History Of Burma Research Articles

The hidden history of Burma: race, capitalism and the crisis of democracy in the 21st century; Women, Peace and Security in Myanmar: between feminism and ethnopolitics

The hidden history of Burma: race, capitalism and the crisis of democracy in the 21st century; Women, Peace and Security in Myanmar: between feminism and ethnopolitics

Editor's Note

Editor's Note Jane M. Ferguson Welcome to the second issue of The Journal of Burma Studies (JBS) for the year 2019! For this issue, this collection of articles offers deep exploration of three aspects of Burma/Myanmar's foundations: spiritual, economic, and sociocultural. Our JBS readership—as many visitors to Bagan (recently granted UNESCO World Heritage Status!)—will be familiar with the pantheon of the "Thirty-Seven Nats." In her article, "Counting to 37: Sir Richard Carnac Temple and the Thirty-Eighth Nat," Sally Bamford offers a compelling historiography as to how Temple's 1906 book about the Nats has led to an oversimplification, if not misrecognition of the ways in which nats are ordered and understood throughout Burma's history. Bamford's discussion offers not only an important lesson in the diversity and roles of the Nats, but also an analysis of the ways in which certain sources about the country gain scholarly momentum in the field. From considering ideas about scholarly currency, and turning to scholarship of currency, the second article in this issue of JBS, by Philip Hauret is entitled, "King Bodawpaya's Effort at a Konbaung Coinage." Although underestimated by the British, the Kingdom's coinage system operated effectively and continued to circulate in Burma through the nineteenth century. Hauret's article, when read in tandem with Bamford's, provides another lesson in British colonial officials misrecognizing or underestimating the dynamism of what was happening in Burma. Their corresponding critique of Richard Carnac Temple for neglecting to notice (or wilfully ignoring?) a coinage system as well as other nats is worth considering as well. We can consider, as well, the role of taxonomies and collecting, and how collectors and their accounts (in both ways) influence our paradigms for understanding the past. While the first two articles problematize fundamental aspects of Burmese historiography, the last article forces us to consider the ways in which certain paradigms gain [End Page iii] bureaucratic momentum and create very real political consequences, some of which have horrific effects. François Robinne has conducted research over many decades in Upland Burma, among heterogenous communities, often very cosmopolitan in their composition and outlook. In his topical piece, "Thinking Through Heterogeneity: An Anthropological Look at Contemporary Myanmar," Robinne argues that the tripartite structure of the Burma/Myanmar nation, dominated by a central political power that is Burmese and Buddhist; the sangha and its interdependent relationship with the Buddhist laity; and finally, the ethnic and religious minority groups that are outside of the other two groups. It is this structure that frames an identity trap to which ethnic politics is beholden in the country. Ultimately, the internal struggles, as well as the national laws are beholden to an approach that essentializes ethnic identity. Robinne's article suggests that it is necessary to transcend these categorical notions of otherness in order to work toward peace in the country. Assembled, the three articles offer a compelling picture of accounting: nats, coins, and people. Thank you for your continued support for JBS. [End Page iv] Jane M. Ferguson The Australian National University Copyright © 2019 Center for Burma Studies, Northern lllinois University

Myanmar. British Burma in the new century, 1895–1918 By Stephen L. Keck Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015. Pp. x + 230. Notes, Bibliography, Index.

