BULLETIN OF THE BURMA STUDIES GROUP
Opera house and boat yard in Gothenburg, Sweden Burma Studies Conference, 2002
Number 69 - 70 March - September 2002 Bulletin of the Burma Studies Group Southeast Asia Council Association for Asian Studies Number 69-70, March-September, 2002
Editor ______Ward Keeler Department of Anthropology University of Texas at Austin CONTENTS Austin, TX 78712 ______tel: (512) 471-8520 fax:(512) 471-6535 email: [email protected] Introduction 2
Assistant Editor In Memoriam 2 Jason Carbine University of Chicago Divinity School email: [email protected] May Kyi Win Memorial 3 Endowment Book Review Editor Leedom Lefferts New Director for Center for 3 Department of Anthropology Burma Studies Drew University Madison, NJ 07940-4000 tel: (202) 547-4868 Burma Studies Conference 4 email: [email protected] Burma Studies Conference 6 Discussions, Lectures, and Papers Subscription Manager Catherine Raymond The Center for Burma Studies Burma Archives Project 17 Northern Illinois University DeKalb, IL 60115-2854 Online Burma/Myanmar 19 office: (815) 753-0512 Library fax: (815) 753-1776 email: [email protected] web: www.grad.niu.edu/burma "Living" Bibliography of 21 Secondary Research on Burma Subscriptions Individuals and Institutions: $25 a year Asia Pacific Studies Network 22 (Includes Journal of Burma Studies) Send checks, payable to The Center for Burma Studies or email Beth Bjorneby A Letter From Burma 23 at [email protected] (Visa and Mastercard accepted only). Reviews 30
Next Issue March 2003 Dissertation Abstract 33 (Submissions due February 1, 2003)
______
Introduction In Memoriam ______
It is with some sorrow that I take on the Daw May Kyi Win was an associate position of editor of the Bulletin, since it is a professor and curator of the Donn V. Hart post that Daw May Kyi Win filled so well Southeast Asia Collection in the Northern for six years. Her untimely passing is a blow Illinois University Libraries. May Kyi Win to all of us who came to rely on her expert died on February 23, 2002 at the age of 54. skills in tracking down additions to the literature on Burma—and came to treasure A member of the library faculty from 1990 her inexhaustible energy, generosity and until her death, May Kyi Win was the only charm. Taking over from her but lacking her native Burmese curator in the United States. bibliographical expertise, I am obliged to During her tenure at the University give the Bulletin a somewhat different cast. I Libraries, she contributed to the Burmese will try to provide information about useful collection and the Mainland Southeast Asia databases for Burma scholars and to include collection through her linguistic expertise other notices about recent academic work. and her knowledge of the literature of the But I would also like to invite subscribers to region.The Burmese collection is considered this bulletin to send along news of new or one of the world's largest and best ongoing research projects and other collections outside of Burma. Besides activities of interest to our membership. As performing duties involving collection the recent conference in Gothenburg made development and serving as reference clear, the field of Burma studies is enjoying librarian in the Southeast Asia collection, something of a boom, and it would be a May Kyi Win was the chief cataloguer of benefit for all of us to know what people are Burmese language materials. up to. In addition to her professional work, Win I should apologize for the long hiatus adopted her niece and brought her to the between the last issue of the Bulletin and United States from Burma for proper this one. In collaboration with Jake Carbine, schooling. She also opened her home for who has kindly offered to take charge of lodging and provided food for participants in formatting each issue, I hope to get the Burma Studies Conferences. Bulletin back on a regular semi-annual schedule. I welcome suggestions about the May Kyi Win is remembered for her tireless Bulletin‘s content and form, as well as work to improve the Burmese collection, to communications about new or on-going secure additional funding and to provide projects. first-rate service. She was also known for her selfless service to others as a "user- Ward Keeler centered" reference librarian, for her kindness and willingness to serve as mentor to students, for a deep sense of charity
2 / March -September 2002 Bulletin of the Burma Studies Group extended to all things great and small, and as a person of strong faith and high moral May Kyi Win Memorial Endowment character. The library that she so loved will Center for Burma Studies forever miss her expert assistance, warm Northern Illinois University presence and charitable spirit. Adams Hall Rm. 410 DeKalb, IL 60115 May Kyi Win was the author of two books: Historical Dictionary of Thailand (with make checks payable to the May Kyi Win Harold E. Smith) and Historical Dictionary Memorial Endowment, or send donations by of the Philippines (with Artemio R. e-mail to: [email protected], providing your Guillermo). She was working on a revised credit card number and expiration date. (We edition of the Thai dictionary at the time of can only accept Visa and Mastercard.) her death. ______New Director Appointed May Kyi Win for the Center for Burma Memorial Endowment Studies at NIU ______
May Kyi Win served continuously for six On August 16, 2002, Dr. Catherine years as editor of the Bulletin of the Burma Raymond was appointed the new Director of Studies Group. One of her innovations as the Center for Burma Studies at Northern editor was to compile the Annual Illinois University. She replaces Dr. Richard Bibliography of Burma Studies for Cooler on his retirement. Dr. Raymond publication in the Bulletin. An endowment earned a Ph.D. in Art and Archaeology from in her name has been set up to continue that La Sorbonne, Paris III in 1987. She also work. The endowment will allow us to studied Burmese at the School of Oriental appoint an individual to compile an annual Languages and Civilizations (INaLCO), in English-language bibliography of academic Paris, and at Yangon University. She is publications on Burma. We also hope to currently focusing on Buddhist iconography maintain the unique collection of books and in Theravada Buddhist countries in maps May Kyi Win helped to collect and mainland Southeast Asia, especially in the catalogue at the Northern Illinois University former Buddhist kingdom of Arakan. library. Recently, she has been researching the
Burmese influence in Lao art and Thanks to everyone who has already architecture. donated to the May Kyi Win Memorial
Endowment. So far, we have raised $7000. Dr. Raymond has also worked with art Our goal is to reach $10,000.00. We museums in Laos, where she continues to continue to welcome donations to the lead a project creating a database and endowment. Please mail donations to: catalogue of the items housed in the Temple
- museum of Vat Sisaket. In February, 2002,
she hosted an international conference in
Bulletin of the Burma Studies Group March - September 2002 / 3
Vientiane concerning the conservation and alternative plans, so I went to the small interpretation of art objects. At Northern lobby, sat myself down on a sofa and closed Illinois University, Dr. Raymond will curate my eyes, hoping that a brief rest would the Burma Collection. reinvigorate me. I was just beginning to relax when a swarm of people started Since 1985, Dr. Raymond has taught coming into the room and taking seats. I was graduate and undergraduate courses in Art startled to find myself suddenly surrounded History and Theravada Buddhism in by people speaking Burmese, and all the Southeast Asia. In addition to her role as more startled when I opened my eyes and Director of the Center for Burma Studies, discovered that among them was a Burmese she will be an associate professor in historian now teaching in Singapore, two Southeast Asian art history in the School of Russian teachers of Burmese from St. Art at Northern Illinois University. Petersburg, a Chinese historian of Burma now teaching in California in the company Editor‘s note: Many of us had the of Burma scholars from the People‘s opportunity to meet Dr. Raymond for the Republic of China. We were soon joined by first time at the recent Burma Studies more Americans, Danes, French Conference in Gothenburg. All of us were academics—in sum, an amazingly impressed with her great energy and cosmopolitan array of people, all interested commitment to the cause of Burma studies, in Burma and all excited to be meeting up and delighted by her radiant friendliness. I with each other in the little lobby of an old- am sure that she will prove a great boon to fashioned hotel in, of all places, a beautiful Burma studies in her capacity as Director of city in southwestern Sweden! Rest was out the Center at NIU; it is a pleasure to of the question, and remained hard to welcome her to America‘s academic shores. schedule for the duration of the conference. Ward Keeler But the excitement was terrific. ______The conference took place in a beautiful building on the Gothenburg University Big Bang-Up Burma campus. Panels were held in two light, airy halls with comfortable chairs and good sight Conference in Staid lines. Lunches and snacks were tasty and Scandinavian City generous. Indeed, the convenience and physical comfort the organizers assured us ______all had much to do with the consistent level of intellectual excitement participants Burma-Myanma(r) Research and its Future: experienced. Implications for Scholars and Policymakers The conference was truly an embarrassment When I arrived, exhausted and disoriented, of riches. There were simply too many at the Hotel Excelsior in Gothenburg late in papers to hear, too many new acquaintances the morning of Saturday, September 21, to make, too many old friends to catch up shortly before the start of the Burma Studies with, and too many interesting debates to Conference, I was disappointed to learn that enter into. Unlike the vast professional my room would not be ready until later in meetings that some of us are fated to attend, the day. I had no energy to think up where hordes of people participate and
