Whether we go for a long weekend to Rome or half-year backpacking to India, we use travel guides. Although most of them are having tough times to sell today, there is still plenty to choose from: Blue Guides, Rough Guides, Frommer’s, Fodor’s, Lonely Planet, and National Geographic among many others. The choice on the internet is even greater.
Yet, both print and screen travel guides limit us in our experiences: they instruct us where to go, what to do, and what to learn about a country. They tend to impose the vision of travel journalists. As a result, a traveller’s experience is reduced to standardised actions without adventure and refined knowledge without wonder. Isn’t it more interesting to see a foreign country through the eyes of those who run it? Why don’t we have a look at how nations themselves choose to portray their countries?
Do you remember what is pictured on the banknotes of a country you last visited? Most travellers reduce banknotes to pure function and don’t notice anything but numbers. Unfairly. Banknotes can tell a lot about a country. Illustrated are national monuments and architectural landmarks, ancient artefacts and natural wonders, historical events and symbols of modernisation, beloved animals and favourite flowers, let alone all types of national heroes: kings, queens, presidents, dictators, revolution leaders, scientists, writers, peasants, and workers. More than that, expressed on bills historical peculiarities, cultural practices, social memory — implied rather than explicitly depicted — greatly contribute to our knowledge about a country we are set to explore. Examples? There are plenty.
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Nicely designed Danish 2009 banknotes feature five bridges as their motifs. Unlike the fictional bridges on the euro banknotes, these bridges do exist and connect Denmark’s main islands. Scattered across the country, built in a different time and with different architectural style, the bridges represent various parts of Denmark. And, of course, besides seeing the bridges themselves, an avid traveller might use them as stepping stones for a journey into Denmark’s different regions and landscapes. No guidebook needed!
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Chinese banknotes, too, show various landmarks: iconic mountains around Guilin, West Lake in Hangzhou, Yangtze River in the scenic Three Gorges region, Great Hall of the People at Tiananmen Square, and the furthest from the capital landmark — the Potala Palace in Lhasa, once the seat of the Tibetan government.
In fact, starting from 1948, when People’s Bank of China introduced a new unified currency, Renminbi, literally “People’s currency”, featured a variety of geographical spots all over the empire. Among many were The Great Wall on 200 yuan banknote (1948–55), Yan’an Precious Pagoda on 2 yuan bill (1955–62), and Wuhan First Yangtze Bridge on 2 jiao (1962–87). On the 10 yuan banknote, circulating in 1987–97, the Chinese government displayed Mount Everest, the highest summit in the world.
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For most, Mount Everest is an iconic symbol of Nepal and, not surprisingly, is illustrated on all banknotes of this mountainous country. However, since the international border between China and Nepal runs across Everest’s precise summit, both countries can use the worlds’ highest peak as a symbol of their national identity. And both do.
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Interestingly, there is another Asian mountain that is featured on the banknotes of two neighbouring countries. The legendary resting place of Noah’s Ark and the main national symbol of Armenia, Mount Ararat dominates the skyline of its capital Yerevan, yet, today belongs to Turkey.
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Like China and Turkey, Russia showcases landmarks on all its banknotes and uses money design to reaffirm its grip on an annexed territory. At the end of 2015, the Central Bank of Russia has announced the release of commemorative 100 ruble banknote dedicated to Crimea. The bill pictures two iconic Crimean landmarks: Swallow’s Nest and the memorial to sunken ships in the port of Sevastopol. Twenty million banknotes will be printed to visualise new “ownership” of the peninsula.
For a traveller keen on geopolitical issues, banknotes are a valuable source of first-hand information — messages that come straight from a country’s establishment. Today, in the age of digital payments, in most countries cash still regularly passes through the hands of every citizen and every international visitor. Such omnipresence of banknotes in a society makes them an efficient medium to convey propaganda messages. Through banknotes’ design, ruling elites convey their vision of national values, use it for territorialization and state building, promote nationalist culture. No travel guidebook is able to provide such unique and up-to-date insight into a country’s current politics.
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Banknote iconography often reveals cultural and social aspects, too. The 20,000 Iranian rial banknote shows UNESCO’s World Heritage Naqsh-e Jahan Square. The square was built between 1598 and 1629 under Shah Abbas the Great in the previous capital of Iran, Esfahan. Today, losing only to Tiananmen Square in Beijing, the site is considered the second-largest square in the world.
This rectangular square is surrounded by walls, which make it enclosed from all sides. Such enclosed structure is typical for traditional Persian architecture and repeats in mosques, schools, palaces, roadside inns, public places, and private homes. This architectural pattern originates in the concept of Persian Garden, which emerged in the 6th century BC. Forming a stark contrast to its desert surrounding, a walled lush garden embodies the idea of Paradise on Earth.
This spatial concept in Iranian, and in Islamic, architecture reflects the important cultural division between inner and outer. Walls, which are many in Iran, not only provide protection against hot and dry climate, they conceal private life. They draw a sharp line between the private and the public. This clear separation exists due to segregation of men and women in patriarchal cultures: public space is a domain of men, while women have almost no presence in public life and occupy the private space of the house. Such introverted houses, with high walls and separate door-knockers for men and women, hide and protect women from gazes of unrelated men.
Moreover, the distinction between the inner and the outer in Iran expands far beyond physical space of architecture. It shapes many social practices, among which behavioural duplicity and self’s duality are most interesting to encounter. But that’s another topic for another essay.
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Geographical and architectural landmarks are not the sole sources of inspiration that a tourist can find on bills. Symbols of national identity are conveyed in different forms. On the Burmese 5 kyat banknote, six men are playing a game. This game, Chinlone, literally “rounded basket”, is the national game of Myanmar. It is played all over the country: from busy city pavements to red-soil roadsides. Players create a circle and pass a small ball around with their bare feet, knees, elbows, and head. One by one, players enter the circle to lead the game. During Buddhist festivals, thousands of professional teams perform, accompanied by traditional Burmese music, with rhythm accenting the moves. The game is said to be 1,500 years old and, during this time, over two hundred methods of kicking the ball have been developed. There is no winning or losing in this game. The challenge is to keep the ball in the air as long as possible with the focus on the aesthetic manner and techniques in which the ball is kicked.
Does Chinlone reflect the nation’s spirit? What collective values does it represent? How does it affect people’s personalities? Such are the questions that a traveller might raise while exploring this Southeast Asian nation stitched together from more than one hundred ethnic groups. Using printed money as a source of travel information requires self-curated research; banknotes serve only as a teaser, a starting point for learning more and further interpretation.
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I suggest the following: while travelling, use guidebooks and online services for practical information such as routes, transport, accommodation, restaurants, use banknotes for historical, cultural, social, and political information. Examine bills and create a personal journey based on what is pictured. If there is a mountain, go hike it. If there is a bridge, go ride it. If there is an animal, then it’s a good pretext to go to a forest and spot the animal in its natural environment. If there is a writer’s portrait, read the writer’s legacy. If the bill depicts a cultural practice like farming rice, building a rocket, collective praying, get engaged in this activity, or, at least, observe it. Find out more about what is pictured on bills, google it, read additional information, or better, ask locals. Include in your itinerary what particularly interests you. Use the cash in your pocket to build your own travel experience!
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Author: Stas Aki, editor: Sara Yasan.