Vandalism and ancient arts

I went back to Burma in Feb 2010. It was the first time I stepped into my mother land for past three and a half years since I started studying again. Nothing has much changed in my country except that some areas are more developed. Same old place with filthy road sides full of betel blood- a tradition of ours which make the whole community look awful.

It was a lovely country with great sceneries. Many people were kind and friendly. What happened to these people now? Before I stepped out of the express bus which stopped at the middle of our country the second capital, Mandalay, there was a massive group of people waiting at the exit. They are moaning like zombies asking if you need a ride. "Motorcycle?", "Taxi?", Tri-cycle?", "How many people?", they touted. I felt sorry for them. It was in the early morning 5am and they are struggling for their lively hood. It was hard for me to pick one and it was even harder for me not to get angry at them as some were trying to pull my bag hard to get a chance of being chosen. After arriving to the hotel then I can breathe peacefully.

Let me share a few interesting things about the country itself. It has full resources with high standard of traditional culture with amazing historic structures which you can mainly found in Bagan, central Burma. The picture on the left is on the walls of these pagodas in Bagan. There are plenty of them but sadly some of them are covered by (lime)white paint or plastic paints. These are so artistic and they were done very carefully to satisfy the king who commanded to built it.

Have a look at them how beautifully they are made to last thousands of years.
 

Can you imagine how much work they have put into this? Every detail, every strokes are showing the feelings and emotions of the artist. Feel the mixture of emotions of the artist- concentration, joys,worries and fears.

You might wonder how many of these wall arts are there? My answer is simply in the picture below...

 

You might say, how does this picture answer how many paintings are there in Bagan. Well, please be patient and let me explain a little further. This is the picture of which Bagan's evening is famous for. A shining bright red sun setting into the hills behind the scene of Bagan. As you can see, there are many structures spiking out from the ground. These are pagodas of Bagan. Too many of them? Hang on...this is just a quarter of 360 degree view. So, lets imagine the other three quarter and point your finger at any direction except sky and earth. Surprisingly, you'll be pointing to at least a pagoda; this is the whole reason why Bagan is a very popular destination among tourist attractions. There are over 2000 pagodas built around 10th to 12th century.

These vast amount of treasures seem to be lasting forever. However, like every country and every nation when there is people, there is vandalism. I am writing this post to show people that how much damage that we can cause to our own society just because of your own desire or your negligence act could cost. In big cities, governments spend millions of dollars on vandalism. So, how about our treasures like the above paintings and pagodas? Everyone knows that these paintings are priceless- because we will never get them again. Lets have a look at how my people throwing away our own treasures gradually.

 

Our major problem is correction pens or white-outs which we use to cover our mistakes when we write. Majority of Burmese tourists write things like this because they want to remember that they were there. So that when they come next time, they can have fun looking for their own graffiti or signature. This kind of behavior is completely unnecessary. This is only pleasure they get and the price we pay is tremendously huge. What more? If we don't have these historic treasures, there will be no one coming to see these buildings. No one is willing to come to see random white scratches scattering around the sculptures or temples.

So, what I want to say to Burmese people is "Please maintain our own treasures and don't destroy it for our personal reasons. These are our national treasures." For other readers, please help fight vandalism and make our way of life better and more meaningful. Thank you for reading...

Pothos or marble queen is a very tough plant

Pothos or Marble Queen

I have been planting Pothos or Marble queen for quite some time and I am amazed by the resilience of the plant. Pothos is a vine type. Like most vines that I have tried before, they need minimal nutrients to survive.

Half a year ago, I took a crippled leaf broken by hand at the node and put it in a small bottle with water up to the petiole. The bottle is only as big as half in length of pinky finger. I just wanted to see how long the leaf will stay fresh in that tiny bottle with neck as big as the petiole itself. I did nothing but let it sit in the bath room. The temperature my bath room is humid and warm. At first I thought it will last a week but to my surprise it didn't wither after a month. That was quite an extraordinary leaf and make me even more curious. Even though it was in a glass bottle, it was not clear what was happening at the base of petiole. So, after a month and a half sitting in the bottle, I took it out.

I have seen and heard many plant leafs growing roots in rich soil conditions but this was my first time seeing a leaf shooting roots down into water with almost no nutrient and oxygen. Unfortunately, the root sprouting out from the base of petiole is so fragile that it broke when I put it back into the bottle. I didn't replant the leaf again which I should have tried. Instead, I took another healthy leaf with larger bottle and replicate the same experiment again with a bit more data. This time I have average humidity recorded as RH 75% and temperature about  27-29'C during day and 26-27'C at night. It was under no direct sun light with moderate brightness that is bright enough to see everything clearly- probably equivalent to 10W twisted energy saving light bulb. I do not have fancy equipments to measure lab accuracy values. So it is safe to assume the RH value variation can be as big as 20% and temperature variation about 2-3'C.