4 / March -September 2002 Bulletin of the Burma Studies Group everything turns into a blur, at this Some Facts and Figures conference it was hard not to regret every choice one had to make. How to choose The conference lasted five days, and close to between a set of papers concerning two hundred people participated. Four contemporary Buddhism going on keynote lectures were presented, along with downstairs, and another set about studies of an astonishing one hundred and forty other the Burmese language upstairs? Should one papers. So the scale of this Burma show loyalty to friends whose work is conference was unprecedented. Also always intriguing, or see what some person unprecedented was the high participation of one has only just met has to say? The Asian scholars among the presenters: sixty- answer was never obvious. two of the papers were given by Asians, many of them Burmese. Many of these There was, as there had to be, Asian scholars benefited from the great contentiousness. We all know that the effort made to raise funds to defray their situation in Burma today is grave. None of costs, and to help them obtain Swedish us knows what will happen in future, and visas. (In light of the terrible obstacles U.S. none of us knows what the consequences of Embassies are putting in the way of anyone any actions taken now will turn out to be, from outside the West trying to travel to the whether on our own part, on that of our U.S. these days, it was lucky that the governments, or on the part of people in conference was held in neutral Sweden.) It Burma. Contrasting views were expressed, has often been noted, and bewailed, that sometimes heatedly—but always Southeast Asian scholars have neglected to respectfully. The passion and the restraint concern themselves with their neighbors. It spoke equally for the concern everyone felt was therefore heartening to see so many for the well being of Burma‘s people. Southeast Asian scholars from outside Burma working on Burmese topics. (Sunait Many of us will look back on this Chutintanarond is a tireless proponent of the conference years from now as the moment view that greater communication among when we stopped thinking of ourselves as a Southeast Asian nations will promote small number of people scattered about the mutual understanding and cooperation. His globe, pondering Burma in relative isolation, showing of clips from Thai films and came to see just how many of us there dramatizing Burmese and Thai warfare, are and how vibrant scholarship and followed by the Burmese film Never shall activism concerning Burma has become. It we be enslaved, was a late-night media is due to the immense efforts that Gustaaf extravaganza but one intended to foster Houtman, with the assistance of Per insight, not hostility.) It was also gratifying Lundberg and others, put in to the planning to see scholars from India and China of the conference that it went so smoothly. specializing in Burma present at the More importantly, it is due to their efforts conference, since the fates of all three of that many of us were made aware of what a these nations are necessarily linked. large, energetic and enthusiastic community of Burma specialists and activists we are. The conference was very much a For that we must all be extremely grateful. collaborative effort. Put on by the Burma Studies Group in conjunction with the Centre for Asian Studies (CEAS) at Gothenburg University, it was funded by
Bulletin of the Burma Studies Group March - September 2002 / 5
Gothenburg University (the Faculty of ______Social Science and Vice-Chancellor's Office), the International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS), the Southeast Asia Burma Studies Conference
Committee of the Association for Asian Discussion Sessions, Studies (AAS), the Nordic Institute of Asian Keynote Lectures, and Studies (NIAS), the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), Paper Panels the Nordic Academy for Advanced Studies ______(NorFA – Nordisk Forskerutdannings- akademi) and the Centre of East and Note from the Editor: Where possible, we Southeast Asian Studies, Lund University. have made efforts to incorporate appropriate This list of funding sources shows how changes. Please send any additions or widespread interest in Burma has become. It corrections to the Editor. We will include also shows, of course, how diligent Gustaaf updates in the next issue of the Bulletin. Houtman and his colleagues were in seeking out sponsors for the conference. In this as in I. Discussion Sessions a number of ways, the conference set a very high standard for all future Burma Half a Century of Burma Studies, involving conferences. Surely we should try to academics active before 1962. maintain as high a level of international Coordinated by Dr. Dorothy Guyot. participation as possible, so that none of us [email protected] becomes isolated from the great current of
Burma studies that this conference has Panel included: Anna Allott, John demonstrated the field to be. Badgley, F.K. Lehman, June Nash,
Frank Reynolds, James Guyot and One event that will probably prove very David Steinberg. difficult to repeat was the reception held in our collective honor at the Gothenburg City Diplomacy: The Nature of Dialogue and Hall the last night of the conference. Tables Reconciliation. Coordinated by piled high with food, and waiters serving Professor David Steinberg Swedish champagne (?) in a big fancy room (Georgetown University), Dr Kyi overlooking the city square: ah, the May Kaung (Sr. Research Associate, pleasures of Europe. I have told my The Burma Fund, Washington DC). colleagues back home in Texas that it must [email protected] be due to the accumulated demerit of my [email protected] past lives that I wasn‘t born in Scandinavia.
II. Keynote Lectures Ward Keeler
Between Scholarship and Activism. Dr Chao-Tzang Yawnghwe, University of British Columbia; program team director of the National Reconciliation Program (NRP).
6 / March -September 2002 Bulletin of the Burma Studies Group Between Scholarship and Involvement. State patronage and the transformation of Professor F.K. Lehman, University Burmese traditional music. Gavin of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Douglas (PhD Ethnomusicology). [email protected] Hill-Valley Relations in Mainland Southeast Asia, Especially Burma: Why Reconciliation and the Politics of Justice: Civilizations Can't Climb Hills. Indonesia and Burma in Comparative Professor James C. Scott, Yale Perspective. Dr. Priyambudi University. Sulistiyanto(Fellow, Southeast Asian Studies Programme, National IIII. Paper Panels University of Singapore). [email protected] "Open Academic" Papers Dr Gustaaf Houtman Burma and Singapore: Some Research [email protected] Questions and Obstacles. Alfred Oehlers (Dept of Commerce, Massey Orthopraxis and messianism: S. N. University (Albany)). Goenka‘s international vipassana [email protected] family and its Burmese legacy. Katarina Plank (PhD Candidate, Loyalty of Rangoon and Dishonour of History of Religions, Lund Mandalay under Military rule (1962- University). 88). Dr. Koung Nyunt (Department [email protected] of Architecture, University of Auckland). Civilian Military Leadership Dynamics prior [email protected] to '62. Tun Kyaw Nyein (Assistant Dean, University College and Muslims of Burma: Their past, present and Assistant Director Assistant Director future. ‗Thurein.‘ of Distance Education, North [email protected] Carolina Central University). [email protected] The Border Areas and National Races Development Programme. Curtis The Architecture of Burmese Buddhist Lambrecht. (PhD candidate, Yale Monasteries in Upper Burma, The University). Biographies of Trees. Chotima [email protected] Chaturawong (PhD candidate, Cornell University). From fieldwork to bilateral cooperation, [email protected] from Burma to Europe through ASEAN: the MAP-RAID Project State and Sangha in Burma : a cooperation example (on the Moken Sea mutually fruitful. Guy Lubeigt Gypsies). Professor Jacques Ivanoff (CNRS, Laboratoire PACIFICA- in collaboration with M. Cartolano PRODIG, Institut de Géographie, and T. Lejard (L'Institut de Paris). Recherche sur le Sud-Est Asiatique [email protected] (IRSEA), CNRS). (absent) [email protected]
Bulletin of the Burma Studies Group March - September 2002 / 7
Kachin Territorial Place vs. Social Space: Research, Education And Human Constructing, Contesting and Resource Management Crossing Boundaries. Karin Dean Pat Herbert (PhD Candidate, Geography, Thein Lwin National University, Singapore). [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]
Forest resource degradation in Myanmar. Issues surrounding Curriculum San Thwin, MSc Forest Policy (PhD Development in the Ethnic Candidate, Institute of Forest Policy, Nationality Areas of Burma. Dr University of Göttingen). Thein Lwin (Burmese National [email protected] Health and Education Committee). [email protected] How the Role of Women Developed Amongst the Christian Anglican On the need to developing human capital by Community of the Khumi-Chin of adjusting policies. John Brandon the Upper Kaladan River, Western (Associate Director, Asia Burma. Annie Nason: khumi-Chin Foundation, Washington Office). (PhD Candidate, Birmingham [email protected] University, UK). [email protected] Capacity building for the education sector in Burma: Challenges for schooling and Performing gender in Mandalay. Prof. Ward teacher education. Professor Elwyn Keeler (Dept of Anthropology, Univ. Thomas (formerly Head of the of Texas at Austin). Department of Education and [email protected] International Development, University of London Institute of The myth of a unified Burma and prospects Education). for a national reconciliation process. [email protected] Toe Zaw Latt (MA Asian Studies candidate, Monash University). Ethnic Diversity [email protected] Professor Mikael Gravers; Chair: Dr Magnus Fiskesjö. The Impact of Democratisation on inter- [email protected] ethnic relations in Burma. Camilla [email protected] Buzzi (MA Student, University of Oslo). Dynamics of Group Identity in Ethnic [email protected] Conflict: the Kachin Context. David Tegenfeldt (MA, Conflict The meditation system of U Ba Khin and its Transformation Program, Eastern relation to the notion of the kalapas. Mennonite University, USA). Erik Braun (PhD Candidate, Dept of [email protected] Sanskrit and Indian Studies, Harvard University). Constructive Responses to Conflict - [email protected] Traditional Kachin Systems. Carol J.
