The Taung Kalat Buddhist complex on Mount Popa in Myanmar’s Mandalay Region.
| Photo Credit: AFP

A shrine perched on an extinct volcano in Myanmar’s Mandalay region, once thronged with the bustle of pilgrims praying to flower-eating spirit Popa Maedaw, has been cut off from the faithful following the civil war.

Now, the prayers have fallen silent at the Taung Kalat shrine, the plains around it a battle zone and the faithful mostly blocked from access by fighting and checkpoints manned by all sides in the conflict.

Myanmar has been in turmoil since 2021, when the military ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s government, ending a 10-year experiment with democracy and sparking nationwide protests. The junta’s crackdown on dissent sparked renewed fighting with ethnic minority armed groups in the borderlands and sent thousands to join newer People’s Defence Forces (PDF) formed to battle the military. “There are not many young people here anymore,” said one shop owner on the road that winds up through thick forest to the summit of Mount Popa, the extinct volcano. “They have gone to join the PDF.”

The Taung Kalat shrine honours Popa Maedaw, one of dozens of nats, or guardian spirits, that exist alongside Buddhism in Myanmar.

The plains surrounding Mount Popa are home to the Bamar ethnic majority and were largely untouched by decades of previous conflict between the military and minority armed groups in the remote jungles and hills. Now the region of rolling fields of sesame, pulses and beans — studded with the golden spires of Buddhist pagodas — is a battle zone.

People disembark from a ferry at the Pansodan jetty in Yangon, Myanmar on Nov. 12, 2021. Myanmar, once a thriving emerging economy, is struggling to regain momentum as the country’s civil war increasingly disrupts trade and livelihoods. File
| Photo Credit: AP

Myanmar, once a thriving emerging economy, is struggling to regain momentum as the country’s civil war increasingly disrupts trade and livelihoods.

World Bank economists estimate the country’s economy grew at a 1% annual pace in the year that ended in March, more slowly than earlier expected, according to a report issued on June 13. They expect a similar rate of growth for this fiscal year.

The report says nearly a third of all people in the country are living in poverty and the economy is about 10% smaller than before the pandemic.

The World Bank’s survey in April “suggests little to no improvement in economic activity over the past six months,” it said.

Pro-democracy guerillas and ethnic minority armed forces have been battling the Myanmar military after the army ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in early 2021. In recent months, the military has been stretched thin by increasing pressure from the resistance forces, suffering a series of unprecedented battlefield defeats.

“The economic outlook remains very weak, implying little respite for Myanmar’s households over the near to medium term,” the report says. “The business environment will continue to be constrained by conflict, trade and logistics disruptions, macroeconomic volatility, regulatory uncertainty, and power outages.” More than 3 million people are thought to have become displaced from their homes due to armed conflict across much of the country. Meanwhile, the value of Myanmar’s currency, the kyat, has sunk and many imported goods are in short supply. The report said about a third of factories surveyed by the World Bank reported facing electricity outages.

In the half-year that ended in March, Myanmar’s exports declined 13% from a year earlier while imports dropped by 20%, the report said.

Editorial: Changing tide: On democracy and Myanmar’s civil war

Before the military takeover, garment factories were a thriving source of jobs, especially for young women, and of export revenues for the newly industrialising economy. But global brands have been pulling out of the country, and manufacturing exports fell by nearly a fifth in the half-year until March.

Worsening already significant labour shortages, as Myanmar’s military rulers have expanded conscription to supplement their troops, workers have fled overseas or to rural areas, the report noted.