Burma, Southeast Asia

"Oh foglia appassita del Fiume Mekong ed altre poesie"
Antologia poetica di Htilar Sitthu (U Soe Nyunt)
Libera traduzione di Htilar Sitthu, 1988 "O withered leaf from the River Mekong and other poems"  Innwa Pub. House, VII edizione.
Recensioni ed introduzione

16/03/2017

Probabilmente perché in Italia mancano scuole a livello universitario idonee a stimolare – come avviene per l'India, il Tibet, la Cina, il Giappone, per non citare che i paesi che più richiamano l'attenzione dei nostri orientalisti – l'interesse e lo studio della Birmania, delle sue genti, della sua civiltà, è già arduo attendersi di reperire, anche nelle migliori biblioteche, un minimo di opere fondamentali per iniziare una ricerca seria nel campo della birmanologia. Per ovviare a questa carenza, altrimenti inspiegabile, ho pensato di far cosa utile pubblicando la bibliografia che segue per offrirla al lettore interessato a questi studi, perché in poco tempo possa avere a disposizione un panorama bibliografico ch'io ho potuto ottenere soltanto a prezzo di non pochi anni di ricerche, soprattutto all'estero, spesso per la cortesia di autorevoli amici che mi hanno inviato a prestito opere della loro biblioteca o fornito utili indicazioni per poterle consultare.
Mi sembra, oltre a ciò, che in lavori simili non esista un corredo bibliografico così ricco e, credo, anzi, che molte opere qui citate siano state talvolta del tutto trascurate, forse perché ritenute superate dal tempo, mentre a parer mio, sono da ritenersi basilari per uno studio documentato.
Perciò mi auguro che il seguente “contributo ad una bibliografia generale sulla Birmania” sia accolto come il coronamento di tutto il lavoro, addirittura la base di esso.

Renzo Carmignani,  1971 “Birmania storia arte civiltà”: 303

"This book offers annotated translations of documents touching on Dutch admiral Cornelis Matelieff de Jonge and his voyage to Asia between 1605 and 1608. These translations are aimed at a contemporary English-speaking Asian readership interested in the early modern history of European trade, warfare and expansion in Southeast Asia with a focus on Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia. Researchers specialising in early European colonialism, international law, international relations, security studies, and diplomatic history will also find that the documents translated in this volume offer new and unfamiliar perspectives. Materlieff’s business acumen, military and diplomataic prowess as well as his vision of empire all have implications for examining not only European expansion into Southeast Asia, but also into other regions at large, including especially south Asia, Africa and the Americas.
Admiral Matelieff was a director of the Rotterdam Chamber of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) formed in 1602. He was appointed fleet commander on one of the company’s first voyages to Asia. Matelieff’s mission was both commercial and military: he launched a major sea-borne attack on the Portuguese colony of Melaka, arranged for the signing of treaties with the rulers of Johor, Aceh and Ternate, and founded the first Dutch fort on the island of Ternate. His endeavours, however, to open the Chinese market for the Dutch company proved unsuccessful.
Following his return to the Dutch Republic in September 1608, Matelieff penned a series of memorials and letters. In these he advanced recommendations for changing the way the company organized its fleets and conducted business. More importantly he offered  his Dutch contemporaries a vision of empire in Asia. The materials contained in this volume offer important observations of a perceptive analyst who was also determined to grasp the political and economic structures of Asia, and also of inter-state relations in across this vast region. At a time of Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Danish, French and English engagement in Southeast Asia, Matelieff sought to critically assess and strategize on the ways in which Europeans were increasingly engaging with Asian polities and their rulers.