8 / March -September 2002 Bulletin of the Burma Studies Group Gowler (MA, Conflict New and Renewable Energy Technologies Transformation Program, Eastern for Sustainable Development in Mennonite University, USA). Myanmar. Shwe Shwe Sein Latt [email protected] (Senior Researcher), Prof. Thierry Lefevre (Director) (Center for Ceasefires and Civil Society: The Case of Energy-Environment Research and the Mon. Ashley South (MA, SOAS, Development (CEERD), Bangkok). London; working in Thailand). [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]
Self-other dynamics and the concept of The Salween Water Partnership. Dr Khin Ni autonomy in the Wa context. Dr Ni Thein (Water Research and Magnus Fiskesjö (Museum of Far Training Centre for a new Burma Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm). (WRTC)). [email protected] [email protected]
The Role of Religion in the Formation of Solid Waste Management: Toward Ethnic Identity - the case of the environmental Management in Karen. Dr Mikael Gravers (Associate Burma-Myanmar. Mar Mar Aye Professor, Department of (Manager, Air Pollution Control, Ethnography and Social Bangkok). Anthropology, University of Aarhus, [email protected] Denmark). [email protected] Striving for food security in Burma- Myanmar: Evaluation of existing Christianity and Chin identity: A study in freshwater fish seed production in religion, politics and national Yangon Division. Htin Aung Kyaw identity in Burma. Dr Lian H. (Research associate, Aquaculture and Sakhong (Uppsala University, Aquatic Resources Management Sweden; Research Director of the Program). National Reconciliation Program [email protected] (NRP)). [email protected] Burma-Myanmar In The World: Refugees, Migrants And Transnational- Water, Environment And Sustainable ism Development Dr Sandra Dudley; Per Lundberg Dr Khin Ni Ni Thein [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]
The New Paradigm in Integrated Water Mechanisms for access to basic social Resources Management (IWRM). services in northwestern Thailand: A Prof. Dr. M.B. Abbott (Emeritus case study of one community of professor of Hydroinformatics, IHE Shan Burmese Refugees. Celina Su Delft, The Netherlands). (PhD Candidate, Massachusetts [email protected] Institute of Technology) & P. Muennig (Sophie Davis Medical
Bulletin of the Burma Studies Group March - September 2002 / 9
School at City University of New Law And The Constitution York). Myint Zan [email protected], [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Heritage law as applicable to Burma. Dr Graeme Wiffen (Senior Lecturer, Media, human rights and refugees. Lisa Centre for Environmental Law, Brooten (PhD Candidate, School of Macquarie University). Telecommunications; Assistant [email protected] Professor, College of Mass Communication and Media Arts, State And Society Department of Radio-TV, Southern Dr Kyaw Yin Hlaing Illinois University, Carbondale). Professor Robert H. Taylor [email protected] Discussant: Robert Taylor [email protected] Resistance, mobility and/as agency among [email protected] Burmese dissidents in Thai exile. Per Lundberg (PhD Candidate, Dept. of State, Christian Church and Generation Gap Social Anthropology, Göteborg in Ethnic Identity Formation: A Case University). Study of Insein Karen Community. [email protected] Oh Yoon Ah (Department of Political Science, National Beyond the camps: Karenni refugees, University of Singapore). nationalism and the world. Dr Sandra [email protected] Dudley (Research Officer, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Burma‘s Changing Urban Landscapes: Oxford). Politics and the ‗New‘ Rangoon and [email protected] Mandalay. Prof. Donald M. Seekins. (College of International Studies, From the Outside Looking In: Burmese International Meio University, Exiles on the Changing Politics of Okinawa, Japan). Humanitarian and Development [email protected] Assistance. Ken Maclean (Ph.D. candidate in Anthropology and a Patron-Client Ties and the Process of M.S. candidate at the School for Political Legitimization in Burmese Natural Resources and Environment, State-Society Relations. Dr Ingrid University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Jordt. (Dept. of Anthropology, USA). University of Wisconsin- [email protected] Milwaukee). [email protected] Democracy movement Internet strategies. Cecilia Strand (Ph.D. candidate, Linguistics Dept. of Information Science, Dr Justin Watkins Uppsala University). Kenneth van Bik [email protected], [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]
10 / March -September 2002 Bulletin of the Burma Studies Group Some aspects of the Mon language today. Dr Orality And Alternative Resources – Oral Emmanuel Guillon (INALCO, History And Oral Traditions Research In Paris). Burma Studies [email protected] Mandy Sadan, SOAS, London [email protected] Topicalization in Burmese expository discourse. Paulette Hopple (PhD Our environment in your language: People Candidate, Summer Institute of on the Thai / Burma border talk to a Linguistics). dictionary writer about their [email protected] environment. Glenda Kupczyk- Romanczuk. The syntactic markers of written Burmese: [email protected] are they really optional? Professor Vadim B. Kassevitch (Vice Daai Chin Folktales. Helga So-Hartmann President, Univ. of St. Petersburg; (PhD candidate, Linguistics, SOAS, Professor of Burmese and General London). Linguistics; Director, Laboratory for [email protected] Computer Application in the Humanities). Kachin textile project. Lisa Maddigan [email protected] (Green Centre for World Art, Brighton Museum). Peak marking features in Daai folktales. [email protected] Helga So-Hartmann (PhD Candidate, SOAS, London University). Reading History as Storytelling: Some [email protected] thoughts on the oral elements of written texts and the challenges they Subgrouping in Kuki-Chin. Kenneth Van pose for historical interpretation. Bik (PhD Candidate in Linguistics, Will Womack (PhD candidate, University of California, Berkeley). History, SOAS, London). [email protected] [email protected]
The tonal characteristics of functional Development of alternative historical particles in Burmese. Dr Justin resources in Kachin State. Mandy Watkins (Lecturer in Burmese, Sadan (PhD candidate, History, SOAS, London University). SOAS, London). [email protected] [email protected]
On the role of the medial palatal sonant in From Fact To Fiction: A History Of Thai- the history of the Burmese language. Myanmar Relations In A Cultural Professor Rudolf Yanson (Head of Context Department of Letters of China, Professor Sunait Chutintaranond Korea and South-East Asia, St [email protected] Petersburg University). [email protected] Lessons from the historical relationship between Thailand and Myanmar- Burma. Professor Sunait
Bulletin of the Burma Studies Group March - September 2002 / 11
Chutintaranond (Director, Thai and May Chew (ex-member of Southeast Asian Studies Centre, Laboratoire Péninsule Indochinoise, Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn Paris). University, Bangkok). [email protected]
Movie: Never shall we be enslaved Gender, Society And Development (produced by Myat Mihkin Dr Hiroko Kawanami Foundation), a film about kingship in [email protected] Myanmar, directed by Myo Thant Tyn. Religious Ideology, Representation, and Social Realities: the case of Burmese Partial Screening: Suriyothai, a large Buddhist Womanhood. Dr Hiroko production Thai film dealing with Kawanami (Lecturer, Dept of the Thai-Burmese war. Religious Studies, Lancaster University). Pictorial Art [email protected] Sylvia Lu Frazer [email protected] Recolonizing Gender: Representation of Burmese women through popular The Ananda Temple Sculptures: Buddhist literature of novels, poems, songs Texts as Sources of Iconography. and cartoons by the colonizers and Charlotte Galloway (Assistant colonized. Khin Mar Mar Kyi (MA, Curator of Asian Art, National Australian National University). Gallery of Australia). [email protected] [email protected] Gender inclusion in the information age. Dr Word and Image: Texts Used in the Khin Ni Ni Thein (Water Research Preparation of Seventeenth and and Training Centre for a new Eighteenth Century Burmese Wall Burma (WRTC)). Paintings. Dr Alexandra Green [email protected] (Lecturer, Dept of Art and Archaeology, SOAS). Health And HIV [email protected] Professor Tun Kyaw Nyein [email protected] Formulaic Depictions and Original Compositions in Burmese Narrative The Politics of HIV and AIDS in Burma. Illustrations with Special Reference Professor Tun Kyaw Nyein to an Early Twentieth Century (Assistant Dean, University College Lacquer Manuscript in the New and Assistant Director Assistant York Public Library. Sylvia Frazer- Director of Distance Education at Lu (independent scholar). North Carolina Central University). [email protected] [email protected]
The Rock-cut Temples of Po Win Taung in Health as human right, HIV/AIDS problems Central Burma: Architecture, of migrants from Burma in Thailand, Sculpture and Mural Paintings. Anne a consequence of human rights
12 / March -September 2002 Bulletin of the Burma Studies Group violations. Dr. Alice Khin Saw Win Upasampada and the Making of a Rahan. (Faculty Lecturer, Faculty of Jason Carbine (PhD Candidate, Nursing, Medicine and Dentistry, History of Religions, University of University of Alberta). Chicago). [email protected] [email protected]
