On Dowry

Learn Burmese from Natural Talk

As singles with no marital experience, my cohost Su and I are under-qualified to discuss this episode's theme: dowry. In Burmese context, it usually means what the groom and his family offer to the bride’s parents as gifts when asking for the girl’s hand in marriage. The so-called gifts could be cows for ploughing, a plot of farm to live on, a new bed, furniture for the newly weds' room, a luxury car, a home, or even cold, hard cash. When the wealth and social status of the two families involved are unequal, dowry could become a source of headache and heartache, a serious roadblock to the couple’s happy union. In modern times, the practice is not as popular as it was in the past, but it still exists in some form. In this episode, Su and I discuss a classic poem by Thakhin Ko Daw Hmaing that refers to the practice, and share out own personal thoughts on it.

Vocabulary

ငါတွေ့မဟုတ်၊ စာတွေ့ not from personal experience but from books

ခန်းဝင်ပစ္စည်း gifts to help the newly weds establish a home / dowry

လက်ဖွဲ့ gifts for the newly weds / dowry

ပရိဘောဂ furniture

ကြောင်အိမ် cabinet for temporarily storing food, usually not refrigerated

တင်တောင်းတယ် to offer something as dowry to ask for permission to marry someone (in Burmese culture, traditionally, what the groom offers to the bride’s family)

ပမာဏ amount

လုပ်ကျွေးတယ် to feed and take care of someone

နွားတစ်ရှဉ်း a pair of cows

စပါးကျီ a plot of farm

စရိတ် expense

ကန်တော့ပွဲ ceremonial offering

ကြွက်မြီး literally, rat tail; figuratively, it refers to the stem of a coconut

မျက်နှာငယ်တယ် to lose face

လက်ဖွဲ့ခြင်းသည်းခံပါ request to come without gift (a phrase that appears on some wedding invitations)

ဝါတွင်း during the Buddhist Lent

ကူငွေ literally monetary help; donation at funeral, given to the surviving family

လက်သံပြောင်တယ် (1) skilled at musical performance; (2) to have a very powerful slap, strike, or punch

ချိုလိမ် pacifier

ဘိုးဘွားရိပ်သာ home for the elderlies

ပျားရည်စမ်းခရီး honeymoon

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