From the Land of Green Ghosts: A Burmese Odyssey

by Pascal Khoo Thwe

Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize

An emotionally charged and lyrically written memoir about a remarkable odyssey from a Burmese hill tribe and a land torn by civil war to Cambridge University.

It was during a tour on a trip through Burma that John Casey, a Cambridge don, first met Pascal Khoo Thwe, who was moonlighting in a Chinese restaurant to support himself as a student at Mandalay University. Thwe was born a member of the Padaung tribe in Burma where political turmoil and poverty are ever-present realities.

Thwe left school to join the student rebels during the great insurrection of 1988, but remained in touch with Casey. He was forced to flee the country. It was his connection to Casey that enabled him to emigrate to England where he was admitted to Cambridge University. Despite his humble beginnings and the oppression he faced, Pascal Khoo Thwe brings us into a world forgotten by the West, but one that readers will not soon forget.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Asia, Biography, History, Travel, Biography Memoir

336 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Diane in Australia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love when I finish a book, and my first thoughts are, "That was a good book." Pascal's autobiography was a pleasure to read. I felt he was able to tell of his life in a way that was like weaving on a loom. It was a joy to watch it all come together. I read a lot of autobiographies and, trust me, very few writers are able to set the tone in such an enticing manner.

If you have read the description, you already know the main points of Pascal's life, so, there's no need for me to go back over all of that. I'll just leave you with a quote that will touch all book lovers hearts. In the Foreword, John Casey wrote, "Pascal took me to meet his friends studying English literature. They told me they mostly studied novels, and had to make do with a single copy among (sometimes) a hundred students. One student brought out, with great care, his chief treasure - a fragile object wrapped in a silk cloth. It was a battered, much annotated photocopy of Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea. It was enough to bring tears to the eyes."

4 Stars = It touched my heart, and/or gave me much food for thought.

[Eleanor · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an extraordinary story of one man’s journey from a tribal village in the jungles of Burma to his graduation with honours in English Literature at the University of Cambridge. It was particularly interesting to read of his student days in Mandalay and his growing awareness of the political turmoil in Burma and the need for him to take an active part.

Having read George Orwell’s novel “Burmese Days” and the first volume of a biography of Aung San Sun Kyi helped me to have a little more understanding of the recent history of Burma, whose tragedy is still unfolding.

A sobering and powerful story, and a reminder of what a fortunate life I have led.

[Hana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Burma for my Around-the-World reading tour.

"‘My ancestors told me it was after the beginning,’ said my grandmother, Mu Tha, adjusting her head on the log she was using as a pillow. Her brass neck-rings gleamed in the candlelight. The rings were fourteen inches high and rose to her head as though they were supporting a pagoda stupa….we sat at her feet massaging her legs and shoulders as we listened to the story….”

So begins this strange, magical story of a young man from the Kayan or Padaung tribe of Burma—

“Our grandmothers would allow us to touch their ‘armour’ when we were ill. One should touch them only to draw on their magic—to cure illness, to bless a journey. They were portable family shrines….I have a vivid memory of her as she came to visit our house, when the first thing we saw was her long neck and head floating above the hedges…like a walking wild goose.”



Pascal Khoo Thwe has a marvelous sense of humor and an eye for the absurdities of life; he tells his extraordinary story with grace, compassion and affection. I loved the poetry, the stories of his childhood, the vivid characters like his grandmother whose “attitude towards animals was entirely without sentiment. It was more a matter of knowing the rules of mutual dependence, which produced respect…she talked to them as she talked to her own grandchildren….she would talk to the ants and instruct them not to take her lunch before she ate it. ‘I will give you some lunch, all in good time,’ she would say. Then she went to work in the fields. Lunchtime came and we went back to the hut, where, to my surprise, no ant had eaten her food. They circled round it but made no attempt to invade. Before settling down to her lunch she would give them a scoop of rice.”

“My awe was reserved for my grandfather, La Pen. If my grandmas were jointly the oracles and educators of the tribe, he was the quiet god who was not to be trifled with. We seemed to feel his presence before we heard or saw him…Although he was a benevolent presence, I felt his power also as something feral, even tiger-like as he prowled quietly around his domain.“

La Pen was a tribal leader among the Padaung and eventually a friend of the British and a skeptic of the new regime. Early in his reign as a chief La Pen captured an intrepid Italian missionary on his way to China. The missionary challenged and bested the chieftain in a wrestling match that won the entire village over to the clearly superior god. A challenge was a challenge. Henceforth all of La Pen’s village and all of La Pen’s descendants would be Catholic.

Pascal’s father played the radio each morning to signal to the household that he was awake and ready for his tea and rice wine. The usual Burma Broadcasting Service morning radio selections: Jim Reeves, Paul Anka, Elvis Presley and the Beatles.

