Burma's amazing ethnic Karen people

Wisdom Quarterly; Harry Ignatius Marshall, "The Karen People of Burma: A Study in Anthropology and Ethnology" (a Project Gutenberg of Australia eBook, No.: 0800061h.html)

From Scandinavia to Southeast Asia with love: working with the Karen on the Burma-Thailand border. "I am very fortunate to work with these fantastic people!" (Line Ramstad)

 

Page: Meet Burma's dictator.

We are American Buddhists. We love Burma and ALL the people of Burma, a fraction of which is not Buddhist. Some of the loveliest are the Karen. We are American Buddhists. We do not stand idly by while Dictator Than Shwe and his military regime run the country into the ground then sell it out to the highest bidder (which used to be a Chinese relative of Gen. Shwe but is now US Sec'y of State Hillary Clinton). Burma's monastic-led Saffron Revolution was against this criminal military regime. Revolutions, however, started long before and continue to be waged by ethnic minority rebels fighting for their lives and separate identities, like the desperate Rohingya.
 

The gorgeous, animist Karen (phototravelasia)

MOUNTAINS OF BURMA - To many a visitor to Burma, who views the country from the deck of an Irrawaddy River streamer or from the window of a railway carriage, there appears to be little difference between [Sino-Tibetan speaking ethnic Burmese tribes] THE KAREN and the Burman.

This is not strange, for many individuals of the non-Burman tribes wear the Burmese costume and speak the Burmese language, and they present no markedly different characteristics in feature or color of skin.

I have often heard the remark that "there is no difference between the Burman and the Karen." It is doubtless because the Government of Burma recognizes that there is a difference in the tribal characteristics, customs, and religion that it has adopted the wise policy of publishing a series of complete studies, of which this purports to be one, of these various peoples.

Karen in the mountain jungle (karen.org.au)

If the reader will have the patience to read these pages, it is hoped that he will realize that, though the Karen have lived for generations in the closest proximity to the Burmese, they preserve their own racial traits, which are quite distinct from those of their more volatile neighbors with whom they have had little in common.
 

This work deals more particularly with the Sgaw branch of the Karen people. My own experience has been more intimate with this tribe, though I have known many of the other groups. This circumstance, together with the fact that the Bwe and Taungthu peoples have already been described in the Upper Burma Gazetteer...

[SEX] THE GUEST-CHAMBER AND CLUB-ROOM

Rebels in Burma (moreintelligentlife.com)

In the earlier days among the Karen of the hills the "blaw" was an important feature of village life....It is the guest and club-room reserved in the central part of the village-house. Strangers coming in for a visit or passing by on their journey are entertained here. Such a convenience was quite necessary in the days when the taboo of the "Bgha" feast was strictly observed and no outsider was allowed to enter the family-rooms.

My party and I have been entertained in the "blaw" of villages in the Pegu Hills on the Tharrawaddy side, while on tour.

Gautama Buddha (N.A./flickr.com)

In one village, which had adopted some Buddhist practices, along one side of the guest-room extended a high shelf upon which stood a small image of Gautama Buddha, with the usual offerings of paper flage and wilted leaves and flowers.

At the back of the room was the raised dais on which I spread my bed, but I was prevented from enjoying a good night's rest by the number of other occupants. My cook prepared my meals at the little fireplace in the middle of the room. The villagers sat about and visited with us. When meal-time came the women and girls brought in their generous supplies of food, consisting of two large trays piled high with snow-white steaming rice, besides smaller trays and bowls filled with several kinds of curry, "ngape" water, and vegetables.

The visitors were expected to eat something from every dish. While the meal was in progress the hosts withdrew, except one or two elders, the women returning afterwards to clear away the dishes and uneaten food with the polite remark that their guests had eaten very little. Many shared in receiving us, and we were spared the embarrassment, not to say the danger according to our belief, of violating the taboo that prevented our being entertained at the time by family in their own quarters.

