Myanmar Greetings & Etiquettes | Useful Phrases for Myanmar Travel

Greetings & Etiquettes in Myanmar

The traditional greeting in Myanmar is a bow whilst placing both hands on your stomach. Often younger people will bow and an older person will simply nod in response. This is usually done by students to their teachers or children or grandchildren to their elders (parents, aunts, uncles, and grandparents), in order to express gratefulness and admiration and show an opportunity to ask for forgiveness, often involving gift-giving. It is traditionally done on New Year's Day of Thingyan festival and during the month of Thadingyut (roughly October), which marks the end of Vassa, the Buddhist Lent.

Myanmar culture is basically Buddhist and so much of the accepted etiquette pertains to Buddhist beliefs. Monks should be greeted with three Southeast Asian bows. To greet monks, place your hands together in prayer position, hold them at face level and bow deeply. To pay deep respect to a monk, kneel on the ground and touch your palms and forehead to the floor three times. When talking to a monk try if you can to have your head lower than his. This can be achieved by bowing slightly or sitting down. If a monk is sitting down, you should also do the same thing. Women should not touch a monk or give objects directly to him (instead of place the object on a table or some other surface near the monk). On buses and trains, people customarily give up their seats to monks.

Some Burmese (generally urban residents and non-Buddhists) shake hands to greet. In doing so, they may support their right elbow in their left hand whilst they shake another person’s hand.
Use people’s appropriate titles when addressing them (e.g. Mr, Mrs) unless they are children.
The popular formal greeting in Burmese is “Min-ga-la-ba shin” (said by a woman) or “Min-ga-la-ba khin-bah” (said by a man). Both are translated as sayings like ‘Hello’.
Below are some useful phrases you can apply when making Myanmar Tours

Useful Phrases for Myanmar Travel

Here is some of the most useful phrase for tourists in Burma trips.

Yes / No Words

Polite Phrases

Questions and Requests

Other Myanmar Phrases