第132回 「メルマガ写真館」

「Mingalabar !」
... Noemi-Tiina Dupertuis (Division of Southeast Asian Area Studies)

　My name is Noemi, I joined ASAFAS in 2015 to study the evolution of rural societies and rural development practices in Myanmar. In the masters, I did 4 months of field research in Chin State, an area usually difficult to access for foreign researchers.

　From Yangon, it takes a night bus to Chauk and a day by jeep to reach southeast Chin State, where my fieldwork is located. The road is long, but in the day time I could observe the change in vegetation and agriculture practices. After a day through the hills of Magway Division, I finally reach the foot of the famous Chin Hills. Here is the real border between my reality and the Chin : we lose access to internet and phone communications. Like them, I will be isolated from the outer world. Engaging with Chin villagers but also educated pastors who commit themselves to their communities’ education, I carried out a socio-economic survey through observation, interviews and informal discussions.

　In the hills, the Chin still live on shifting cultivation, slowly adding cash crops to their fields. While men must often take part in social duties in the village, women work in the « taungya », a patch of forest cleared by fire to plant crops. In this village of 32 households, I visited them all, and know them by name. More than just a socio-economic survey, fieldwork among the Chin taught me valuable life lessons.

　My special thanks to all villagers and pastors who took the time to teach me from zero.