Burmese migrant worker rallies in Thailand holding up a sign that reads: "Mother Aung San Suu Kyi, Be Happy," May 31, 2012 (Wason Wanichakorn/AP/In Focus/TheAtlantic.com)

 
Besides serving as a guest-chamber, the "blaw" has another important use, namely, as the gathering-place for the young men of the village. When a boy becomes a youth ("hpo tha hkwa taw"), he is expected to spend his leisure time in his parents' room, working and eating with them, as seems to be the custom. When evening comes, he repairs to the "blaw" to be with his fellows and to sleep there.

This is a custom that is common among the Kachins of Burma and many other tribes of the Orient. Among the Kachins the "blaw" is a place of license.
  
The Brecs also allow a great deal of liberty to their young people, and evidently advantage of it is taken by them. But among the Sgaw Karens, at any rate, the girls remain with their mothers. There is no common room for the girls, or any place where both youths and maidens may meet for restrained intercourse.
 

No doubt among the Karen the use of the "blaw" as a club-room is for the purpose of keeping the young men together and separating them from the young women, thus preventing offense of the "by na," which would bring a curse upon the soil and damage to the crops.

(Gereb/flickriver.com)

It has never been possible for parents to prevent all social intercourse between young people of the opposite sexes. In fact, it has hardly ever been attempted.

As is shown elsewhere in this volume, there are occasions among the Karen when the sexes mingle, for example on fishing expeditions and at marriages, funerals, etc. If, however, a youth desires to visit a maiden, etiquette prescribes the way: he must take his harp ("t' na"), appear before her house, and serenade her. Sitting down, he sings to the accompaniment of his instrument.

If she replies to his request to be permitted to visit with her, she does so on the jew's-harp ("t' xe"), answering him in verse. He then mounts the ladder and they visit together, either singing over "htas" already familiar to them or, if skilled in improvising, putting their own thoughts into rhyme. If too long an interval should elapse without the sound of either instrument, the elders would very likely put in an appearance to find out the reason.

Love runs in two directions (Line Ramstad)

The precept on indolence is full of moralizing. It condemns laziness and enjoins hard work in order to obtain paddy [raw rice]. It teaches the people to do their work with cheerfulness and gladness, as also thoroughly and well. "We love happiness," says the precept, "and our greatest happiness is to clear our fields and build our houses.
 
Everything is in the earth. Work hard with the hoe to dig it out, and one can buy drums and silver and other things. It is better to work for wealth than to obtain it by raids and forays." This saying overlooks neither the spiritual nor material reward of labor.

The precept on helping the poor, as well as those on fornication and adultery, contain references to famine, indicating that periods of extreme dearth of food must have been of frequent occurrence among the Karen. Fornication and adultery are dreadful sins because, among other reasons, they produce bad crops and scarcity of game. In times of famine the rich should help the poor...

Karen flee gunfire, mortars (DailyMail.co.uk)

The presence of certain birth-marks on the children of Mongolian parents has been thought by some scientists to be an important criterion for distinguishing members of that race.[3-3] The Karen infants certainly have these blue patches on the back and buttocks. Sometimes they are so indistinct as to be hardly noticeable... The Karen explanation for them is that they are the stains of leaves, on which the spirits of the children sat or laid down to rest in the course of their long and wearisome journey from their former abode.
    
These marks are thought to show that the children having them will be strong, and mothers are glad to see them on their offspring. Perhaps they reason that if the baby spirit was able to stand the long journey necessary to come to the birth, it will endure the longer journey of this human existence.

I have noticed a few cases of homosexuals among the Karen, though they do not seem to be as common as among the Burmese. These individuals, who assume more or less the dress and customs of the [other] sexes, have been known to contract unions with the same sex to live as husband and wife. The cases I found have all been on the plains. More
  

 

Felicity Huffman gives voice to the "Burma: It Can't Wait" campaign

• PHOTO GALLERY: Changing Face of Burma
• Karen people website (karen.org) 
• Burmese escape fighting on Thai border 
• Buddhist temples burned (Burma/Bangladesh) 
• Karen refugees fleeing to Thailand
• Meet Burma's Opposition
• Burma: It Can't Wait (petition)

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The trouble with Burma (audio)

TheWorld.org, PRI, Public Radio Int'l (audio); Wisdom Quarterly

Dictator Gen. Than Shwe crushed Buddhist "troublemakers" with backing from China until US Sec'y of State Hillary Clinton started coming by and acting like the highest bidder.

