Myanmar 2012

As the country cautiously emerged from decades of military rule, reforms began but instability remained. Monks, nuns, and civilians alike tried to maintain ordinary life. These images are a portrait of daily continuity in an uncertain Myanmar.

Myanmar, 2012.
The country was emerging from decades of military rule. Reforms were underway, prisoners released, censorship loosened. The structure of power remained fragile and uneven.

Within this transition, people tried to continue a normal life. Civilians, monks, and nuns alike maintained daily routines amid uncertainty. Monastic life persisted through alms rounds, study, meditation, and communal care. Monasteries and nunneries functioned as parallel social systems: education, shelter, food sharing, spiritual continuity. Nuns, often less visible and less supported, upheld the same discipline with fewer resources.

These images form a portrait of daily life in an unstable Myanmar. While politics shifted above, ordinary life endured below. Not resistance. Not withdrawal. Continuity.