As Pascal leaps ahead in his education and finds and seizes his chance for more, he (and I) are both joyous and sad.

“It was the last monsoon of the year, a feminine rain, dropping lazily on the surface of the lake. The rays of the late afternoon sun made the raindrops sparkle like precious stones. Under the steady rain we wallowed in the shallows of the lake with the abandon of water-buffaloes, lapped by the mini-waves, yelling with pleasure. At the same time there was a touch of ‘melancholy not unnoticed’. I seemed to shed my seminary self and to revert to being a wild tribesman, as though I had never left, never been subject to discipline and austere ideal, never been a civilized man or a potential saint.“

Once Pascal reaches Mandalay, the story becomes more linear, less poetical and for some readers it will be more exciting; but I loved the days of his childhood, the magical world of family and ancestors, and a living world of forest and wildlife and ghosts made visible and real to me through his artistry.

I read to be transported, to live for a brief time in other worlds, real or imaginary. I will never make it to Burma in this life. I would not survive in the jungle for more than a half day. I cannot bear to think what it’s like to live out my life with metal rings elongating my neck. I hope I never have to eat insects or kill a snake with my bare hands. But I am very, very glad that Pascal Khoo Thwe learned to love James Joyce, met a Cambridge don in Mandalay, and miraculously survived the wars to tell this tale. I hope that the land of his ancestors finds a way to walk, as he did, out of the shadow of death and darkness.

Content rating PG mostly for wartime violence. Most Burmese have strong animist leanings and ghosts are very much part of the world as they experience it.

[Rusalka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Growing up, I knew of the country Burma. I knew of Aung San Suu Kyi and that it was terrible she was locked up in her house. I knew Burma was a dictatorship, and depending who you talked to, the word "communist" was thrown around now and then. And... that's about it.

So after my fail of a read for Burma earlier in the tour, I really wanted to make sure I read a book that taught me something about the country. So when someone in our Around the World group suggested a book written by a member of the Padaung tribe, widely known as the tribe where some women have brass rings lengthening their necks, I had to read it.

What we get is a beautiful, slightly poetical, incredibly South East Asian account of Pascal's life. We start with his life in the tribal hills with the Padaung, looking at the beautiful mix of missionary Catholicism with animist, Buddhist and tribal beliefs. Then his transition to seminary school in the city, to University student in Mandalay. You get a wonderful insight of the incredibly remote village boy changing to a city dweller.

This is where the story starts to change a bit from the usual coming of age story we are used to. While in university in the 1980s, Pascal is involved in the student uprising and demonstrations against the dictatorship. In the first third of the book, we had been given insights what it was like living under the regime, their propaganda and their whims and how this affected the Burmese. In the 80s, some students and monks protested against the regime and some people were shot. Then more protested, and more were shot, and so on and so forth. Then we have Aung San Suu Kyi enter on this wave of unrest and talk about democracy, and provided a united front to the people.

Pascal takes a while to come around to the movement and cause, but ends up being pursued by the regime. He ends up as a fugitive in the jungle, with other rebels who have been fighting the government for years with different causes, living on the Thai border. Eventually, after all of this, he gets rescued by a Don of English from a Cambridge college whom he met briefly in Mandalay before the trouble, and granted permission to travel to the UK and study English at Cambridge.

It's a book of contrasts in a way. Tribal verses city. Fugitive verses complying citizen. Seminary student verses other ways of life. Burmese verses UK. I must say it's the last contrast that does make me feel a bit ill. He talks about the way of living after he is rescued and it makes me sick with the extravagance compared to the poverty not only in the next country, but within Thailand. Having been there in the last year or so, it's apparent how much we have compared to every day Thais, let alone people who's entire country and economic status has be completely destroyed and devalued in the nation next door.

But this astonishment and even understandable bitterness is not displayed at all, if it is there, even when he talks about times of despair and depression. The book has this air of gratitude about it. Gratitude for being alive at all. For surviving childhood. For getting a chance at education. For being rescued. For having a chance a handful of his fellow countrymen have ever been offered in a foreign country. And I think that is the takeaway from this book. You should read it and understand the story of this country we all know little about, and the diverse cultures and traditions within it. Read it and be grateful that you are in a place where you can read these stories, that you are healthy, have means and education, and overall are safe. We are so very lucky for that.