Assessment of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and Dagò, Cosmogony and Politics: religion and its potential consequences on future power in Burmese society. Dr Naoko development of Burma. Dr. Myat Kumada (Fellow, Stanford Center Htoo Razak (Department of for Buddhist Studies). Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins [email protected] University). [email protected] A new palace for Mra Souin Devi. Changes in spirit cults in Rakhine State. The Poor Cousins of Burma‘s Biomedical Alexandra de Mersan (Master in Sector: Psychiatry and Traditional Ethnology, Ecole des Hautes Etudes Medicine. Dr. Monique Skidmore en Sciences Sociales, Paris). (Lecturer, Anthropology and [email protected] Development studies, University of Melbourne). Sending back the soul amongst the Christian [email protected] Kachin in Burma. Dr François Robinne (Institute for Research on Buddhism And The Nat Cults Southeast Asia, CNRS Marseille). Dr Bénédicte Brac de la Perriere [email protected] Dr Hiroko Kawanami [email protected] 20th Century History [email protected] Prof. Kei Nemoto, ILCAA, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies Transmission, Change and Reproduction in [email protected] the Burmese Cult of the 37 Lords. Dr Bénédicte Brac de la Perrière Linking Burma to the East: Antecedents of (CNRS-LASEMA, Paris). the Burma Road and the Burma- [email protected] Siam Railway. Dr Paul H.Kratoska (Editor, Journal of Southeast Asian Reciprocity and redistribution in the quest Studies, Dept of History, National for sainthood in Burma: Thamanya University of Singapore). Hsayadaw‘s birthday. Dr Guillaume [email protected] Rozenberg (recently completed PhD in Ethnology at the Ecole des Hautes The Glittering East: British romantic notions Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris). of Burma's past during the twentieth [email protected] century. Alyssa Phillips (PhD Candidate in History, Monash Weikza: the case of Tamanya Taung University, Australia). Hsayadaw. Dr Keiko Tosa [email protected] AnthropologyHiroshima University). [email protected]
Bulletin of the Burma Studies Group March - September 2002 / 13
The Nagani-Project. Dr Hans-Bernd Sadan (PhD candidate, History, Zöellner (University of Hamburg, SOAS, London). Germany, Hans-Bernd Zoellner). [email protected] [email protected] The Origins of Eastern Pwo Karen Writing: Aspects of the 'left' and 'right' and their Monks, Myths, and Manuscripts. 'conversions' in Modern 'elite' Will Womack (PhD candidate, Burmese Politics. Myint Zan (School History, SOAS, London). of Law, University of the South [email protected] Pacific, Emalus Campus, Port Vila, Vanuatu). Burma's Cotton Exports in the Nineteenth [email protected] Century. Joerg Schendel (PhD candidate, University of Berlin). Life as Myth: Aung San and the Cultural [email protected] Reproduction of Burmese Political Ideas. Dr Susanne Prager (South Hpo Hlaing‘s Yazadhamma-thingaha. L. E. Asian Institute, University of Bagshawe (Independent Scholar and Heidelberg). Translator). [email protected] [email protected]
Gandhi, Aung San Suu Kyi and Burma's Language And Literature Democratic Movement. Dr Prof. Julian Wheatley Rajshekhar (Jawaharlal Nehru [email protected] University, New Delhi). [email protected] A Glimpse of Five (Modern) Existential Burmese Poems. Myint Zan (School Returning To Nineteenth-Century of Law, University of the South Burma: Towards A New Research Pacific, Emalus Campus, Port Vila, Agenda Vanuatu). Will Womack [email protected] [email protected] Teaching and learning of Myanmar How judges used the Dhammathats in the language for scholars of Myanmar. courts of Eighteenth Century San San Hnin Tun (Cornell Myanmar (Burma), with special University, New York). reference to Yezajyo Hkondaw [email protected] Pyathton. Professor Ryuji Okudaira (Researcher on Myanmar (Burmese) The Japanese occupation of Burma seen History and Culture, Tokyo through Japanese and Burmese University of Foreign Studies). writing. Chie Ikeya (PhD candidate, [email protected] History, Cornell University). [email protected] Environmental imagination and the emergence of ‗Kachin‘ in early 19th Linguistic and social aspects of word play in century British archives. Mandy Burmese. Dr Julian Wheatley
14 / March -September 2002 Bulletin of the Burma Studies Group (Senior Lecturer in Chinese, MIT). The World Bank stabilization and structural [email protected] change "standard package" and its likely effect in Burma, if used. Dr An examination of the present status of Kyi May Kaung (Sr. Research colloquial Burmese. Saw Tun Associate, The Burma Fund, (Assistant Professor, Burmese Washington DC). Language and Literature, Dept of [email protected] Foreign Languages and Literatures, Northern Illinois University). Is Burma a development disaster? Some [email protected] thoughts on the economy at the turn of the millennium. Prof. Anne E. Librarians And Library Resources Booth (Dept of Economics, SOAS, Professor John Badgley London). [email protected] [email protected]
From riches to rags: an examination of Reforming Burma's Banking System: An library provision in Burma. Liz Overview of the Problems and Curach (University Librarian, Possibilities. Dr Sean Turnell University of Western Sydney). (Economics, Macquarie University, [email protected] Sydney). [email protected] Burmese Libraries, and Research Since 1962. John Badgley (University of Archaeology Washington). Dr Janice Stargardt, Cambridge [email protected] University.
Burmese library facilities at the INALCO Reading Epigraphs and Architecture: institute (Institute of Oriental Monasteries in Early Burma. Dr Languages and Civilizations) in Tilman Frasch (South Asia Institute, Paris. Alexandra de Mersan (Master Heidelberg University). in Ethnology, Ecole des Hautes [email protected] Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris). [email protected] The Creation of an Archaeological Landscape: Upper Burma from the Very brief introduction to the Online Neolithic to Pagan. Bob Hudson Burma-Myanmar library. Longer (PhD candidate, Dept of presentation in ‗Open panel‘. David Archaeology, Sydney University). Arnott. (Burma Online Library). [email protected] [email protected] The City as Symbol in Early Pyu The Economy In Transition Buddhism: Defining Sacred Space. Zaw Oo, Hurst Fellow, the School of Dr Janice Stargardt (Director International Service, American Cambridge Project on Ancient University; director of Policy and Research Programs, Burma Fund. [email protected]
Bulletin of the Burma Studies Group March - September 2002 / 15
Civilization in South East Asia, Cambridge). Additional Papers [email protected] (not presented at the conference)
Relationships With China Sonethu Chin Cultural Preservation Project. Dr Laichen Sun Mai Ni Ni Aung (MA Candidate in [email protected] International Peace Studies, KROC Institute, University of Notre Dame). Studies of Burmese History in China: [email protected] Retrospect and Prospect. He Shengda (Professor, Vice President, Berlin Pyu Numismatics. Dr Dietrich Mahlo Academy of Social Sciences, (Chairman, Friends of the Museum Yunnan). Professor Shengda is of Indian Art). translator of Maung Tin Aung's History of Burma into Chinese. Addressing illegal migrant worker issues in Thailand. Dr. Minn Minn Soe Chinese Literature in Burma and Burmese (Rollins School of Public Health, Literature in China. Li Mou Emory University). (Professor, Peking University), [email protected] Professor Li Mou is translator of the Glass Palace Chronicle into Burma's Colonial Legacy-Unfinished Chinese. Political Business-No Constitutional Settlement. The Hon. Janelle Saffin Traffic: Re-routing Sino-Burmese (Member of Parliament, New South encounters, 1840 –1940. Penny Wales; Honorary Secretary Burma Edwards (Centre for Cross-Cultural Lawyers Council, Australian Research, Australian National Section; International Co-ordinator University). of the NCUB's Constitutional [email protected], Drafting Committee). [email protected] [email protected]
Burmo-Chinese Frontier in 1869. Dr Sun The separation of powers and federalism in Laichen (California State University, the constitutions of Burma. Ngun Fullerton). Cung Lian (Andrew). (PhD [email protected] Candidate, School of Law, Indiana University). Yunnanese and Arakanese Muslim links. [email protected] Jean Berlie (Centre for Asian Studies, University of Hong Kong). The Right to Health: International and [email protected] Constitutional Law Focus with Analysis on the Principle of NOBUS Progressive Realization (ICESCR). (Nordic Burma Studies Network) Naw May Oo (Snyder Research Per Lundberg Fellow, Lauterpacht Research Centre [email protected] for International Law, Cambridge University). [email protected]
16 / March -September 2002 Bulletin of the Burma Studies Group The Italians in Myanmar. Oscar Torretta Overlapping identities: Mons, Burmans and (Fondazione G. Rumor , St Vincent, the persistence of ethnic conflict. Italy). Patrick McCormick (Ph.D. [email protected] candidate, Political Science, University of Washington). Burma, political transition, an institutional [email protected] approach. Myo Nyunt (Edith Cowan University, Mount Lawley, WA). An historical overview of Burma's [email protected] development as an export economy. Prof. Ronald Findlay (Ragnar Long distance identities: Burmese asylum Nurkse Professor of Economics, seekers in France. Michel Diricq. Columbia University). [email protected] Burmese relations with the Tai states (Shan, ______Lan Na, Lü, etc.). Professor Volker Grabowski (Institut für Ethnologie, Muenster University). Burma Archives Project [email protected] (BAP) Brain-Drain Train to Gain: Study of ______Myanmar Human Resource
Management in Singapore. Khin The Burma Archives Project was established Maung Phone Ko (formerly lecturer in 1997 at the initiative of Professor Willem at Rangoon Institute of Technology , van Schendel of the International Institute of lecturer at MARA Institute of Social History (IISH) in The Netherlands Technology, Shah Alam, Malaysia, and a small group of librarians and Burma and senior lecturer at Nanyang scholars. It was decided that the IISH Technological University; consultant offered ideal archival storage, preservation to Kyoso Myanmar Business, and research facilities for the Burma Singapore). Archives Project. IISH was founded in 1935 [email protected] and is one of the world‘s largest
documentary and research institutions in the Some Changes in religious activities in field of social history, with approximately village life in Upper Burma. 2,000 archival collections, some 1 million Professor Katsumi Tamura printed volumes and about as many audio- (Department of Social Research, visual items. Its collections focus National Museum of Ethnology, particularly on emancipation movements, Osaka). labor and trade union archives, new social [email protected] movements, human rights, women and
ethnic nationalisms. It has an impeccable Burmese Buddhist nuns in the Theravada record of rescuing and safekeeping tradition and their attitudes towards endangered collections and papers of social work. Me Me Khine (MPhil persecuted individuals and organizations. In student, English Dept, Assumption recent years, IISH has extended its University, Bangkok). collection development and research focus [email protected] to Asia and has established offices and/or
