The River of Lost Footsteps: A Personal History of Burma
Page 49
of 1962, 1;
of 1988, 1, 2, 3, 4;
U Thant’s funeral and, 1
Student Union, see All Burma Student Union
Sudan, 1, 2
Sudsai “The Red Bull” Hasdin, 1
Suez Canal, 1, 2, 3
Sufism, 1
Sukarno, 1
Suleiman the Magnificent, sultan, 1
Sule Pagoda, 1, 2
Sumatra, 1, 2, 3
Sun, 1, 2, 3, 4
Sunni Muslims, 1
Supayalat, queen of Burma, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Surat, 1, 2, 3
Surati Bazaar, 1
Suriyamarin, King, 1
Suzuki Keiji, 1, 2
Swan, George James, 1
Sweden, 1
Sydney, viscount, 1
Syriam, 1, 2, 3, 4
Tabe, lord of, 1
Tabinshweti, King, 1, 2, 3, 4
Tada-u, 1, 2, 3
Tagaung, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Taingdar: lord of, 1, 2, 3, 4;
myoza (lord) of, 1
Taiping Rebellion, 1
Taiwan, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
Taj Mahal Begum, 1
Tamerlane, 1, 2, 3
Tamils, 1, 2, 3, 4
Tantric Buddhism, 1, 2
Taunggyi, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Tavoy, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
tea, 1, 2, 3, 4
television, 1, 2
Tenasserim, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
Tenasserim coast, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Terauchi, Hisaichi, 1
textiles, 1
Thado Maha Bandula, 1
Thado Mingyi Min Maha, 1
Thado Minsaw, Prince, 1
Thado Thiri Maha Uzana, lord of Pahkan, 1
Thai Army, 1, 2
Thailand, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6n, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15;
Bayinnaung’s present-day rule over, 1, 2;
border with, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8;
Buddhism in, 1;
Chinese Nationalists associated with, 1;
constitution of, 1;
interventions in Burma by, 1, 2;
opium trade in, 1;
see also Siam
Thai language, 1, 2, 3, 4
Thakins, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
Thalun, king of Burma, 1
Thanarat, Sarit, 1
Than E, 1, 2
Thant, U, 1, 2, 3, 4;
background and education of, 1, 2, 3;
as Burmese UN representative, 1;
death and burial of, 1;
international diplomacy of, 1;
Japanese alliance
mistrusted by, 1;
as journalist, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6;
lung cancer of, 1, 2;
marriage and children of, 1;
in occupation government, 1, 2;
as secretary to prime minister, 1;
as United Nations secretary-general, 1, 2, 3, 4;
U Nu’s friendship and work with, 1, 2, 3, 4
Thant Myint-U, 1, 2;
ancestry of, 1, 2, 3, 4;
Burma first seen by, 1;
Burmese rebellion and, 1, 2;
in feringhi villages, 1;
induction into Burmese politics of, 1;
in Kachin hills, 1;
at United Nations, 1, 2;
upbringing of, 1, 2;
U Thant’s death and, 1
Than Tun, Thakin, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Thaton, 1, 2
Thayetmyo, 1, 2, 3
Thein Pe Myint, Thakin, 1
Thein Tin, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Theodore, emperor of Abyssinia, 1
Theravada Buddhism, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Thibaw, king of Burma, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11;
and British invasion, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6;
brothers as potential replacements for, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9;
European misunderstandings of, 1, 2, 3;
lack of French support for, 1;
monogamy chosen by, 1, 2;
reform and, 1, 2;
surrender and exile of, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18
Thirty Comrades, 1, 2, 3, 4
Thonze, prince of, 1, 2
Thousand and One Nights, A, 1, 2
Tiananmen Square, 1
Tibet, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13;
Buddhism in, 1, 2
Tibeto-Burman language family, 1n, 2
Tiger Alley, 1
Times (London), 1, 2, 3
Tin Oo, 1, 2
Tin Tut, 1, 2, 3, 4
Tipu Sultan, 1, 2, 3
Tito, Josip Broz, 1
Tokugawa Shogunate, 1, 2
Tokyo, 1, 2, 3, 4;
Aung San and comrades in, 1
Tonkin, 1, 2
Toungoo, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5;
as Bayinnaung’s hometown, 1;
governor of, 1
Toyotomi Hideyoshi, 1
trade, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5;
with China, 1, 2, 3, 4;
cotton, 1, 2;
with England, 1, 2, 3, 4;
Portuguese and, 1, 2;
with Scottish, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9;
with U.S., 1
Treaty of Hué, 1
Treaty of Yandabo, 1
Truman, Harry S., 1
Turkey, 1, 2, 3, 4
Turks, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Tyn Myint-U, 1, 2, 3, 4
Uganda, 1
Ukraine, 1, 2
United Kingdom, 1, 2, 3, 4;
see also Great Britain
United Nations, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12;
aid to Burma by, 1;
Aung San Suu Kyi at, 1;
Burma’s activity in, 1;
Burmese disillusion with, 1;
Security Council of, 1, 2;
Thant Myint-U at, 1, 2;
U Thant as Burmese permanent representative to, 1, 2;
U Thant as secretary general of, 1, 2, 3, 4
United States, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22;
anticommunism in, 1, 2, 3;
Burmese expatriates in,
United States (cont.) 1;
Burmese rebels’ hopes for support by, 1, 2;
