Under the Dragon (33 page)

‘Concepts such as truth, justice, compassion,’ she once wrote ‘are often the only bulwarks which stand against ruthless power.’ Her kind, determined eyes were set in a slim, delicate face. ‘We will get there in the end,’ she told us, the good mother convinced that the family would prevail, ‘but it will take time.’

On our last journey we had fought against bad roads and bureaucracy, against evil and illness. The physical effort of travel had so exhausted us, and the hygiene had been so poor, that our nails and hair had stopped growing. We had battled to communicate in a system designed to hinder interaction, to isolate individuals and to cripple free thought. But throughout the trip, with the possible exception of the single night in Namhsan, we had had a choice. When it suited us, we had the freedom to leave, to step onto an aircraft, to fly out of the country. We could escape from the sadness and the pain, unlike Ni Ni, Ma Swe, May and Nancy. We could forget the greed, fear and waste. I could write up my notes in public, eat clean food without fear of infection, say Aung San Suu Kyi’s name out loud. And it made us so sad.

Yet the Burmese showed no envy or bitterness towards us, despite our liberty of movement. The despair which we most often encountered was our own. We were welcomed, as I had been welcomed ten years before, as family.

One hundred years ago James George Scott related a story of how, in the distant age of legend, Buddha came upon a starving tigress. Her two little cubs were whining for nourishment, dying for the lack of food.

‘If I feed her, who shall lose but I?’ Buddha asked himself. And so large was his heart, so great was his compassion, that he threw off his robe and offered himself to the animal. He allowed the tigress to eat him. His sacrifice saved her and her cubs, preserving that which is most precious, that which the Buddhists call ‘this breath of fleeting life’.

Much of old Burma had been lost long before the generals began to defile the golden land, and to illuminate the stories of earlier times I relied on the observations of Sir James George Scott and Leslie Milne. My research was brought up to date by the writings of Aung San Suu Kyi, Anna J. Allott, Bertil Lintner, Martin Smith and the reports of the PEN American Center and Asia Watch (The Women’s Rights Project). The trip itself would have been more arduous without the advice, translations and Valium provided by Vicky Bowman. It would have been poorer without the correspondence, warmth and karaoke of the Rivers family. On the journey through the book my editor Michael Fishwick proved to be the wisest guide. I am grateful for his enthusiastic support, as I am to Rachel Calder and JoAnne Robertson for their invaluable encouragement and contribution. The generosity of the Arts Council of England is appreciated. But above all it is the courage and compassion of the women and men of Burma who cannot be named which must be acknowledged.

Rory MacLean is one of Britain’s most expressive and adventurous travel writers. His ten books, including UK best-sellers ‘Stalin’s Nose’ and ‘Under the Dragon’, have challenged and invigorated creative non-fiction writing, and – according to the late John Fowles – are among works that ‘marvellously explain why literature still lives’. He has won awards from the Canada Council and the Arts Council of England as well as a Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship, and was nominated for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary prize. He has written and presented over 50 BBC radio programmes and worked on movies with Marlene Dietrich and David Bowie. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, Rory divides his time between London, Dorset and Berlin.

Stalin’s Nose

The Oatmeal Ark

Next Exit Magic Kingdom

Falling for Icarus

Magic Bus

Missing Lives

Gift of Time

Back in the USSR

Berlin: Imagine a City

http://www.rorymaclean.com

Copyright © 1998, 2008, 2013 Rory MacLean

First published by HarperCollinsPublishers in 1998

www.rorymaclean.com

Cover image: Amanda Temple, Burma © Angelo Cavalli/Getty Images

ISBN: 978-1-78301-167-4

The moral right of Rory MacLean to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act 1988.

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any part thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

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