Portering gigs fewer and fewer at Mon State’s Golden Rock

By DMG 11 Nov 2022

DMG Newsroom
11 November 2022, Kyaikto

Porters at Kyaiktiyo Pagoda, better known to foreign visitors as Golden Rock and one of the most sacred Buddhist pilgrimage sites in Myanmar, are having hard days as few people have been visiting the pagoda since last month.

The popular attraction in Mon State’s Kyaikto Township has seen a significant decline in the number of visitors and pilgrims in the wake of a shooting in October.

Three Buddhist pilgrims were killed during a firefight between regime troops and a resistance force at a junta outpost at the base of the mountaintop pagoda on October 12.

Some local villagers make a living by carrying bags for visitors, or bear them on stretchers up to the pagoda.

In order to attract visitors back to the pagoda in the wake of the shooting, the regime carried out a promotional campaign that provided visitors with free transportation from the base to the top of the pagoda’s mountain peak, as well as free accommodation.

“As free visits to the pagoda were organised on November 3 and 4, porters were not allowed to work,” said a porter from Kinpun Chaung Village.

There were some 100 people working as porters at Golden Rock before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. But there are only some 20 porters now.

“At least one person from each household worked as porters in the past, but there are only around 20 now, as some have left,” said a porter from Nga Pyaw Taw Village.

As more and more prospective porters opt instead to leave for work in Thailand, the business is likely to go extinct soon, according to staff of the bus station at the base of the pagoda.

“Most people ascend the mountain by truck these days. So, there is not much business for porters to do. And they are already leaving the country to work in Thailand. I think there won’t be porters in the future,” said the staffer.