With beautiful natural sceneries and open trade policies to foreign countries in recent years, Myanmar has become a favorite destination for tourists. myanmar tours are always crowded and take place regularly to meet the need of visitors. However, before coming to this country, you should learn about some customs and traditions here to make your trip more comfortable and interesting. This article provides some most useful rough guide Myanmar so you can better enjoy the trip. First, when visiting temples and other Buddhist religious sites, tourists have to go bareheaded and walk barefoot. You are not allowed to wear hats, shoes and socks, especially shorts, T-shirts, too thin or too short skirts when visiting temples. Reading some Myanmar travel blogs, it is easy to find the information for any visitor. Some places do not allow women to approach the altars. Visitors should find out the suitable time and place to take photos then ask for permission to take pictures and film. Besides, you have to respect monks and nuns (Burmese called Sangha) and the elderly. Visitors should not shake the hands of monks.
myanmar people think the east express the good luck. They argue that the east is the place to find the purity of the Buddha. That explains why the Buddha altar in the Burmese family is often placed close to the east wall of the main room. When they sleep, their head must turn toward the east, not the west, because it is the smeariness and they will encounter unhappiness. You can ask the local people more about the custom in a Myanmar independent travel.
Greeting together with a smile is a common custom. Burmese believe that the sinciput is a place of respect, so other people are not allowed to touch their heads, even toward children. People also do not interfere the privacy and secrets of their friends or colleagues. They respect the freedom of each other. The customs are described very interestingly in many Myanmar guide books.
According to the Myanmar custom, people must put off their shoes before entering the house. It is a basic rough guide Myanmar. When meeting the elderly, do not use the right hand for handshakes because the right hand is considered unclean. When visiting rural and mountainous villages, visitors should first learn about the local customs to show their respect for the people traditions.
Talking about eating habits, Burmese people only eat two meals a day at 9 a.m. And 5 p.m., and they have snack for lunch. In meals, they often have vegetables, shrimp or fish. They said that if they lack fish and shrimp, they do not eat appetizers. Joining in any Myanmar backpack tour, you can be invited to have meals with the people. Burmese do not eat rice with chopsticks. Before eating, they have to wash their hands and then use their hands to roll the rice into balls and eat with vegetables. Myanmar people always eat with their right hand. In their view, the left hand often does daily personal hygiene work, so they are not used for eating. Buddhists often avoid eating beef and Muslims do not eat pork.
Myanmar has very few ATMs, so it is the best to bring cash when you travel here. And make sure that your money is not crumpled, torn or has any strange traces, otherwise it will not be used. According to some Myanmar blogs, redit cards are only accepted at 5 star hotels and large restaurants.
Traditional costumes of the Myanmar people are “longyi” skirts. Men bind skirts in front, and the skirts of women are folded up and sewed on the hip. In particular, in the cities, Burmese men only wear underwear under the longyi skirts when going out to the streets. In rural areas, it is noticeable to be a Myanmar highlight that wearing underwear is less common with both men and women.
The next strange custom of the Myanmar people is that they celebrate the New Year in four days. New Year (Thingyan) is a special holiday for the people in this country. “Thingyan” is known as the water splash festival, which usually takes place in April every year. It is also a simple feature of Burmese customs for rough guide Myanmar. On these days, some places such as banks, restaurants, shops are all closed. The two biggest cities celebrate the New Year the most imposingly are Yangon (30 km from Martaban Bay) and Mandalay City (716 km north of Yangon). During the festival, people often splash the others with water to wash away the bad lucks and sins of the previous year and set free to birds and fish on the last day of the festival.
Myanmar has a fire-burning festival in October and this festival is similar to the Mid-Autumn Festival in Vietnam. They burn lights to welcome the novice Buddha return from Nirvana. The festival makes it worth a world Myanmar travel for worldwide tourists. This festival lasts for three days, during which every family burn lights and fireworks. Myanmar also has another big festival, it is Myanmar’s independence day on January 4.
When visiting Myanmar, visitors will find that the local people also have a strange custom. According to the view of Burmese people, to be a beautiful woman, from the age of 5, any girl must wear a belt waist, then embroidered 30 more belts. Getting to Myanmar, you will notice that for a man choosing a wife, the size of her waist is one of the criteria to be put under consideration.
Myanmar also has a lot of nice customs. Buddhism has a great influence on the daily life of the Burmese. So people live honestly, worship Buddhism and dress casually. The mutual morale of the Burmese people is very high. Whether in urban or rural areas, the people are treated with respect, rarely quarreling or scolding each other. Burmese are very self-conscious of the law. Hunting birds, animals or arbitrarily cutting trees are taboo. They think if something is not your own property, you will not allowed to use. So the phenomenon of robbery or theft in public is very rare. With that lifestyle, the phenomenon of adultery lead to divorce in society is also limited. You should have known one rough guide Myanmar already that Burmese people voluntarily give alms to monks. Many poor people are always willing to give them food or money.
Burmese people have no surnames, they only have first names. When greeting, they often fold their hands in front of their chests or lower their heads. Myanmar people love birds. Buffalo is also respected. When seeing a buffalo on the road, you have to give ways for the buffalo to pass first. Some places in the temple area, especially the solemn and sacred places, do not allow women to enter. You should ask the local guide to be sure you are in the right position. Another basic rough guide Myanmar, women should not sit on the top of a car or boat and on a roof, which means sitting over someone else’s head. Women are also not allowed to touch or shake hand with monks in any way. If you unfortunately touch, you had better apologize. In Myanmar, only men are allowed to be a monk. If you wear traditional Burmese dresses, you should wear turtle-neck, not uncovered the back, the belly and the chest and women have to wear bras. You have to wear trousers and long sleeved shirts when visiting the temples of Myanmar; Filming and taking some pictures is a sensitive issue in Myanmar. This is the most troublesome problem that many tourists encounter. You should avoid photographing or filming at sensitive Myanmar sites related to politics, hospital, security. In case you are caught by police and arrested to delete the picture, it will be better if delete it and apologize. Do not run away or try to persuade because you will only get into trouble if you do that.
Each country has its own special customs, so does Myanmar. So you should learn about the culture of Myanmar people before traveling here. With the development of information currently, it is not difficult at all to read useful rough guide Myanmar before your trip. By that way, you will definitely have a perfect and interesting travel to this country.
