Roy - follows the GOTAMMUNI style, and temple housing it is hence called the Gotammuni Mondir. The statue was reportedly brought over from Mandalay, perhaps in the early 20th century. Other Buddha images in Bangladesh belong to the SAKYAMUNI and other traditions.
I won’t describe the monastery with the Hanging Rock. You can see it on the net. But the journey was fun. We set off in an SUV with U Phoe New "PN"), an ex Army man, and a Chakma, at the wheel. We called him Dangoo Phonie, Chakma-izing his Burmese name (most Chakmas in Burma have Burmese or Rakhine names).
PN had fought, as a Burmese Army soldier, against the Burmese Communist Party in Shan State, but lived to tell the tale. He is married to a Burmese lady and works for a car company. He was accompanied on all the trips by his aide, a tall and pleasant Burmese youth (we couldn’t speak, except by sign language).
Then there was Aung Htun ("AT"), about 34, and a bachelor. He is the first Chakma jeweller that I’ve ever met. I visited his shop in Yangon, where more than a dozen craftsmen work, half of whom were Chakma, including a young teenager (see photos). There were also two Chakma monks on the trip, Ven Jyotipala and Ven Thumana Bodhi.
The first part of the highway to Mon State was four-lane, part of the ASIAN HIGHWAY. AT called it BAWR JANGAL, jangal meaning road in Chakma, which word is seldom or never used by urbanite Chakmas in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT). Instead, in the CHT, most Chakma use the word PAWTH/FAWTH (root is Pali, also used in Bengali and similar to the English PATH).
He referred to the LONGYI as a BORMA-DHOODI.I learned many interesting Chakma words from AT. He is either from the Moe/Mhu GOZA or clan from the DHAONYA GUTTI or sub-clan, or from the Aung Nyo GOZA from the Gallua Saamuk gutti (I’ll check with him by email; we converse in Chakma, using the Roman script. That is a challenge! Talking face-to-face was easier).
The words, verbs and accents employed by the Burmese Chakmas - known as Doingnak in Rakhine State - resemble the language spoken by the TANCHANGYA PEOPLE in the CHT and the Chakma people in Teknaf, Cox’s Bazar (some of the latter nowadays identify themselves as Tanchangya). Perhaps the DHONYA GOZA accent is the closest, but I am not sure.
I had also heard AT referring to city blocks as JANGAL, while taking me across a street where I couldn’t refrain from eating some FRIED LOCUSTS (Ghumuro; Ghongora in Kazolong Valley; see photo).
He said that the insects hadn’t been cleaned in the proper way, and the FEDA hadn’t been thrown away. He carefully broke off the offending part of the creatures before offering them to me, now and again, saying “Arekko Mari Dei”.
Former Minister and MP, Moni Swapan Dewan, and FAO employee Malayesh Dewan (Sheregul) had also similarly enjoyed locusts available in Bangkok streets, but they too said that the locusts were with the feda.Bangkok is another great destination for gourmets partial to insects.
Once, while visiting the city simultaneously with RANGLAI MRO, I showed the Mro leader the fare offered in a Bangkok street and asked him whether he recognized the fried delicacies displayed on the street vendor’s KULA. He recognized some of them and his face lightened up. Then his attention wavered to the other creatures on the spread. He grimaced and said, “We Mro never touch these filthy creatures” (or words to that effect). Well that’s civilization for you! It’s relative.
Eating insects (ENTOMOPHAGY), is a common part of the heritage of most of the indigenous peoples of the CHT, like millions of people in Myanmar, Thailand and several other parts of Southeast Asia, indigenous and non-indigenous alike.
The early morning of the day before the Rock Temple visit, and the third day of the conference, were spent travelling around Yangon. I had to stay up late the night before, to give finishing touches to my presentation for the conference, and wake up at dawn to visit one of the two Chakma temples in Yangon.