British Burma in the new century, 1895-1918 By STEPHEN L. KECK Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015. Pp. x +230. Notes, Bibliography, Index. doi: 10.1017/S0022463416000643 This book, one in the series Britain and the World edited by the British Scholar Society, pursues two lines of approach. One is to focus on a specific period in the history of Burma that the author considers has been neglected, that between the end, about 1895, of the ten years of British 'pacification' that followed the third Burma war and the abolition of the kingdom, and the emergence of nationalist activity around the end of the First World War, in particular with the opening of the University of Rangoon. Dr Keck thinks that the period has an integrity that historians have rather neglected, and that his book is 'the first to delineate this moment as a relatively discrete historical entity' (p. 3). In his view the period shows the 'colonial state' at work and permits clarification of its objectives and effectiveness. And that, he considers, ought to make it more of a feature in the history of Burma/Myanmar than it does in writings that tend to proceed rather too rapidly from conquest to nationalist movement. There is surely something to be said for this point of view, though it seems to be a bit exaggerated. A drawback is that it risks playing down the influence on the policies and assumptions of the period of the experience of the earlier conquests of 'Lower' Burma. The second line of approach is to make use less of the official records than of 'colonial knowledge', to work, as the author puts it, 'outside the grain' (p. 22). In this he particularly refers to the writing about Burma in the period with which he is mainly concerned, especially those he calls 'Burmaphiles', such as Sir George Scott (Shway Yoe), V.C. Scott O'Connor, Harold Fielding-Hall, Colin Metcalfe Enriques, 'the most important strand of British intellectual history for this study' (p. 18). The aim is to let 'these largely forgotten figures'--he adds in missionaries, 'memorialists', travellers and satirists--'introduce new century Burma' (pp. 24-5). After the first chapter has introduced these approaches, the second concerns itself with 'locating' Burma. The most interesting conclusion Dr Keck draws from his sources is their indication that Burma would develop as a new nation, but separate from India, of which it had been made a province. That notion is indeed worth bearing in mind when historians consider 'separation' in the inter-war period. The third chapter, 'Governing Burma', draws on 'colonial knowledge' rather less and official records rather more. It discusses the role of the headman (though without the usual critique of the irrelevance of Sir Charles Crosthwaite's approach), policing, prisons, the use of Insein as a reformatory, corruption, public health, and the handling of the outbreaks of bubonic plague. …

Contribution à l’histoire de la peinture murale bouddhique de Birmanie : origine de la tradition narrative Nyaungyan (milieu du XIVe-seconde moitié du XVIe siècle)

The emergence of the Nyaungyan tradition in the early 17th century is a key moment in the history of Burma’s mural painting, one of whose foundations is the continuous narration in captioned registers. Although the first known example goes back to the 12th-century paintings of the Lokahteikpan, it had not gained widespread acceptance. Based on a new classification of Nyaungyan styles, this article attempts to resolve the hiatus. It appears that the Nyaungyan narrative tradition does not go back to the earliest Buddhist murals of the 11th–13th centuries, but to those of the 14th–16th centuries. The iconography, which was to prevail in the Nyaungyan and Konbaung styles from the 17th to the middle of the 19th century, was fixed from the second half of the 16th century in the proto-Nyaungyan style. The modern narrative format was born with the Nyaungyan tradition and this article attempts to trace it back to its formation.

Religion, Ethnicity, and Nationalism in Burma

Experts (scholars, historians, and journalists) closely following Burmese politics have generally agreed that the history of Burma has been defined by sectarian ferocity, ethnic divergence, religio-racial nationalism, and protracted armed insurgency following the departure of the British and the formation of the union of modern Burma in 1948.1 The Burmese have rarely seen economic prosperity, political stability, religious freedom, and genuine peace for over a half century. What went wrong in Burmese history? The thesis of this essay stresses that Burma has historically been plagued by sectarian violence, political repression, and brutal insurgency because of the conflicting policy of national unity adopted and adapted by those who projected and determined the fate and future of the country. Prior to exploring and analyzing how religion, ethnicity, and nationalism have played vital roles in the making of Burmese history, a short background of the country is offered here. Burma is the largest of the mainland southeastern Asian states, one of the most ethnically diverse countries in the world with 135 subgroups, and home to 53 million people. It shares a border with Bangladesh and India in the west, Tibet and China in the north, and Laos and Thailand in the east. The coastline of the Indian Ocean forms a natural boundary to the south. There are eight major ethnic groups in the country: Burman (69.0 percent), Shan (8.5 percent), Kachin (1.4 percent), Karen (6.2 percent), Chin (2.2 percent), Mon (2.4 percent), Rakhine (4.5 percent), and Karenni (0.4 percent).2 These statistics come from official 1983 figures and are subject to dispute, not only because the government, dominated by the Burman majority, has been accused of exaggerating the numbers of the Burman population for political ends, but also because there has been no complete census in Burma since 1931.3 Disputing such contested figures, Bruce Matthews, for instance, states that ethnic minority groups combined represent roughly 40 percent of the entire population in the country.4

Rohingya Crisis in Myanmar

This article argues that Rohingyas in Myanmar have been deliberately excluded by its government. The claims of the government and political leaders that Rohingyas are illegal migrants could no way be justified due to the clear fact that they have been a part of long history of Burma. Due to the exclusionary policies, this population group has been systematically marginalized, persecuted, deprived of basic rights, and abused. Available protection space for Rohingya refugees in the region has become extremely volatile due to the reluctance to sign the 1951 Convention and a lack of national legal frameworks in most southeast Asian countries. Despite political pressure from the international community and local activists groups calling for the government to stop the violence, there is no sign to end the violence.