This book will be released for sale in Australasia and Europe in June 2014 and available in the Americas after September 2014
""""

A native of Bruges (now part of Belgium), Jacques de Coutre was a gem trader who spent nearly a decade in Southeast Asia in the early 17th century. In addition to a substantial autobiography written in Spanish and preserved in the National Library of Spain in Madrid, he wrote a series of memorials to the united crown of Spain and Portugal that contain recommendations designed to reverse the decline in the fortunes of the Iberian powers in Southeast Asia, particularly against the backdrop of early Dutch political and commercial penetration into the region. Translated into English for the first time, these materials provide a valuable first-hand account of the bigger issues confronting the early colonial powers in Southeast Asia, and deep insights into the societies De Coutre encountered in the territory that today makes up Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines.

At the time that Bianca passed away, she had just completed her first term of teaching, as a Senior Teaching Fellow with the Department of History at SOAS. She had undertaken this as replacement teaching for the course entitled " The Creation of Modern Burma " which examined the intellectual, cultural, social, economic, and political formation of colonial Burma under British rule, a course that allowed Bianca to bring together her vast personal and scholarly experience with the country, adding to the normal lowland focus much new attention to the historical role of the highlands. Bianca's research agenda focused on bringing to the Chin/Zo a deeper awareness and understanding of their own history and to explain why the border between India and Burma divided this population group into different ethnic identities where were consciously presented as primordially exclusive of one another. This was both a personal and a family interest. Bianca's personal life was one of migration to many different locations. At various points in her life she lived in Burma, East Germany, the United States, the United Kingdom, and South Korea, giving her fluency not simply in Chin, but also in English and German. She wrote about these personal experiences with migration and about her deep personal relationship with her father, the late Dr. Vumson Suantak, and her younger sister in 2007, and how these personal experiences brought her into contact with the Chin/Zo diaspora and the challenges of their transnational existence. 1 Bianca was also the latest in a family line of scholars. She saw in her dissertation the continuity of a path chartered by her father, who had authored Zo History (1986), and who had viewed the latter as the continuity of his own father's (Dr. Son's grandfather's) work on the Chin/Zo people. Bianca explained in interviews with the press that she also inherited from her father an interest in the plight of the Chin/Zo and their contemporary situation in Burma (Myanmar) and his belief that only education would empower the Chin/Zo and lead to self-development of what he saw as the Zo region. When he passed away, Bianca followed in his political footsteps and became a Chin/Zo activist and became a member of the managing board of the Chin Forum. In the midst of these activities, she encountered the obstacles of the 1 Bianca Son, " Papi, " in Thanakha Team (ed.), Burma—Women's Voices for Hope (Bangkok: Alternative ASEAN Network on Burma, 2007): pp. 37-42.

U Kala's Mahayazawingyi is arguably the most important Burmese historical chronicle, yet no scholar has yet studied the text in depth. 

A set of tools is needed to transform chronicle manuscripts into a scholarly translation in a timely and accurate fashion. In addition to software and databases to aid the translator, workflows are also proposed. 

Although the focus will be on U Kala’s Burmese historical chronicle, the approach will not be regionally limited to Burma as previous work on Burmese history has been. In its essence the thesis work will be cross-culturally comparative emphasizing the empirical diversity of manuscript cultures (Burmese, Tai, Lanna, Pali) that exist in mainland Southeast Asia. 

A special emphasis will be placed on historical geography and the production of maps to visualize this dimension of manuscripts. Towards this goal the development of tools to analyze this dimension of manuscripts is essential, namely historical Geographical Information System (GIS) tools to be elaborated on in great length below.

"Photography in Southeast Asia: A Survey" is a comprehensive attempt to map the emergence and trajectories of photographic practices in Southeast Asia. The narrative begins in the colonial era, at the point when the transfer of photographic technology occurred between visiting practitioners and local photographers. With individual chapters dedicated to the countries of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, The Philippines and Vietnam, the bulk of the book spans the post-WWII era to the contemporary, focusing on practitioners who operate with agency and autonomy. The relationship between art and photography, which has been defined very narrowly over the decades, is re-examined in the process. Photography also offers an entry point into the cultural and social practices of the region, and a prism into the personal desires and creative decisions of its practitioners.