Bulletin of the Burma Studies Group March - September 2002 / 17 correspondents in Pakistan, Bangladesh, the collective memory of development - Indonesia and Thailand. material documenting social movements and transformation, minority peoples and other BAP‘s primary objective is to support and subjects relevant to civil society - is actively encourage the compilation, essential to Burma‘s future development. collection and safe preservation of Ultimately it is hoped that the Burma documentation in written and audiovisual collections of IISH will be made available in form - particularly, but not exclusively, of Burma itself, in a future Burmese archive of material on Burma deriving from the 1980s social history. onwards. Although some major libraries such as the British Library in London have If any individual or organization has Burma unparalleled manuscript and archival material, this can be entrusted to IISH as a collections on Burma, these relate gift, a deposit or a sale. IISH is willing to predominantly to the colonial period. A make microfilm copies of original material researcher today would be hard put to find in for donors. Much material is ―sensitive‖ and Western library collections an up-to-date run is held under conditions of restricted access, of even one national newspaper from for example the recently acquired archives Burma, let alone a comprehensive coverage of the ABSDF, of the DPNS and of the of current Burmese publications. Given this Burma Campaign UK. fact, it is not surprising that the publications and unpublished documents - by their nature Another role of the Burma Archives Project rare and ephemeral - of dissident, ethnic is to promote archival training, documentary minority and opposition groups and research and oral history work. One individuals are not systematically collected outcome of such projects has been the recent by libraries. Rigid censorship within Burma compilation by Mandy Sadan (a PhD together with the production of official candidate at the School of Oriental & histories promoting the SLORC/SPDC African Studies, University of London) of version of events and the role of the Burma an oral history manual which includes Army has virtually suppressed all source material relevant to Burma‘s ethnic independent views and source materials. peoples, especially the Kachin. Mandy For example, the pro-democracy Sadan has also compiled an invaluable publications that appeared briefly in late Guide to sources in the Oriental & India August and early September 1988 are now Office Collections, British Library, for the all banned in Burma and in 1998 a student study of minority histories of Burma. Please who had compiled a history of the student note: all enquiries about this forthcoming movement and of education in Burma was Guide should be made to Gabrielle Galanek reportedly sentenced to 17 years‘ at OSI, New York: [email protected] imprisonment. Patricia Herbert, former Curator of the The Burma Archives Project‘s role is to Southeast Asia Collections at the British make a coordinated effort to seek out Library, acts as an informal ―coordinator‖ of material such as posters, cartoons, BAP, while Eef Vermeij of the IISH edits photographs, pamphlets, diaries, and produces BAP‘s Burma Archives correspondence, memoirs, political and Newsletter. If you would like more ethnic groups‘ records. The creation of information on the Burma Archives Project archives that preserve what has been called or think you are able to contribute in some
18 / March -September 2002 Bulletin of the Burma Studies Group way, please first contact the Coordinator 3) Scanning important documents which do
Bulletin of the Burma Studies Group March - September 2002 / 19 try to make copies of particularly important or translations of important literary works. ones in case they disappear). These can be scanned and placed in the Library. Potentially this is a very large area 2) Seeking out electronic documents and and we have not yet begun this task. putting them online Another task is to search out documents not Copyright issues yet on the Internet which exist in electronic For making links to documents already form (most reports, theses, periodicals or online, there is no copyright problem, but in articles produced in the past few years were the case of 2 and 3, above, a major done on a computer) and place them online. requirement is to obtain permission from the These may be university dissertations, document owners to put material online. conference papers, reports, archives, ―The Journal of Burma Studies‖ and Don travelogues, translations and so forth. They Seekins graciously gave permission for one may be the archives of Burma periodicals of Don‘s articles to go into the Library. We which hitherto have only existed in hard hope that other Burma periodicals will copy, but whose publishers have electronic follow. versions. They may also be the archives of Burma listservs -- e.g. we recently archived Institutional and technical structure the Kao Wao News, a news service mainly The Online Burma/Myanmar Library is on the Mon. The Librarian‘s recent generously hosted by biblio, a collaboration attendance at the Burma scholars‘ of the Center for the Public Domain and the conference in Gothenburg resulted in one or University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill two actual texts, including Chao Tzang (USA). Its founders' include the Burma Yawnghwe‘s Doctoral thesis, and a fair Project of the Open Society Institute. number of promises, some for substantial documents. Another aspect of this task is to It is organized on a database (using MySQL urge librarians who are digitizing their software, in combination with PHP) into 60 collections to make them publicly available top-level categories based on traditional on the Internet. In all these cases, we library classifications, with a hierarchy of encourage the owners of documents to place some 850 sub-categories. These hold them on their own websites and send us the approximately 3000 links (mostly annotated, web address, the URL, so that we can link to with keywords and descriptions) to them. If, however, they do not have access individual documents, and about 500 links to websites, or do not have time to do the to websites which in turn give access to work of uploading the documents, they can another 100,000 or so documents. The email them and we can place them directly database allows rapid keyword or Boolean in the Library. The most important of the in- searching in all or specific fields – house documents is the (fully searchable) description/keyword, date, language (we are 15MB archive of Hugh MacDougall‘s building up our collection of non-English ―Burma Press Summary‖ (1987-1996). texts), title, author, source/publisher etc. It can also be browsed through the subject hierarchies. [A third way of finding material 3) Scanning important documents is provided by a simple alphabetical list of There are important documents which exist the 900 categories and sub-categories. We on paper but not in electronic form. These are using the Greenstone digital library may be Burma legislation or historical texts software to build the collection of
20 / March -September 2002 Bulletin of the Burma Studies Group documents housed on-site. This software ______allows full-text searching, though at present only the Burma Press Summary uses this feature fully (we would like to hear from "Living" Bibliography of people with experience of this software).] Secondary Research on Building the Library Burma The Library's starting point, historically, was the Burma Peace Foundation's ______documentation of the human rights situation in Burma, including UN documents from the The "Living" Bibliography of Secondary end of the ‗80s, and this material still Research on Burma is a project that seeks to comprises about a third of the total bulk of develop a complete list, sorted by topic, of the material. This ratio is falling as the other all published secondary research (though it sections -- Bibliographies/research, also includes unpublished M.A. and Ph.D. Economy, Geography, Health, History, theses and dissertations) on Burma Studies. Military, Politics and Government, Society All major areas of research on Burma are and Culture, etc. -- are built up. We warmly included and suggestions for new material invite specialists to provide various levels of are always welcome. Entries are arranged by input in their areas, from commenting on the topic and listed only once in the structure, sending web addresses (URLs) of bibliography on the basis of its greatest online items that should be added, emailing topical relevance. documents to be placed directly on the site, to editing whole sections or sub-sections This is a "living" bibliography because it is (unfortunately this project does not have continually updated and reposted sufficient funding to offer any payment, electronically on the internet. This list can though agreed expenses can be paid). be accessed through the Burma Online Editing can be done online from any Library
Bulletin of the Burma Studies Group March - September 2002 / 21 bibliographic details according to the ______following format:
Monographs: The Asia Pacific Studies
Martin Smith. 1999. Burma: Insurgency and Network the Politics of Ethnicity. 2nd edition. ______Dhaka: the University Press;
Bangkok: White Lotus; London: Zed The Asia Pacific Studies Network Books. (ISBN numbers would also
South East Asian Studies: Articles:
Burmaresearch -- The General Burma Michael W. Charney. 2002. "Centralizing Studies Egroup Historical Tradition in Pre-colonial
Burma: the Abhiraja/Dhajaraja Myth CSEAH -- Colonial South East Asian in Early Kon-baung Historical History Egroup Texts." South East Asia Research
10.2 (July): 185-215. Early Burma -- A Specialized Egroup on
Burma for those who Specialize on Pre- Please note that book reviews will be Twentieth Century Burma included, gradually, not as separate listings, but as sub-entries under the listing for the EHSEA -- Economic History of South East book reviewed. No special formatting is Asia Egroup required, but submissions should include full citation details. Annotations for individual SEAHTP -- South East Asian Historical entries are also invited, but will be included Texts Project Egroup at the sole discretion of the editor of the bibliography. Authorship of annotations will SEAJobs -- South East Asia Jobs, a be recognized at the end of the entry within notification egroup brackets.
