Lucas Stewart's Blog, page 8

# 10 – Myanmar Publishers and Booksellers Association

The official organisation for publishers and booksellers in Myanmar, the MPBA grew out of the dissolution of the old, Ministry of Information controlled Myanmar Writer’s and Journalists Association in July 2012.  Its formation was encouraged by the Thein Sein administration, but they – credibly – claim no association or affiliation with the then or current government.  Within a year they had gained 300 members, and possibly upwards of 60 to 70% of all the publishers in the country.  Originall...

Kyaw Mya Than – Crime to Fiction

Kyaw Mya Than (1930 – 2000) was a novelist and non-fiction writer of the ‘realist’ tradition.  In the 1950’s parliamentary era he wrote political articles under the pen name Ye Baw Than before joining the staff of ‘Crime Magazine’ in 1956, a popular journal at the time.  He here found the theme that would become a constant in all his writing.  He contributed articles to the magazine on the true confessions of criminals and their experiences in prison.  In 1957 he published his first short sto...

Thuklai Village

Travel in Chin State and you are most likely heading towards the major towns, Falam and Hakha in the north, Mindat in the south (and if you are fortunate, Matupi in the centre).  But these are mostly imperial constructions, enlarged by Christian missions and colonial trade with the valleys in Burma Proper below.  The original clusters of the first chin communities are often found beyond the road.

Villages like Thuklai.

Take the road to Teddim to the north and the Indian border with Chin State...

Sadaik Shorts: Interesting Places of the Past

A slim tour of famous buildings and sites in Yangon.  While there is a loose theme tying the book together – one of buildings and their purpose – the string is slack and fails to pull the seemingly arbitrary architectural samples in a coherent manner.  None of this really matters though, as the strength of the book is in the curious details that you never really discover in works on Myanmar by those writing from the outside.  Where else could you learn about the American in 1962 who somehow f...

Exploring Burma’s Bookshops: Ko Harry’s

Ko Harry’s, named after the taciturn owner, is a new edition to 37th street.  After running a pallet stall on Pansodan for 10 years, and supported by friends in the book community Ko Harry opened his eponymous shop in late 2018.  Still finding his feet, Ko Harry gets around 10 to 15 customers a day.  With around 7500 books in stock, (this is an estimate, based on ‘bundles, each bundle or white burlap rice sack can hold 150 books, Ko Harry has about 50 bundles) he is still building up his stoc...

# 9 – Mali Hpungtsi

Mali Hpungtsi – Breeze over the Irrawaddy – is the longest running Jinghpaw language literary journal from Kachin State, in the far north of Myanmar.  An informal group made up of 11 core members, all ethnic Jinghpaw, have been publishing their journal for a decade, half of that without an official licence from the government.  The annual, secular journal features poems, articles, short stories, cartoons and interviews.  1000 copies are printed in Yangon and distributed, through churches and...

N-Gan Tang Gun

Rev. N-Gan Tang Gun is non-fiction writer, oral collector and academic born in Umhta Ga village, Sumprabum Township, the cultural triangle of the Kachin people in Kachin State to the north of Myanmar.  Rev N-Gan Tang Gun has spent a lifetime in service of the church and education of the Kachin.  He graduated with a BA History from Mandalay University in 1962, a Bachelor of Theology from the Myanmar Institute of Theology (MIT) in Yangon in 1971, a Master of Divinity in 1981 from MIT, a Masters...

Pitaka Taik

Though there are many libraries in Yangon, the Pitaka Taik – three basket – library ranks as one of the most ornate.

Prime Minister U Nu, a devout Buddhist, convened the Sixth Great Buddhist Synod between 1954 and 1956 (the 5th was held in Mandalay a century earlier and resulted in the ‘world’s largest book’ at Kuthodaw Pagoda).  The synod brought together over 2500 teachers from across the world to recite from the Buddhist scriptures.  The library was commissioned by U Nu to hold the texts o...

Sadaik Shorts: The Victim

Originally titled ‘War, Love and Prison’ in Burmese, the English title seems truer to the core beliefs of the author, a man known as an advocate for the working class.  ‘The Victim’, in a 1st person narration, embarks on a multi-decade journey that follows a man through war, colonialism, independence and prison.  Though ‘man’ may end his life as a criminal, Ludu U Hla constantly reminds us that he is still a ‘man’ and this is nevermore forcibly, hauntingly and sensitively depicted as in ‘The...

Can Literature Save Myanmar’s Peace Process?

In late January 2019, the Tatmadaw took control of the remote Naga region headquarters of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland-Khaplang (NSCN-K), an ethnic armed organisation that has yet to sign the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement.

In March, 5 leaders of the NSCN-K were arrested by police in Khamti Township, Sagaing Division after attending a meeting at their liason office, a meeting organised by the Naga Culture Centre Committee to discuss peace in the Naga region.  That such a meeting...