Just when one thought one knew a little bit about everything, one realises there are some things one knows nothing at all about. Recently, one such revelation caught up with me on a visit to Inle Lake in central Burma, where I discovered the use of the thigh and calf muscles for propelling a boat.
Boats can run either on moving or still water. Going downstream, the river pushes the dugout along. Going upriver, if the flow is not too strong you make use of the barge pole, usually made of bamboo. The most typical method on still water is, of course, the use of paddles, either one implement that is transferred from side to side to keep the boat on an even keel, or, with a rowboat, with oars on either side.
One might have wondered, though one never did, why there was no attempt to use the larger muscles of the lower body in propelling a vessel on water. The reliance on hands and arms is, as it turns out, not totally universal. The Intha boat people of Inle Lake use the leg and calf muscles.
I had not done any prior research before departing Rangoon and arriving by air at Heho airport for the one-hour drive to Inle. Arriving on the banks of the lake in early evening, at first I could not quite make out what I was seeing. A low-riding canoe was passing by in the fading light, with the figure of a man in lungi doing awkward-seeming calisthenics at the back. After a closer look, it was clear I was witnessing a unique method of boat propulsion through human muscle power.