For more reviews visit http://rusalkii.blogspot.com.au/

[Bernie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was given a copy of Paschal Khoo Thwe’s From the Land of the Green Ghosts by a couple from our church. He is from India and she from Burma. The copy was signed by the author! The autobiographical book is divided into three parts. In the first part Pascal describes his young life, his family, food, the fascinating cultural life of Burma, particularly his own Padaung ethnic group, the beautiful Burman countryside, and the political history of Burma. We see here the general happiness Paschal enjoyed living a simple but rich life in the Burmese countryside. In the second part, he details his efforts to become a respected, educated young man. But this experience begins to separate him from his peaceful tribal world. Attending Mandalay University, his education leads to certain key realizations about the nature of Burmese politics and authority that begins a chain of events fating him to eventually become rebel guerilla in the jungles along the Salween River near Thailand. He breathtakingly illustrates his experience in graphic detail. The third, and shorter part of the book, recounts his rescue by English Literature Professor, John Casey and his attendance and graduation with a degree in English Literature from Cambridge University.

Many have lived and suffered as Burmese, but Pascal Khoo Thwe displays a rare, astonishing ability to bring to life the magic, richness and subtlety of Burmese life for the English reader. To have such an ability combined in a person whose story is so poignant can only be described as a miracle. And beyond a miracle was that given the constant danger he often found himself in, he lived to tell his story.

The book’s title is interesting. As Pascal explains, the Padaung though Catholic, held to their animist past including a strong belief in ghosts. It was common for people not only to believe in them but to tell stories of their interactions with them. Most feared were the “green ghosts”--- who became such when death came by unnatural causes such as murder. Given the political executions and murderous violence in Burma, it was a land filled with green ghosts.

One central theme throughout the book is the role of seeming chance events in directing the author’s thoughts and ensuring his safety through great risk. Though these events may seem chance, Pascal implies that a higher hand was directing his life. And I think this is true.

Key among those chance events was his meeting in Mandalay with John Casey at a Chinese restaurant in Mandalay which eventually resulted some years later in his “rescue” from the land of Green Ghosts.

But other, more subtle events also directed his path.. It began with his early fascination with books, creating in him a great thirst for knowledge. Then there was his village’s interactions with the West that brought those books and the Christian God. It brought even, funny men who had no toes (they wore shoes) whose humanity could be doubted on that account, but whose ways were grafted into Padaung ways of life.

There was also his much admired Uncle Yew who organized childhood bullies into a cohesive soccer team. Pascal writes of his early revelation about the power of the individual and the nature of Burmese society … “I had a sense, even at that age, of how the majority can submit to the bullying of a few determined individuals, and how a single man can restore to others a sense of the dignity of individuals and the power of a community. I had the obscure feeling that it was not just my school but the larger society around me that was afflicted by bullies”

Later in seminary at Taunggyi he discovered a strange fascination in a bridge built by Isaac Newton that stood without nails or screws at the very university from which later he was to graduate--- Cambridge. Eventually he turned from his seminary education and came to realize a mission in life to, as he says, to “help his people succeed by succeeding himself”.

He thought that the place for his success was Mandalay. He threw himself into study and learned much, he also learned, confirming his earlier sense, that thinking for himself was not only not rewarded in Burmese Socialism, but resulted in bullying, threats, torture, and sometimes even death. Another realization was that that friendships between different Burmese ethnic groups was an essential strategy in bringing about positive change in Burma, running counter to the government strategy of divide and conquer. But finishing study in Mandalay was not in the cards as the government carried out two severe demonetizations in response to rapid inflation. This wiped out many lifesavings and sent the country spiraling into poverty and government sponsored brutality. Protests and demonstrations against the government resulting in increased repression including the imprisonment, beating, rape and death of his girlfriend, Moe. Her travails did not break the author, rather his fierce love for her resulted in an iron determination to resist.

Returning to his hometown, Pascal took on a leadership role in speaking out against the government, and eventually became a marked man, forcing his retreat into the jungle as a guerilla fighter. Unable to ever return safely home, he vowed to fight. He overcame extreme obstacles —malaria, wounds, starvation, and sickness-- until the day that Dr Casey returned to Thailand to help him take his struggle to Britain. Though he felt guilt for leaving his fellow soldiers, he felt this escape his only legitimate one. In England, he studied. He struggled to learn English literature in a way foreign to him at Mandalay University. He learned it in a way that caused him to make it his own, because he was encouraged to have an opinion on it. It was difficult but liberating. He said “If I get an education, I will be able to write about it in a way that will move people.” And that is what he did with this book

I am moved and much more aware and concerned about events in Burma and pray that a spirit of democratization will grow in this beautiful land. Many who read this book will be motivated to an even greater degree. I highly recommend this book..

[Anthony · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pascal Khoo Thwe is a Padaung villager from Burma's (Myanmar's) highlands who offers his memoirs in FtLoGG. I was reading this in preparation for a trip to Myanmar, which clarified some of the country's history between the demise of the Aung San, revered as the founder of modern Burma and assassinated in 1947, to the flagging days of Ne Win's military dictatorship, succeeded by General Saw Maung in 1988. While a university student in the late 1980s, he meets a Cambridge don who successfully rescues him from the country's civil war and the Thai refugee camps and supports his admission to an English literature course. Khoo Thwe becomes the first Padaung to attend Cambridge and one of the few Burmese to have studied in the UK.

