Today was a terrible day of inevitable backlash in Burma, with the military dictatorship attacking the peaceful protesters at sites around the country.
Thank you to zysea for keeping this visible through the day here with this recommended diary.
Here is a summary of day's events from The Irawaddy.
Here is a sampling of summary news accounts from:
The Irawaddy
New York Times
Sydney Morning Herald
Telegraph (UK)
And here are some blogger's reports.
The reports vary, and the details are sketchy, but up to nine monks are reported to have been killed, with clubbings, gassing, and arrests occurring throughout the country.
Despite the omenous developments, the protesting monks and their supporters among the people are no doubt preparing for the next move. This passage from the NYT article caught my eye:
Despite threats and warnings by the authorities and despite the beginnings of a violent response, tens of thousands of chanting, cheering protesters flooded the streets, witnesses reported. Monks were in the lead, "like religious storm troopers," as one foreign diplomat described the scene.
A strange and paradoxical mixed metaphor to use, given that these are young Buddhist monks, showing the world just how to confront despots through their courageous commitment to peace.... But it conveys the strength that the monks and the citizens have found, and their will to overcome.
I've diaried a couple times in the last few days, trying to provide some overview of the day's events. But given how quickly things are happening -- and the fact that I have to hit the road here shortly -- I won't try to do that. (Thanks to others who can add on in the comments.)
It seems more appropriate to honor the spirit of the monks who lost their lives today. All day long, I've had in mind this photo that I took in Burma, at Inle Lake, ten years ago.
Inle Lake is a major tourist destination (such as they are in isolated Burma) in the central part of the country, not so far from the second largest city, Mandalay. We were going around the lake in our boat, talking with people in the lakeshore villages and checking out the area's waterbirds, when this strange storm cloud, and the even stranger light effect, passed over one village on the east shore. It was strange for me, anyway. I was not accustomed to tropical storms. I've never seen anything like it, before or since. I was lucky to get a decent photo of it as we motorboated along; it's one of my favorite images from that trip.
I thought of this all day as a symbol for the mingling of light and dark today in Burma. To the monks, then: Namaste.