In Sagaing, Everything is Broken
Kyun Pin Sayadaw U Jatila has taught meditation around the world in the tradition of Sayadaw U Pandita, and eventually came to settle back in his hometown in the middle of the Dry Zone in the Sagaing Division. There, he has a thriving center, where people from all over the country come to learn from him, and even monastics and yogis from around the world. Yet last month, they had an unwelcome visitor: the Myanmar military. In this harrowing interview, he describes the devastation and terror that that the Tatmadaw unleashed in his village.
“They say that even that even in World War II the Myanmar people did not suffer like this.”
“They say that even that even in World War II the Myanmar people did not suffer like this. This time it's all the citizens of Myanmar: monks, the very senior Myanmar citizens, children, all of them suffer. In my area, they did not open the school since 2020! In 2020, they closed to the school; in 2021 they could not open, and in 2022, they could not open the school either. There are hospitals where because of the military, nurses do not go to work. Because they do not agree with the army, they do not go to work; then in the hospital, there is a shortage of medicine, a shortage of doctors and nurses. So people are dying, many people are dying without care, without their proper medicine. Without the proper medical treatment.
The private hospital is open, but at this private hospital everything is very, very expensive; ordinary, very poor Myanmar people cannot go to the private hospital. So, they have to lose their lives without getting proper medical treatment. Hospitals cannot open; schools cannot open. Myanmar offices also cannot open. The Myanmar army is taking over Myanmar, but many places they cannot control. They are losing control; so still the power struggle, you know, between the army and Myanmar democracy. The United Nations, the international aid, the Red Cross, they cannot come to help. Myanmar army itself cannot provide aid or food, but international cannot (and help is not allowed to) come.”