fifty viss

Today, my family went to to the Wat Thai of Los Angeles, one of the largest Thai temples in the L.A. area (the other one is in the suburb of the City of Industry). Every weekend, Thai families sell different types of Thai food at a market in the parking lot. But today, I believe there was a festival, where some people circled the main wat, led by two ‘dancers’ and a Brahmin priest holding lotus flowers. I think it has something to do with the Buddhist lent, which in the Burmese calender, starts at the month of Waso and ends at Thadingyut. Since, Waso is between the months of June and July (this year, the full moon of Waso is on July 29, starting the Buddhist lent), I’m assuming that the parade march is associated to the Buddhist lent. My mother guessed it was monk robe (Waso thingan) offerings, but I’m not completely sure.

Pictures of the temple below:

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Today was the annual Neibban Zay (Nirvana Market) at the Whittier Narrows Recreation Area, with profits from the different stalls going to the Brahma Vihara Monastery, which has been the source of controversy among Burmese Buddhists in Southern California. My aunt, who had planned to sell hkauk hswe thoke (salad noodles) decide not to, after hearing rumors about the resident monks using money for luxuries like business-class airline tickets and extravagant spending on cars and such.

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I’ve wanted to write an entry for a while, especially on the recent re-establishment of diplomatic ties between North Korea and Burma, but I’ve felt too self-conscious to do so.

But, today, I stumbled across a website “Southeast Asian Visions”, part of Cornell University Library’s Asian collection. While browsing its vast contents, I discovered a wealth of colonial-era Burmese journals and writings. Among my favorites is The Silken East, by V.C. Scott O’Connor, a late-1800s British writer.

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