*

Published by NUS Press (Singapore) on 2016
524 pages, 235mm x 187mm
ISBN: 978-981-4722-12-4 Casebound
212 photographs

This translation of Hieronimo di Santo Stefano’s journey to Pegu in 1495-1496 was originally published in India in the Fifteenth Century Being a Collection of Narratives of Voyages to India, edited by R. H. Major, in 1857. The account was written in the form of a letter to Messer Giovan Jacobo Mainer. Only those portions related to Burma have been included in the version below.

Antologia poetica "Oh foglia appassita del Fiume Mekong ed altre poesie" di U Soe Nyunt - Htilar Sitthu

http://www.lulu.com/shop/stefano-zamblera/htilar-sitthu-oh-foglia-appassita-del-fiume-mekong-ed-altre-poesie/paperback/product-23486054.html

Myanmar’s current transition involves a concerted international effort to promote the rule of law. Legal education is integral to promoting the rule of law, and so calls for development aid that works to improve a country’s legal education system. The nature of development aid, however, calls for some analysis of its efficacy. In response to this requirement, this paper offers an analysis of educational development aid directed at reforming Myanmar’s legal education system, with the goal of presenting perspectives from Myanmar’s law schools that provide a better understanding of the issues that concern the intended beneficiaries of such aid.

The Bûraghmah country, it is certain, has heretofore been frequented by many Europeans, particularly English, whose residence, in it, has undoubtedly afforded them much greater opportunities of giving better accounts of it, than what I can pretend to do; yet, as these gentlemen are now mostly defunct, and perhaps no account of theirs extant, I will say a few words towards it, for the satisfaction of such as have not themselves seen it. Momchabue is the place where the present prince resides; it is a walled town, built with brick and mud, about twelve feet thick, and twenty high; and as I compute, about one thousand paces each side, being a regular square; and contains about four thousand familes. It is seated in an even country, about twelve miles from the water-side, but a very sandy soil, though it abounds in many places, with a sort of black earth, which, when toiled, and otherwise prepared, produces great quantities of salt, and out of the neighbouring parts is got, with but a reasonable degree of trouble, good salt-petre; of which too, there might be great quantities had, if people were employed on it.

This was edited by the SBBR 3.2 Autumn 2005 issue by Michael Charney.

From the annulled elections in 1990 until the beginning of democratic reforms in 2011, Burma – or Myanmar – was subject to an intense debate outside of the country that is usually not bestowed upon third world dictatorships.

In this debate, crudely put, people and organizations fell into two main camps: Pro-pressure and pro-engagement.

This version of Captain Hannay’s 1835-1836 journal appeared in several places in the late 1830s. This particular version was published in Selection of Papers Regarding the Hill Tracts Between Assam and Burmah and of the Upper Brahmaputra (Calcutta: Bengal Secretariat Press, 1873). It was been typed in and edited by Mike Charney (SOAS) for publication in the SBBR 3, Spring 2005 issue..

The full history of the Arakan coastal region of Myanmar has yet to be examined by an equitable historian. The region has most recently been engulfed in a fierce conflict resulting in bloodshed and suffering involving the Muslim people (the Rohingya) of that region and the government of Myanmar. This opinion piece deals with the history of the Muslim people of Myanmar, the Rohingya's, their current situation and the international response.