If you are scantly aware of the history of Burma's dictatorial regimes, I would suggest this on the grounds of its literary merit and personal reflections about how individual citizens and movements were affected. My major criticism against the book is that he spent significant effort in recounting his childhood and pre-college days, but less than 30 pages on his time during and after Cambridge. One of the concerns raised by a fellow rebel fighter while Khoo Thwe was in the bush and contemplating an education abroad regarded whether he would forget his homeland and the struggles his people would endure while he lived in British luxury. Supposedly he grappled with this, but offers no evidence about the outcome. It seems as if he exhausted himself in his focus on adolescence and sloppily ran through the final 50 pages without sufficient closure to appease the reader. What has he done now? Is he still in touch with his siblings? How has life changed? Aside from references to some friends and the passing of his father, answers to these are in short supply.

[Kyaw Kyaw Soe · Rating 4 out of 5]

ဒီစာအုပ်က နိုင်ငံရေးစာအုပ်မဟုတ်ပေမယ့် ကိုယ်ဟိုနည်းနည်း ဒီနည်းနည်းသိထားတဲ့ မြန်မာ့နိုင်ငံရေးသမိုင်းကိုဆပ်စပ်မိသွားတယ်၊ ပါစကယ်ခူးသွယ်ရဲ့ ဘဝဇတ်ကြောင်းက တော်တော်စိတ်ဝင်စားဖို့ကောင်းတယ် အထူးသဖြင့်မြန်မာပြည့်မှာနေတုန်းက အကြောင်းအရာတွေကပိုစိတ်ဝင်စားဖို့ကောင်းတယ်၊ ပြီးတော့ သူ့ကိုသူအရမ်းတော်တဲ့ပုံစံမျိုးရေးမထားတာကိုလဲ တော်တော်သဘောကျမိတယ်၊ သူ Cambridge မှာဘွဲ့ရတော့ တိုက်ပုံနဲ့ သူ့လူမျိုး ပဒေါင်လက်ဝတ်တန်ဆာတွေဝတ်ပြီး ဘွဲ့တက်ယူတဲ့ပုံလေးတောင်ကြည့်ချင်လို့ google မှာ ခေါက်ကြည့်သေးတယ် မတွေ့မိဘူး၊ စိတ်ထဲမှာ တော်တော် အထာကျမှာပဲလို့ မြင်ယောင်မိတယ်။

[Jennifer (JC-S) · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘Central Burma is an alien land, the abode of evil spirits, green ghosts and the like –‘

Pascal Khoo Thwe was born in 1967, in a remote village in Burma. This memoir details his life from his childhood as a member of an extended family of a headman of the Kayan people in southern Shan State; his journey through conflict-ridden Burma; and finally his life in Britain.

Pascal Khoo Thwe is a member of the Kayan Padaung tribe – best known for the brass neck rings worn by women which create the effect of an elongated neck. Pascal Khoo Thwe writes of village grandmothers who had been taken to England in 1936 to be exhibited in a circus. The women, when they returned to Burma, spoke about strange English tea-time rituals, and wondered about the absence of rice-wine. Pascal Khoo Thwe writes of a comfortable childhood in a small town with mixed ethnicity and multiple languages. Religiously, Roman Catholicism, Animism and Buddhism seem to co-exist together comfortably.

‘I used to see people in a different light, depending on which language I spoke to them in.’

Pascal Khoo Thwe leaves his village behind when he travels to Mandalay to study English literature at the University. Here he forms friendships with other students, falls in love with a Burman girl named Moe and adapts to a new way of life. Here, too, while working as a waiter in a Chinese restaurant, he meets Professor John Casey: a chance meeting which later has a huge impact on his life. Moe is murdered by the Tatmadaw (armed forces) and eventually Pascal Khoo Thwe, like so many others, flees into the hills away from the military crackdown of September 18, 1988. This is a Burma which he did not know: a jungle in both a literal and pejorative sense:

‘The word ‘jungle’ still carried pejorative overtones in the speech of urban Burmese. Anyone taking refuge with the ethnic insurgents was called a ‘jungle child,’ which implied primitiveness, anarchy, violence and disease—as well as the unpleasant proximity of wild animals, which the Burmese detested. I had always been painfully sensitive about being regarded as part of a primitive tribe, ..’

Pascal Khoo Thwe’s journey, learning about the devastation of this war specifically on the rural people of Burma, while coming to appreciate the country itself was for me the most powerful part of this memoir. It’s a view of Burma which reflects some of the impacts of its turbulent history.

‘Ours is a ghost and spirit culture, and for us the presence of ghosts is as natural as reincarnation is to the Buddhists.’

