{"id":4309,"date":"2013-12-12T06:05:28","date_gmt":"2013-12-12T14:05:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/?p=4309"},"modified":"2014-10-29T20:52:23","modified_gmt":"2014-10-30T03:52:23","slug":"the-role-owls-play-in-myanmar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/2013\/12\/the-role-owls-play-in-myanmar\/","title":{"rendered":"The Role Owls Play in Myanmar"},"content":{"rendered":"

the 27th Southeast Asian Games<\/a>\u00a0just started<\/a> in Myanmar\u00a0and you’ll likely (hopefully?) hear more and more about it over the coming days — and more and more about the country as a whole as it uses the Games as a vehicle to reemerge onto the world stage. the last time it hosted the games? 1969.<\/p>\n

i happened to visit<\/a> in the month leading up to the Games and there were already decorations festooning Yangon — and many included this cartoon couple, the mascots of the games:<\/p>\n

\"2013-SEA-Games-mascots2\"

The male owl on the left is named Shwe Yoe and the female owl on the right is Ma Moe. If “shwe” is the same shwe that’s in Shwedagon (Pagoda)<\/a>, it means gold.<\/p><\/div>\n

and then i started noticing little owl statues and dolls everywhere — hanging in store windows, sitting on windowsills, in cars. do they have an obsession with owls? is it the country’s official animal? (no, that would be a peacock<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

A blurry photo I snapped from the cab on the way into town of a stadium in Yangon. You can see the mascots at the top of the arch and them participating in all sorts of sports along the sides.<\/p><\/div>\n

i finally learned (while visiting the village pictured below) that they are a symbol of good luck — but\u00a0only<\/em>\u00a0in pairs. you can’t just have one owl, you must have two for it to be a lucky charm, explaining why i never saw just one alone.<\/p>\n

the organizers of the Games go on to say<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The owl as official mascot of Myanmar SEA Games 2013 has a personality: wise, calm, lucky, loyal, and friendly.The personality of an owl is expected to bring forth cooperation, friendship, and better understanding among the participating countries.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

here are a pair of owls in a village in Bagan<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\"PB286131.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

if you’re wondering what was going on underneath the owls, an old lady…<\/p>\n

\"PB286119.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

was spinning thread for some textiles she was selling.<\/p>\n

\"PB286128.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

i admit i kind of regret not getting a pair of owls to take home with me! \ud83d\ude41<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

the 27th Southeast Asian Games\u00a0just started in Myanmar\u00a0and you’ll likely (hopefully?) hear more and more about it over the coming days — and more and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":4310,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"What's Up With Myanmar and Owls? #travel #travelblog #f2b","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[12],"tags":[152,505,848,847],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Role Owls Play in Myanmar - Wanderlusty<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Why are there owls everywhere in Myanmar?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/2013\/12\/the-role-owls-play-in-myanmar\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Role Owls Play in Myanmar - 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