This is the second increment in the two-part series on the letters of James Alfred Colbeck. While the first part covered the years 1878-1879, the present letters include the years 1885-1888, when Colbeck returned to Upper Burma with British forces and served as both mission priest and as acting chaplain for British forces. M.W.C. Mandalay in 1885-1888: The Letters of James Alfred Colbeck, Originally Selected and Edited by George H. Colbeck in 1892, Continued December 18 th , 1885 On board Steamer Thooreah, bound for Mandalay I did not join the Expeditionary Force as I had thought it was possible I should do, so put off ideas of Mandalay for some weeks to come, and came to Rangoon last Friday, not at all prepared to leave for the Royal City, having with me only my handbag with a change, Bible, Prayer Book, &c. The Diocesan Institution of Native Clergy, Catechists, &c., had to be examined, and the Bishop called me to the work. After the examination was over I expected to return to Maulmain, but things have gone farther than I or anyone else expected. King Thibau was brought down in this steamer after the British troops had taken the forts on the river at Minhlah and Mingyhan, and he, his queen, her mother, and some 80 followers, are waiting in a steamer at Rangoon for the decision of the British Government, as to what is to be done with them. They are not allowed to land. The Bishop wished me to go up at once and get possession of the Church, Clergy House, and Schools in Mandalay, so here I am,—Thursday, December 18th, 12-7 noon, the steamer just swinging round in stream. We have just passed the troopship on which King Thibau and his party are, and also the " Canning,'' which is getting steam up and is flying the " Blue Peter," so I suppose the Burmese Court will be transferred and packed off to Bombay or a city near it—Rutnaghiry, where they will perhaps be happier than they have been for a long time. Thibau is not so bad as the Press represents him, and most likely the bad advisers he has are mostly responsible for the cruel things which have been done in his name. What the future of Upper Burmah is to be we do not yet know. The Chief Commissioner of British Burmah went up by train to Prome last night, taking with him a number of Civil Officers. He expects to reach Mandalay about next Sunday or Monday, as he goes single-handed; i.e., has no heavy cargo barges in tow. We have two heavy flats alongside, so we expect to be a week later. The "Thooreah" is the first trading steamer since the outbreak of the war, but we do not expect any opposition from the Burmese, as our troops have taken all the ports along the river, and gunboats patrol the line of communication.

The following materials from Captain George Baker’s diaries and other records and notes were originally published in Alexander Dalrymple’s Oriental Repertory in 1808. Baker has left numerous other reports, many found in the Records of Fort St. George for the period. These latter materials will be published in later editions of the SBBR. Baker’s account is especially useful for being one of the few first- hand accounts written by a European, of Alaunghpaya, the founder of the Konbaung Dynasty. This was edited by Michael Charney for the SBBR 3.1 Spring 2005 issue.

Henry Burney was a scholar, soldier, and diplomat well-known for his numerous contributions to the early British study of Burma as well as the source for equally numerous first- hand observations of the people and country. The following article was published in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal 4 (vol. 4, Juy, 1835, pp. 400-404). This was edited by Michael Charney for the SBBR 1.2 (Autumn 2003) issue.

El artículo aborda el proceso de democratización de Myanmar tomando como inicio el proceso de independencia nacional,
enfatizando los diversos momentos que se vincularon con cambios en el régimen político y, sobre todo, con los intentos de avanzar en reformas democráticas. Enfoca su atención
en los actores políticos, sus posiciones, cambios e intereses, en especial en el desarrollo del liderazgo de Suu Kyi y las dificultades para consolidarse en el marco de la vigencia
de reglas de juego no democráticas. Finalmente, analiza todo este proceso en el marco de los conceptos y modelos propuestos por la literatura de las ciencias sociales para explicar en qué condiciones los países logra avanzar –o
no– desde regímenes no democráticos hacia otros híbridos o democráticos.

Current Indian foreign policy is informed by a realization that a combination of economic reforms and the end of the Cold War has steered India into a position of some influence in the post-9/11 world. This is influence of a kind that India did not have in the years following Independence. What India had then was a moral standing which it could make little use of, boxed in as it was by the contingencies of a Cold War division of the world. This division allowed very little leeway for the Indian policy of non-alignment, which ended up being not so much an alternative as a means of holding the line, until India could find itself in a more favourable geopolitical situation. Further, unlike in the post-Independence phase, India today often appears reluctant to exercise what influence it has outside South Asia and sometimes even within the region, keenly aware of the several continuing limits on its capabilities and having suffered from blowback on the few occasions it did. Even as some old problems continue to keep India off-balance in international affairs, the world has also not stood still and new problems – both traditional and non-traditional – have emerged that have required India to step up and take a position on. And all this, even as the Indian foreign policy establishment remains woefully ill-equipped and understaffed to meet these challenges. What then are the patterns of Indian foreign policy behavior in the new century?

