Sunday, January 13, 2013
Burma and the Karens/ Author: Dr. San C. Po C.B.E. (1870-1946) (အပို္င္း(၂)
CHAPTER VIII - KAREN WOMANHOOD
"Her office there to rear, to teach, Becoming as is meet and fit A link among the days, to knit The generations each with each." TennysonIt has truly been said "The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world." A country or nation which disregards its womanhood could never be counted truly great; whereas a nation that respects its womanhood has invariably proved itself superior to other nations. It is said that at the height of the glory of Rome, the class of people that wielded great power were the Greek women who had the care of Roman homes as well as that of the children, in their education and up-bringing. The Greek women so, unostentatiously did their work that the public at large were not aware of it. Karen women, with their simple ways, their gentle and modest manner, have won the respect and admiration not only of their own people but also of the people of other nationalities who have known and observed them.
Co-education has been a great success among the Karens. It has been proved to be such for the past fifty years or more. At a meeting of a well-educated and talented group of Burmans, a Burmese lady made the following remark: "I have attended a Christian Karen co-educational school as well as a Burmese Girls' school, and my candid opinion is that co-education among the Karens will always be a success, while among the Burmese it always is bound to be a failure. There is something in the nature of the Burmese boys and girls that will never be compatible with co-education. I am Burmese and am fully aware of what I have said."
KAREN STUDENTS AT JUDSON COLLEGEBurma and the Karens/ Author: Dr. San C. Po C.B.E. (1870-1946) အပိုင္း(၁)
Title: Burma and the Karens Author: Dr. San C. Po C.B.E. (1870-1946) * A Project Gutenberg of Australia eBook * eBook No.: 0800051h.html Language: English Date first posted: January 2008 Date most recently updated: July 2009 Project Gutenberg of Australia eBooks are created from printed editions which are in the public domain in Australia, unless a copyright notice is included. We do NOT keep any eBooks in compliance with a particular paper edition. Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing this file. This eBook is made available at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg of Australia License which may be viewed online at http://gutenberg.net.au/licence.html
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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 HALLBURMA 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.
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