TAI -- Thai (Thai, Lao, and Shan) The bibliography is edited by Dr. Michael Resesearch Egroup W. Charney of the Department of History,
School of Oriental and African Studies. He Combined membership amounts to 340 can be contacted at: [email protected] scholars (researchers, academics, and
graduate student) whose work focuses on
South East Asian Studies. Although
membership is currently heavily
concentrated in the Humanities, scholars
from other fields are also welcome. In order
to maintain the scholarly atmosphere of the
22 / March -September 2002 Bulletin of the Burma Studies Group egroups, membership is solely at the am wearing – I should have worn my velvet discretion of the website moderator. ‗Mandalay sandals‘, despite the rain. I step carefully off the edge of the pavement and If you have any questions, please contact Dr. feel my heel sink into thick slime hidden in Michael W. Charney at [email protected] the darkness at the edge of the road; better ______the heel than the toes. Ahead lies a food stand and a few patrons sitting on low stools in the island of light given off by a lantern. A Letter From Burma In Burmese, I ask a middle-aged, seated woman the number of the cross street, but ______she looks away uncomprehending, embarrassed. I should have addressed one of Julian Wheatley was kind enough to give the men. The other patrons, coming to their permission to print this wonderfully senses, tell me that I‘m almost at 52nd street. evocative account of some of his experiences in Burma this past August. Only a few loyal customers stay at my guest WWK house, located on an alley in the heart of Rangoon. The only other guest this time is a This letter, originally written only for portly man from Pakistan, who speaks good friends and family, recounts parts of a English and enough Burmese. He has been recent visit to Myanmar. at the guesthouse for several months arranging export licenses for containers of July, 2002: raw materials. When he‘s not meeting with Burmese officials (who seem to change the Yangon rules a lot) he watches Pakistani videos, Late in the evening, around 10:30 when the romances with songs and dance mostly. In traffic has died down, the crowds at the tea the morning at breakfast, he watches prayers shops have started to disperse, and vendors and sermons on the Pakistan overseas are settling down for the night next to their service. We get along fine, though stands protected from the worst of the rain occasionally I wonder how Americans by suspended plastic sheets, I am treading would react to my sharing a hotel with a my way carefully along one of Rangoon‘s Pakistani who listens to the Koran in the broad avenues looking for 52nd street, a morning and exports containers during the narrow cross street that leads to the small day. guest house where I am staying. The government electricity (as it is called) is still The rate of exchange has doubled since I off and the only light is from a few was in Burma two years ago. Now I get 840 businesses on the other side of the street that kyats to the dollar for my foreign exchange have their own gasoline-powered generators. certificates. Real dollars get about 920. Two I just avoid stepping into a trench that has years ago, the rate was over 400 for the been dug across the width of the sidewalk, dollar; thirty years ago it was about 25, if I raising my longyi to jump across while recall correctly. I suppose the official rate is trying to make out a foothold in the mound still around 7 – it was 6.5 for many years. of dirt on the other side. I‘m already getting That was in the days that you had to account blisters between my toes and across the top for the money you spent in the country; of my feet from the hard Burmese sandals I tourists would under-declare the amount of
Bulletin of the Burma Studies Group March - September 2002 / 23 currency they were bringing in, change a survive, operating several businesses, taking few dollars at the official rate, and then several jobs, living on remittances from change the rest on the black market. Now – abroad, living without. I suppose they will if you‘re a lone traveler at least - you simply find a way to cope with this one as well. have to change $200 for FEC at the airport, and either pay in FEC as you go (for big As I wander, dressed in Burmese clothing, purchase like hotel bills and airline tickets), down Mahabandoola Road towards the or change FEC into kyats at the going rate glittering golden spire of the Sule Pagoda, a (available almost anywhere in the center of foreigner whom I don‘t quite recognize hails the bigger cities.) Though there has been me by name. He turns out to be a former 100% inflation or more over the past couple student, now living in Canton and working of years, the price for goods in dollar terms as a fraud investigator for Procter and has remained more or less the same. So the Gamble. He has just arrived in Rangoon. I taxi ride in from the airport is still between had bumped into him once before, in two and three dollars, though the kyat price Nanjing I think it was, three or four years has risen enormously. People who don‘t ago. I suppose foreigners just tend to have access to dollars suffer. A sack of rice, congregate in similar places; but eastern in Burmese measures, is 24 pyi and a pyi is 8 Rangoon, where there is little to attract condensed milk cans; one pyi now costs 400 tourists, seems an unlikely meeting ground. kyats versus 140 last year. So a sack of rice has gone up from about 4000 kyats to To Mandalay 10,000, and since most people are on fixed There are three ways to get to Mandalay: incomes, they have to strain even more than bus, train and plane. Or you can rent a car before to make up the difference. People at and driver, but then the price is high, even in the bottom simply can‘t get enough to eat. dollar terms. The bus takes about 12 hours if the road is clear from flooding or other I ask people why the price of rice has gone obstacles. Many younger tourists take the up so suddenly, and they respond that it has night bus, hoping to sleep on the way; but something to do with the crisis with they don‘t realize that the road is as bumpy Thailand. Last month, the Thais and as a ploughed field, and that just as you start Burmese clashed on the border and the to get used to the bumps and have almost Thais closed the crossings. That might managed to fall asleep, the bus stops for half explain a rise in the price of some consumer an hour at a highway cafe with horrendous goods (from soaps to sandals). But as far as I food and even more frightening toilet know, Burma doesn‘t import much rice from facilities. It is also hard for foreigners to Thailand. Other people say that the accept the Burmese practice of driving merchants are hoarding rice waiting for the without headlights at night to save the price to go higher. People living in Burma generator from wear, and always assuming are used to crises, at least since the 80s: the that drivers will yield to size rather than oil crisis, then food shortages, then follow abstract traffic regulations. demonetization (in which, without notice, certain bills were declared invalid) in 1987, The second option, the train, is also then the suppression of demonstrations in scheduled for about 12 hours, but frequently 1988, then the squib election and the takes longer. Once, it took me the better subsequent house arrest of Aung San Suu part of three days to make the train journey Kyi, and so on. Somehow people seem to from Mandalay back to Rangoon. At that
24 / March -September 2002 Bulletin of the Burma Studies Group time, about a third of the way to Rangoon, concrete bathroom with a cistern of water the line was flooded – in fact the countryside and a plastic bucket; and for a very small to the south had turned into an inland sea. amount of money, one could rent a mat in a After sitting in the metal, uncooled carriage dormitory. I was more fortunate: the for half a day with no sign of activity, two innkeeper put me in with the rest of his young Burmese, a Chinese and myself family, and gave me a bed with a mosquito formed a little band, and decided to walk net. It was still far too hot to sleep, but I did across the fields to the highway and try manage to doze for a few hours. another route. We reached a road, and eventually, a bus appeared, belching black We were awakened at 6:00 am and resumed smoke, its roof packed, and its chassis our bus ride just as the sun was coming up. tipped at a crazy angle by the weight of By 8, we were traveling parallel to the passengers clinging to the doors. Somehow, Mandalay - Rangoon rail line again. Before heads down and bags swinging from our 9, a short and decrepit local train appeared shoulders, we squeezed into the dark in the distance and we jumped off the bus, interior, and rode with our heads bent flagged a wagon and raced ahead to the against the roof: Nga-thiqta-lo-beh! ‘Like a station just as it pulled in. The stationmaster tin of sardines!’ was hesitant about selling a ticket to me at first, but my comrades, as well as other The bus lumbered on for some hours, but at passengers shamed him into relenting. midnight, in a heavy downpour, it too was halted by floodwaters. Our fellow The train carriage was sweltering and passengers rolled up the windows, lit up gloomy. People dozed on low benches, cigarettes and settled down in near total playing cards, or lay on mats amidst shells, humidity and darkness, waiting patiently for peels and cigarette butts. We sat as close to the water to subside. For us though, once the the small window openings cut in the sides rain stopped, we got off, and walked back of the carriage as we could and dozed as the through the pitch-black night until we found train swayed slowly along the old tracks a farm hut with a primitive tractor parked towards Rangoon. After a few hours, it came outside it. Without hesitation, my comrades to a halt on a siding just beyond a small beat upon the door. A man appeared, station, apparently waiting for another train adjusting his longyi. We explained our to pass. None arrived though. Passengers predicament and, for a very reasonable fee, milled about the track or walked back to the the farmer happily agreed to drive us to a station for snacks. Midway through the nearby town on his motorcycle tractor. afternoon, as the temperature began to soar Before long, we were balanced on the even higher, we were notified that the mudguards clinging to our luggage and stationmaster had received a telephone call chugging at a brisk pace along a muddy road from a station up the line announcing the barely visible under the overcast skies. passing of the through train to Rangoon. He After half an hour or so, we came to a small requested that it stop to pick us up. And so, town, and found another bus, this one with some time later, we boarded the Mandalay spare seats. But it only covered a short to Rangoon express – the very same train distance before stopping at a nipa-thatched that we had left before – and took our inn where passengers were to spend the former seats. Some of the passengers smiled night. At the inn, the facilities consisted of when they saw us, but most were too the usual dark, mosquito and roach-infested fatigued to react.
Bulletin of the Burma Studies Group March - September 2002 / 25
