Myanmar Faces—The Friendliest People

These photos come from our first day in Yangon, Myanmar; January, 2012.
Click on any photo to see a large copy and to access the "slideshow."

The people of Myanmar (Burma) are incredibly open and friendly. This young woman is
wearing thanaka, or tanaka, a powder which is ground from the thanaka tree and mixed
with a very small amount of water. It is used as makeup (by women and children as well
as by some men), as sunscreen, as a skin-coolant, as a complexion smoother and anti-acne
protection, and as an anti-fungal agent. It is certainly unusual to the newcomer, but one
grows almost instantly accustomed to it.

Burmese parents are very proud of their children and very
generous in allowing them to be photographed, so we

took hundreds of shots of them....

Many of the buildings had ground floor businesses below high rise apartments.

Our first excursion in Yangon (formerly Rangoon)
was to the awe-inspiring Shwedagon Pagoda,
one of the most ancient and most magnificent,
which is surrounded by a huge enclave of shrines
and a wide variety of images of Buddha.

The visitors include pilgrims and worshippers, tourists and vendors,
and everybody is taking pictures. That's my father in the background
with the video camera. We each shot over 20 hours of video....

The Shwedagon Pagoda in all its splendor.

"What's that up in the sky? Is it a bird? Is it a plane?"
[I love the composition of this piece.]

The clothing is very colorful for both girls and boys.
This snowflake shirt is actually rather subdued by
Burmese standards. If you look closely, you can see
that this young man is wearing thanaka on his face.

Although they were incredibly friendly and gregarious, expressing

warm greetings and jovial personas, the second the camera was 

turned on them their smiles turned into stoic looks (like early 

photographs when the subjects couldn't smile because it took

too long to take the shot, so they would sit with that straight-

mouthed, wooden look on their faces). Then, the instant that the

picture was taken, they were all smiles and laughter again. Though

they seemed genuinely pleased to have their picture taken, nearly 

everybody, from old people to little kids, got that same serious look,

so it was tricky to coax a smile.

However, they have such beautiful smiles,
it was well worth the coaxing.

Some, of course, posed quite willingly for the camera.

Others were a little more tentative.

The vendors were everywhere, but they were the sweetest
and least aggressive street vendors that we have encountered
in our many years of international travel.

Here are my parents (Carolyn's in-laws), Jennifer and Mel McMullen,
capturing a street scene. 87-years old; married for 65 of those years:
they just might be the inspiration for the original "energizer bunny."

Interesting anachronistic juxtaposition—
Clothes drying on a stick and a "SkyNet" dish.

"This little light of mine" in the back room at a monastery.

Myanmar (Me an' My) shadow

This is the view from our hotel room at the Chatrium Hotel Royal Lake
in Yangon. That is Shwedagon Pagoda in the distance at the right.

Seconds later.