Pascal Khoo Thwe survives this experience and, as a consequence of meeting John Casey in Mandalay, because of a shared interest in the works of James Joyce, he is able to escape from Burma and eventually to study at Cambridge. The final part of this memoir is about Pascal Khoo Thwe’s experiences in Britain, of the challenges faced as he studies for (and attains) his degree in English from Cambridge.

There are a number of ways to read Pascal Khoo Thwe’s story. An interest in James Joyce led to his meeting with Professor John Casey and finally to Cambridge and the polished English with which he tells his story. But while it’s interesting to read the story of the first Burmese tribesman to attend Cambridge University, it’s Pascal Khoo Thwe’s story of life in Burma which haunts me. What does the future hold for Pascal Khoo Thwe, and for Burma? I can see why the story of ‘Eveline’ (in ‘The Dubliners’) moved Pascal Khoo Thwe: how circular will his own journey be. I wonder, though, what he thinks of ‘Ulysses’?

‘Remember what your grandfather said about the earth’s being round at school and flat at home.’

This is a thought-provoking memoir which I enjoyed reading, and am still thinking about.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

[Sébastien · Rating 4 out of 5]

From the Land of Green Ghosts: a Burmese Odyssey by Pasal Khoo Thwe tells a riveting story of the writer's journey from a small town to Cambridge. Rich with cultural stories of his Padaung heritage and packed with real events happened around Burma's late 80's revolution, it is one of the most important books I've read in my life. I first read it in 2013 and was engulfed in the writer's evocative proses and the things I had not known earlier about my country. This my third read and first time writing a review of this book.

Pascal's family is from Padaung tribe, a subtribe of the Karenni from Burma. For outsiders, Padaung women are known as 'giraffe women' because of their necks being elongated by rings. In early chapters of the book, he shares his childhood through traditions and folklore of his tribe, religious beliefs as a Catholic, the beauty of his hometown—Phekhon, and brief political landscape of Burma. The reader can feel the writer's love for his identity as a Padaung. He passionately explains the traditions of his tribe and stories of his ancestors. He talks about the bullying of Burma Socialist Programme Party, then Burma's ruling party led by the notorious General Ne Win.

In the middle part of the book, Pascal recounts his time in Mandalay University in the mid 80's where he studied English Literature. When he first moved to Mandalay, he faced some struggles as an ethnic minority in a city where majority were Burmans. When the regime demonetised some banknotes without prior notice, several people were in financial crisis. Pascal had to work at a Chinese restaurant in Mandalay to support his education. It was also the place he encountered foreigners and was able to practise his English. One night at the restaurant, he met John Casey, a Professor from Cambridge and talked about his love for English literature. He happened to share about his university life, too.

Then came the 8888 uprising. He returned to his hometown and became involved in political movement. He later had to flee with fellow students to the jungles on the border of Thailand, with a Karenni rebel group.

In the jungle, he had fought several battles— with the military, malaria, his anxiety and depression, etc. When a foreign journalist visited their camp, he passed a letter for the Cambridge professor. Miraculously, he received a reply from John Casey and they began corresponding each other. Soon the professor planned to help Pascal to study at Cambridge how they executed together.

The book is filled with one man's tireless endeavour towards his goal against all odds. His honest narrative is the most admirable thing I read in this book. His love for Padaung cultures remained unchanged. Maintaining his identity while adapting Burmese traditions in Mandalay as well as keeping up with modern world in Cambridge. Every uncomfortable situation was an experience to gain and every hardship was a lesson to learn for him. The story of a man with many qualities: courageous, loyal, dedicated perseverant and appreciative, etc.

Though I managed to get back to reading, I have been having mercurial temperament in past few days. I have trouble writing a decent review for this book but struggled with it for some time. I don't like forcing myself to things but I feel like this is an important book that deserves to be read by international readers. Besides, if I stop writing for a long time, I think it might get worse and my writing or analytical thinking will become rusty later. So I halfheartedly share my review I written wholeheartedly cause I think it's not up to the level of my previous posts.

[Anand Gopal · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a young member of the Padaung tribe, a band from eastern Burma famous for their giraffe-necked women, Pascal Khoo Thwe lived in a world of spirits and jungles. Yet he also somehow developed a taste for British literature, and a chance meeting with a Cambridge professor in a Mandalay restaurant in the mid-Eighties eventually carries him far from the jungles to the lawns of Cambridge University.

That story would in and of itself be remarkable, but it is rendered all the more so by the historical coincidence that Shwe happened to be a university student in Burma in 1988, when a massive student uprising shook the nation to its foundations and propelled the previously apolitical Shwe into the world of guerrilla warfare. Like hundreds of other students of his generation, Shwe took up arms against the brutal Junta, and "From The Green Ghosts" is a vivid, incredibly moving portrayal of these years.

