For a primer on Intha culture, I take a boat to the Inthar heritage house. Rising two stories above an island of reclaimed land and built in the vernacular style from salvaged timber, the property contains a library, information displays, a slew of Burmese cats, and a restaurant featuring produce from an adjacent organic garden. Upstairs is a re-creation of a traditional Intha home: the living room is at the front, and contains a Buddhist shrine; the kitchen is on the right side as you enter; and the sleeping quarters are at the back, comprising a single shared bedroom.
Today, wealthier Intha families tend to paint their houses in bright colors, and access to electricity in recent decades has, of course, brought both light and nightly South Korean soap operas to many in the lake’s main settlements. Another aspect of life that has changed is politics. Local ethnic leaders formed the Inn Nationalities Development Party to contest the controversial 2010 elections, which were boycotted by Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy. The Intha party won four seats, including one for an Intha affairs minister in the Shan State government. While the party is not universally admired within the Intha community, it has at least provided them with representation on the national level.
I meet the son of the Intha affairs minister, Yae Aye, at the party’s head office in Nyaungshwe. He looks exhausted from the Intha Day festivities, which went on well into the night with popular local musicians performing on the pagoda platform. He brightens, though, when we begin discussing politics, and explains how the Intha have been ignored by successive governments and treated as inferior to larger groups, such as the Shan.
“I traveled to Naypyidaw once to speak to the hotels and tourism minister about our proposal to allow homestays at Inle, as a way to help Intha people generate income,” Yae Aye says. “He didn’t have any idea what I was talking about.”
His party has begun taking matters into its own hands. At the entrance to Yae Aye’s office are rows of long metal rods destined to be the crossbeams for utility poles; once installed, they will help carry electricity to some of the myriad villages in the area, only a dozen of which were connected to the national grid prior to 2010. Beyond improving peoples’ standard of living, bringing power to these communities is also essential for conservation efforts, as much of the logging in the lake’s watershed is done to provide fuel for wood fires.
Yae Aye’s activities are infused with a sense of both urgency and optimism. He believes workable solutions can be found to the environmental and social challenges the lake’s residents face today. “A lot of Myanmar people think the Intha don’t care about the lake. But we love it more than anyone else; we know how valuable it is. What we need is knowledge. We need training and experience to cope with these challenges.”
His voice falters as he contemplates the consequences of inaction. “If Inle Lake is gone … Well, for us, it’s over. So right now we have no choice but to act.”
THE DETAILS
Getting There
Heho Airport is served by daily Air Bagan and Air Mandalay flights from Yangon, an 80-minute trip. From Heho, it takes another hour to reach Nyaungshwe, the lake’s gateway town, by car.
Where To Stay
Villa Inle Resort & Spa (Maing Thauk Village, Nyaungshwe; 95-1/ 242-259; doubles from US$243) comprises 16 spacious villas spread across eight hectares of leafy lakeside grounds. The low-impact newcomer (it opened in 2011) also features an airy, high-ceilinged restaurant that showcases local produce (including herbs and vegetables from the resort’s own chemical-free garden) and Intha and Shan dishes.
Where To Eat
The two restaurants at Nyaungshwe’s canal-side Viewpoint Lodge (near Taik Nan Bridge; 95-81/209-062) serve exceptional Shan and Burmese cuisine, accompanied by fine views of the surrounding countryside. On hand as well is cozy wine bar Lounge-E, which also serves mod-European dishes created by sister restaurant Le Planteur in Yangon.
What To See
The Inthar Heritage House is a must-visit for those interested in the lake’s cultural and ecological backdrop.
This article originally appeared in the April/May 2014 print issue of DestinAsian magazine (“Myanmar: A Fragile Beauty”).
