ရှာဖွေတွေ့ရှိခဲ့ရသော အမေ့ခံ ဇာတာ



A bamboo birth certificate. 

Zartar manuscripts like this one with astrological and religious content are rarer now. I’ve seen a few in museums outside the country. This is the very first time ever I had a chance to hold it in my own hand. 

Back in the old days, as I’ve been told, when a child was born, an astrologer would draw up a chart taking into account the week, the location of the stars, moon, and sun and the time of birth in accordance with the Myanmar lunar calendar. This was a common practice and believed that the time and day of birth greatly influence one’s life. The name given by the astrologer is also important and believed to affect one’s behaviour, lifespan and many other aspects of their life. 

This fine lady, Daw Sein Hla Phyu, born in 1296 (the Myanmar lunar year) still has this in her possession. I teased her granddaughter who showed me this to make sure that her nana put this in the will for her. 

Who knows this could be worth a million, say, in next decades!!