Title: Burma and the Karens
Author: Dr. San C. Po C.B.E. (1870-1946)
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Burma and the Karens
by
Dr. San C. Po C.B.E.
Dr. SAN C. PO, C.B.E.
1st and only Karen member Legislative Council before
Reforms Scheme
LONDON: ELLIOT STOCK
7 PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C.
1928
PREFACE
The object of this book is to present and to explain to the reading
public, and to those who are in authority, the condition of the Karens,
the position they occupy, and their aspirations as a nation second in
importance of the indigenous races of the province of Burma. It is their
desire to have a country of their own, where they may progress as a race
and find the contentment they seek. It is this contentment which gives a
man or a nation that satisfaction and good-will and creates that
patriotic feeling so essential to the well-being of the nation.
Self-respect in a nation begets respect from other nations and races.
What a grand thing the achievement of their ambition will be for the
Karens, and what praises and blessing will be showered upon those who
shall have made it possible. The Karens will then be in a position to
show sincere respect to other races, especially to the Burmese, with whom
they have been at variance, and in turn the Burmese will find them worthy
of respect and esteem.
The thirty years of my life which I have devoted to serving my own
people, in the course of which I have had the opportunity of exchanging
ideas with those officials and non-officials who represent the opinion of
other races, have furnished me with varied experience, and I am
emboldened to write this book in the hope that it will stimulate in the
reader an interest in the Karens as a race--as a nation which will have
to be reckoned with in the struggle for self-determination or for what
the present Reforms Scheme may have in store for the province. It has
been truly said: "To remove misunderstandings is the real road to abiding
peace among men." Some of the statements or comments in this book may
displease a few individuals for there is truth in the Burmese saying:
(too straight a truth
is hard to bear). Should any of my intimate and highly esteemed Burmese
friends with whom I have associated and co-operated for many years chance
to read this book, I wish them to understand that it is not the
expression of my own personal relations with them, but that it represents
the feelings of the Karens as a race towards the Burmese in general.
I beg to acknowledge my indebtedness to Major Enriquez, from whose
most interesting work
A Burmese Wonderland I have quoted freely,
and to the copyright-holders of Mr. Donald Smeaton's
Loyal Karens of
Burma from which fairly extensive extracts will be found in the
following pages, and lastly to Sir Frederick Whyte from whose able
discourse in his little book
India, a Federation? quotations have
been made. I also wish to express my thanks to those who have made
contributions to Chapter VI.
CONTENTS:
PREFACE
I. A GLIMPSE INTO THE PAST
II. RECENT EVENTS: THE WHYTE COMMITTEE AND COMMUNAL REPRESENTATION
III. SIGNS OF BURMO-KAREN CO-OPERATION
IV. IMPOSSIBILITY OF COMPLETE CO-OPERATION UNDER EXISTING CONDITIONS
V. THE KAREN CHARACTER
VI. AS OTHERS SEE THEM
VII. KAREN CELEBRITIES
VIII. KAREN WOMANHOOD
IX. GENERAL PROGRESS
X. KARENS AND HOME RULE FOR BURMA
XI. THE REFORMS SCHEME AND THE KARENS
XII. A NATION'S DESIRE
APPENDIX
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
DR. SAN C. PO, C. B. E.
KAREN VILLAGE HUT
BELLEVUE HALL
DR. T. THANBYAH
THRA SHWÉ MÈ
THRA KÉ AND THRA TUKÈ
THE WHYTE COMMITTEE
THE DELEGATES TO INDIA
LORD AND LADY READING
SIR REGINALD CRADDOCK and SIR HARCOURT BUTLER
GROUP OF KAREN SOLDIERS
RED KAREN GIRLS
CHOIR AND BAND OF SGAW KAREN HIGH SCHOOL OF BASSEIN, DRESSED IN KAREN COSTUME
MR. SMEATON and MR. WALLACE
DR. SUMNER VINTON AND PO PIKE SAN
SAW DURMAY AND HIS WHITE ELEPHANT
KAREN STUDENTS AT JUDSON COLLEGE
GROUP OF KAREN LADIES
REV. DR. VINTON and THE VINTON MEMORIAL HALL
DR. C. A. NICHOLS
THAPG'H THA MYAT KYI
DR. CRONKHITE
SRA SAN TÉ-T.P.S
THE NEW KO THA BYU HALL
THE PIPE ORGAN AT THE NEW KO THA BYU HALL
U LOO-NEE AND MRS. LOO-NEE
FIRST KAREN M.L.Cs
NO. I. EVENING DRESS
NO. II. ORDINARY COSTUME
NO. III. READY FOR ROUGHING IT
NO. IV. PHOTO OF KAREN COSTUME AS IT IS NOW WORN ON THE BORDERS OF BURMA AND SIAM
KAREN VILLAGE HUT
BELLEVUE HALL
BURMA AND THE KARENS
CHAPTER I - A GLIMPSE INTO THE PAST
"They stood aloof, the scars remaining,
Like cliffs which had been rent asunder;
A dreary sea now flows between.
