No Worries in the Sagaing Hills
This story reflects how hard the situations in Myanmar are, not only for the lay people but also for the monastics who are relying on the Sangha. The shortage of electric supply is an ever-present problem that shows the clear neglect of the military regime, who do nothing for the people of our country. This has always been the case when the military is in charge.
A couple of years ago, a famous Satellite photo showed the brightness of Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar’s capital city where the military regime resides, far away from the crowds of people and other populated cities, and the darkness that pervades the rest of the country. During the administration of NLD, the civilian government, during the democratic transition, they made amazing strides in our electricity problems [as told in our recent podcast with Guillaume de Langre]. The NLD worked to increase the supply of electricity throughout the country, and even succeeded in implementing a national electric supply project in different phases to reach the rural areas as well. Lives were changed as they came out of darkness!
Yet nowadays, we Myanmar people are often saying, the dark days have come back again. But what many people outside the country do not know is, the 2021 military coup did not only bring this disaster for the lay-people, but also the monastic population in the country. The following story will show how we have used the contribution from foreign meditators to help the monks and nuns in Myanmar.
“It is apparent to see her smile on her face and happiness with an expectation to buy and fix a solar panel for the solar energy light in her nunnery.”
The word “ma-taunt-ta” in Burmese means “no-worries” or “no-needful”. There are quite a lot of monasteries and nunneries with this name “ma-taunt-ta” across Myanmar. However, there are surely “needs” in these monasteries and nunneries in this humanly world, especially in this hard time of Myanmar. There is a nunnery called “Ma-taunt-ta Nunnery” in the Sagaing Hills and our team went to this nunnery, too, to reach our contributions. There are not many nuns in this nunnery but surely it is serving the society just like the other monastic sites and nunneries where the young children are taught free education and Buddhist literatures as nuns.
There are 18 nuns dwelling and studying in this nunnery. Since most of the nuns are very young nuns except Daw [Redacted], the head nun, and her two assistants, it is quite hard for the administering nuns to manage the affairs of the nunnery. Daw [Redacted] said top me, “Since these days the electricity frequently goes off, it’s hard and unmanageable for us. For example, in those mornings when the electricity is off, we have to cook breakfast and lunch by firewood! It’s hard to always buy firewood or charcoal though we received some firewood from the local people around here.”
After she mentioned how the shortage of electricity has made them struggle for their cooking needs, she continued to talk about the worst hardship of the young nuns when enduring night after night of no electricity, and she mentioned how she would spend our contribution.
“And, on top of that, the worst thing which is hard to manage for us, is that we do not have a generator or a battery and a solar panel for the nights of no electricity. Since the nuns are very young kids, they are scared of the darkness in those nights of electricity. They have to study under the candlelights which is not quite healthy for their eyes or development. And, when they go to the latrines, it is dark and scary for them to go only with a light-torch, as you know. On top of that, we are very concerned with snakes and other poisonous animals going around the nunnery compound in the dark. At night when the electricity comes, we hang a light-bulb in a tree on the way to the latrines. This contribution from the foreign donors will now be very helpful for us, hopefully to get a 50Ah battery and 120-Watt or suited solar panel.”
It is apparent to see her smile on her face and happiness with an expectation to buy and fix a solar panel for the solar energy light in her nunnery. To admit honestly, neither we realized nor expected that this would be so very helpful, that they would use this contribution for their solar energy project. But this did provide a kind of helpful hand to take all their worries away, regarding their fear or concerns about the darkness. Apparently, the donation did not only mean a contribution for the light but it also meant a lot for them: fading away all the fears and risks or dangers that are caused by the “darkness”.