Chin history
Websites/Multiple Documents
Source/publisher:
Wikipedia
Date of entry/update:
2010-11-12
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Category:
Chin history
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English
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Source/publisher:
Matupi Students Union (Burma)
Date of entry/update:
2010-11-12
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Chin history
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English
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Individual Documents
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"IT IS a privilege and a pleasure to write this brief note to Ambassador Vum Ko Hau?s
remarkable book. What I know of him, how high a regard I have for him, will appear in the
profile of him that I wrote for The Guardian magazine of Burma several years ago and which is
reproduced in this collection. The memoirs themselves project a deeply human profile of a
remarkable man who, like the memoirs he has composed, is simultaneously simple and sophisticated,
modest and proud, shy and out-going, a man whose heart is in his native hills and yet
who feels quite at home in the glittering diplomacy and statecraft of London or Paris, United
Nations or Rangoon. Here is a man who loves the folklore and folksong of his people, the Chins
of Burma, who is so deeply conscious of his origins as to call himself "Vum Ko Hau of Siyin"
after the valley in which his ancestors and he were born, and yet who is also fond of the
cultures and the fine things of the world, the literatures, the arts, history, music and even the
rare coins.
U Vum Ko Hau wrote to me a few months ago to say that he was preparing the"memoirs
for the press with the very modest purpose of satisfying the wish of his late father — an illustrious
man whom I had the honour to meet in the hills a few years before his death — that
the family be traced and put on the record and the family papers and stories and songs be? preserved
and handed on to the future generations. Only a very small edition is contemplated, U
Vum Ko Hau wrote, for the book would be for family and friends alone. Even then, however,
I at once felt that the author was either unaware of or too modest about the value of the book
,he was writing. In the Chin Hills there is much in the way of oral history, but little is on record.
The tombstones and the monuments tell some tales, but how much can they tell ? And this
oral history, how long can it endure, for memories of man fade. Not history alone, but the
cultures, the mores and the traditions of his people are going into the book, I gathered from
what little U Vum Ko Hau wrote to me in outline, and I told him that such a book will be a
treasure to the historian as well as the anthropologist, the social scientist and the administrator,
and scholars of Burma and of the world. More and more scholars the world over are realizing
that there is no such thing as pure history, pure law, pure science, or pure arts : these are interlinked,
and poor is the historian who looks upon his role as that of a recorder of dates and events,
poor the lawyer who can only glibly cite the statutes and the ancient precedents, poor the
artist who can only dream of beauty in the abstract. More and more the frontiers of fields of
study and scholarship are expanding, and there is much lending "and borrowing and overlapping,
and each field of scholarship, whatever name it bears, only marks a degree of emphasis. Thus
this book which contains, in the author?s own words, "a sort of blend of history, biography,
ethnography, primitive culture, political events, arts, etc" is bound to interest and excite scholars
in many fields. And what a pleasant and potent blend the- book makes ! 1
There is yet another reason why I expect that this book will have a much wider circulation and
a much greater value than the author modestly anticipates. People in Burma do not write memoirs
or collections like this. Our literature is rich, and authors and scholars are many who more
than attain international standards. But come to biography, come to meVnoirs, authors are shy and
reticent. The result is that a large part of our contemporary history is going by unrecorded.
In a decade or so, the historian will find it difficult to get together the raw material for his work.
He may find some old newspapers and bulletins, but much of the history that is being seen at close
quarters, lived through, or made by people like Ambassador Vum Ko Hau would have been lost.
People like U Vum Ko Hau, but not U Vum Ko Hau himself, for here is his book, and before
this he has written and spoken, and after this too, we must hope, he will continue to write
and speak. Here, therefore, is not just the folksong of the Chin Hills, or the story of a family,
but an important part of the living history of our country. Here in this book is much meat
and many beautiful gems, and in writing the book the author has done much more than fulfil the
wish of his late father; he has given us a gift we can treasure and enjoy....
Maung Maung
Rangoon,
March 27, 1963.
Source/publisher:
Vum Ko Hau
Date of publication:
1962-11-30
Date of entry/update:
2018-06-06
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Chin history
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Description:
Conclusion: "To conclude the article, chin state has
diverse
and multiple dialects, language, norms, traditions
and
religions,
and
is
eager to
set up own identity based on its context.