Ethnic Armies and Ethnic Conflict in Burma

This paper considers the recruitment of volunteer levies into British forces in northern Burma during the Second World War. Using data compiled by a local veterans' association, the paper raises questions about the supposed historical continuities that are believed to exist across military forces of the pre- and post-war periods. The data indicate that prevailing assumptions about the motivations and aspirations of local recruits should be challenged more than they have been to date. The author proposes new approaches to using quantitative data to reveal broader social trends in issues of military recruitment that could be extended into other times and places. Such methods could be particularly helpful in facilitating deeper and more nuanced demographic and social insights into Burma's history of internal militarized conflict and the ways in which recruitment practices relate to the communities from which recruits are drawn.

Coastal‐inland interactions in Burmese history: a long‐term perspective

The history of Burma, like that of many Southeast Asian countries, can be viewed in terms of the interaction between coastal regions and kingdoms, on the one hand, and more densely populated inland agrarian states on the other. In the case of Burma this division also largely coincides with ethnic differences between the Mon and the Arakanese in the former category and the Burmans and the Shans in the latter. External influences have typically been transmitted through overseas contact, with India and Ceylon as in the case of the pervasive cultural force of Buddhism, and later with the impact of firearms introduced by the Portuguese during the 16th century, that formed the background to the protracted conflicts between the Burmese Toungoo, Ava and Konbaung kingdoms and the Thai kingdom of Ayuthia. The beginning of the 19th century saw the start of the three wars between the Konbaung Dynasty and India‐based British imperialism in which the major role was played by disputes over trade and the Bengal‐Arakan frontier. British rule in Lower Burma after 1826 and 1854 transformed the economic system of the country even before the complete occupation after 1885 by integrating it with the expanding world economy through rice and teak exports. Between 1885 and the Japanese invasion of 1942 the impact of international trade, foreign direct investment and immigration was the major force of both expansion and contraction of the economic system, as well as of social and political change and instability, eventually culminating after 1945 in the achievement of independence. The economic policy of independent Burma, during both the civilian and subsequent military regimes, was largely shaped by the fraught legacy of overseas contact in Burmese history as noted above. The recent change of the capital from the commercial port of Rangoon to the new inland ‘city’ of Naypyidaw is thus of more than merely symbolic significance since it may reflect a desire to return to the apparently safe isolation of the interior ‘heartland’ over the vicissitudes of international trade and overseas contacts. But is that a wise choice in the increasingly globalized world of the 21st century?

Mr Houghton and Dr Führer: A Scholarly Vendetta and its Consequences

Between 1895 and 1921, the early history of Burma rested on a false premise: that the three oldest inscriptions found in Burma were genuine. Who forged these inscriptions? Why did they do so? By whom were the forgeries exposed? The answers to these questions prompt troubling thoughts about how state power impinged on the autonomous pursuit of knowledge during the high noon of the British Empire.

PARCHING THE LAND?: THE CHETTIARS IN BURMA

In the history of Burma's economy, few groups have been as vilified as the Chettiars. A community of Indian moneylenders, the Chettiars were crucial agents in transforming Burma into the rice bowl of Asia. Following the global depression of the 1930s, Burmese agriculture became severely distressed and wide‐scale loan default saw the transfer of much of Burma's cultivatable land to the Chettiars, who were demonised and made scapegoats for the vices of colonialism. The paper draws on the ‘information‐theoretic revolution’ in economics to reappraise the role of the Chettiars in Burma. We conclude the Chettiars merit history's better judgement.