The third way to get to Mandalay is rather felt this was a lost art, that the real linguistic more expensive, but much more reliable: Air virtuosi lived in the 19th century and before; Mandalay turboprops. The guest house crew they racked their brains to think of books arranged for tickets. I later learned that a and other written sources that might help Burmese friend, whom I had known eight me. (In fact, I already had books on the years earlier when he was studying in the subject – what I wanted was current US, was taking the same flight. So later in material.) But from time to time, in the the week, at the airport, among groups of course of talking about other things, or Italian, French and Israeli tourists and between helpings of food, someone would isolated English and Australian businessmen think of a saying, or a child‘s song, in and NGO workers, I looked for the familiar spoonerism-like reverse speech; or they face of Dr. M. On his return to Burma, Dr. would recall some sort of disguised speech M. had eschewed a government job and that their family used to use amongst now had his own enterprises in Burma. But themselves. --All of which I duly noted his real love was history, and that he down. pursued with a passion. Before noon, I was taken to my small hotel The new Mandalay airport is so far out of on a partially paved road in the northwest town that it seems closer to Pagan than to part of town, near the Irrawaddy. The place Mandalay. I joined Dr. M.‘s party for the was nicely looked after, with well- ride in to town. He was met by a Sino- manicured grounds and an attentive staff. Burmese man who spoke to me in From the roof, there was a good view of Yunnanese Chinese (a regional variety of Mandalay Hill, off to the northeast. Parked Mandarin), and drove a new Toyota Land on the lawn near the small swimming pool Cruiser. Cars in Burma now seem to was an Austin A60 (c. 1955) in mint appreciate in value like houses; you buy an condition. SUV for $100,000 (US!) and two years later it is worth half that again. Much of that price Mid-afternoon, I hailed a trishaw driver is for the permit to buy a car in the first resting near the entrance of the hotel, under place. So in our luxury vehicle, we were a tree, and instructed him to take me across transported over bumpy and flooded roads to town to the Mingalar Market. But I had not a factory being constructed on the outskirts gone more than a few hundred yards when I of town. After a brief business meeting, the was hailed by the passengers of a passing group – now enlarged – drove on to a Shan jeep, and lo and behold, it was the Keeler restaurant in the city. Though the Shan family, old friends who also have a long language is historically related to the Thai, interest in Burma, going to check in at the Shan food is actually more Yunnanese same hotel. Chinese than Thai, as far as I can tell. The Mingalar Market was not my When asked what I was doing in Burma, I destination, but only the closest landmark to explained – in my inconsistent Burmese a monastery that I was going to visit. When I (and occasionally, better Chinese to those got there, I noted great changes. A new altar who understood) - that I was writing a paper had appeared in the main hall. A residential on Burmese language games – pig latins and building with fine teak floors had been other forms of disguised speech, riddles, constructed on the grounds behind. And double entendres and such. At first people across the courtyard, rising tall and splendid,
26 / March -September 2002 Bulletin of the Burma Studies Group was a two-story school built in the from the monastery, the water was more of a traditional style: brightly painted, steeply problem. With only one set of clothes, and pitched overlapping roofs, and paisley with bags of equipment, I was more decorative motifs. All had been built with vulnerable to splashing from SUVs and donations from Buddhist benefactors. My heavy lorries; I was also less sure about friend, the abbot, was still in residence there what state the roads were in underneath the of course, but the other monks had moved water. After several aborted attempts to ride on, and a completely new set of young through blocks of flooding, I took all my novices from the Shan states had replaced trips by trishaw. Trishaw drivers knew the the old group whom I knew – or rather, who roads well but if they were in doubt about knew me, for I had trouble recognizing whether the small bridges over the drains at individuals among the shaved heads and the side of the road were intact, they would saffron robes. dismount and feel their way across. Despite the risks from floating snakes and sewage, I had several more ‗Chinese‘ meals with my Mandalay‘s children see flooding as a new business acquaintances. One of them chance to swim, splash around and play was in a vast restaurant with a stage for football in the mud. Things are a bit karaoke far off at one end, where tipsy grimmer when the water recedes and leaves singers sang mournful dirges through tinny behind thick black goo, garbage and dead sound equipment to a virtually empty hall. animals between the road and the entrances But my pen and notebook were always at to homes. my side, and from time to time, someone recalled an example of speech play for me to Since Ward is in Mandalay to study the jot down. nearly moribund world of traditional Burmese performance, I am offered a rare Monsoon rains come to southern Burma at glimpse of puppet theatre, dance and music. this time of year, and in August, I am used An acquaintance of ours, a great Burmese to flying in to Mingaladoun airport near harpist, died about a year ago, and we were Rangoon under threatening clouds and invited to a reception to mark the first year above utterly waterlogged countryside. after his death. It took place at his small, Upper Burma is usually much drier, and hot. traditional house not far from the monastery. But this year in Mandalay, I frequently set Floods had nearly marooned the house, but out under a broiling sun in the morning and we managed to enter from a trishaw by returned in torrential rain in the late walking across a long stretch of stepping- afternoon. Much of the eastern part of the stones. Seated in the upstairs room on mats city was underwater for hours after these were many of the master‘s musician friends, storms; paradoxically, it was not the western players and singers, eating l-p’eq (a mix of suburbs close to the Irrawaddy that flooded, pickled tea leaves and ingredients such as but the eastern parts far from the river, fried shrimp paste, roasted sesame, garlic where the ground was lower. Most residents and beans), and reminiscing about the past. simply ignored the flooding, pulling up their His wife was hostess and served a fine longyis, putting packages on their heads and traditional Burmese meal. Later, I followed marching down the middle of the street a group of performers back to the where the water was shallower. They monastery. There they sat on the floor in a ignored the wake waves of speeding trucks semicircle before the seated abbot, chatting, and busses. For me, riding a bike on loan smoking cheroots, chewing betel, and telling
Bulletin of the Burma Studies Group March - September 2002 / 27 more stories about the past. After an hour or down the dark passage to the bathroom, and so, the room grew quiet and somber as the showered and shaved quickly in the gloom. friends listened to a recording the harpist The night watchman heard my footsteps as I made during a visit to London a few years descended the stairs, jumped up from his before. bed across the divan in the lobby, and unlocked the front door so I could leave. The following day, I had a chance to join the Keelers' at the State School for the Arts in At the hotel, the Badgleys' are having coffee northeast Mandalay. Unfortunately, I chose alone in the dining room. Dr. M (back from to make my own way to the school rather Mandalay) arrives soon after, and proposes than joining them in a van, and when I got that we all move down the street a few there on a trishaw, I found the school, like blocks for a breakfast at the office of Mr. L, the monastery before, marooned in an island one of the businessmen whom I had met in of water. I tried to find high ground but Mandalay. So off we go. It is still only quickly sank into the soft red mud, shoes quarter to eight. Our new host is Wa. The and all. I gave up, took off my sandals, Wa are a people concentrated in regions hoisted my longyi up and walked directly near the Chinese border. Their language is across the flooded field. At the same time, distantly related to Mon and Cambodian. It the driver of the Keelers‘ van had decided to is written in a roman script, created – I drive through the flood to rescue me. He believe - by missionaries in the 1930s. The managed to reach me, but on the way back, script looks strange to English speakers the van too got stuck in the deep mud and I because some letters are assigned quite had to lower myself into even deeper water idiosyncratic sound values. A compact disk while the driver collected up a group of of Wa folksongs that I was given is entitled students to help push him out. Though I had Krax Moh Miex; final X represents simply a missed some of the music practice, I did ‗glottal stop‘ – an abrupt termination of the arrive in time to witness a fine composition vowel. Once you learn the values of the for Burmese violin, xylophone, and voice – letters, the script becomes quite easy to read. which if I had had my wits about me, I would have recorded! Mr. L is dressed in a dark suit and tie and seated at a broad, highly polished desk of Rangoon again dark wood – perhaps teak. We join him Back in Rangoon at the end of the week, around the desk, which is completely bare. John Badgley (political scientist, librarian, In fact, the room, and all the other rooms in restaurateur, tall, white haired) and his wife the suite, don‘t look as if they are used for Atsuko (Japanese, chef, petite, sensible), anything other than storage. In one corner of who had arrived in Burma the day before, the office is a bag of Ping golf clubs and suggested I meet them at their hotel in some plastic suit covers. Chinese tea is Rangoon‘s northern suburbs for breakfast at served to us in glasses. We ask the Mr. L 7:00 am. Badgley also knew Dr. M. and he about the lands of the Wa. too would try to join us. 7:00 for me meant getting up at 6. But at 6, the state power Until recently, the Wa, along with numerous was still out at the guesthouse, which meant other ethnic groups on the peripheries of no hot water, and because the staff were still Burma had been fighting the Burmese army. asleep, the generator had not been turned on But a few years ago, the central government and there was no light either. I felt my way managed to get most of the various
28 / March -September 2002 Bulletin of the Burma Studies Group insurgent groups to agree to a truce. What W, for a couple of hours. Twenty two years was given in return is uncertain. But the Wa ago, when I came to Burma for 3 months to seemed to have gained – or retained - work on my dissertation (on the Burmese control over gem mines in their territory, bus language), I lived with two newly graduated lines in Rangoon, as well as other doctors and their families for about a month enterprises. The official name of Mr. L‘s in a house on the west side of Mandalay. company only refers to the gem business, The area burned down in a great but it also extends to factories in Mandalay conflagration that swept through the and Lashio (in the northeast, on the way to crowded wooden hovels in the mid-80s and China), as well as various enterprises in Wa displaced a good portion of Mandalay‘s state itself. population, but our old residence survived, I‘ve been told. In the evenings as we sat Mr. L is intense and articulate. No drugs outside in the hot, humid nights trying to activities in Wa state anymore, he says keep the mosquitoes away, the doctors emphatically. People are generally would correct my hesitant Burmese. Even misinformed about the place. Every family now, reviewing my notes allows me to recall has a television. Proximity to China means a particular situation that elicited some easy availability of consumer goods. There sentence or phrase. is even a draught of a constitution. Mr. L responds mostly in Burmese, with Dr. M Though the children are all grown now, the translating; occasionally he speaks to me in doctor and his wife are little changed; and Chinese – Yunnan flavored Chinese. In Wa they too remember the phrases that I learned state, the second language after Wa itself years before: C-naw p-s’o cuq ca-hma seems to be Chinese; schools are taught in soyein-deh ‗I feared my longyi would fall Chinese and Wa. But the Wa speak down‘, to describe my worries as I Burmese fluently as well; perhaps they learn clambered on to the back of a bus in it through channels other than the education Mandalay; Z-dwe c’weh-da pyauq-teh system. ‗Saliva loses its viscosity‘ (ie, when you chew betel). Phrases that you can always We move to another room for breakfast, an insinuate into a conversation. elaborate meal consisting of Burmese, Chinese and Wa dishes, all produced in a Later I stopped off at Bogyoke Market – still little kitchen down the hall. Breakfast is the often called by its old name of Scott‘s meal that most accentuates cultural Market: hundreds of little shops selling differences. So instead of cereals and toast, clothing, shoes, basketwork, jewelry, art and you have to get used to coconut chicken handicrafts, and antiques, as well as sweets curry - with raw onions - and boiled and savories. I bought an old statue of soybeans with white rice or chappati. Less Boboji, an important spirit god in the sweet stuff. Atsuko wants to write a Burmese pantheon, for about $9. I also minority peoples‘ cookbook, so our hosts purchased some gold painted lacquer for write out a recipe for a Wa chicken dish – in gifts, and a Burmese oblong pillow woven Burmese. out of bamboo (which makes a more comfortable pillow in humid climates.) The By midday, I have returned to my quality of Burmese handicrafts has guesthouse, which is still without electricity. deteriorated over the years so that I see less I have arranged to meet an old friend, Dr. that appeals to me. There is still a brisk trade