"Ghosts" will have you variously inspired and on the verge of tears. The early chapters are steeped in the sort of idyll that characterizes pre-modern tribal life, but the pace and tension picks up dramatically as the politics thrusts itself into his life. More than simply a memoir, the book is an important document of the long-hidden struggle of the Burmese against their brutal dictatorship.

[Zoeann · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. The author is amazingly honest and humble about his extraordinary life. His description of the Burmese landscape is so beautiful, especially when he writes about the remote areas where he grew up. It is partially a story about why armed struggle is sometimes necessary. However it is more a story about how life is much more complex then the rhetoric used to talk about religion, war, socialism and freedom. I learned so much about Burma through Pascal Khoo Thwe's story. I also learned a little bit about the hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing Burma. Right now I am working with Karen refugees who live in camps crowded with as many as 40,000 people. Some people spend their whole lives in the camps. Many Burmese refugees are moving to Albany, Utica and NYC and this book helped me understand their situation a little more.
Pascal Khoo Thwe's writing is a little choppy in the beginning. He jumps around a bit from sentence to sentence. But its kind of fine because the world he is explaining is so magical and yet so real. I have mixed feelings about the end, but we can talk about that after you read it. xoz

[Rosie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! Incredible story of a boy who comes from the Padaung tribe in Burma with the famous "giraffe-necked women." The first two-thirds of the book is his fascinating description of his childhood, drinking rice-wine, listening to the stories of his grandmother, and playing in the jungle, then later going to university in Mandalay. He had a job in a Chinese restaurant to support his studies, and once chatted to some English tourists about his love of English literature. They mentioned him to a friend who was an English professor at Cambridge - who later made a point of looking him up when he then visited Burma. But as the political situation heated up and the university closed, the author joined the student rebels, hiding in the jungle and learning to fight. When the hunger and danger became overwhelming he wrote to his professor friend asking for help. He found a way to rescue him from Burma and brought him to Cambridge, and signed him up to study English at Caius. Pascal Khoo Thwe wrote this book as a way of both holding onto his traditions and processing all that had happened to his country and to himself. It is a brilliant read.

[saw · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love his POV over the politics of the late 80s in our country.
Just a boy with difficulties.....
And him, overcoming them.... reaching for his dreams.
This might sound a bit ordinary for those of you who don't really understand the situations in our country back in old times when the military government ruled it. But there were probably news about them, I guess...

[Andrew Pham · Rating 5 out of 5]

A humorous touching read. I really like this one. Pascal has terrific eyes for tones and details. I'll be re-reading it for my upcoming trip to Burma. Can't wait to swim the Andaman Sea off Burma's coastline!

[Pascal · Rating 5 out of 5]

From the writers of Educated, the much anticipated sequel! Pascal escapes the jungles of Burma, a civil war and many other trials and tribulations to study in Cambridge.

[Thinzar · Rating 5 out of 5]

I deeply respect his resilience for his survival and ambition. It is great to know the culture and perspectives of Padaung/Kayan ethnics.

[Mick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hadnt read a biography in a while. Took me some time but amazed by Pascals perseverance and unwavering courage in horrific war torn times

[Harry Rutherford · Rating 4 out of 5]

From the Land of Green Ghosts is an autobiography. Pascal Khoo Thwe is from the Padaung ethnic minority in Burma — best known for the brass neck-rings worn by the women which elongate their necks — and was brought up with both the local animist traditions and Catholicism; the two religious traditions seem to have coexisted rather more easily than a strict reading of Catholic theology might allow.

He went to a Catholic seminary but later decided he didn’t want to be a priest, and instead went to university in Mandalay, where he studied for a couple of years before witnessing some of the political uprising of of 1988 and the government’s brutal response. He was briefly a political activist before it became clear that the revolution had failed, when he was forced to flee across country, initially to the area held by the longstanding ethnic Karenni rebellion and then across the border to Thailand. Eventually, thanks to an earlier chance meeting with a Cambridge professor visiting Mandalay, he was offered the chance to go to England to study literature at Cambridge.

The early parts, about a childhood in the backwoods of Burma with traditional customs and a Catholic education, are interesting and atmospheric; but it really comes into its own with the uprising. He was a relatively unpolitical youth confronted by staggering government violence, and he communicates something of the shock and the anger.

I’ve read quite a lot of books about dictatorships and government repression and civil war and so on as part of the Read The World challenge — mainly I think because it’s a subject that appeals to English language publishers — but this is one of the better ones. Above all because Khoo Thwe is a good writer. But what I particularly like is that it’s the opposite of self-aggrandising. He’s clearly a fairly impressive individual; at various times his actions show intelligence, courage and resourcefulness. But he constantly undercuts any hint that he’s the hero, even of his own story; he presents himself as naive, uncertain, and always at the mercy of events.