The <i>Myaungmya</i> Incident and Karens under the Japanese Occupation in Burma

The Myaungmya Incident was the first large-scale ethnic collision between Karens and Burmans in the history of Burma, and it was triggered by the entry of the Japanese Army and the BIA (Burma Independence Army) into Burma in early 1942. This paper examines the significance of the incident for the Karens, who were in fact a scattered people comprising several distinct groups or communities before it occurred. Among them, it was Baptist Sgaw Karen who, in collaboration with Baptist missionaries, British colonialists, and Burman intellectuals, had propagated Karen-ness in the colonial society and cultivated the idea that there is an entity or people called the Karen. However, Buddhist Pwo Karen, for example, who constituted about two-thirds of the whole Karen population in the Irrawaddy Delta region, had hardly shared a sense of being Karen as defined by the Baptist Sgaw.It has been said that clashes between the Karens and Burmans took place because the BIA were in need of weapons, and they believed these could be found in the hands of Karens without regard to their internal differences. However, the BIA and Thakins or Burman nationalists, applied a label of Karen versus Burman to this complicated conflict. As a result of the incident, about 5, 000 were killed and 15-30% of the 2, 000 villages in the northern Myaungmya District suffered partial or total losses of their houses. In the course of the clashes, the Buddhist Pwo suffered most and accepted the label applied by the BIA and Thakins. During this process, the Buddhist Pwo gradually realized that they were a part of the Karen and began to foster Karen nationalism. This development can be best observed through the existence and image of Shwe Tun Kya, who was an ordinary Buddhist Pwo and even a Thakin before the conflict and who subsequently took on an active role as a Karen nationalist.For the Karens, the Myaungmya Incident incited various grass-roots movements, and limited though these movements were, the participants actually perceived, experienced, and shared a collectivity of Karen-ness, which had mostly existed on the level of discourse until then. This Karen-ness was perceived first by the Karens who suffered in the Myaungmya Incident and second by the Karens who heard of the event afterwards and received it as part of their own experience. Furthermore, without the events of the Myaungmya Incident, the Buddhist sector would have participated less in the Baptist-led armed struggles of the Karen against the Burman central government in independent Burma, which started in 1949 and is still continuing to this day. Only after the Myaungmya Incident were the Karens able to form an ethnic political movement, which could mobilize the wider part of the Karen population.

Burma's Lost Kingdoms: Splendours of Arakan (review)

Reviewed by: Burma's Lost Kingdoms: Splendours of Arakan Michael W. Charney Burma's Lost Kingdoms: Splendours of Arakan. Pamela Gutman and photography by Zaw Min Yu. Bangkok: Orchid Press, 2001. xii + 176 pp, photographs, illustrations, map, bibliography, index. $40.00. ISBN 974-8304-98-1. Western Burma (or Arakan) has long been Burma's neglected corner for historical and art historical research. In the early 1890s, Emil Forchhammer, a colonial-era scholar, produced the first lengthy study of the epigraphy and art history of early western Burma (Report on the Antiquities of Arakan, Rangoon, published by the Superintendent of Government Printing, 1892). Other scholars followed, including San Shwe Bu, in the early decades of the twentieth century, and U San Tha Aung, in the early 1970s, contributing significantly to our knowledge of pre-eighteenth-century western Burma. Pamela Gutman added much to this literature in 1976, when she submitted her Ph.D. dissertation, "Ancient Arakan, With Special Reference to its Cultural History between the 5th and the 11th Centuries," to the Australian National University. Since then, Gutman has published numerous articles on the numismatics and art of western Burma. In the 1990s, a relative "boom" occurred in the historiography on pre-modern Burma, covering early modern trade, state formation, European interactions, cultural exchanges between western Burma and Sri Lanka, and art history. While the present volume appears to be targeted to a popular audience, it touches upon some of this historiography and helps to summarize it into a [End Page 171] coherent survey of early western Burmese history. The book consists of a balance of photographs by Zaw Min Yu and Gutman's descriptive text. The photographs are of a very high quality and should prove informative to anyone who has not yet visited Mrauk-U, the royal capital of the early modern kingdom of Arakan (c. 1430s– 1780s), or the towns that preceded it. Although travel to western Burma was restricted for some time by the Burmese government, it is now open to tourists, and Mrauk-U is accessible up the Kaladan River from the town of Sittwe. Gutman's text provides a summary of some of the key events and developments in western Burma's history in order to put the photographs into context. Forchhammer (1892) provides a more detailed discussion of the temples than that offered here, but Gutman compensates for this by her incorporation of material on Buddhist images and other developments not considered by Forchhammer. Gutman also draws attention to recent developments, such as the "destruction" of the Santikhan mosque, presumed to be an early fifteenth-century structure (p. 86). Along a similar vein, Gutman's discussion generally raises awareness of the changes that Mrauk-U's structures have undergone, making on-site analysis difficult (p. 100). As with any book, there are problems. It is likely the case that the style of this volume appears to be geared to a popular audience. Thus, specific citations of pages and volumes are not used. Only a slim survey of the literature appears in the bibliography, with several crucial works missing (for example, Catherine Raymond's "Étude des Relations Religieuses Entre le Sri Lanka et l'Arakan du XIIc au XVIIIc Siècle: Documentation Historique et Èvidences Archèologiques," Journal Asiatique 283(2) : 469– 501, 1995, and the various works of U San Tha Aung). This reviewer strongly recommends that any future edition of this book utilize specific citations, and include a broader survey of the literature, so that it will be more useful to scholars. With a coherent general survey of early western Burmese art and architecture and a very absorbing body of photographic material, this volume will appeal to a wide audience. While its usefulness for researchers is limited, for the reasons mentioned above, those desiring an introduction to western Burma will find this to be an interesting book. Michael W. Charney Department of History, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London Copyright © 2003 University of Hawai'i Press