foreign aid and military support to Burma from, 1, 2, 3;
foreign aid withdrawn by, 1;
Great Depression in, 1;
interventions in Burma by, 1;
Ne Win’s army assisted by, 1;
in Vietnam War, 1, 2;
in World War II, 1, 2, 3
United Wa State Army, 1, 2
University Act, 1
University College, Rangoon, 1, 2
Upper Burma, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16
Victor Emmanuel, king of Italy, 1
Victoria, queen of England, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Vietminh, 1
Vietnam, 1, 2, 3, 4n;
French rule of, 1
Vietnam, North, 1, 2
Vietnam, South, 1, 2
Vietnam War, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Voice of America, 1
Waldheim, Kurt, 1
Wallace, William, 1
Wa people, 1, 2
Ward, Frank Kingdon, 1
War Office, Burmese, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
War of the Austrian Succession, 1
war rockets, 1, 2
Washington, George, 1, 2
Waugh, Evelyn, 1
Webb, Sidney and Beatrice, 1, 2
Wellington, Arthur Wellesley, duke of, 1, 2
Wells, H. G., 1
West Africa, 1, 2, 3
Wetmasut, lord of, 1, 2
White, George Stuart, 1, 2, 3
White Paper, on Burma, 1, 2, 3
Wilson, Woodrow, 1
Wingate, Orde, 1
Wise, Sir John, 1
Wolfe, James, 1
World Bank, 1
World of Books, 1, 2, 3
World War I, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7;
&nb
sp; Burmese in, 1, 2;
Indian Army in, 1
World War II, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14;
end of, 1
Wuman people, 1
Wuntho, 1, 2, 3
Wu Sangui, 1, 2
Xi’an, 1
Yadana Nat Mai (June Rose Bellamy), 1
Yamashita Tomoyuki, 1
Yamethin, lord of, 1
Yanaung, 1
Yang, Jimmy, 1, 2, 3
Yang, Olive (Yang Lyin Hsui), 1, 2
Yang family, 1, 2
Yang Kyein Tsai, Sao (Edward Yang), 1
Yangtze River, 1
Yang Yingju, 1
Yan Nyun, 1
Yaw, lord of, 1, 2, 3
Yawnghwe, 1;
mahadevi of, 1
Yawnghwe, Sao Shwe Thaik, sawbwa of, 1
Yawnghwe, sawbwa of, 1
Yemen, 1
Yenangyaung, lord of, 1, 2, 3
Young Men’s Buddhist Association, 1, 2
Yugoslavia, 1, 2, 3, 4
Yule, Sir Henry, 1, 2
Yunnan, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13
Zau Seng, 1
Zayun, lord of, 1
Zhang Qian, 1, 2
Zulus, 1, 2
East India Company forces under General Sir Archibald Campbell land at Rangoon in 1824. (The British Library)
A Burmese minister of state in military dress, together with attendants, during the First Anglo- Burmese War (1824–26). (The British Library)
The lord of Magwe arrives in Calcutta to discuss peace with the marquess of Dalhousie in 1854. (© CORBIS)
Thibaw and Supayalat, Burma’s last king and queen, at Mandalay in the early 1880s.
The lord of Kyaukmyaung and other officials visiting the viceroy Lord Ripon at Simla in 1882. (Picture Collection, The Branch Libraries, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations)
British troops under General Sir Harry Prendergast at Christmas service in front of Thibaw’s palace, soon after the capture of Mandalay in 1885. (© Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS)
My great-grandparents on my father’s side, both children of court officials, after the fall of the kingdom.
My maternal grandfather, U Thant, at Rangoon University in 1927.
General Aung San in London for talks with Clement Attlee’s government in 1947. (© Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS)
Burma’s first post-independence prime minister, U Nu, in 1948. (© Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS)
Army chief General Ne Win (far left) and Burmese diplomats at the War Office in London in 1948. (© Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS)
Aung San Suu Kyi (right) with my mother, Aye Aye Thant, at a party at our house in New York in 1970.
Burmese troops parading past the statues of long-dead kings in 2006. (AFP/Getty Images)
About the Author
Thant Myint-U was a senior officer in the executive office of the United Nations Secretary General. He has worked for UN peacekeeping operations in Cambodia and the former Yugoslavia. He was educated at Harvard and at Trintiy College, Cambridge, where he was subsequently made a Fellow.
He is the author of The Making of Modern Burma, and The River of Lost Footsteps: Histories of Burma.
Copyright
This ebook edition published in 2010
by Faber and Faber Ltd
Bloomsbury House
74–77 Great Russell Street
London WC1B 3DA
All rights reserved
© Thant Myint-U, 2007
The right of Thant Myint-U to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with Section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly
ISBN 978–0–571–26606–7
Table of Contents
Title Page
Dedication
Maps
PREFACE
ONE: THE FALL OF THE KINGDOM
TWO: DEBATING BURMA
THREE: FOUNDATIONS
FOUR: PIRATES AND PRINCES ALONG THE BAY OF BENGAL
FIVE: THE CONSEQUENCES OF PATRIOTISM
SIX: WAR
SEVEN: MANDALAY
EIGHT: TRANSITIONS
NINE: STUDYING IN THE AGE OF EXTREMISM
TEN: MAKING THE BATTLEFIELD
ELEVEN: ALTERNATIVE UTOPIAS
TWELVE: THE TIGER’S TAIL
THIRTEEN: PALIMPSEST
AFTERWORD
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
INDEX
Plates
About the Author
Copyright