TAMU – ACROSS THE BORDER OF MYANMAR

 

The political territory of India is bounded by Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Tibet, and Myanmar from three sides and by water bodies on the southern side. However, unlike Europe, we have limited scope to visit our neighbours without a passport except for Nepal and Bhutan.

However, the bordering territory of Myanmar could be accessed by Indians without a passport and I had the privilege of crossing the border during my visit to Manipur.

The earlier silk route used to connect Europe with South-East Asia through India which subsequently got abandoned on account of the opening of substitute routes and bitter political relations between the countries.

I along with my family visited Manipur for tourism and to witness the Sangai Festival last year. As a part of tourism, we visited Moreh, a bordering town of Manipur situated around 110 km from Imphal that connected Myanmar through their bordering town Tamu of Myanmar which is around 3 km away from the border. A friendship gate had been constructed in the consciousness of two countries and local residents were allowed to cross the border freely through that gate.

We, as tourists, wanted to have a glimpse of Myanmar, which before independence was a part of the Indian sub-continent. However, culturally there was a huge difference between mainstream Indians and Burmese (Myanmar was previously known as Burma) but there were similarities with the people of Manipur and Nagaland.

How to Reach

There was a bus service from Imphal to Moreh covering a distance of around 110 km but it was difficult to visit Myanmar and return on the same day on account of the restricted time of entry to Myanmar. It would be better to hire a vehicle from Manipur and have a return trip programme for the whole day so as to make the visit fruitful. Otherwise, the tourists would have to stay at Moreh for the night.

Procedure to cross Border

A gate called “Friendship Gate” had been constructed between India and Myanmar to have access to citizens of both countries. The gate to cross the Indian border is open from 08.00 hrs. (MST) in the morning to 16.00 hrs. (MST) in the afternoon The Indians who want to visit Tamu would have to return on the day itself by that time. The Indians would have to deposit identity (UDAI/Aadhar Card or Voter Card) with the immigration authorities of Myanmar and pay Rs.20.00 as charges. A slip would be issued against the deposition of the identity card as documentary evidence.

What did we see there?

There were huge markets on both sides of the border and people were allowed to carry the product of each country to others. In Nampholon (Myanmar) market, mostly the Chinese goods were being sold other than normal consumables.

After crossing the gate, we took an auto-rickshaw to cover the nearby sightseeing. There were shuttle auto-rickshaws charging Rs.20/- per person to transport passengers from Nampholon to Tamu covering a distance of 3 km. Since we were in a group, we hired a full auto-rickshaw which would show us a few locations and again carry us to the border. The charges fixed was Rs.500/-. We could pay all the charges in Indian currency. The auto-rickshaw moved through Moreh-Tamu road and we noticed that vehicles were moving through the right track instead of the left track as prevailing in India.

The language was really a problem as the auto-rickshaw driver could not explain to us the details of the town despite trying his best to clarify in Burmese. We also tried to seek clarification in Hindi and English but both of us had to restrict within sign language. We were first shown a Shiv temple in Tamu town. On the way, we found that most of the gents and ladies were clad in lungee and the ladies had a white lotion type paste on their cheeks. It was locally called ‘Thanka’ and it was used as herbal cosmetics to keep them young. It was a small town without any specialty. The houses were mostly single-storied with tinned roofs and even if few houses were multistoried but still the roofs were tinned. The houses which seemed to be owned by less affluent people were made of bamboo and tin.  

We visited a few pagodas, sporadically constructed at different locations. Out of them, one pagoda “Phungi Chow” was famous, and Burmese regularly visited to pay tribute to Lord Buddha. The pagoda was located at an elevation and we had to climb around one hundred steps to reach the main platform. However, we could have a panoramic view of the town from the top of the platform.  However, one of the pagodas was worth seeing and we found that the architecture and painting were really superb. But because of the language problem, we could not ascertain the proper name. After the visit to a few other pagodas and chortens (burial grounds of monks), the auto-rickshaw driver took us to the Tamu market for lunch with the advice to complete lunch and marketing by two hours and he would pick us up for return journey to the border.

Our Lunch in Tamu

We entered a restaurant near the market and tried to select the items from the menu card. To add to our agony, every item indicated in the card was in Burmese and the price in Burmese currency. We were not able to ask ingredients as other members were not inclined to consume pork. We tried to explain to the owner that we needed any food made of chicken but it was a damn failure on our part. Lastly, I had to grunt like pig and crow like cock to make him understand that we wanted chicken and not pork. It was finally understood and we showed the plate of another customer exactly what was our need. 

The food, as per our order, was served along with a big bowl of soup with leafy vegetables and herbs. We tried to share the big bowl amongst us and asked for small empty bowls with spoons. After paying a lot of attention, the owner went to the kitchen and came back with another big bowl of soup. We were literally shocked to find so much liquid for us. When our words and gestures failed, the hostess seemed to understand our entire intention and brought another big bowl of clear soup and smiled in such a fashion that she had succeeded to understand our language. We realized that we were in the total soup. Then it was our decision to use a tumbler as a soup bowl and liquidify ourselves. After the lunch was over, the restaurant owner prepared the bill and after the conversion of currency, we paid the bill in Indian currency. The charges were moderate and it seemed that they did not charge any amount for the extra bowls of soup.

After the so-called historic lunch, we strolled in the Tamu market for about an hour and kept ourselves engaged in window shopping.

At the scheduled time, our auto-rickshaw the driver came and collected us from the market itself for our return journey to Nampholon from where we returned to India in the afternoon.

Our Experience

Though we did not cover the main Myanmar, yet it was a glimpse of the country which was once a part of the subcontinent. The hospitality of the local people was good despite the language problem and we could communicate with few Nepali vendors in the Tamu market.

So friends, if you intend to visit Manipur any time, please spare some time to have a trailer of our neighbouring country and enjoy their culture, lifestyle, and cuisine. We assure you that you will gain new experience and lose nothing.   

 

https://goingsomewhere.blog/crossing-the-myanmar-india-border/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OmXlvMkDvE