The Coming of the "Future King": Burmese Minlaung Expectations Before and During the Second World War

Throughout the history of Burma we come across rebellions often led by so-called "future kings," minlaungs . In western historiography, minlaung -movements are usually attributed to the pre-colonial past, whereas rebellions and movements occurring during the British colonial period are conceived of as proto-nationalist in character and thus an indication of the westernizing process. In this article, the notion of minlaung and concomitant ideas about rebellion and the magical-spiritual forces involved are explained against the backdrop of Burmese-Buddhist culture. It is further shown how these ideas persisted and gained momentum before and during World War II and how they affected the western educated nationalists, especially Aung San whose political actions fit into the cultural pattern of the career of a minlaung .

Aung San and the struggle for Burmese independence

Aung San, the architect of Burma's freedom, was one of the most important political figures in the history of Burma's struggle for independence. Beginning as a student leader and activist in the 1930s, Aung San went on to assume prominent leadership positions in Burma's nationalist movement. At the beginning of World War II, he organized a clandestine trip to Japan in search of funds and military training in order to fight against British imperialism, but his close-knit group Thirty Comrades found it necessary to resist not only the British, but also the Japanese. In the postwar years, Aung San became Burma's chief negotiator for independence from Britain, focusing much of his energy on promoting co-operation and unity among Burma's many ethnic groups. Aung San's tragic assassination in 1947 at the age of 32 denied him the privilege of seeing his country claim the freedom and unity to which he had dedicated his life. This history sets the life of Aung San squarely in the context of Burma's historic struggle for freedom. Photographs and texts of documents written by Aung San enliven the account.

Editorial: Recent Developments in the Archaeology of Myanma Pyay (Burma): An Introduction

Editorial:Recent Developments in the Archaeology of Myanma Pyay (Burma): An Introduction Michael A. Aung-Thwin and Miriam T. Stark Click for larger view View full resolution Map 1. Palaeolithic and Early Anyathian sites. (Map by Jane Eckelman) Click for larger view View full resolution Map 2. Post-Anyathian and Bronze Age sites. (Map by Jane Eckelman) We are pleased to welcome readers to this special issue of Asian Perspectives that focuses on the archaeology of Myanma Pyay (Burma).1 Six papers present findings from archaeological research on different aspects of Burma's history and prehistory. They draw from recent field research, collections analysis, technical studies, and reports circulated within the country's boundaries. In addition, two of the leading archaeologists of mainland Southeast Asia, Professor Charles Higham and Professor Ian Glover, have graciously agreed to comment on these papers and to share their perspectives on the archaeology of Burma. The time has come for a reckoning of our knowledge of Burma's archaeology and to establish a foundation for the growing number of research projects that have been launched, and will begin in the near future. In these introductory comments, we first explain the origins of, and justification for, a special issue devoted to a single country's archaeology. We then tack between general concerns in the archaeology of Burma and issues that the following papers raise. One afternoon in April 1999, asa group of us walked toward the anthropology department on the campus of the University of Hawai'i to hear Bob Hudson give a lecture on his doctoral research in Burma, we decided that the time was right to produce a special issue on Burma's archaeology. From a research perspective, Burma's location makes it a key player in cultural developments that occurred in mainland Southeast Asia (as well as in eastern India and southwestern China), and we discuss this point later in our introduction. From a topical perspective, Burma has begun to welcome foreign archaeologists to undertake work within its borders. Currently, Burmese archaeology forms the focus of postgraduate research for several students in Australia, the United States, and Singapore. In July 1998, several Burmese scholars attended the 16th Congress of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association conference in Melaka, Malaysia; they presented reports on a possible Bronze Age site in Burma to a standing-room only audience. In April 1999, one of us (MAT) organized a successful session on Burma called "Burma Studies: The Next Generation" for the annual meeting of the Association for Asian Studies that included two reports on archaeological research in the country. [End Page 1] One reason for this increased interest stems from Burma's academic leadership, which is genuinely interested in its archaeological heritage. In January 1999, Burmese archaeologists hosted a conference on prehistory that was inspired by excavations at a new Bronze Age site called Nyaung-gan (described in this issue by Moore and Pauk Pauk). The country has also recently opened up to tourism and certain fields of scholarship, including (and surprisingly) political science. A new national museum was constructed in the 1990s, which now displays prehistoric artifacts once stored in dusty boxes in an obscure archaeological department. Even the national archives have now been opened for research, boasting a digitized index of holdings, scanners and printers, and computers for those using the archives. A new manuscript archive was opened in the year 2000 with similar electronic equipment meant for public use. And, what had once been an onerous ordeal at the airport now had been largely alleviated by the use of FECs (Foreign Exchange Coupons) that give market rates for visitors' dollars, used as such or exchanged for kyats at market rates almost everywhere. Thus it seemed to us on that spring afternoon that the time had come to publish work on the archaeology of Burma for both academic and infrastructural reasons. Yet, in 1999 one could also count the number of Burma prehistorians on one hand. For various reasons, most of them are out of touch with new techniques and methods and sorely in need of modern equipment and adequate funding. If our group, which was genuinely interested in disseminating information on Burma's prehistory...