Especially,
from
a
small tribe to a
big tribe group, they want
to get their own identity and self-administration according to the history
of myths
and traditional practices. It means that every tribe group has the
same rights and the same
opportunities
in
its
life.
For instance, every tribe group
has
its
own customary law
and
traditional
land use authority. Moreover, the rights are
leading them to establish federal system in their own
destination,
ensuring, respecting and protecting minority rights. Therefore, most of
the
ethnic
political parties believe that Federalism is the best way to ensure and protect their own identity and
own people in Myanmar. In fact, ethnic political parties play officially in the democratic system of
Myanmar,
demanding federal administration in
the
political agenda. For instance,
by
looking at the
Chin ethnic political parties, they
have the same vision,
that is
to initiate
the federal state and ensure
the rights of Chin people in Myanmar.
Meanwhile, ethnic armed
groups
have been
opposing the
political system of Myanmar because the junta administration and democratic p
ractice of Myanmar
is not ensuring
the political rights of ethnic people and indigenous p
eople in term of social, cultural,
traditional and administration. Mostly,
Myanmar democratic transition has been a
favor to the
majority Burmese people, discrimination
toward
ethnic people in different levels
of constitution and
bureaucratic system, mainly dominated by central government as well. In fact, the minorities feel
that they have to retain their language, their religion, their custom and
be
granted
to be full
members of the state. Especially, Chin political parties
have been
strongly standing on ?We are co-founders of the U
nion of
Myanmar,
also called the union of Burma”.
I assume that if there is no
federal
system in Myanmar, the rights of ethnic groups
will be neglected and the civil war
will not
end. In fact, the ethnic people and ethnic arm groups will fight to retain them in political agenda of
Myanmar.
However, the ethnic minorities of
Myanmar need to
tolerate the fact
that inclusion is the
best way to establish the union state rather than separation from the union state. Majority
of them
also need to recognize the philosophy
of federalism and protect the rights of ethnic people,
indigenous people and their ways of life. It means that the Union of Myanmar is found together with
multi-nationality..."
Salai Vanni Bawi
Source/publisher:
International Conference on Burma/Myanmar Studies: Burma/Myanmar in Transition: Connectivity, Changes and Challenges: University Academic Service Centre (UNISERV), Chiang Mai University, Thailand, 24-26 July 2015
Date of publication:
2015-07-26
Date of entry/update:
2015-08-07
[field_licence]
Type:
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Language:
English
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Description:
"This book contains the most comprehensive analysis of the people mostly known as Chin, Khyeng, Kuki, Lushai, and Plains Chin. It analyses the effect of imposing several names to these people. The author, Dr. Vumson chooses "Zo" as the common name because most of them call themselves by this name. The readers will find how the Zo people migrated from Western China—Tibet to the valley of the Chindwin and Irrawaddy and then to the Kale —Kabaw—Myittha Valleys and why they migrated to the rugged hill areas they occupy now.
The proud and brave Zo people were colonialized, though they resisted with all their might. Then Japan invaded their country, exposing them to modern industrial warfare and dislocating their social and political behaviour. When the colonial rule ended they were divided into three countries hopelessly outnumbered by Indians and Burmans. The book analyses how they struggle to survive and retain their distinctive identity.
It is most interesting to see how the same people develope themselves in two forms of societies, one under socialism and the other under free enterprise." [from the cover of the hard copy edition]...N.B. MANY (MOST?) OF THE BIBLIOGRAPHIC ENDNOTES ARE REPLACED BY ". SINCE THE BIBLIOGRAPHY IS ALPHABETICAL, ONE CAN LOOK UP ANY NAME FOLLOWED BY ". THESE ERRORS WILL BE CORRECTED IN A FUTURE VERSION, BUT IT MAY TAKE A LITTLE TIME. -- OBL LIBRARIAN.
Vumson
Source/publisher:
Vumson via N.T. Thawnga, Aizawl, India
Date of publication:
1985-11-30
Date of entry/update:
2011-10-24
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Language:
Format :
pdf
Size:
2.9 MB
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