Burmans

“ To the Burman, not less than to the Greek of long ago, all nature is alive. The forest and the river and the mountains are full of spirits, whom the Burmans call Nats. There are all kinds of Nats, good and bad, great and little, male and female, now living round about us. Some of them live in the trees, especially in the huge fir-tree that shades half an acre without the village; or among the fernlike fronds of the tamarind; and you will often see beneath such a tree, raised upon poles or nestled in the branches, a little house built of bamboo and thatch, perhaps two feet square. ”

“ Nature does almost everything for the Burmans, and yet, Orientals though they are, they are exceptionally industrious. The palmyra tree leaf gives them paper. Butter, sugar, and flour, or their substitutes, grow on trees. Game, fish, fruit, and vegetables are most abundant. And yet they work—the men and women of Burmah—work with a will and to a right good purpose.
The marvellous pagodas, that are the artificial glory of the Burmese landscape, represent all that is best in Burmese art, all that is most persistent in Burmese industry. ”

“ Sometimes the enormous trees and heavy foliage I have already described produce a depth of gloom which might well excuse the superstitious fear of the Burmans, and often recalls to me the pictures in our fairy-books, where some bold knight is depicted entering the depths of an enchanted wood, in search of the dragon that well might dwell there. ”

“ Of the forty or more different races and tribes dwelling in Burma and on its frontiers, the Burmans are the leading race: first, in point of numbers, for they far exceed any of the others; also as regards position and advantages, for they naturally, as the leading race, have come to occupy all the best and most fertile soil, all the tracts of country lying between the great mountain ranges, the valleys of the Irrawaddy and the Chindwin rivers ”

“ Most of the other indigenous races of Burma, as we have seen, are demon worshippers, uncivilised, without a written language, and with many and wide diversities from the Burmans. The Burmans, however, have an ancient civilisation, an elaborate religious system, a philosophy and a literature, and with regard to the arts, handicrafts and conveniences of ordinary life, are quite on a par with the Hindus. ”

“ The natives of India will not leave the plains unless a strong inducement be offered, and the Burmese much prefer not to work, if they can live without doing so. Burmans are usually excellent servants, but they are slow to learn to speak English, and the young housekeeper, who has probably been accustomed to English, or at least Hindustani-speaking servants in Rangoon, experiences great difficulty in making herself understood. ”

“ One thing is clear: the country that can afford to gratify its superstitious fear of omens in this spendthrift way, lightly undertaking to build a new capital every now and then, and whilst sparing so much on pagodas, monasteries, monks and other works of merit, yet look so plump and well favoured as Burmans usually do, must possess considerable sources of wealth, and there is no doubt such is the case with Burma. ”

“ In those days, if Shwebo had one good year in three, it reckoned itself fortunate. Luckily, at harvest-time there was always work in Lower Burma; and if the season failed, crowds streamed down to the teeming rice-fields of the Delta, whence they honourably remitted sustenance for the women, the aged, and the infirm left in their homes. Though emigration is easy and common enough, most Burmans are strongly attached to their birthplace, and cling with passionate affection to their ancestral lands. ”

“ The modern Burmans acknowledge the existence of certain beings which, for want of a better term, we will call ‘almost spiritual beings.’ They apply to them the name Nat. Now, according to Burmese notions, there are two distinct bodies or systems of these creatures. ”

“ On the west, its seaboard washed by the Bay of Bengal, Burma marches with Bengal, Assam, and Manipur; on the east, with China, French Indo-China, and Siam. To the north, it stretches, through tracts unadministered and unexplored, to the confines of Tibet. The mass of the people are Burmans, a Mongol race akin to Chinese and Siamese. Other races in Burma are Talaings, scattered over the Irrawaddy Delta and the Tenasserim division ”

“ Except the pagoda slaves, a class doomed to hereditary servitude in connection with the more important sacred shrines, and with a few other trifling exceptions, the Burmans as a people have all the avenues of native life and privilege open to them. ”