Trends in Burma-ASEAN Trade Relations

Trade relations between Burma and its ASEAN neighbours have existed since the earliest days of Burma's history. Trade has been growing rapidly during the last twelve years although the level of official trade, by international standards, is very low. This generally low level of trade may be attributed to a complex of factors in the contemporary history and political economy of Burma and ASEAN countries which have influenced the degree of openness of their economies and thus to trade. This study explores and analyses the trade relations between ASEAN countries and Burma. It raises the issue of whether the economies of the ASEAN nations and Burma are competitive or complementary. It also explores the future prospects of trade and counter-trade.

The place of Gordon Luce in research and education in Burma during the last decades of British rule

There is a good deal that is tantalizing and rather sad about the life and work of G. H. Luce who has a claim to be considered the most distinguished British scholar to explore Burma's past, with only Sir Arthur Phayre as his peer. Both were pioneers. Both explored Burma's history with deep sympathy and insight. Phayre left as his monument a complete history from the earliest times to the British occupation. In certain respects, for example in his scheme of periodization, this remains the model for his successors. Luce produced a corpus of specialized studies which greatly extended knowledge of the sources of Burma's early medieval history and the details of its infrastructure - far beyond the range of Phayre's researches. Yet he did not nurture his work to full fruition.

The Role of Women in Rural Burma: A Case Study

Out of Burma's population of 3'64 million in 1984-85, women comprised almost half, that is, 1.8 million. Almost the same ratio applies to the economically active population (Appendix 1; Mi Mi Khaing 1984). Obviously, the above statistics show the significance of women in Burma. Women have enjoyed relatively equal status in politics and administration, as well as in the legal, economic and culture fields throughout Burma's history. In spite of their significant role, it is unfortunate that there are no systematic studies about Burmese women and their role in socio-economic life. The main purpose of this study is to try to provide some insights into this neglected area of study. The village of Thanat Pyin in Hlegu township, in Rangoon Division, was chosen as the site of study. The village is only 13 miles from Hlegu and is accessible by bus or by car directly from Rangoon or from Hlegu (Appendix 3). The principal crop grown in Thanat Pyin is paddy. Researchers collected data on occupational patterns, daily time use, and participation in decision making. Observation, interview and questionnaire methods were applied. The village was visited twice: first in April 1980 (that is, in the agricultural off-season) and then in August 1981 (during the agricultural season). A one-day survey was carried out on each visit. Applying the Random Sampling Method, 50 households (30 per cent of the total 169 households) were selected and all the female members of the selected households, in the 12 to 65 age group were interviewed using prepared questionnaires1. Ninetyfive women were

A History of Burma

A History of Burma

A History of Burma

A History of Burma