I’m not suggesting this is mock humility; I’m sure he genuinely felt those things. And after all, it’s basically a story of failed revolution and exile, although that’s hardly his fault. But another writer might have been less willing to be so frank, and the story would have been less interesting as a result.

From the Land of Green Ghosts is my book from Myanmar/Burma for the Read The World challenge.

[Thinn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A guy who believe in his dream and dare to chase his dream. As always, there is a dirty politic involve in biography. (This is the review when I read the book for the first time.) Now I became more လျှာရှည် 😂😂😂

The 1st time I read this book, I was in college. Someone recommended this book to me. I was overjoyed when I found the book at my internship. When I read it, it’s about one of the success stories of the 88th generation. The amazing part was how he ended up in Cambridge. It was like reading a superhero story with a happy ending. Oh …. I also remembered all the ghosts he encountered: his grandpa, the merchant, and the soldiers.

The 2nd time I read this book, I was teaching English to my neighbor. I asked her to read this book and we did the discussion after each chapter. She didn’t want to continue reading after the death of Moe. I didn’t finish the book either.

This is the 3rd time I read this book. I have so many questions after I finished reading it. I am amazed by how many details the author remembered about his childhood, seminary life, college life in Mandalay, and of course life in the jungle. I am more stunned and amused about reading his childhood to be honest: the life he lived with the mixture of spiritual world and Christian world. His college life was similar to a lot of the books that I read before except the twist about Moe which really made me sad. I had to take a break after the death of Moe.

Given the similar situation I'm in right now, I felt more close to the book when it mentioned the 88 revolution. After all, history does repeat itself. I have so many questions about his life in the jungle, especially 150 students who tried to run away with the equipment that was supplied to them by the Karenni rebels. The author also used the word ‘rebels’ throughout his book. It’s a very interesting word choice for me. 🤨 I guess he could even published another book if he only talked about his life in the jungle.

Meeting with John might be the author's sheer luck or maybe his ancestors really look after him. Well … this book has a happy ending with a success story.

Hummm …. The author only mentioned his dad. I wonder what happened to his mom and his siblings. Or maybe he should write another book 🥶

‘We seemed to live in a time of paralysis, when nothing significant happened, or was allowed to happen, when all paths seemed shut off.’

[Maude · Rating 5 out of 5]

"In 1988 Dr. John Casey, a Cambridge don visiting Burman, was told of a waiter in Mandalay with a passion for the works of James Joyce. He visited the restaurant where he met Pascal Khoo Thwe. The encounter was to change both their lives."

"Pascal was the first member of his community ever to study English at university. Shortly after his meeting with Dr. Casey, Pascal's world lay in ruins. Economic crises caused by Burma's military dictatorship meant he had to give up his studies. As a result he became a guerrilla fighter against the government and seeing many of his friends and comrades die in battle. At a moment of desperation, he remembered the Englishman he had met in Mandaly and wrote him a letter. It would lead to Pascal's being rescued from the jungle and enrolling to study English at Cambridge University, the first Burmese tribesman ever to do so."

Before this occurred, Pascal became a guerrilla fighter in the life-or-death struggle against the government and seeing many of his friends and comrades die in battle. It was at this time that he remembered the Englishman and wrote him the letter that would change his life.

Today he lives in London and this is his first book which I recommend to others who may be interested.

[Leonie von Hausen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely LOVED this book! It contains a lot of very valuable information on the country concerning many different aspects. Starting from the description of life as an ehthnice minority tribe's guy in the beautiful Shan hills, to the description of life as a student in Mandalay also during the crucial and sad year of 1988 in Myanmar and ending with life as a refugee amongst minority rebels in the jungle on the Thai border and the incredible escape to England. All this and the fact that this is written by a native, but also from the perspective of ethnic minortiy make this book by far the most interesting and touching book I have read on Myanmar/ Burma.

Pascal Khoo Thwe is a remarkably bright and brave character and I really do wish him and his country that things will eventually turn out for the better and that their cause will be listened to withunder by the international community, even though it sadly seems highly unlikely at the moment. One must never give up hope...miracles do happen: the most important is to stay confident!

