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While the image of modern Myanmar/Burma tends to be couched in human rights terms - and especially of a heroic Aung San Suu Kyi opposing and oppressive military regime - in reality there are several conflicts with ethnic and religious dimensions, as well as political and ideological differences between the opposition and the ruling military regime. This is not surprising in a country where 30% of the population and much of the land area are non-Burman, and where contradictory tendencies towards regional separatism versus unitary rule have divided the people since before independence. In what is probably the most comprehensive study of Burma's ethnic minorities to date, this volume discusses the historical formation of ethnic identity and its complexities in relation to British colonial rule as well as the modern state, the present situation of military rule, and its policy of "myanmarification." Changes of identity in exile due to religious conversion are analyzed and discussed. Finally the book deals with relevant and recent anthropological and sociological theoretical discussions on the ethnic identity, boundaries, and space of all the main ethnic groups in Burma.
One of the most comprehensive volumes on Myanmar's identity politics to date, this book discusses the entanglement of ethnic and religious identities in Myanmar and the challenges presented by its extensive ethnic-religious diversity. Religious and ethnic conjunctions are treated from historical, political, religious and ethnic minority perspectives through both case studies and overview chapters. The book addresses the thorny issue of Buddhist supremacy, Burmese nationalism and ethnic-religious hierarchy, along with reflections on Buddhist, Christian and Muslim communities. Bringing together international scholars and Burmese scholars, this book combines the perspectives of academic observers with those of political activists and religious leaders from different faiths. Through the breadth of its disciplinary approach, its focus on identity issues and its inclusion of insider and outsider perspectives, this book provides new insights into the complex religious situation of Myanmar.
The Pa-O, one of Burma's many ethnic minorities, engaged in a forty-year insurgency against the government of Burma which ended in a cease-fire in 1994. This is the first book on the Pa-O in English. Drawing upon historical accounts, contemporary writing, and personal interviews, the authors present the mythological and historical background of the Pa-O in Burma and Thailand. They recount the recent political history and focus on the experiences and difficulties of one village community that was forced to relocate ten times between 1978 and 1996. Interviews provide first-hadn evidence of the difficult conditions under which the Pa-O live in Burma and Thailand.
This book explains how Burma's booming drug production, insurgency, and counter-insurgency interrelate—and why the country has been unable to shake off thirty years of military rule and build a modern, democratic society.
Forces of division, conflict, and fear threaten to separate us from the neighbor who does not look, act, or pray like us. However, followers of Christ are charged with embodying a unity that celebrates difference rather than fleeing from it. Ethnic Diversity and Reconciliation explores the implications of the church’s radical call to inclusive community in the context of Myanmar’s long history of ethnic conflict. Dr. Arend van Dorp outlines the theological foundations for understanding the church’s mandate as a diverse and unified missional body, while also engaging the very real challenges posed to this mandate by the cultural, religious, and historical realities faced by Christians in Myanmar. He demonstrates that while the challenges are vast, so is the potential for transformation and reconciliation when the church takes up its mantle and bears faithful witness to God’s love in a fractured world.
Two Burmese boys, one a Karenni refugee and the other the son of an imprisoned Burmese doctor, meet in the jungle and in order to survive they must learn to trust each other.
Recent changes in Burma/Myanmar have been called the "Burmese democratic spring." While the international media have mainly focused on the economic opportunities offered by these changes and on the doings and sayings of Aung San Suu Kyi, the reality is far more complex. The country is desperately poor, divided by ethnic and religious rivalries and continues to suffer from some of the world's most intractable military conflicts while powerful elite factions oppose reform. Where, then, is the country heading? What are the key challenges it will face? Who are likely to be the key players in the unfolding events? With contributions on topics like the political situation, international relations, ethnic and religious rivalries, and the economy, long-time observers of the situation offer insights and analysis that address these issues.
This book considers the conflict and civil war that has ravaged Burma, and considers the implications that conflict has had for Burma’s development and prospects for democratization.
The Shan are the largest of the many national ethnic groups residing in the Union of Myanmar. After migrating from their early home in the Hwangho-Yangtze region of China, they settled in the eastern part of today's Myanmar, primarily in the Shan Plateau, around the first century AD. The Shan dominated the political stage for a few centuries, founding three historically important dynasties in the heartland of Myanmar at Pinya, Sagaing, and Inwa. Shan history then merges with that of Myanmar until after World War II and Myanmar's independence from the British, when the Shan initiated efforts to establish an autonomous state. Sai Aung Tun deftly traces the cultural and political history of the Shan people from their origins, to Myanmar independence, and up to the constitutional crisis of 1962. His work highlights particularly the political affairs of the Shan state from 1946 to 1962. He details the Second Pang Long Conference of 1947, which brought about the historic agreement of all the nationalities of Myanmar to work together for independence. He examines the significant role played by the Shan people in the debate on whether Myanmar should adopt a federal system of administration, and their efforts to draft a new constitution. He concludes with an account of the military coup of 1962, which effectively sabotaged the constitutional reform process, a stalemate that still persists today. Unique among Shan histories is the in-depth analysis of the Kuomintang incursion into the Shan States in the early 1950s, with its political, military, and economic consequences. Sai Aung Tun has amassed a substantial amount of primary materials in the text proper, including verbatim excerpts from conference interviews and speeches, as well as a rich collection of official documents, minutes, and reports in the appendixes. The historical critique of existing constitutional weaknesses will be of interest to those who advocate the drafting of a new constitution in Myanmar. The pleas for unity and goodwill among the ethnic groups, made by various leaders nearly half a century ago, will resonate with readers today. This comprehensive reference work will be an invaluable resource for all Shan scholars and Myanmar observers, and an excellent addition to any reference collection on Southeast Asia.
Not Out of Hate—published in Burmese in 1955 and set in 1939–42—was Ma Ma Lay’s fifth novel and one that further cemented her status as one of twentieth-century Burma’s foremost writers and voices for change. A journalist by trade, Lay applied her straightforward observational style with compassion and purpose to the story of Way Way, a teenage village girl whose quiet life assisting her father in his rice-brokerage business is disrupted by the arrival of U Saw Han, the cosmopolitan Burmese rice trader twenty years her senior. When she first encounters him, Way Way is entranced by his Western furnishings, servants, and mannerisms. The two marry, but before long, it becomes clear that U Saw Han’s love is a stifling one that seeks to obliterate her traditional ways. Not Out of Hate was enormously popular in Burma and went through several editions in the 1950s and 1960s. When Ohio University Press published its English translation, in 1991, it became the first significant fictional account of prewar Burma available in English since George Orwell’s Burmese Days, and provided a Burmese counterpoint to Orwell’s novel. Translated into English here for the first time, the novel is an engaging drama, finely observed work of social realism, and stirring rejection of Western cultural dominance.