The Western and Japanese response to the failure of the regime to recognize the NLD’s 1990 electoral victory was too slow and fluctuating to be effective. Sanctions imposed on the country in the last two decades have thus appeared to be ineffective in the short term. A lifeline was also thrown to the regime by members of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) who were more interested in gaining an economic stake in the country than supporting Democracy. As Western sanctions have expanded and ASEAN has begun to reconsider the domestic situation in Burma as a threat to stability in the region, the regime has had time to reorient itself economically to the Peoples Republic of China (PRC), which was just as anxious to draw Burma into its economic orbit, gain access to its natural gas and oil reserves, and to gain more direct access to Indian Ocean trade.

This account was originally composed in French, but translated into English by Francis Magnus and published in Calcutta at the Joseph Cooper Press in 1789, the year of the French Revolution. It was published within the multi-volume travels (Vol. III, book 4, chapter 2) of the Comissary of the Marine, Monsieur Sonnerat, entitled, A Voyage to the East-Indies and China; Performed by Order of Lewis XV. Between the Years 1774 and 1781. Containing A Description of the Manners, Religion, Arts, and Sciences, of the Indians, Chinese, Pegouins, and of the Islanders of Madagascar; Also Observations on the Cape of Good Hope, the Isles of Ceylon, Malacca, the Phillippines, and Moluccas. As only the account to Pegu is included here, “A French Voyage to Pegu” has been decided upon as the title for this edition.

The in-transition Myanmar's attempts to leave its violent and divisive past continues to be thwarted both by old mindsets, and also by the opportunities for nuisance the state's apparent openness has bestowed on some groups of people. Guns have fallen silent on large tracts of territories in the country's periphery. Yet new frontiers of conflict have emerged underlining the fact that sudden retreat of the state may not augur well for the country's minorities vis-a-vis an assertive majority.

ကျွန်တော် ရဲ့ စာအုပ် ကိုယ်ကျင့်သီလဒီမိုကရေစီ ၊ ဒေါ်အောင်ဆန်းစုကြည်၏ နိုင်ငံရေးအတွေးအခေါ် (The Moral Democracy: The Political Thought of Aung San Suu Kyi) ဗမာလို ဘာသာပြန် ထား ပါ တယ်။ ဒီ စာအုပ် ပိုလန် ဝါဆော မှာ ၂၀၁၈ နှစ် ၁၂လပိုင်း က မူရင်း ထုတ်ဝေ ပါ တယ် ။ ဗမာလို ဘာသာပြန် ၂၀၂၀ နှစ် ၁၁လပိုင်း က ရန်ကုန် မှာ ထုတ်ဝေတယ်။ နာမည် အတူတူပဲ။