[Mona · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author starts with his life in a tribal village of Burma and gives us a complete look as a happy child views it. We learn about the long-necked Padaung women and how the families survive in the jungle. The move to a monastery for education is his first time away from his beloved village and family. Deciding to change course and attend university in Mandalay shows his adaptability. Hardships sound unimaginable but he manages to maintain his desire for a life that may not be possible given the dire problems in the country run by oppression. Hunger. loss of his beloved friends and well-founded fear of the regime are no match for his desire to make things better. Returning to his village, he soon understands it's an unsafe haven. Against his Father's advice he leaves to fight. What happens next is the story more of novels. It is so beautifully written you'll be marking your book in order to re-read the eloquent passages. A mix of ancient cultures, hence the "green ghosts" in the title, pervades the book so well that the reader believes too. Remarkable is hardly enough praise.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pascal Khoo Thwe opens this extraordinary book with the sentence: "When I was young I used to watch the rising sun with amazement." Incredibly, Khoo Thwe sustains our amazement as he relates the corruption of Burma through his eyes while growing up in its remote mountains. His words are informative and caring, painting not with the brush of pity as he portrays his home village and his family in their humble lives, but with one of deference and honor.

"From the Land of Green Ghosts" is more than an autobiography and more than a history: it is a testament to a young man's persistent search for truth and a place in life where he can just be happy. The author's prosaic language is suited well for the narrative, and a fine example of how well the author learned English in so short a time when his goals were achieved.

It is also a sorrowful tale because the woes of the Burmese remain, the grip is still retained by the military junta. I highly recommend this book, as well as "The Stone of Heaven" by Adrian Levy and Cathy Scott-Clark.

[Sasa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been wanting to read a book written by an actual Burmese, even better because he's a tribesmen. it was really interesting to read about his culture and how missionary Catholics has influenced their belief system and religion. Also the transition from the British colonialists to the Japanese then the military oppression of Ne Win. I liked that his memoir didn't just cover his life span but the ones from his grandparents as well. It made me realize that how we think and act also has to do with the culture and influences we had grow in up. This was shown by the leadership and mentality differences of Pascal's grandfather, father, and him. I only gave this book four stars because even though it was very informative historically, the political struggle for democracy, and culturally, the narrative was just somewhat detached. There was something about his writing that I didn't connect with.

[Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this sometime during our recent 6-month kitchen-that-became-much-more-than-that remodelling of our home. I just saw it under a screwdriver bit box and some blue painter's tape on my nightstand, and realized I hadn't said anything about it. This was an engrossing read; terrifying, pathetic, and unbelievable all at the same time. I was immediately overwhelmed with the Deus ex Machina experience of this remarkable young man, and his amazingly lucky opportunity to go to Oxford and study. Just staying alive as he tried to escape was miraculous. Then the wonder of the scribbled piece of paper that actually got to someone who had the means to return and try to help him is almost too much. His simple writing style artificially supresses the violence and terror that was his experience. I would love to hear more voices from this population.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

With a trip to Burma coming up in a few weeks, I picked this book up at a used book store hoping to get better feel for where I was heading. Pascal Khoo Thwe's memoir was just what I hoped for: a moving personal account which also paints a good picture of Burmese and hill tribe societies in the 1980s in the period before, during and after the 1988 protests. Thwe is particularly remarkable for being able to look at his personal story through three lenses: that of his native Padaung tribe, that of the majority Burman ethnicity, and that of the West. Despite not having met a Westerner until he was in college, Thwe has a remarkable understanding of Western minds and knows exactly when to provide background and delve into deeper explanations in order to provide the context a foreigner needs to truly appreciate his story. And appreciate it I did.

[Karey Swan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story of a boy who grew up in the "giraffenecked" women tribe, in Burma. Pascal was pretty much self taught as any bit of printed material was passed around - his favorite literature being James Joyce. It's an autobiographical tale of the brutal regime that put the clamps on Burma, Pascal's escape as a forest guerrilla-fighter to Thailand, and eventually rescued by an Englishman, where he ended up schooling at Cambridge.

Now as news continues to come from Burma/Myanmar and the plight of the seemingly eternal house arrest of Aung San Kyi, I can picture the country's cultural/political history.

[Andrew]

A rather remarkable memoir, less about the author's experiences at Cambridge than the circumstances that led him there, which is a shame, because I would have liked to have heard more about the radical culture shift. However, the meat of the thing is more than good enough, simply because this is a world that exists like a five-hour drive from my house but is so, so, so far from anything I've experienced, even though I've been to a fair number of the places he describes. As a memoir, beautifully recounted, as a portrait of a milieu little-known by the outside world, fascinating and at times hypnotically weird.

[Chinook · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a 4-star read more because I was fascinated to learn about Burma, particularly the hill tribes and the student uprising. I knew very, very little about Burma before. The tale is particularly Bookish as the author ends up studying English lit at Cambridge after a chance encounter in a Chinese restaurant in Mandalay with a professor who heard about a waiter who loved James Joyce.

[Karen Floyd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written. So beautifully written it's hard to realise that Pascal is not a native English speaker. His story begins as a childhood idyll in the Burmese jungle with his Padaung tribe, and ends in young manhood on the run from the Burmese military. Evocative, horrifying and heart-wrenching.