The Karen-Burman riots of WWII (2)

This post continues with the translation of chapter 5 of the text ပြည်တွင်းသောင်းကျန်းမှုသမိုင်း (အပိုင်း-၁) (The History of Revolt within the Country - Volume 1), published by the Myanmar Ministry of Information in 1990. The chapter runs 8 pages from page 21 to page 28. The translation below covers the second page (page 22) of the chapter. The complete chapter is available in PDF form here.

The Karen-Burman riots of WWII (1)

In a previous post, I translated the final three pages (26, 27 and 28) of chapter 5 of the text ပြည်တွင်းသောင်းကျန်းမှုသမိုင်း (အပိုင်း-၁) (The History of Revolt within the Country - Volume 1), published by the Myanmar Ministry of Information in 1990. The chapter runs 8 pages from page 21 to page 28. The translation below covers the first page (page 21) of the chapter. The complete chapter is available in PDF form here.

Buddhist education in colonial Burma

This post contains an article from the 28 February 1903 edition of The Hanthawaddy Weekly Review discussing Buddhist education in Mandalay. This edition of the newspaper is available in its entirety in PDF form on the Myanmar E-Library in the newspaper section. The translation below covers the text from the red line near the bottom of the the first (left hand) column to the red line near the bottom of the last (right hand) column.

The Karen in Myanmar historiography (4)

This translation continues on from the previous post relating the involvement of the Gwe Karen in the 1740-1757 Bago-Ava (Inwa) war. The text covers p. 134-135 of the 1929 text ကရင်ရာဇာဝင် (Karen History) and ends at the text break before the subheading on p.135. This is the fourth and final post translating this section of the book.

The Karen in Myanmar historiography (3)

This translation continues on from the previous post relating the involvement of the Gwe Karen in the 1740-1757 Bago-Ava (Inwa) war.

The Karen in Myanmar historiography (2)

This translation continues on from the previous post relating the involvement of the Gwe Karen in the 1740-1757 Bago-Ava (Inwa) war.

The Karen in Myanmar historiography (1)

In an article entitled "A Reinvestigation of the Gwe of 18th Century Burma," published in 1970, Nigel Braily puts forward the case, drawing on Siamese language sources, that the members of the "Gwe" ethnic group who fought alongside the predominantly Mon soldiers of Bago in the 1740-1757 Bago-Inwa [Ava] war were a part of the Karen language family. Braily identifies them with the "Taungthu" (who are themselves typically identified with the Pa-O) Karen of southern Shan State. However, in a later publication (Ethnic Adaptation and Identity: The Karen on the Thai frontier with Burma, 1979), Charles Keyes and F.K. Lehman gave dissenting views. Keyes (“The Karen in Thai History and the History of the Karen in Thailand”, p. 33 n17 and n21) suggested that the Gwe were a Mon-Khmer group, while Lehman (“Who Are the Karen and If So Why?”, p. 223 n2.) said that they were a Lahu group.

Contra Keyes and Lehman, the historian U Pinnya, in a Myanmar-language history of the Karen first published in 1929, clearly identifies the Gwe as a Karen group. The first two pages (p.128-129) of the relevant section of the text (simply titled ကရင်ရာဇာဝင် (Karen History)) is presented and translated below (the remaining pages will be subsequently posted). The version of the text that I have is the second edition printed in 1965.  The translation begins from the subheading on the left hand page.