Where to Begin?: A Brief Intellectual Biography of F. K. Lehman (F. K. L. U Chit Hlaing)

Abstract

Where to Begin? A Brief Intellectual Biography of F. K. Lehman (F. K. L. U Chit Hlaing) Juliane Schober F. K. Lehman, (F. K. L. U Chit Hlaing) retired in 2009 at the age of eighty-five from the University of Illinois where he had taught since 1959 and mentored dozens of doctoral students in anthropology, Asian studies, linguistics, and Buddhist studies. His publications include more than sixty articles and his classic study tribal kinship systems, The Structure of Chin Society (University of Illinois Press, 1963 and 1981). Where to begin in tracing such a long and productive trajectory of research and teaching about Theravada Buddhist civilizations and their intersections with tribal societies in the peripheries of lowland kingdoms in Southeast Asia? No one can replicate all that he has come to know over the course of nearly a century about the history, cultures, languages, ethnicity, and religion of the region. His academic journey started with his doctoral work at Columbia on classical Indian civilizations, and later expanded to Tibeto- Burman linguistics, to the anthropology of lowland and upland cultures in Burma and Thailand, and to his most recent work on trade networks in Yunnan, Southwest China. Few scholars today are able to bring to the study of Asia the depth of academic knowledge, transdisciplinary work and personal insight into the region’s history that result from his [End Page 1] lifelong involvement with Asia.1 His exceptional biography spans vast life experiences in colonial India, Southeast Asia, and the global prominence of contemporary Chinese trade patterns. Born in New York City in 1924, he spent his first four years in Calcutta, India, where his family members were gem merchants and subsequently lived with the family in Lashio, in Burma, then a center of the gem trade. He returned to New York in early 1941, and New York University, 1946–49, for his undergraduate education in mathematics, the social sciences, and languages in 1950. He received his doctorate from Columbia University in anthropology and linguistics in 1959, with a dissertation on the cultural history of India. Professor Lehman joined the University of Illinois first in 1952 to work with Julian Steward and then moved to the Human Relations Area Files at Yale, working on the new files for Southeast Asia, thence to a post-doctoral training in Indology at the University of Pennsylvania, only to return to Illinois again in late 1958, when the newly founded Department of Anthropology there recruited him. He returned to Burma in 1957–58 and again in 1961–62 to work with the eminent archeologist of Pagan, Gordon Luce, at Rangoon University and to conduct ethnographic fieldwork among the Chin tribes. Since then, he has continued to return to Southeast Asia many times. He has carried out ethnographic work among the Chin, Kayah, Lushai, Shan, Karen, Burmese, Shan, Thai, and Yunnanese on a wide range of topics that include studies of ethnicity, kinship, religion, cultural history, and linguistics. For most of his tenure at the University of Illinois, Professor Lehman was Director of Graduate Studies and supervised more than two dozen dissertations there. In the course of his career, he also contributed to many professional organizations and has been a dedicated steward of the study of Burma and its ethnic minorities. Since 1974, he has served as Chairman of the Burma Studies Group, a unit within the [End Page 2] Click for larger view View full resolution Fieldwork Sites of the Ethnographic & Linguistic Research of F. K. L. U Chit Hlaing (F. K. Lehman) 1. Chin Hills, Burma. 1957–58 Hakha area/Hrarng,1960–61 Mindat area/NgBong 2. Kayah State, Burma. 1961. Kyebogi 3. Mae Hongsorn, NW Thailand. Summer 1965 and 1967–68. Shan (Mawk Champe) and Eastern Kayah 4. Mandalay, Burma. 1980–81 (Palace dialect and Burmese social organization), 1999 Buddhism 5. Mizoram, India. Winter 1989–90. Mara (Lakher) language and Mizo (Lushai) kinship 6. Yunnan, China. Summer 2001. Wa (Headhunting and other matters) Porok Wa Buddhism 7. China-Burma border, study of cross-border gem trade: Ruili and Tengchong-He Shun (Yunnan, China) Mandalay, Myitkyina, Lashio (Burma) [End Page 3] Southeast Asia Council of the Association for Asian Studies. His efforts were...