Epistles Written on the Eve of the Anglo-Burmese War

57 Pages·1968·1.402 MB·English

by  Maung Htin Aung (auth.)

EPISTLES
WRITTEN ON THE EVE OF THE ANGLO-BURMESE WAR
EPISTLES WRITTEN
ON THE EVE
OF THE ANGLO-BURMESE WAR
Translated and /ntroduced
by
MAUNG HTIN AUNG
Springer-Science+Business Media, B.V. 1968
ISBN 978-94-017-7156-6 ISBN 978-94-017-7171-9 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-94-017-7171-9
© 1968 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
Originally published by Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, Netherlands in 1968.
All rights reserved, including the right to translate or to
reproduce this book or parts thereof in any form
PREFACE
Buddhism became the national and official religion of the
Burmese people in the 11th century, and one of the consequences
was the advent of the village monastery as the religious, cultural
and social centre for all villagers. At the monastery the villagers
learned to read and write, but until modern times they never
acquired the habit of writing letters to their friends and relations
or to business associates. The village was almost a complete
economic unit by itself, and the average villager did not have
any business reason to travel far from his village. During eight
months of the year, he was tied down to his work in the fields,
and in the remaining four months which marked the hot season,
he with his family travelled to the nearby towns and villages,
taking part in the pagoda festivals and meeting friends and rela
tions at those places. Moreover, there was no postal service. On
those rare occasions when it became necessary for him to write a
Ietter he considered hirnself inadequate for the task and wou1d
approach a monk to compose an epistle, couched in elegant prose
and full of maxims and wise sayings. The epistle was called the
Myittazar or Ietter of loving-kindness. The epistle was written on
dried palm leaf with a stylus, and before it was actually sent to
the addressee, it was passed round the village to be read and
admired. The recipient of the epistle also read it aloud to his
friends and acquaintances. Some of the epistles written by famous
monks were copied, collected and preserved.
The epistles given in the following pages were written by a
Burmese monk affectionately called Kyeegan Shingyi, "The Elderly
Novice ofthe village ofKyeegan Lake." He was born in the year
1757 at that village which was in Ahlone District of North
W estern Burma. His personal name was Maung Nu and like all
VI PREFACE
Burmese boys he entered the village monastery at the age of six
to receive his elementary education. When he attained the age
of sixteen years he took the Lower Ordination and became a
novice so as to pursue his higher studies. He acquired the ecclesia
stical name of Nanda Daza and won great distinction as a scholar,
but four years later, deciding not to take the Higher Ordination,
he left the Order and the monastery. With a view to becoming an
administrative official or a judge, he apprenticed hirnself to an
advocate and travelled all over the country, even visiting Ran
goon, which was swiftly becoming a busy seaport and commer
cial centre. Mter some four or five years of moving in business,
legal and official circles, he came to the conclusion that lay life
had nothing more to offer, and returning to his native village he
became a novice again. In spite ofhis great learning, he repeated
ly declined to take the Higher Ordination, maintaining that he
was unworthy. He soon became farnaus as a teacher ofthe script
ures. Although he was but a novice, fully ordained monks and
even abbots came to Kyeegan village to study at his feet. To
wards the end of the century The Elderly Novice had become so
famous that King Bodawpaya (1782-1819) invited him to come
and teach at one of the monastic universities at the capital of
Amarapura. Accepting the invitation he joined the monastery of
the King's Teacher, the Maungdaung Sayadaw, still as a novice,
and became the latter's disciple and colleague. Kyeegan Shingyi
died soon after the first Anglo-Burmese war of 1824.
In composing the epistles, Kyeegan Shingyi used his own wit and
learning, but at the same time he always endeavoured to convey
to the recipient the actual Sentiments and thoughts of the person
on whose behalfhe was writing the Ietter. Although he introduced
into the epistles epigrams and sayings of his own, he was careful
to include also homilies and pithy sayings with which the average
Burmesevillager was familiar. In spite ofhis erudite learning in
the scriptures, he confined his references to the Jatakas, the
Buddhist layman's bible. Above all, he carefully refrained from
turning the epistles into moral discourses. Apart from their litera
ry worth and human interest, the epistles are also valuable histor
ical documents, illustrative of the social and economic changes
that were taking place in the country at the close of the 18th
century as a result of the impact of the west. They belonged to
PREFACE VII
that period ofhistory when the third Burmeseempire founded by
Alaungpaya (1752-1760) seemed to stand solid and solitary
against European penetration into mainland Southeast Asia.
When the first epistle was written, Bodawpaya (1782-1819) was
on the throne. He introduced a strong, centralised and stable
government, changing the democratic character ofthe monarchy
