Google – AFP, Kelly Macnamara (AFP), 23 June 2013
YANGON — Tiny, frail and barely able to speak, Myanmar's most famous fortune teller -- known as ET -- has for years whispered predictions to Asia's rich and powerful, from generals to foreign politicians.
ET,
Myanmar's most famous fortune teller, attends a local television
programme in
Bangkok on July 23, 2012 (AFP, Pornchai Kittiwongsakul)
|
YANGON — Tiny, frail and barely able to speak, Myanmar's most famous fortune teller -- known as ET -- has for years whispered predictions to Asia's rich and powerful, from generals to foreign politicians.
The
soothsayer, whose popularity has inspired a recent Thai biopic, is one of a
plethora of mystics in Myanmar, where generations of rulers have sought
ethereal advice.
Sprightly
despite a range of disabilities -- including, her family say, that her internal
organs are all on the wrong side of her body -- ET looks every bit the mystic
when accompanied by her sister Thi Thi, whose penchant for shawls and
elaborately embroidered frocks enhances the spiritualist image.
"My
sister (is a) very, very grand and special one," Thi Thi told AFP in a
recent interview in Bangkok, adding that her guidance has been sought across
the region.
"Some
is politician, some is business people... Everybody happy, became very
famous," said Thi Thi, who acts as an interpreter for her sister.
Myanmar's
fortune tellers are thought to be behind several unexplained occurrences in the
country, from the abrupt decision by the former junta to relocate the capital in
2005, to bizarre episodes when the generals appeared wearing women's longyi --
a sarong-like skirt.
The Myanmar
fortune teller known as ET
during a television programme in Bangkok
on July 23,
2012 (AFP, Pornchai
Kittiwongsakul)
|
"They
are very superstitious," he said.
Mystics
have been ascribed great influence in a country where the workings of the
secretive junta were kept hidden from the public for decades.
Aung Zaw
said that amid the wilder speculation were strong indications that the army
chiefs did dabble in the dark arts to try to reinforce their power.
"There
is a lot of interpretation... but they do these things quite often," he
said, adding that the practice of consulting astrologers dated back hundreds of
years, with Myanmar's former kings regularly consulting fortune tellers.
Ne Win, the
strongman who ruled Myanmar for around three decades, was notorious for his
reliance on fortune tellers and their "yadaya" -- an occult practice
where a symbolic act is performed to influence the future.
Rumours
about the former junta chief's use of yadaya to ward off adversity include that
he stood in front of a mirror and shot a gun at his own reflection, according
to one foreign observer who has long studied the old regime.
Even
Myanmar's new reformist President Thein Sein has indicated his openness to heed
the predictions of mystics.
"I
don't know a lot about astrology, but there are many people who know astrology
very well in Myanmar," he said in a recent documentary "Un oeil sur
la planète" (An Eye on the World) by French broadcaster France 2.
"Sometimes
they give me advice on how the situation of the country could be affected from
the astrological point of view. I willingly take this advice into
account."
Thi Thi
said her sister, who is in her 40s, had also met former Thai prime minister
Thaksin Shinawatra and predicted his rise to power.
"He
come and see my sister, before politics. At that time he is (in the) telephone
business," she said.
Thaksin
reportedly visited ET just days before he was ousted in a 2006 coup, but Thi
Thi declined to give details of the relationship, saying only that her sister's
predictions over the years were "80 percent correct".
In three
decades on the road, she said ET has travelled to "many many
countries", including Japan, China, Singapore and Thailand, and now
ploughs a portion of her income into a hospital foundation at home.
While her
clients include the occasional Westerner, most are local businessmen and wealthy
Asians.
"It's
definitely hard to get an appointment," said one Western diplomat, who
said prices have now risen to a hundred dollars a session.
ET begins
her consultations with theatrical flair by writing out the serial number of an
apparently unseen banknote in the client's wallet -- a "convincing"
start, the diplomat said.
Soon after
Suu Kyi was released from her last bout of house arrest in 2010, amid
uncertainty about how much freedom the Nobel peace laureate would be allowed,
the diplomat asked ET for a prediction of the veteran activist's future.
"In
spite of a warning that she doesn't predict politics or the lottery, she did
say that 'Aung San Suu Kyi would be more free, very free'," the diplomat
said.
Suu Kyi has
since been elected to parliament and is eyeing a bid for the presidency.
ET -- whose
name is also written E Thi -- has predicted her own early death from heart
failure, but her sister says it does not worry the soothsayer because she will
be "very pretty" in her next life.
Her family
say her powers, including visions of ghosts and future events, were discovered
after she was struck by fever while praying at a pagoda as a small child.
Others took
a more prosaic route to otherworldly insight and international popularity.
Hein Tint
Zaw says he studied for five years under a famous Myanmar soothsayer, learning
astrology, tarot and numerology with around 100 other pupils before graduating
in the mystic arts and moving to Thailand to set up shop among the many
migrants from Myanmar.
His little
studio in the industrial town of Mahachai mainly attracts workers from his
homeland, who staff local factories in their thousands, but Thais also seek his
services and bring along their own interpreters.
"I
have never had to advertise," he said.
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