Viewing page 98 of 168

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

212

George Orwell
Burmese Customs

Jan. 20  
[[strikethrough]] July 30 [[/strikethrough]]


not sagging & bulging like white men, but growing fat symmetrically, flesh solid - which I had noticed myself & commented upon.

The honorific U before the name. The practice of cheating & bribing - so common. - The Buddhist belief in buying merit - by good deeds - building pagodas. The symbol of the little bells in the pagodas - the bells that tinkle in the wind, every tinkle a prayer. The gaung baung (hat) the Ingyi, the paso (the ceremonial longyi - much fuller & extravagantly draped.

The word nigger is discountenanced in India. The Burmese are Mongolians, the Indians are Aryans or Dravidians. The 'Durwan'- servant, gatekeeper - Salary - 'Talab' Bread - leavened with palm-toddy. Servants do not wear sandals in master's presence or the house. 



213

Burmese Customs    
Tuesday, Jan. 20
[[strikethrough]] July 31 [[/strikethrough]]

B. Women's bodies contourless as a bas-relief. They have no breasts & deny what they have. Their hair coiled in tight black cylinders (over cardboard) like ebony. Skin colour of new copper. Scent of sandalwood & coco-nut oil faces covered with thanaka - to protect the skin from the sun. No Burmese words for love or kiss. Hair decorated with jasmine flowers. Burmese woman married to a white man is a 'Bo-kadan." The crows - the bullock cart-wheels, the white-washed pagodas everywhere. the 'peepul' trees, the dogs everywhere, baying at the moon at night. The tropical seasons, the heat of the glaring sun from February to May followed by the monsoon, a heavy, ceaseless downpour that drenches & mildews everything - even one's bed & food never seem dry.

The paddy fields, ploughed by naked Burmans in yard - wide