Village head

Every 10 houses elect a representative. The ten representatives of 100 houses, elect a chief. And the chiefs in every town or village elect a head. Until the army repression eased 3 years ago, each of those "elected" people had to be an acting or retired army person. Today, anybody can be elected, although quite a few still are from the army.

We called unannounced into another village and this lady turned out to be the elected head of the village, and a great spokesperson she was. She explained the work of the village and showed us into some of the houses. We Westerners were a bit bashful about walking into someone's house. But we were assured that it was the most exciting thing that had happened in the village for a long time and would provide conversation for years to come :-)) The Burmese are outstandingly hospitable as part of their Buddhist heritage.

More photos in my blog, scroll down to 28 December