Chewing Betel

Chewing the nut wrapped in a green leave is a habit still widespread in India and Myanmar. 

When traveling in Burma you better watch out when walking on the road since the people, young and old, continuously spit the red juice and usually they don’t care where it lands which means if you are not so lucky it’s on your feet. 

Part of the leave and juice is swallowed which turns the user into a kind relaxed mood where things are not taken very serious anymore. It’s somehow like smoking pot or chewing quat as done in Yemen and Somalia.

Still until today on every “second” street corner in the country tables and portable stalls are placed, quids made and cheaply sold. They also sell cheroots and cigarettes plus cosmetic

Betel hawker at the 

Botataung pagoda in Yangon

stuff for the ladies.

This is the green leaf of a vine of the botanical family piperaceae.

Cultivated in India and some parts of South East Asia served in a leaf-wrapped form ready for consumption. The leaf is smeared with slaked lime and thin slices of betel nut are placed onto it for a better taste condiments such as cinnamon, cardamom, various seeds, camphor, licorice and dried coconut are added in small quantities to make it tastier for the real connoisseur.

Chewing betel originated in India and was mentioned already in the writings of Buddha, also Marco Polo mentioned it. 

In Myanmar it was first indicated in a stone tablet text from 1147 Queen Saw decreeing that rice she donated to be used as payment for betel nuts for monks. Traditional Myanmar medicine prescribes the leaf for the treatment of various ailments.

Myanmar Girls