into a benevolent despotism. The strength and stability of his
government resulted in the expansion of trade, both internal and
external. His predecessor and brother Hsinbyushin (1763-1776)
had won a series of victories against China, and although the
treaty which was forced on the defeated Chinese commanders
remained officially unratified by the emperor of China, there was
a free flow of trade between the two countries. The Indian pro
vinces of Manipur and Assam were now Burmese protectorates
and although Siam and Laos were no Ionger in the Burmese
empire, Burmese influence and Burmese power were still strong
enough to maintain a lion's share in their trade. It was the
Europeans who were the most eager to trade with the Burmese.
Burmese teak was in great demand in the building of ships, and
the two warring nations, the English and the French, wooed the
Burmeseking for his goodwill and maintained dockyards at the
port of Syriam near Rangoon. It was also the time of British
"country vessels" which under licence from the English East
lndia Company, plied an extremely profitable trade in opium
with China. Those ships were built in lndia, but the teak for them
had to be bought in Burma. As a result, the ports of Lower Bur
ma teemed with dockyards and ships. Many villagers in Upper
Burma left their homes in quest ofwealth at the Chinese border,
in the Shan States and in Lower Burma. Rangoon specially was
considered to be the place where a man could get rich in a few
days by sawing timher for the teak-hungry dockyards. This
sudden expansion of trade must have resulted in some economic
upheaval. Bodawpaya was succeeded by his grandson, Bagyidaw
(1819-1837), as war clouds gathered on the Burmese horizon.
England was now triumphant over France, and the East India
Company held lndia under its sway. The Company häd also
won Penang and Singapore, and looking across the Bay of
Bengal, it saw Burma lying in its path of dominating Southeast
Asian trade. On the borders of Manipur and Assam where the
vm PREFACE
two empires, Burmese and British Indian, met, there were clashes
of arms. All these events and happenings served as the back
ground of the last epistle of this collection.
Department of Sociology,
Wake Forest College, MAUNG H TIN AuNG
Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
June 10, 1967.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface . V
A Mother and Her Sons
1. Epistle from the Mother to her Son in Lower Burma. 1
2. Epistle to her other Son in the Shan States . 2
3. Epistle advising her Son in Lower Burma 4
4. Epistle consoling her Son in the Shan States 7
Four Epistles from Rangoon
5. Epistle from the Quester after Silver, Mr. Fashionable
to his wife and family . 9
6. Epistle from a disgruntled Son-in-law . 11
7. A Second Epistle from the Son-in-law . 15
8. Epistle from Mr. Shorty to his Mother-in-law and Wife 16
Epistles to Royal Officials
9. Epistle from the Ab bot of a monastery to the Governor
ofa Town. 19
10. Epistle from an Ab bot to a Viilage Headman. 20
11. Epistle from the Headman and Elders of a village to the
Secretary to the King's Treasurer . 22
12. Epistle from the Head of an Ecclesiastical District to the
Primate. 23
Epistles dealing with opportunities and dangers
oJ
Royal Service
13. Epistle from a Father to his courtier Son. . 27
14. Epistle from the courtier Son. . . . . . . 31
15. Epistle from the Mother to her courtier Son 33
16. Epistle to a Royal Official from his Younger Brother . 36
17. Epistle from an anxious Father to his Son . . . . . 38
Bibliographical Notes. 46
Index ...... . 47
A MOTHER AND HER SONS
1. Epistle from the Mother to her Son in Lower Burma
(Many young men from villages in Upper Burma went to the far
north to the Chinese border, the Shan States and Lower Burma,
where trade was rapidly developing, hoping to amass fortunes.)
Putting The Three J ewels1 on the crown of my head, I, your
mother, from the peaceful and pleasant village near the golden
Iake, pining to see you again after long months of absence and
heaping Iove upon Iove, write this letter to you, my beloved son,
my ingot of gold, my handsome, my lordling.
Words spoken by their parents to their children are ever sweet
and fresh as new bloomed flowers, and just as you wear the love
liest flowers in your ears, wear these words of mine in your ears
and give heed to them constantly.
Like the Brahmin mother in theJataka story,2 whose four sons
spurning the splendours of the palace, departed for the forest
hermitage, I am weak with Ionging and weary with sorrow, for
I have but two sons, and one is gone to the far north and the
other to the far south, to travel and to wander in search ofwealth.
The distance is great, and months have passed, and I think of
my sons and consider the dangers to which they are exposed in
strange towns and villages among strange peoples. Sometimes
I call out their names, and other times I sit and dream. I refuse
to Iisten to those who try to console me with soothing words that
surely no mishap could have befallen my golden sons. Anxiety
has sapped my body of its suppleness and strength and often I
1 The Buddha, His Teachings, and His Order of Monks.
2 Hatthi-Pala Jataka, No. 509 in E. B. Cowell, The Jataka, Vol. IV, Garnbridge
University Press, 1907. The many references to the Jatakas found in the epistles
illustrate the fact that the average Burmese of those days were well-acquainted with
these Buddhist Birth stories.