 

The monks rose up for the Saffron Revolution

RANGOON, Burma - Myanmar is emerging from decades of repression and international isolation. The one-time military government has enacted democratic reforms, and the U.S. and others have responded by suspending sanctions. 

Now the country also known as Burma is viewed as a promising frontier economy. But there’s a downside. A rush of foreign investment could imperil Yangon’s collection of colonial-era buildings, an emblem of a time when the city was a cosmopolitan hub in the English empire.

 

The generals who ruled [and renamed Burma] Myanmar since the 1960s isolated the country and drove its economy into the ground. Being stuck in time has been a curse for Myanmar’s people, among the poorest in Asia. But it’s also had the unforeseen effect of preserving hundreds of ornate buildings from the 19th and early 20th century. More

Burma's Pagan or Bagan, an ancient city of thousands of pagodas and shrines (Wiki commons)

   

What was the "Saffron Revolution"?

Seven, Wisdom Quarterly

Burma's Saffron Revolution (Amnesty Seattle)

An explosive situation in Burma was fueled in 2007 by crushing price hikes for basics opposed by 35,000 Buddhist monks and their supporters, who defied the military dictatorship. Rising prices for essentials set off protests. A junta of generals warned peaceful demonstrators as they staged days of anti-government protests. Military leaders reacted by imposing a nighttime curfew and banned gatherings of more than five people. The country's hard-line military rulers soon resorted to extreme force to stop the biggest anti-government demonstrations Burma had seen in nearly two decades, led by the country's Theravada Buddhist monks. Soldiers in full battle gear were deployed throughout the country's largest city, Rangoon, setting the stage for a showdown with a determined pro-democracy movement previously led by "The Lady," Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who rather than being allowed allowed to rule was deposed in a military coup immediately after democratic election and kept under house arrest for years.

• Burma's Lady wastes no time after being freed
• Burmese hold many expectations for Suu Kyi 
• Taung Byone Fest celebrated by Burma’s LGBT
• Burma to excavate World War II fighter planes
• Burma won't allow Muslims to open OIC office
• Myanmar's ruling party re-elects president as chief
• What a 2nd term might mean for Obama’s Asia policy
• FIRST HAND: An American Traveling in Burma
• SoCal Burmese welcome democracy leader Suu Kyi to LA

Burma’s "Frontier" Investor

Burma is going through some rapid transitions. In just the last year, the country’s military dictators have freed Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest and allowed [rigged] elections [that keep them in control] to be held. Now the country is opening up to foreign business as well. [Enter Hillary Clinton and other suitors.]

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They Call It Myanmar: Lifting the Curtain (film)

Wisdom Quarterly; Photosynthesis Prod; NewYorkerFilms; VOA

  

The Saffron Revolution 2007-2012 (R.A.)

This is the story of the most Buddhist country in the world (with 89% of the population as adherents), Burma. 

  

The military coup that took place a half century ago led to the creation of an Orwellian nightmare -- a police state ruled by General Than Shwe and an elite junta of criminal military men, who changed the name of the country to "Myanmar" as they embezzled its wealth, enslaved its people, and aligned with corrupt totalitarian China over corrupt democratic India. 

  

FREE BURMA from police state oppression: Saffron Revolution (gawker.com)

Orwell, who was a colonial British subject born in Burma, wrote 1984 in 1948 with Burma and England in mind.

Told with stunning footage that was shot clandestinely over a two-year period by filmmaker Robert H. Lieberman, the film provides an astonishing and intimate look inside at what has become one of the most isolated countries on the planet. Lieberman lifts the curtain on the everyday life of the people in what was once the Golden Land now held hostage by a brutal and superstitious military regime for 48 years.