Lone leaf in my bathroom

For the first month I didn't change water at all but subsequent months the water is changed a few times. I didn't have proper record as I was not around after first month. There were no sings of withering nor new roots from the leaf. However, the small amount of the tip of the petiole is darkened due to partial rotting which I scratched off gently with my nail. By this time a normal plant would be rot to the core due to lack of oxygen but Pothos can stand such abuse and survived without suffocation in water. I went overseas for two months and came back on third month of experiment. Similar to previous result, the leaf is strong and healthy with beautiful roots growing happily. It has even started to have a stipule right underneath it leaf.

Break at the node

People has been saying how easy it is to grow and maintain Pothos as indoor plant but not many knew it was this tough. I love this plant and will continue to grow it in door and outdoor. I will keep updating the latest pictures of this single leaf water grown plant. Also, I want to start trying on other plants and continue to study on Pothos as well. Thank you for reading and please give suggestions or comments.

A new stipule is out after 3 months

healthy strong roots from single leaf after 3 months

the bottle and the petiole

the petiole

again the petiole

healthy single leaf with new roots after 3 months

indoor plants in water only (stagnant hydroponic)

I love planting: in soil or in water. When I plant indoor, I choose the lowest maintenance plants that I found googling since I am very lazy to water plants often. Most easily available one in Singapore is Pothos -also known as marble queen. Pothos can survive in still water for many days or even month without changing water.

However, planting only with water in Singapore has constant fear of accidental breeding of dengue mosquitoes. Most decorative plants or even flowers require change of water everyday. On my first try, I used melamine sponge to hold the plant and seal the vase to stop mosquitoes from breeding in the water. It ended up with a few dead leaves.

I researched and found a few things went wrong. Plants draw water by capillary action and transpirational  pull which requires at least equal or higher pressure at the roots compared to leaves. When the vase was sealed with sponge (or wet sponge)the pressure in the vase is lower after a few hours or days depending on the evaporation rate at the leaves. This ceases the water being pulled up to the leaves; leaving them dehydrated. So, I replaced with open large cell sponge and most problem solved: no more mosquito or daily change of water.

I leave the plants without changing water for a few weeks and found that their leaves start to yellow. This time I looked for answers in hydroponic planting. To my surprise, it was due to lack of oxygen in the water. I found a site or a blog which says; all living cells needs oxygen and without oxygen cells don't grow.
Old cells die and roots hairs will rot preventing the water transport with slimy coat. This is exactly what happen in overwatering or drowning of soiled plants too.
Many suggest adding low concentration hydrogen peroxide or similar chemical solution which can react or supply oxygen to root cells. But it is expensive in
Singapore. So, the easy way out is change water every few days.

I usually take the roots out, lay them on the floor and spray with a slightly strong shower. This will clean off any dead roots and slime. I suggest not to rub the roots because you will damage the root hairs (you can see tiny hairs if you look close enough ).

Since my indoor plants are mostly for decoration, I don't really need them to grow very fast. If I need to propagate, I will put some plant food and seaweed extract to boost the growth. Other than that I will just leave them in tap water to keep them as they are. They will not grow since there is not much minerals present in the water.

I find that vines are much tolerant than other type of plants when it comes to hydroponic decorative planting. Pothos that I have is exceptional- once I put a single leave in a small bottle with petiole in the water just to see how long it can last without main stem and without any change in water. It lasted more than a month and I wanted to know why. I lifted the leaf up and saw a root sprouting directly below the leaf petiole. Unfortunately I broke the root when I put it back inside the narrow bottle. So I didn't see how it will continue to grow.

Overall suggestion of indoor planting in water:
1. You need to support the plant which allows air to flow in and out of the vase while fully protecting from insects getting access to water (there must be thousands of way or you can just do like mine)
2. Change water once every few days to replenish some nutrients and oxygen

3. Wash the roots to keep them clean and healthy (healthy roots = healthy plant)

I think I should stop here now. See my indoor water plant gallery below. I feel like I live in different world when using glass vases. The crystal clear water and the beauty of roots are just amazing. Another beauty of using glass vases are that you can put a drop of food coloring to match with your mood.

water only tall long neck glass vase

water only wine bottle vase

wide mouth water vase

inverted plastic bottle support

water only tall long neck vase

water only tall cup

water only pothos

water only dragon vase

water only covered with sponge cubes