BURMA AND THE BURMESE 3
A 19th century description of Burma, Burmese culture and Burmese customs

BURMA AND THE BURMESE 3

were permitted to advance as far as Yandabo, for the king, from motives of piety and regard to life, made no effort whatever to oppose them. The strangers had spent vast sums of money on the enterprise, and by the time they reached Yandabo their resources were exhausted, and they were in great distress. They petitioned the king, who, in his clemency and generosity, sent them large sums of money to pay their expenses back, and ordered them out of the country. Of all the Burmese books the “Lawkanidi,” a collection of proverbs or maxims on subjects of every-day life is the most widely circulated. It is also the most sensible of them, and about twenty years ago the government published an edition of it in Burmese and Pali. It is headed with the usual Buddhist inscription, “Glory be to him that is blessed, that is holy, that is the Author of all Truth,” and is divided into seven chapters, entitled respectively, “The Wise,” “The Good,” “The Wicked and Foolish,” “Friendship,” “Women,” “ Kings,” “ Miscellaneous Subjects.” The following are a few extracts from the book There is no wealth like unto knowledge, for thieves cannot steal it. If none asketh aught of a wise man he is like a drum that is not beaten;

if any asketh aught of him, then his wisdom floweth forth as the rain ; but the ignorant man, whether any asketh aught or asketh not, always talketh much. Whosoever speaketh fair words hath many friends, but the harsh man hath but few. Tame the bad wife by keeping away the money from her. A priest is comely if he be lean; a fourfooted beast is comely when he is fat; a man becometh comely when he is wise, and a woman when she hath a husband. The king is not thy husband ; the king is not thy sisters husband; the king is thy master. The books of the Buddhist Scriptures are the Pitakats, or the three baskets, called respectively, “The Basket of Discipline,” “The Basket of Discourses,” and “The Basket of Metaphysics.” Among the educated Burmese there has been recently started an association styled the Thathanaheeta Association, for the propagation of the Buddhist religion, its chief aims being to print the three Pitakat palm-leaves into a book, and to establish a school under the management of a European Buddhist. In every convent there is a collection of manuscript books which have been engraved on palm-leaves with an iron style by the phoommgyees, or < 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12 > Henry Charles Moore, "Burmese Traits" 1893