Letter from Burma: mobile monks

A horse-drawn cart bounces along a rutted track beside some 13th-century Buddhist stupas. The driver chants a melodic Buddhist scripture and the only other sound is a cattle herder bossing a wandering cow back to a shade tree. Then the cart driver’s mobile phone rings.

That intrusive and familiar electronic noise is more than just a sign of the times in Burma. The story of the mobile phone here is also the story of a country at the door of the 21st century.

Increased mobile phone use might be an old story in most developing countries. Not here. Four years ago under the old regime, a sim card would cost around $3,000. Today, still only 7% of Burma’s 60 million people are online. Four years ago it was just 1%.

But that’s changing fast. When the government released 3,000 prisoners last month, the son of a liberated former general announced his family’s good news on Facebook.

With sim cards now costing just under $1.50 and two foreign telecoms companies pumping billions into building mobile networks, it feels like there’s no turning back for Burma.

View image in fullscreen

With the internet comes information and education. While I go and look through an ancient temple in Bagan, the horse cart driver uses his phone to download Buddhist texts.

It’s hard to go anywhere – on the tourist trail at least – where people aren’t gazing at small screens. Partly because the internet service is so poor and there’s a painful wait for anything to happen, but sometimes people are simply playing games such as a digital version of the traditional chin lone, a team sport without an opposing team.

One Rangoon entrepreneur has launched a traffic app to help drivers negotiate the city’s terrible traffic jams.

Burma’s many monks – estimated to number between 300,000 and 500,000 – have taken to mobile phones with gusto, particularly for taking photos at religious events and temples. Many also have Facebook pages and email.

The mobile craze does not mean other sectors have caught up: only 30% of the population is on the electricity grid, for example. But because mobile networks can be rolled out quickly (investors are aiming for 90% of Burmese to be connected in five years), it’s the digital genie about to leave the bottle.

The Guardian Weekly regularly publishes a Letter from one of its readers from around the world. We welcome submissions – they should focus on giving a clear sense of a place and its people. Please send them to weekly.letters@theguardian.com