“ Ralph Fitch's descriptions of Burmese life in the 16th century might have been written yesterday.
Among the mass of the people, the national type persists. But contact with the west has begun the process of disintegration. Among the educated and semi-educated classes, probably there has been more change in the last ten years than in the preceding ten centuries. Till quite lately, Burmans took no interest in politics and inclined to prefer personal rule. ”

“ It is not difficult to understand how their religion, combined with their own happy, contented natures, and the enervating effect of climate, renders the Burmans little able to withstand the pressure from without which has lately been brought to bear upon them. ”

“ For my own part, I know little about Buddhism, but I can see that the Burmans are a religious people, much given to worship and offerings, and with a good deal of gaiety in their ceremonies; but, Aunt Flora, although they are delightfully picturesque, and so merry and cheerful, as a mass they are terribly pleasure-loving and lazy; no Burman will work if he can help it; even the women are difficult to get hold of. Mrs. Blake, who is in the District, told me that her ayah, who never exerted herself, had put in for a year’s holiday and rest. ”

“ Somehow the Burmans, though they are in Mandalay considerably over 100,000 strong, and multitudes of them are very poor, fail to take up very many of the duties of life and the needs of society, and allow themselves to be ousted in many employments by immigrants from other countries where the conditions of life have taught them to bestir themselves. ”

“ Page 42The Burmans are, as a race, superior to the Hindoos, being more athletic and vigorous, and more lively and industrious. They are less tall than Americans, their complexions dark, their noses flat, and their lips thick and full. ”

“ I am referring, of course, to the Burmese town, for surrounding the fort are a large number of well-built bungalows, and streets of shops built of stone or brick; but these are for the use of Europeans and Indian or Chinese traders, the Burmans here, as elsewhere, contenting themselves with their thatched houses of timber. It may appear surprising that a people who could erect their marvellous temples should be satisfied with such poor dwellings. ”

“ Several distinct tribes inhabit the Burman dominions. The Burmans or Mranmas, as they style themselves, the rulers of the country, claim to have been originally celestial beings who descended to earth, where they gradually degenerated. The Salain live between the Salwen river and the Galladzet and Anapectomu mountains. The Shans, resembling the Siamese, are scattered over the E. and N. provinces. The Cassayans live chiefly in the capital. The Yo, probably a Chinese tribe who adopted Burmese customs, live on the Irrawaddy. ”

“ A peace-loving, but lazy and drunken people; they include various tribes, such as the Barguzins, Selengese, Idinese, Kudaras and Olkhonese.
Burmese, or Burmans. A short-statured, thick-set and flat-featured people, approaching the Chinese type, the principal race of the Indo-Chinese stock of the Southern Mongolic family. They inhabit Burma—now a British possession—and are excitable, turbulent, and given to dacoity, or highway robbery. They make good [Pg 324] farmers and shopkeepers, but are not warlike or methodical. ”

“ Many of these homes have no out-buildings whatever, trusting to the pariah dogs and the crows,—the village scavengers,—to keep the premises in a sanitary condition. Some of the well-to-do Burmans live in larger better houses; showing that not only is it impracticable for Europeans to live like the natives, but that natives when able, find it wise to live like Europeans. ”

“ Went to the bazaar with my native boy—wish I had a Burmese servant, as neither of us can speak a word of Burmese. I'd advise any tourist to try and get a Burmese servant for guide and councillor. It is horrid being tongue-tied amongst such kindly-looking [Pg 290] people. There does not seem to be much love lost between the Burmans and the natives of India, and I think the foolish Indian natives actually fancy themselves superior! ”

“ Besides foreigners, the people are mainly Burmans, Shans, Karens and other hill tribes. The Burmans are the largest class. Their chief food is rice, and they have, besides, fish or meat daily. They live well, but save little money. Most of the people live in modern houses or bamboo huts, but the pagodas or temples of masonry and the monasteries made of teak are more substantial buildings. ”

