Distance University students defy warning and attend picnic in Mon dress
Sat 14 Nov 2009, Asah
Mon distance university students who study at Moulmein University, attended a post exam picnic in Mon dress despite demands by university administration not to attend.
On November 4th a day after completing their final exam, Mon University Distance Education (UDE) students traveled to Kare village [aka. U Nar Oak Pagoda] in Moulmein Township in Mon State. According to picnic organizers, the trip was organized so that Mon students would be able to unite with each other.
“This is the fist time we’ve had a picnic. At fist we thought that only 30-40 Students would want to go, but later many students wanted to go – we had over 180 Students [attend],” one student leader explained “We Scheduled this picnic because we wanted to make friends with others and organize a network and community of friends.”
Before the UDE left, they went to university dean and asked for permission to allow them to travel after the scheduled exam. The university dean, explained one student, refused to give them permission to travel. “If we went somewhere else he wouldn’t stop us from going, but he doesn’t give us permission to go. He also meant that if we got into any problems, we would have to solve them ourselves.”
In a recent article by the Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM) on November 12th, the UDE students were repeatedly warned by both class tutors and the university dean not to attend the post exam picnic. Prior to their exam they had planed to travel to Pa-an town. However after the numerous administrative warnings against attending picnic, they decided instead to travel to Kare village. Despite reservations from the administration, UDE students report traveling to Kare Village monastery without any restrictions or harassment from Burmese junta police or army forces.
Upon arriving, a head monk at Kare Village monastery treated Mon Students to coffee and gave a talk on the Pagoda’s name sake, U Nar Oak. Afterwards students played games at the monastery’s field, according to a student who attended the outing.
Organizers of the UDE student picnic chose Kare village because Kare village has been a famous Mon cultural icon since the 19th century. At that time U Nar Oak who was a wood trader, a rice mill owner, and steam boat owner that competed economically with the British colonially owned Irrawaddy Shiping Company, made considerable donations to the Mon monk community in the area. The pagoda was built in honor of U Nar Oak, who was Mon and lived in the village. The village became a prominent Buddhist and Mon destination.
“For this trip we had to pay just 3,000 kyat for travel costs, which is very cheap,” explained one student who chose to attend the picnic. “We had a lot of fun and so we got to know each other and become friendship with many different Mon students from different townships. We shall never forget this trip. By making this kind of group trip we are able to learn about Mon culture and strengthen Mon unity.”
According to former student who went, “We had planned to wear Mon national dress for this trip so we tried to wear what we could. Also we planed to make address books for the students before had, so they were able to take them back to their native towns. They liked them a lot.”
