Manipuri in Myanmar
- Part 6-

By: Mutua Bahadur *

Language and script

According to the 1931 census report, two out of every three Myanmarese Manipuri can understand and speak Manipuri language. Manipuri-Kates. Kate-Paonas settled at Yangon, around Mandalay, near Amarapura and Sagaing etc. are not using Manipuri language at their homes. So, most of the youths can no longer speak Manipuri language. Manipuri girls have more capability of speaking Manipuri language than boys.

Most of the Manipuri elders can still speak Manipuri language. A maximum number of Manipuri-Kates, including children and women settled by the Ningthi, can speak Manipuri language. Those Manipuris settled around Mandalay called Manipuri language as Ramon-Ion.

An organization named United Meitei Language and Cultural Group" was established at Mandalay on December 1, 1997 in order to impart lessons on Manipuri language at family level. Manipuri Kate-Paonas settled at Yangon has started to teach Manipuri language at Ram Mandir of Pogodong on a weekly basis. But, it cannot be termed a success story.

Some Manipuris of Yangon and Mandalay can write and read Bengali scripts. Names of temples and slokas are still written in Bengali scripts. One interesting thing is that some elders of Mandalay have started to learn to write their own names in archaic Manipuri script (Meitei Mayek).

When Manipuris departed for Myanmar, they took books on Sagei Yumdaba (settlement of clans), Subika Laishaba (illustrated manuscripts that are concerned with the activities of persons born within the twelve months, the whereabouts loss of properties, a particular day for putting up a house etc). These books are written in archaic Manipuri scripts.

They still use not only those hand-written manuscripts but use transcribed manuscripts also. Slowly, Manipuri Kate-Paonas attempted to translate Subika Laishaba into Myanmarese. Manipuri-Kates of Ningthi did not learn Myanmarese language before the Second World War as they believed that it was untouchable. With the passing of time, they started learning it.

Occupation

From an early stage, Manipuris served as cavalry, foot soldiers, indigenous physicians, carpenters, goldsmiths, rowers and weavers etc. under the patronage of the Myanmarese royalty. Manipuri Kate-Paonas served as purohits (priest) and astrologers. At present, the average Myanmarese Manipuri male and women are engaged in trade and commerce.

Some men are in government service but some women are found teaching from school to university levels. Women of Nandawsae, Dat Dale, Senga, Latthamar (Kongjengbam Leikai) are weavers, while some male weavers weave plain cloths. Some Manipuri-Kates of Mogok are miners of precious stones. And a large number of Manipuri-Kates settled by the Ningthi do fishing and panning gold from the river bed. Some women of Ningthi bank cross over to Ukhrul district (Manipur : India) and sell clothes and sweets during festivals.

Manipuri textile

Though the art of textile was already in Myanmar, it developed fast after the Manipuris' settlement there during the 18th century. Manipuri-Kates produced a variety of clothes from khwang-iyong, pan-iyong and fly-shuttle

looms. Till 1990 there was the tradition of khwang-iyong. There was a market named 'Zecho' which sold only products of Manipuri-Kates. The word 'zecho' means a market for luxury items and cheap commodities. Usually a Myanmarese will comment like this - "This cloth is fabulous. What is its price?" when she sees a cloth there.

In return Manipuri-Kates give an answer like this - "It costs rupees Rs. 15/- or kyat". In the midst of buying and selling Manipuri language is sometimes spoken. Unfortunately, today, there is no market that sells these products of the Manipuri-Kates.

In Myanmar silk fabrics can be classified into four categories. They are -
i) Bala,
ii) Achiek or Lun
iii) Gaik and
iv) Sat.

The bala fabric is coloured horizontally with colours. The three other fabrics have designs among the horizontal lines. The second one Achiek fabric or lun was introduced by the Manipuri-Kates near Patodas Pegoda near Amarapura in 1775 during the reign of the warrior king, Alungpaya.

The word 'Iun' means spool. Achiek or lun is known as 'lun taya'. 'Taya' means one hundred in Myanmarese language. Since one hundred spools are used in making an achiek cloth, it becomes known as 'lun taya'. During the reign of king Pagan, a cloth, weft woven with three shuttles and having zig-zag designs, was produced before the introduction of achiek. In order to weave these cloths it used silk imported from China. Now-a-days, silk imported from Thailand and Bangladesh etc are also used.

Myanmarese do business crossing the boarder of Manipur. They like the high quality of raw silk of Manipur. Silk-worms were found in plenty in the Kabo valley. Manipur was found growing plenty of silk plants all over the state according to a report of East India Company in 1882. Silk worms where available in its natural condition. Silk textile production started in the second century in Manipur. As such, Myanmarese Manipuri women are skilled in the production of silk textile.

During the reign of king Mindon of Myanmar (1852-1878), achiek was produced by using light shuttles numbering 120. Then there was the trend of increasing the boat-shaped shuttles upto 300 (lun thone-ya) numbers from 200 (lun hanaya) in weaving achiek. Achiek or lun taya. lun-hanaya or lun thone-ya arc silk cloths of high quality.

The designs found in achiek inspire others to use them in other areas. Weavers in the central part of Gangaw and the western part of Arakan started to produce cloths by imitating the pattern of achiek. Weavers of Inle lake and Chithei weavers near Prome and Thabyei Auk of Mandalay can be cited as examples. Lun taya and achiek have continued as the national cloths of Myanmar.

Use of achiek

Achiek longyi or sarong was used by the royalty from early times. Its use by common people was forbidden. Some achiek had been banned for use by them. The green and red coloured achiek were reserved for the king's use only. There is a tradition of using pink- coloured achiek only by the women of the royal family. The other nobles and the rich were allowed using other achieks other than the ones mentioned above.

However, the quality of these achieks must be of an inferior kind. Achiek to be used by the Shan royalty was brought from Amarapura. Classical dancers and married women wear achiek sarong. Different communities of Myanmar from western Rakhein to southern Mon use achiek. Even the middle part of Myanmar also use achiek.

Origin of achiek The meaning of achiek is to connect one another. Some believe that achiek's patterns are found out of zig-zags or ornamental loops. On the other hand there is no vertical design; besides being not embroidered, it can be considered as one based on floral pattern. The design of achiek can be termed as a small rainbow since it has five to eleven layers. Kate women weavers of Amarapura

called achiek as thouri-mayek (hind-pin-kyo in Myanmarese). achiek was inspired by the sight of flowers nestled on water waves.

See a gallery photo of Manipur and Myanmar here.

To be continued ....

Mutua Bahadur

* Mutua Bahadur contributes to e-pao.net regularly. This article was webcasted on April 28, 2011.