At the temples I met the resident monks; Burmese Chakmas (Doingnak) along with a few visiting Chakma monks from the CHT and Chakma-inhabited areas in India. I was given the GRAND TOUR of the temple and monastery grounds and posed for photographs with the assembled laypeople (mostly women) and monks.
The Doingnak women kept on disappearing and reappearing every now and then. I was baffled. Only later did I understand the reason. They had gone off to take turns to wear the PINON-KHADI, the national dress of the Chakma. Some of the dresses followed Chakma styles (both the traditional Blue-Black & Red and other "non-traditional" colours and patterns), while others followed the Tanchangya tradition. These had been procured from the CHT or Chakma-inhabited areas of India (Mizoram and Tripura) and carefully saved away.
The weaving tradition has died out in Rakhine State and so the Doingnak had to import these precious items from the CHT and share them during festive and other special occasions!
Let me say a few words about the DOINGNAK-CHAKMA identity in Burma. Burmese history, as attested to me personally by an AMBASSADOR of MYANMAR some years ago, and researched by scholars, including G. E. Harvey, mentions the PYU, KANRAN and THET (THEK or TSEK or TSAK) as the earliest inhabitants of Burma.
The Burmese word THEK used to refer to the Chakma/Doingnak, and occasionally to the SAK (now known as CHAK in Bangladesh). Therefore, to avoid confusion, the Burmese Chakmas accept the name DOINGNAK for themselves, as used by the Rakhine. The DOINGNAK are among the 135 “races” or peoples recognized as indigenous to Burma.
Like the Chakmas and Tanchangyas in the CHT, Burmese Chakmas also have GOZA (clan or sept) and GUTTI (sub-clan). These include the Mho/Mhu, Aung Nyo, La Puza, Dhonya, Karbwa, Mhelong and Muru. Guttis include Wa, Ranga Sondor Daghi, Saadibo, Pezaa and Pozoi.
Apart from widening my Chakma vocabulary (especially from Aung Htun), I learnt about the PALI roots of several Chakma words (as well as of Bengali words) from Ven Jyotipala, a Burmese Chakma monk.
I knew about UZU; meaning straight. I also learnt about several other words used in Chakma, which have undoubtedly come from PALI, a version of PRAKRIT spoken in the MAGHADHA region during the time of Gautama Buddha. These include: UNDUR (rat or mouse), HORING (deer), SAAM (skin), ANGARA (coal), SOOl (hair), ANDHAAR (dark), SIRA (head), EZANA (to come), DHUMO (smoke), DUOR (door), RAW (voice), JINANA/JINA (to win) and SOOR (to steal).
Of course, modern Bengali also has roots in Pali, as do Neplalese and Assamese. No wonder, Bengalis, Nepalese and Assamese all claim that the language of the famous BUDDHIST TEXT, CARYAPADA (CHORJAPODO) is in THEIR language. The Chakmas didn’t put in a claim as yet......
The Chakmas of Yangon are busy constructing new buildings and adding rooms to their structures in the monasteries in Yangon and in Rakhine State. Several Jummas, including PRAKRITI RANJAN CHAKMA and other Chakma, Tanchangya and Marma people from the CHT, visited Rakhine State a month or so before I went to Yangon.
The relationship between JUMMAS, Rakhines and other peoples in Bangladesh with peoples in Myanmar is getting closer. We have to work on it, to further improve it. Relations between BANGLADESH and MYANMAR have also improved. Former Ambassador of Bangladesh to Burma, Maj-Gen ANUP KUMAR CHAKMA (ret’d) is known to have played a positive role in improving Myanmar-Bangla relations.
This will be to the mutual benefit of our respective countries and their peoples.
Of course, problems remain, like that concerning the refugees from Burma known as ROHINGYA in Bangladesh (and as BENGALI in Burma).
But in the long run, friendship between BURMA and BANGLADESH and that between their PEOPLES, including the INDIGENOUS PEOPLES, will be beneficial for the two STATES and its peoples. We should do all we can to foster it.