“ There is a vast area of land in Upper Burma waiting for population to cultivate it, and if communications were made easy, the Chinese Shans and possibly Chinese and Panthays from Yunnan might be induced to settle in the northern districts. The Chinese and Burmans are akin, and the offspring of Chinese fathers and Burman mothers have the good qualities of both races, which cannot be said of other crosses. ”

“ But see this author's latest book "The Inward Light"—a most exquisite description of what the Burman believes is the teaching of Buddha.
Within a hundred years I can see a few odd Burmans going about with hair long and some little suggestion of the old times, a red silk tie perhaps, and a low collar. Foolish fellows, with quaint ideas about simplicity of life, fraternity, and jollity, and old world ideals of beauty. They will be called artists, or Bohemians, men without any firm belief in the doctrine of necessity, or of the beauty of work for work's sake ”

“ The Anglo-Burmans, while retaining the best qualities of the English [Pg 141] nation, seem to lose entirely that cold and suspicious reserve towards strangers, of which we are often so justly accused. They appear to have adopted those Eastern laws of hospitality, which lay so great a stress on the duty of entertaining strangers, and they cannot do enough to welcome those fellow countrymen who visit the land of their exile. ”

“ In all but the most abandoned, traces of the good influence of their religion are evident. One very pleasing effect is extension of benevolence in theory always, in practice often, to every sentient being. Consider, for instance, the kindly attitude of Burmans to lower animals. From the plump bullocks which draw the primitive, creaking [184] carts of the country to the pariah dogs which swarm in every village, or the pigs which used to scavenge the streets of Mandalay (whose chase, not by the Burmese, was the only form of pig-sticking known in Burma) , all are objects of compassion and care. ”

“ That the Burmans cannot be considered an uncivilised race is clear from the perfect familiarity of their ladies with the mystery of the chignon, and with the manufacture and use of cosmetics for the improvement of the complexion, to say nothing of scents and artificial flowers, also locally made. ”

“ For this purpose these artists have had the tact to leave the patterns fashionable amongst their own countrymen, and have taken to imitating English pictures, devices and emblems. Many a “time-expired” soldier who has served in Burma, now in England, is able to show these decorations (?) on his arms and chest in more than one colour.
The Burmans are a nation of smokers. The children begin at a very tender age, and are not checked. Men, women and children smoke ”

“ Many have prophesied that the "Burman must go to the wall" before the encroachments of natives of India, Chinese, and Karens. As seen in the chief towns the Burman has fairly earned such a reputation.
If he has government employment, even a petty clerkship, he is good for nothing else. Many are "birds of the night"—gamblers—and loafers by day.
The average citizen spends the most of his time in indolence, supported by his more enterprising wife.
But in the jungle villages we find a very different state of affairs. Few men are found in [Pg 180] the village in the daytime. ”

“ Few people would have had the heart to go through with that pwè under the circumstances.
With a rich country, a sparse population, and a warm climate, [165] the conditions of life are easy. The Burman has no struggle to get a living. Riches have little attraction for him. He has no desire to hoard. What he has to spare he spends, either in building a monastery, or a pagoda, or on some humbler work of merit which shall secure him an advantage in the next birth. ”

“ On the north-west similar ranges of hills form a barrier between Burma and the frontier provinces of India, and when I tell you that all these mountains are densely covered with forest and jungle, and that the rivers are wide, and in many cases unnavigable, you will understand how it is that Burma is not better known, and that so few people undertake the arduous work of exploring its interior. ”

“ The arrangements for the procession through the streets were perfect, and the crowds in the streets were great! and best of all were the groups of Burmese country people coming in to town in their bullock carts, the rough dry wood of the wheels and arched sun-bitten covers in such contrast to the family parties tucked up inside, in their short white jackets and skirts and kilts of brightly coloured silks. How happy they are, old and young—you begin to wish you had been born a Burman when you hear their laughter and jollity. ”