Like the previous day, I spent Saturday observing the activities of the Bagan Medical Clinic but there was also the excitement of a morning trip by car to make a stationery distribution at Htee Pu school, and a visit to a famous Mountain Pagoda, Tuyin Taung, on the way back.
The school at Htee Pu is in a fairly remote village in the Mount Popa area which Doctor Hla Tun and the Road to Mandalay Social Contribution have supported for a number of year. This assistance includes new school rooms, toilet facilities together with donations for school uniforms, stationery and teaching support. I'd first visited Htee Pu in 2009 (that report is here) and been impressed with the local Abbott's drive in trying to improve the lives of local people and I've subsequently been back a number of times:-
Opening of New School Building at Htee Pu (Saturday, 4th September 2010)
Mount Popa to Bagan (Saturday, 29th October 2011)
Htee Pu School Visit (Saturday, September 22nd 2012)
Visiting Bagan Schools (Monday, 28th April 2014)
Visit to Bagan Schools, 2015 (Monday, 27th April 2015)
Bagan (Day 4) (Monday, 2nd May 2016)
Visiting Schools in the Bagan Area (Monday, 1st May 2017)
A second weekend at Bagan Medical Clinic (2) (Saturday, 5th May 2018)
Initially, Doctor Hla Tun had intended to accompany me to Htee Pu for the distribution described below but, on reviewing the numbers of waiting patients, he decided he'd continue with consultations and send me with the monastery car and driver to Htee Pu. The stationery to be distributed to the pupils was loaded into the car and the driver and I set off on the familiar route at about 8.00 a.m. The final two miles to the village is still over an unsurfaced road but, as I've commented in previous posts about Htee Pu, improvements have been carried out, including a bridge over a section which formerly frequently flooded in the rainy season. The village is now more accessible.
Distribution at Htee Pu, May 2019: The new bridge on the road to Htee Pu.
In the village itself, I noticed new concrete poles with electric lighting. Electrification remains an important ongoing project in Myanmar. On my early visits to Htee Pu, I'd seen locally-installed wooden poles each supporting two electric conductors simply notched into a wooden cross arm with periodic dangling lamps. All this was powered by a small diesel engine driving an electric generator at the monastery. Because of the cost of diesel fuel, hours of operation were very limited. Numerous electrification projects are slowly improving the picture but the mains electricity supply in Myanmar remains notoriously unreliable compared with what I can expect in England.
Distribution at Htee Pu, May 2019: Htee Pu Village, showing new concrete poles with electric lighting.
On my visit in 2017, I'd admired a new open-sided pavilion erected in the school yard in front of the monastery. As we arrived in 2019, I was surprised to see that this pavilion had been joined by a second, much larger pavilion, with a framework of blue-painted tubes supporting a banana-leaf roof. The new pavilion was large enough for a 'top table' with refreshments, space for all the children to sit in the shade on woven mats and even room for our car to be parked in the shade!
Distribution at Htee Pu, May 2019: The 'top table' with local dignitaries and waiting pupils enjoy the new pavilion.
Distribution at Htee Pu, May 2019: The Headmistress and pupils enjoying the new pavilion.
The stationery was unloaded from the monastery car and the monastery driver supervised the teachers as they made up the 'kits' of stationery to be presented to each pupil. Since it was not a School day, I knew that only some of the pupils would be able to attend but we try to leave spare materials for teachers to distribute afterwards. The children waited quietly seated on the mats under the pavilion until preparations were complete and then teachers formed up the pupils, class by class, to receive the stationery. With teachers supervising the line of waiting students and another teacher passing each 'kit' to me, it only took a few (rather frantic) minutes to complete the distribution.
Stationery Distribution at Htee Pu, May 2019.
The discipline of students in Myanmar is always impressive but their individuality is also notable, like young people anywhere. Some will confidently say "Thank you" in English, others, prompted by teachers, will mutter an approximation, whilst a third group remain over-awed at having to approach a stranger. I do my best to appear friendly and unthreatening, usually keeping up a continuous patter in English which is intended to be soothing.