Bulletin of the Burma Studies Group March - September 2002 / 29 in jewelry, though, as well as gold and qualities. My driver gave up the peripatetic silver, but I am not well enough informed to life some years ago and is now married with shop for such things. two daughters. When he finds out I have four, he screams with laughter and almost I need to keep a number of kyat for wanders off the road. At the airport, the miscellaneous expenses such as taxi fares, passage through Customs and Immigration so I pay partly in dollars (at the rate of 900 is uneventful. I almost miss the special per), and partly in kyats, and even get a $10 attention that the officers used to give me. bill in change so I can pay the airport tax. Two hours later, I am aboard a Thai airbus On the way home, I stop off on Pansodan over the Gulf of Martaban, sipping a glass of Road to check for books on Burmese wine, reading the Bangkok Post, and finding language games. It‘s an unlikely subject and out what has been happening in the rest of I come away with only a dictionary of the world. Burmese sayings – for about 50 cents. ______
I take a trishaw back to the guesthouse, hoping to beat the rain, but almost as soon as Reviews we start out, the skies open up in torrents. I crouch under an umbrella, trying to keep my ______feet dry in front and my back dry behind, while the driver puts on a cracked and torn Fink, Christina. Living Silence: Burma plastic mac. We weave a path along the Under Military Rule. Bangkok: White middle of Anawratha Road as I try to direct Lotus, and New York: Zed Books, 2001. my umbrella first to one side then the other 256 pages. (hb) ISBN: 1-85649-925-1; (pb) in a vain attempt to ward off splashes from 1-85649-926-X. the vehicles speeding by. Relatively few books explore the SLORC- When it‘s time to leave, the guest house SPDC era in Burma without utilizing a staff hail a broken down taxi for me and I particular discipline‘s viewpoint. This bid them farewell until next year. My driver volume, authored by an anthropologist who is a tall Burman who chews betel and served as Editor of BurmaNet News from giggles hilariously when he finds out I can mid-1995 to 1997, attempts to fill that void. talk to him (in a fashion) in Burmese. He has Ms. Fink notes that the book was supported been all over the world as a sailor – by an Open Society Institute fellowship. Liverpool, Rotterdam, Odessa, Singapore, Additionally, I believe it is no exaggeration Manila, Los Angeles. The merchant marine to state that she would prefer to experience a is one of the few ways Burmese can get out change of government in Burma. However, of the country and earn a decent wage. the book is factually accurate, even while it Burmese sailors invest their wages in Toyota is selective, making no concerted attempt to or Nissan pickup trucks before returning analyze the current military regime‘s home. In Burmese films, novels and even positions on economic and security issues. rock videos, the returned sailor, with his ‗sailor car‘ and Levi‘s jeans, can lure an Be that as it may, after a brief historical innocent village girl away from the paths of chapter and analysis of the Ne Win years, virtue until she is rescued by a good village the heart of the exposition is a discussion of boy with simpler and more enduring current military rule and its effect on
30 / March -September 2002 Bulletin of the Burma Studies Group families, communities, university life, perspective. He advances the proposition political prisoners, the military itself, and that while suffering from sickness and desire artistic and religious communities. The is unavoidable, suffering from injustice is book ends with chapters on international not. This is included in the chapter on the affairs and a six-page conclusion. These are government‘s policy on religion, which also vast subjects to cover in 256 pages. presents the thesis that, in the recent past and where possible, many younger monks The strengths of the book are threefold. have participated in attempts to change the First, interviews with and quotes from non- political system. Some of them act as governmental officials including students, advocates for the poor, sharing food artists, and monks assist in giving the contributions with them. However, in consequences of the SLORC-SPDC policies Fink‘s opinion, abbots and senior monks are a human face. While much of the more likely to support the present regime, information has appeared on BurmaNet and having been wooed with perquisites such as elsewhere, the author uses certain quotes specialized hospitals providing adequate and insights which have not, to this care, television sets, automobiles, and reviewer‘s knowledge, been reported before. honors. For example, Bo Let Ya sent word to all his former military colleagues in 1962 that they From time to time, the government has also should state as a group that the military harassed minority religions. For example, should not stay in power after the coup. He the author relates the unsuccessful attempt was promptly arrested and ultimately fled to by the Department of Religious Affairs to join one of the insurgent forces. have Christians change the name of Proverbs in the Bible because the same word Second, there are also portraits of and quotes in Burmese, thonkdan, is utilized in from cultural figures about which the West Buddhist doctrinal texts. The Ministry also knows little. These include Maung Tha Ya, tried, again unsuccessfully, to eliminate the a writer; U Sein, a film maker who has caps and gowns used at graduations from striven mightily to placate the censors while divinity colleges on the ground that that garb preserving his intellectual integrity; Mun was already standard at civil graduation Awng, a Kachin singer who inspires wooing ceremonies. young troubadours to serenade their belles with his popular songs, whom the In some instances the author provides too government censors have also reined in; generalized a view. For example, she states and, finally, Sitt Nyein Aye, a modern artist that the SLORC had four objectives on who ultimately encountered such difficulties assuming power in 1988: to increase the size with censorship and the advanced schooling of the military, to break up the curriculum that he now specializes in organizational structure of the pro- commercial art. Happily, Sitt Nyein Aye democracy movement, to neutralize the used some of the substantial profits he made minorities, and to improve the economy. to help his village economically. However, she does not state the obvious conclusion: that SLORC has attained the The author also informs us about U first three objectives at a terrible cost, Nandiye, a middle-aged Mandalay monk including declines in health and education. who has put the sangha‘s participation in However, a chapter on the armed forces politics into philosophical and historical supplies new material. In the author‘s
Bulletin of the Burma Studies Group March - September 2002 / 31 opinion,after 1970, the military concentrated throughout Myanmar and, in some places, on earning outside money as its standard of smaller minority groups live within areas in living declined. For example, members of which an ethnic minority is a majority. the armed forces started appropriating their These numerically lesser groups also seek at own supplies and rations and selling them least local autonomy. Overlying this almost on the black market. Morale declined as intractable problem are age-old tensions non-officers were rarely given leave and between, on the one hand, the Burmese were subject to abuse. Today, those in ranks reliance on rigid thinking, a hierarchical below captain are dissatisfied, middle-rank power structure, and a culture of mistrust officers express no opinion concerning weighed against, on the other, Buddhist governmental reform, and generals are fully concepts of broad-mindedness, a detached committed to the status quo, since they fear attitude, the search each person must make retribution for their activities should a non- towards his own enlightenment, and a military government emerge. Members of general tolerance, in the doctrine, for other Military Intelligence are depicted as faiths. Finally, the author opines that those ideologues who believe without question in Burmese who have escaped to the West or the present system. Andrew Seth concurs in even, to some degree, those who have fled to a recent article that a democratic Thailand, have absorbed democratic government would want to improve the lot principles which may have altered their of privates, corporals, and sergeants, reduce initial thinking concerning strict obedience the size of the armed forces and defense to authority. expenditure, and change the focus of the intelligence corps1. One criticism I have seen of the work is justified. The author cites few Burmese or The third strength of the book is its short minority language sources. I suspect that concluding chapter which briefly analyzes knowledge of this material could provide a structural possibilities for balancing the more thorough analysis of these recent concerns of the ethnic minorities with those events. Nevertheless, I am gratified to see of the Burman majority. In this chapter the this analysis and hope that academic author questions whether it makes any real political commentators as well as sense to continue with seven states and governmental thinkers familiar with seven administrative divisions. She explores Myanmar will give serious and sustained briefly the idea of one Burman state with consideration to how its political and rights equal to the seven other ethnic economic system can evolve into one more minority areas but then properly concludes responsive to the desires of the general that it is difficult to apportion power among populace. I have seen virtually nothing of just seven ethnic minorities. Moreover, the this in print and have heard precious little search for a feasible solution is complicated detailed oral discussion on this matter2. because some ethnic minorities reside Paul Sarno, New York
1Seth, Andrew. “The future of the Burmese 2Exceptions are David I. Steinberg, “The Armed Forces.” In, Burma Myanmar: Burmese Conundrum: Approaching Strong Regime, Weak State?, M. Pedersen, Reformation of the Political Economy,” in E. Rudland and R. May, eds. Pp.80-82. Burma Political Economy Under Military Adelaide: Crawford House Publishing Pty Rule, Robert H. Taylor, ed. London: Hurst Ltd, 2000. & Company, 2001, in which Steinberg
32 / March -September 2002 Bulletin of the Burma Studies Group The Map of Yangon, Myanmar, 3rd Edition. ______Yangon City Development Committee. Distributed by Design Printing Services, 165 35th Street Kyauktada Tsp. Yangon, Dissertation Abstract Myanmar. E-mail: [email protected] ______The Map of Yangon includes a full-color 20" x 30" bi-lingual map of the city and Douglas, Gavin. State Patronage of immediate suburbs in addition to an Burmese Traditional Music. Ph.D. accompanying 320-page book. The volume dissertation. Dept. of Ethnomusicology, includes a 128-page index to streets and University of Washington 2001. places and 180 sectional maps ranging in scale from 1:5,000 to 1:80,000. Everything In the past decade the ruling junta of the is bi-lingual (Burmese and English). The Union of Myanmar has begun several large- sectional maps are also full-color and clearly scale projects aimed at preserving cultural identify the location of pagodas, markets, heritage and forging national unity. These museums, individual factories, parks, police include: the founding of the University of stations, restaurants, and other important Culture (offering degrees in music, theatre, sites. Names are current as of November and sculpture); the genesis of an annual 2000. performing arts competition; and the
implementation of a standardization project Dr. Robert E. Huke designed to unify and notate a five hundred Professor Emeritus, Geography year old musical tradition, previously Dartmouth College transmitted only orally. Each project enjoys
ample government funding and receives significant attention in the state press at a time when Burma (Myanmar) is suffering great economic hardship.
Douglas's dissertation examines these cultural projects in light of the present régime's quest for legitimacy. Douglas suggests a feasible transition might provide shows that state patronage is used to further a substantive role for the NLD in the certain national and international political National Convention in exchange for Aung ends and only partially for support of San Suu Kyi’s agreement not to seek Burma's cultural heritage and its political office for five years, and Martin B. practitioners. Multiple and contradictory Pedersen, “International Policy Burma: perspectives on professional musicians, Coercion, Persuasion or Cooperation? some of whom benefit from the above Assessing the Claims,” in Burma Myanmar: projects and some of whom are marginalized Strong Regime, Weak State? , M. Pedersen, by them, reveal a patronage system that is E. Rudland and R. May, eds. Adelaide: radically changing the traditional music of Crawford House, 2000, in which he the country. recommends using inducements for change, followed by dialogue and a measured end to ______economic sanctions.
Bulletin of the Burma Studies Group March - September 2002 / 33