TODAY

Among many hardy trees that grow wild in the arid zones of Myanmar, hta naun is the most resistible and useful flora in Myanmar culture. It is a kind of thorny tree with whitish bark flourishing in dry region. Botanically named Acacia Leucaphloea, hta naun has compound leaves and tight clusters of small yellow or white flowers. In Latin it is called ”Gum Arabic” and in Greek, it is called ”akakia”

Hta naun grows not only to a tall height but also its branches spread to all extensive directions so much so that its shade covers a wide circle around it. Zig zag and curls of its branches are artistic as though they were dancing ladies per-forming their heads, bodies, hips, hands and legs supply and skifully when breeze at any time comes to caress them.

To-day, in ancient Bagan, many hotels have their dining venue just out in the open under the shady hta naun trees, which can umbrella up to over a hundred set tables because the aroma and fragrance of hta naun bark, leaves and flowers are so enticing that all winged or crawling creatures could not resist the temptation of this tree. Especially doves and cuckoos alight on its branches, bees, wasps and butterflies flutter about and lizards and squirrel make nests on it. So if you take your meal under a spreading hta naun tree you relish your food and you enjoy your eye and ear feed of your hta naun surrounding.

We have a folk song in the form of Dwe Cho [couplet] which epigramatically describe hta naun tree as follows:

ခ်ိဳးႏွစ္ေကာင္၊

ထေနာင္းပင္ညီေနာင္က

လြမ္းေအာင္ ကူခၽြဲ၊
Twain doves on twin hta naun trees
Longingly cooing on a sprightly spree.

ပန္းေတာ္ျဖဴ၊

ပင္ျမက္ေနဇာထူလွ

ဖိုးေတာင္သူ႔တဲ။
Yonder, where Pantawhpyu and
Neyzar grasses abound,
A lonesome farmer’s hut is found.

Like hta naun trees, tamarind trees are big and shady. Tamarind trees are also native to dry region while hta naun trees give cool shade in summer, you go under the shade of Tamarind trees for warmth in winter. Hence an old Myan-mar say goes.

ေႏြထေနာင္း

ေဆာင္းမက်ည္း
In Summer, rest under hta naun for coolers
In winter, rest under tamarind for warmness.

Hta naun leaves and blooms look hardy and they are thorny. But while they are tender they are tasty vegetable. They are boiled and drained off the boiled water. Soften stuff is seasoned with peanut powder, sesame, fried garlic, onion and oil with salt, smeared in a wooden salad bowl. It is indeed a relishing dish to go with rice and hot green plain tea.

More than that, Hta naun is the indispensable ingredient in distilling country liquor. Each distiller has his own secret formula of making country whisky inherited from his ancestors. Hta naun bark is soaked in an earthen pot or glazed jar filled with solution of fer-mentation. The pot or jar is kept under the heap of paddy husks or bundles of paddy sheaths for weeks or months. Experienced distiller knows when his country liquor is ready for serving.

There are moonshiners in almost every countryside. After a long hard labour in the field, in the forest or on the island or in the river, a countryman needs to regain his lost energy and strength. He turns to fermented toddy juice or country liquor. Not only he, so also his life-long partners_ two bullocks which have to toil and moil the whole day with their human master. They also take country whisky with their human master.

It is an amusing scene to see the three drunk creatures—the cart driver the man and two cartpullers two animals returning home. Though the cart driver is totally drunk lying on the cart the two drunk animals carry him home safe. The drunk cart driver knows only when he hears the bellowing of the animals that he is now at home.

As moonshining is illegal, police try to raid the countryside notorious for illegal distilling. They use bullocks to sniff the hidden distilling pots.

Hta naun wood is used for making agricultural implements and domestic tools. Myanmars herbalists have many uses of hta naun for making home medicine.

Maha Saddhamma Jotikadhaja Sithu 

Dr. Khin Maung Nyunt