I was then expected to make a short address to the pupils in English, which was translated by a local businessman, with the Headmistress and the Abbott carefully watching. Once again, I relied on the "Never give Up" theme. There was then a presentation of packets of tamarind and sugar lozenges made at the businessman's local factory - delicious.
Jan addresses the pupils at Htee Pu, May 2019
A short walk around the school compound followed, with a number of new toilets pointed out and concluding with an inspection of the classrooms donated in 2010 (report here).
Distribution at Htee Pu, May 2019: View of classrooms donated in 2010.
Finally, we took pictures with the teaching staff and a 'group shot' in the pavilion.
Distribution at Htee Pu, May 2019: Jan and the Teaching Staff.
Distribution at Htee Pu, May 2019: The 'group shot'.
After a brief pause for refreshments, I said 'good bye' and left the good people of Htee Pu, who have made quite an impression on me during my various visits.
Before we'd left the Clinic, the Doctor had suggested that, after the distribution, I might enjoy a side trip to Mount Popa or elsewhere. Mount Popa is a fascinating and historic area which I'm always happy to re-visit but we agreed that a trip to a famous mountain pagoda called Tuyin Taung which I'd not visited might be more appropriate.
Each time I'd travelled on the road between Nyaung Oo and the direction on Mount Popa, I'd been aware of a long mountain range which thrusts itself from the plain parallel to the main road. Particularly noticeable is one gilded pagoda which crowns the high ground, sentry-like, near the Nyaung Oo end of the range. Now, I was to visit this important shrine. Not far short of Nyaung Oo, the car made a left turn to head across the plain to the base of the mountain, followed by a long zig-zag ascent of the mountain finishing in a busy car park a little way below the summit. The popularity of the site was obvious from the number of pilgrims, as far as I could tell all Myanmar people. My driver indicated the daunting flight of concrete steps leading to the unseen pagoda at the summit and said he would look after the car. I slowly hauled myself upwards, clinging to the stainless steel tubular handrail often found in such location as crowds of cheerful pilgrims passed me in both directions. The hot sun bore down and my progress was slow but at last I came to a complex of pavilions with a final broad set of steps on the left leading to the pagoda platform.
Burma 2019: Broad steps leading to the pagoda platform at Tuyin Taung.
The views in all directions from the pagoda platform showed the extent of the Bagan Plain, with the Ayeyarwaddy River glistening in the distance as it arced from my north to my west.
Burma 2019: View from Mountain Pagoda across the Bagan Plain.
Burma 2019: View from Mountain Pagoda, with the Ayeyarwaddy River in the distance.
Looking south-east, the mountain range continued but it was clear that Tuyin Taung Pagoda was on the highest part of the outcrop.
Burma 2019: View looking south-east from Tuyin Taung Pagoda.
The sun had made me a little giddy so, slowly and carefully, I started my descent of the steep steps to the car park. Seeing my caution, two smiling middle-aged Myanmar lady pilgrims formed up on either side of me, took each arm in a firm grip and made sure I reached the car park safely. It's these small acts of kindness that make Myanmar such a special place for me. My car and driver was waiting so I was back at the Bagan Medical Clinic in less than 30 minutes.
Related posts on this website
This is one of a series of posts describing my 14th visit to Myanmar. The post Return to Burma is the first post in the series.
Clicking on the 'Next report' link displays the post describing the next events. In this way, you may read about the trip in sequence.
Next report.
Alternately, clicking on the 'All my Burma 2019 reports' link displays all the posts on this trip in reverse date-of-posting order.
All my Burma 2019 reports.
My pictures
My pictures including this part of the trip are in the albums:-
Burma 2019. Distribution at Htee Pu, May 2019.
Burma 2019: Tuyin Taung Mountain Pagoda.
All my pictures on this trip are in the collection of albums also called Burma 2019
[01-Jul-2019 Visit to Tuyin Taung added]
