Cookbook demonstrates the resilience of home cooking over migrations and generations

Writer: NIPATPORN PENGKHAW

Published: 10/08/2009 at 12:00 AM

Newspaper section: Outlook

Imagine that all of a sudden we are forced to leave our homeland and everything that has made us who we are – the language, customs, working tools, foods, family and friends. Imagine how in a new land and culture where we have to earn a living we start losing our original cultural identity bit by bit. What would be the first item susceptible to loss? What cultural traits would be more resilient and lasting when everything else has already been washed down the drain?

Language is probably one of the first to go, as sooner or later we are forced by circumstances to abandon our mother tongue and switch to another language in order to communicate. Next in line might be our ethnic costume. Especially if the new environment is starkly different than the one we came from. We might still be able to keep some of the clothes – but to be worn only during special religious and secular functions like wedding ceremonies or funerals. And if we have to give up what we did for a living, gone too will possibly be the associated customs that come with the job – not unlike the farmers who migrate to the city and can no longer carry on the rituals to pay respect to the Rice Goddess, the spirits of the water buffalo and of the rice itself.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/leisure/leisurescoop/21813/dishes-of-burma