BURMA AND THE BURMESE 1
A 19th century description of Burma, Burmese culture and Burmese customs

BURMA AND THE BURMESE 1

There are undoubtedly thousands of people in Great Britain who have but a vague idea of the manners and customs of the Burmese. They hear of frequent fighting in Burma; they see sketches in the illustrated papers of young officers who have been killed there, and come to the conclusion that the Burmese are a fierce, half-savage nation, possessing very little intelligence, and even less clothing. A greater mistake was never made, for, except in some parts of Upper Burma, they are a merry and contented people, fond of gay clothes, and extremely unwilling to take the life of either a man or an animal. This dislike to taking life, laudable enough in itself, has occasionally been carried to an absurd length, for parents have been known to let pariah dogs and snakes which have bitten their children escape unharmed. This unnatural forbearance is explained by the fact that according to the Buddhist belief animals have souls. Directly a man dies he is born again in some other form, and what that form is depends entirely upon his merits or demerits. If he has lived a meritorious life he is born again in some happier position, but if his life has been bad he is punished by a degraded existence in the shape of some

animal or insect. If, in time, the animal is able to discern between good and bad it is fit to be born again as a man. In spite of their objection to taking human life, the Burmese, a few months ago, flocked to the Phayre Museum the Rangoon Zoo in the expectation of seeing a woman sacrificed. The circumstances were certainly extraordinary. A horrible rumor had spread among them that a Hindoo woman had killed her baby, and made it into curry for her husbands dinner, and for that crime had been sentenced by the English authorities to be thrown alive into the tigers cage. Day after day an excited crowd gathered round the cage, and the foolish rumor was not heard of by the English until the durwan who took the entrance money, seeing that there was some special attraction for the Burmese, took upon himself to raise the price of admission and appropriate the difference, a proceeding which one Burman so forcibly resented that an inquiry into the whole affair became necessary. The more absurd and impossible a story is, the more likely it is to be believed by the Burmese, whose credulity is something astounding. It is not because they are particularly 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12 > Henry Charles Moore, "Burmese Traits" 1893