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Richard Humpheries (Black and White) Jason Miller Shwe Koako, Karen State Sylvia Murcfeld Photographs Jean de La Tour Richard Humphries _______________ Version Date June 2004 12/01/2005 Website: Designed, Built and written by Paul Keenan |
Saw Law Bath Q-Could you tell me your name, age, and something about your family? A-My name is Saw Law Bath. I am 56 years old. When I was 8 years old my mother died. After that my father got married to another woman and had two children with her: one girl and one boy. I went to school until ninth standard, and then I took the high school final, but I did not pass, so I quit school. After that I came to Maung Chin to find a job. I stayed in Maung Chin three years, after that I went back to visit my father in Tha Don. My father was a pastor in my village. then, I came back to Maung Chin for four or five years. I got married in 1977. At that time, the Burmese government controlled Maung Chin, so the villagers could not go there, and the people who lived there could not get out. If they (the Burmese military) saw any villagers leave, fought and killed them. We always had to be careful in the village; if we heard that the Burmese military was coming we had to hide carefully in the village. At that time, I had one child; he was a boy. He was born in 1978 at the end of August, so I named him August-end. In 1979 the Burmese government offered peace to our people, so I called my wife and my son, and we stayed in Maung Chin. In 1980 I had a second son. When I lived in Maung Chin my job was to dig holes and do metalwork. At first I did well, but, then the Burmese took our work away, and didn't let us find new work. They took the peoples holes and made them national holes. If you worked another job you weren't allowed to buy rice in the shop. If you worked their jobs, they didn't give you enough materials to work with. Later I quitted this Job and found another for my family.
Q-When you stayed with you parents, how did you help them? A-When I stayed with my father I was a student. When the school closed, I found a job. Because my father was a pastor he did not have money enough for me to go to school, so when thee school closed for two months I had to follow the cars, and find a job-for my studies.
Q-Did you have a lot of friends? A-As an adult, I was a member of the church. I helped my friends any way I could, so I had many friends.
Q-What did you play when you were a child? A-When I was a student I played football. I also swam and boxed.
Q-What differences have you felt between then and now? A-When I was a child, a student, and when I got married I had to work very hard in Burma. If you worked you can eat; if you didn't work than you didn't have food to eat. Because the situation changed and the Burmese government tortured many people, so had to move to Thailand and live in a refugee camp. the differences for me is: if you want to go outside and find a job, you cannot, but you can get food from the BBC and the UN. They help us in so many ways, so we say it is because God blesses us.
Q-Why did you become a Christian? A-Every person must have a religion. My father was a pastor, and I was brought up Christian, so I became Christian.
Q-Do you think Christianity is good? A-I believe Christianity is good because I think our god is the true God. Also, I think it is better for me, so I believe in it.
Q-Could you tell me about education before and now? A-When I studied, we only had national teaching and they taught us about geography. They also taught us about human life and human character which are aren't developed enough. If we hear about democracy and human rights today I believe the children will be better for it.
Q-How did people celebrate wedding and funeral days? A As far as the wedding day is concerned, at that time, if the girl and boy love each other the boys parents have to go to the girl's parents house and talk about marriage. If the girl's parents agree, they set a time and go to the pastor and announce the news. When the time comes they marry their son and daughter. However, some people are not Christian, if they get married they marry simply. As far as the funeral, If someone died in the village, they wanted everybody to know, so they rang the bell. When they heard the sound of the bell. the villagers listened and wondered if it was for a funeral or something else. If it was for the funeral they came to the funeral house and helped out. At night, they have to sing songs the whole night...till the morning. After that, they put the dead under in the ground. Q-Why did you get married? A-I think every person needs to be with their race and their family, so I got married.
Q- After you were married did you stay with your parents or not? A-When I married I was far from my father's place, so I stayed with my mother-in-law and father-in-law for two or three months. After that, I built a house and stayed with my wife.
Q-Did the women and men work together? A-When worked their jobs and men worked their jobs, but sometimes if we had easy jobs we worked together.
Q-When were you born and where? A-I was born in 1945. At that time the Japanese came to Burma, so I was born in the village.
Q-How did you raise your children, and what aims do you have for them? A-When I had only one son, I worked in the mine in Maung Chin. When I stayed in the refugee camp we got food from the BBC and the UN, so I hoped for my children to study, so it would be better for them in the future. Also, I wanted them to learn so that they could come back and help their parents, their ethnic people and their county..
Q-What is your job in the refugee camp? A-I get a job from the IRC... it is environmental chore help.
Q-Do people encourage or discourage you to work? A-The IRC encourages us. They give us some money and material to work with. These jobs concern health; we have to the village water. Sometimes in the summer we have problems for the water, then some people blame us workers.
Q-When you became a grandfather, what happened to you? did you have any problems? A-I have six children in my family, when my second son got married, he had a daughter. I am very happy for him. As I have become older and older, I haven't gotten sick...only a toothache.
Q-Can you tell me about Karen National Day, how do the people celebrate it? A-When I was a child I saw the Karen National Day many times. People celebrate it every year. If tomorrow was Karen National Day: the night before the young would sing and dance. Some men would prepare the food for the morning. At midnight they would pray to God. But some say the year changes in the morning-rather than the night-at six o'clock, when the sun shines, so that's when they start celebrating. Then they would put the Karen national Flag up. After that you pray to God; they talk about Karen national traditions, history and culture. All the Karen people are said to have preserved their national character. After finishing, they eat the food which the men have prepared. Some people cook curry at their home and bring it to the celebration, so they could eat it together with the people.
Q-Could you tell me about Karen history and culture please? A-As far as culture, women have to wear the Karen women's uniform, and men have to wear the Karen Man's uniform and black trousers. As for the history, some old men are said to have come from the part of China called Tibet. They say that they came step by step to Burma where we live today. |
