Donation to nunneries in Pyin Oo Lwin
The following report was shared by our local volunteer, who was able to carry out this donation project thanks to the generosity of donors like you! Thank you so much for this support, and please keep in mind that your continued contributions, of any amount, do so much to help vulnerable communities continuing to struggle in the wake of the military coup!
Yesterday, my wife and her brother distributed alms-food donations to two nunneries in Pyin Oo Lwin. This pleasant town, formerly known as May Myo, was a hill station under British colonial rule and is located in the Shan mountains. Due to cool, humid weather, the region is famous for its good climate and beautiful scenery of mountains, waterfalls and rain forests. Pyin Oo Lwin had become a tourist attraction both for local visitors and international tourists amd it has also become a preferred destination for meditators as well. Taking advantage of the climate, many well-regarded monasteries, nunneries and meditation centers are now located in the area. The well-known Pa-auk International Meditation Center and the monastery branch of the Rector Sayadaw Dr. Nandamālābhivamsa are just two examples.
However, similar to Bagan, the area around Pyin Oo Lwin has seen a near total collapse of local as well as international tourism due to the pandemic and then the coup. The monastics residing in these monasteries and nunneries have started to encounter hardships due to the rising price of food and the difficulty their lay supporters face in purchasing sufficient food. The chief nun of the nunnery where the donation was made yesterday explained to me that the local sponsors who mostly donate alms-rice and or cooking oil on a monthly or weekly basis have not been able to make their regular contributions due to their financial hardship and increasing prices. She said, “Previously, one sack of good quality alms-rice cost between 30,000-45,000 kyats (around $10-15), but now one sack of bad quality rice costs around 50,000 kyats. So, the regular donors are not able to support us.”
Pyin Oo Lwin’s mountainous location on the Mandalay-Lashio highway, which runs to the Chinese border, also contributes to the higher prices they are seeing. The rice grown in Pyin Oo Lwin is called Taung-ya-san (hilly rice) and is notoriously difficult to eat. Good quality rice needs to be transported from other rice-growing areas, such as Shwebo in the Sagaing Region, or the Irrawaddy Delta region which is very far from Pyin Oo Lwin. Nowadays, fuel prices in the country have also increased greatly, and the prices for all transported goods go up proportionally.
Yesterday, the two Pyin Oo Lwin nunneries we visited were each donated five large sacks of good quality alms-rice of and a bucket of cooking oil of 10 vissa (a Myanmar unit for weight). The cost of this donation was so much higher than it would have been even just months ago, and we are so thankful to our donors for helping us to acquire these. Gradually, nunneries and monasteries are likely to face a real shortage of alms-food, and I don’t know what we will do then. The crisis is a challenge for the local meditators who reside there, or are in meditation retreats, especially for the aged and lifelong yogis who have come to make a home here.
But despite all the difficulties and limitations on support, this is a thankful letter to our kind Better Burma donors for which we can, at least, support two nunneries and feed a population of 100 nuns for a certain period of one or two months! Sādhu, Sādhu, Sādhu for all your merits and may this donation lead you to the delights and the ultimate happiness. I’m writing this letter to share the gratitude with you all, bringing the message of thankfulness from the nuns who have so greatly benefited, to you. Thank you again for all your support!