Aung San Suu Kyi freedom mural (AFP)

A revealing interview with Nobel Peace Prize winner Lady Aung San Suu Kyi conducted just after her most recent release from house arrest is interwoven with extensive interviews and interactions with Burmese people from all around this incredibly diverse Southeast Asian nation.

  

Burma is the home of the modern emphasis on insight meditation (vipassana) in Buddhist practice thanks to its extraordinary monastic system that has produced such luminaries and scholars as Mahasi Sayadaw and the accomplished Pa Auk Sayadaw.

(Kaye Lin) Burma is going through a transition, reform Associate Producer Harold Dinkins says makes this film more relevant than ever before because the film portrays many sociological aspects in the country from health and education issues to the problem of child labor. It is now screening in select theaters across America.

  

The film, culled from over 120 hours of striking images, is an impressionistic journey that leads viewers across the vastness of Burma. It traces the history of Burma from its beginnings in the ancient city of Pagan (Bagan), through colonial times, the rule of Daw Suu Kyi's father, Aung San, recent uprisings by Theravada Buddhist monks called the Saffron Revolution after the color of their robes, the devastating Cyclone Nargis that killed 150,000 people, up to the present day.

Buddhist monk faces off with police (dvb.no)

During Lieberman's time in Burma he shot video constantly, even though it was forbidden and a risky thing to do in a totalitarian state, which could have led to him being thrown irretrievably into Insein Prison. Now this rare footage forms an unexpected and deeply expressive portrait of a place the world now calls "Myanmar."

Actor Ellen Page explains who dictator Than Shwe  is to Burma

• John Kabat-Zinn's Science of Mindfulness
• AUDIO: Late night Buddhist radio on KPFK
• VIDEO: Gangnam Style LIVE for 80,000

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Buddhist Suu Kyi accepts Nobel Prize

Text: NPR.org, June 16, 2012; USCampaignforBurma.org; Wisdom Quarterly

Worldwide protests, such as this one in Japan, were needed to gain Daw Suu's liberty (AFP)

   

Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, the pro-democracy opposition leader of Burma (Myanmar), spoke in Norway today, formally accepting the peace prize she was awarded in 1991 while under house arrest by the authoritarian forces that led a coup and have held Burma hostage ever since. Her supporters portrayed the moment as a belated victory for democracy and human rights.

   

Introducing Suu Kyi, Norwegian Nobel Committee Chairman Thorbjorn Jagland hailed her as a champion of mankind, whose words give hope to the world. He added that his committee was right to award her the prize, and that thanks to people like her, democratic states will always prevail over autocratic ones.

  

"The democracies of the world should not despair today when they see authoritarian regimes outpacing their economic growth," Jagland said. "This is temporary [and] the regimes will be broken apart by inner contradictions if they do not reform themselves."

   

When Suu Kyi was awarded the prize in 1991, she was still under house arrest. So her [British] husband Michael Aris and two sons, Kim and Alexander, accepted the prize for her. More

  

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Remember Burma. One Year Anniversary of Brutal Crackdown.

Tomorrow is the anniversary of the brutal and fatal crack-downs on the peaceful demonstrations of the Burmese monks in what was called the, "Saffron Revolution." I am posting this message to let the Burmese people who are living all over the world know that I have not forgotten their struggles, suffering and hopes. I still stand firm and tall for your right to live in a peaceful, vibrant and healthy society.

I call on all Buddhists and non-Buddhists to remember the sacrifices of Aung San Suu Kyi, the monks and the laity when you meditate tonight and/or tomorrow. I also think it would be really positive and a powerful symbol of unity to light a candle tomorrow for the struggle for peace and democracy in Burma. As well as to remember those who lost their lives. I personally will try and keep a candle lit for most of the day. For as Buddha said, "Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared."-BuddhaAlso, please take a minute to sign a petition to be sent to the U.N. Secretary General to urge him to call for the release of all political prisoners and to support a global arms embargo toward the Burmese military junta "government." Also, here's a video (part one) from one of the leaders of the peaceful protests U Gawsita on why the monks started the protests:

~Peace to all beings~

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