But neither heat nor frost nor thunder,
Shall wholly do away I ween,
The marks of that which once hath been."
Coleridge
To gauge the present-day attitude and social status of a nation a
knowledge of past history is essential. The Past not only makes the
Present more easily comprehensible, but it also enables one to conjecture
what the future may hold in store. Just as the physician takes into
consideration the family history and previous illnesses of the patient in
forming his diagnosis, so must the student of history have some knowledge
of past events to guide his opinion.
Whether the Karens originally migrated from Southern China, a
contention which is supported by the traditions and physiological
appearance of the people, or were the earliest inhabitants of Burma, only
to be conquered by more powerful invaders, is not an important point,
since the writer is concerned only with the Karens as they are found in
Burma to-day. The position of the Karens before the advent of the British
was that of a subject race in true Oriental fashion. They were treated as
slaves, hence, they made their homes on the mountain-side or on tracts of
land far away from the towns and larger villages occupied by the Burmans.
High stockades surrounded those Karen villages, and sure death was the
fate of all intruders.
Many stories have been told of Burmese cruelty to the Karens, and of
Karen retaliation, in which the latter figured more as sinners than
saints. Love of independence is inherent in all hill tribes, and the
Karens are no exception. It figures prominently in their war-songs and in
the national poems handed down from generation to generation, and a Karen
will forgo many things for the privilege of having his own way or being
left alone. The Karen God-tradition, so firmly believed in and strongly
adhered to, was: "Our younger white brother to whom God temporarily
entrusted the Book of Silver and the Book of Gold is coming back to
return them to the elder Karen brother." So, when news was received that
the white brother had arrived in Burma, there was no little stir in
Karendom. Adoniram Judson gained the first Karen convert to Christianity
in Ko Tha Byu (1828) who lost no time in spreading the gospel among his
people, declaring that the long-lost "Book of God" had been brought back
by the white brother, and that the Karen God-tradition was fulfilled.
Consequently, a number of young men from different parts of the country
went over to Arakan, and later to Moulmein, to find the Missionaries who
had brought the gospel of Christ and to learn more about the truth, which
it was their intention to preach among their own people. Thra Myat Kai of
Kozu, the maternal grandfather of the writer, was one of them. The lot of
the Karens under Burmese rule had been hard enough, but when the Burmans,
made anxious by the rumours of war to be declared between Burma and Great
Britain, heard that the Karens were taking up the Christian religion,
they proceeded to make life unbearable for the new converts to
Christianity. Persecution, religious and political, began in earnest.
Karens were caught and thrown into prison, suffering untold agonies, and
a few were crucified. One man, by the name of Klaw Meh was nailed to a
cross, the abdomen ripped open with intestines hanging down, which the
crows were picking while the poor man writhed in agony in an impossible
attempt to drive away the crows. His voice gradually grew weaker until at
last he died a martyr on the cross like his Master, Jesus Christ, whom he
had lately embraced. The Rev. Dr. T. Thanbyah, M. A., D.D., who died only
six years ago, was a witness of the scene, and whenever he had occasion
to make the railway journey between Rangoon and Bassein, as the train
neared Yegyi Station, he would look out of the carriage window and cry
like a child. For, it was near the railway station that Thra Klaw Meh was
crucified.
KAREN STUDENTS AT JUDSON COLLEGE