စာအုပ် အကြောင်း ဗမာလို ဘာသာပြန်သူရဲ့ မှတ်ချက် ။
ဒီစာအုပ်က ပညာရပ်စာအုပ်ပါ။ ပိုလန်က ပရော်ဖက်ဆာ မိုက်ကယ်လူဘီနာက ပြုစုထားတာကို လင်းငယ် က ဘာသာပြန်ထားတာပါ။ ပညာရပ်စာအုပ်ပီပီ ဘက်လိုက်မှုနည်းအောင် အားထုတ် သုံးသပ်ပြတဲ့ စာအုပ်ဖြစ်ပါတယ်။ လူပုဂ္ဂိုလ် တစ်ယောက်ကို ချီးမွှမ်းခန်း ဇာချဲ့ထားတာလည်း မဟုတ်၊ ပြစ်ပြစ်ကာကာ အရမ်းကာရော မျက်မှုန်းကျိုးတဲ့ အရေးအသားမျိုးလည်း မဟုတ်ပါဘူး။ ဒေါ်အောင်ဆန်းစုကြည်ရဲ့ မိန့်ခွန်းတွေကို နှိုက်နှိုက်ချွတ်ချွတ် လေ့လာဆန်းစစ်ပြီး သူမြင်တဲ့အတိုင်း ရေးသားထားပါတယ်။
နောက်တစ်ချက်ကတော့ နိုင်ငံတစ်နိုင်ငံရဲ့ အတွေးအခေါ် ရှုထောင့်အတွက် တစ်စုံတစ်ရာ အသုံးဝင်မယ် ယူဆပါတယ်။ လူပုဂ္ဂိုလ် တစ်ဦးတစ်ယောက်ရဲ့ နိုင်ငံရေး အတွေးအခေါ်ကို လေ့လာခြင်းလို့ ဆိုပေမယ့် နိုင်ငံကို ဦးဆောင်သူ တစ်ဦးရဲ့ နိုင်ငံရေး အတွေးအခေါ်ဟာ ကောင်းသည်ဆိုးသည် အပထား ဒီနိုင်ငံမှာ အမွေအဖြစ် ဆက်လက် ကျန်ရစ် ရှင်သန်နေနိုင်တယ် မဟုတ်ပါလား။
ဒေါ်အောင်ဆန်းစုကြည်ကို လေးစားထောက်ခံသူတွေအတွက် လေးလေးနက်နက် ဆင်ခြင်ဖွယ်ရာတွေ ပါသလို နိုင်ငံရေး အခြေအနေတစ်ခုမှာ ပိုကောင်းတဲ့ အနာဂတ်အတွက် တွေးဆစရာ မြန်မာပြည်ဖြစ် နိုင်ငံရေး အတွေးအခေါ် တစ်ခုလည်း ဖြစ်နိုင်ပါတယ်။
နိုင်ငံရေးကို စိတ်ဝင်စားသူတိုင်း၊ အတွေးအခေါ်တစ်ရပ်ကို လေ့လာလိုသူတိုင်း၊ ဒါမှမဟုတ် ကိုယ်ချစ်ခင်လေးစားတဲ့ ခေါင်းဆောင်တစ်ယောက်ရဲ့ အတွေးအခေါ်ကို နားလည်လိုသူတိုင်း ဖတ်သင့်တဲ့ စာအုပ်လို့ ဆိုပါရစေ။
ဒီ စာအုပ် မူရင်း ဒီမှာ ရှိ တယ်:  https://scholar.com.pl/en/books/3711-the-moral-democracy-brthe-political-thought-of-aung-san-suu-kyi.html
ဒါမှမဟုတ် ကျွန်တော် ကို အီးမေးလ် ပို့ ပါ ။ ဗမာလို ဘာသာပြန် စာအုပ် ထုတ်ဝေ သူ ဆီ မှာ ရ နိုင် ပါ တယ် ။ theeras2001@gmail.com ဒါမှမဟုတ် ဘာသာပြန်သူ ကို ဆက်သွယ် ပါ ။ https://www.facebook.com/LinNgeWriter

ကျွန်တော် ရဲ့ စာအုပ် ကို စိတ်ဝင်စား ပေးလို့ ကျေးဇူးတင်ပါတယ်!

ခင်မင်လျက်,
မိုက်ကယ် လူဘီနာ (ခ) ပြည့်စုံ

The following account is one of many of the massacre at Negrais, an island close to Bassein where the English East India Company attempted to establish a factory in the mid-eighteenth century. An introduction for the account has been provided by Dalrymple:
It will be necessary, by way of Introduction, to mention that it having been determined to withdraw the settlement at Negrais except three or four people to take care of the teak timbers that had been collected there, and to secure the right of possession, in case it might afterwards be thought proper to resettle at that place. Captain Newton proceeded accordingly to Bengal, where he arrived 14th of May 1759, with thirty-five Europeans, and seventy black people. On 30th of July 1759. The administration at Bengal, thought proper to accept of Captain William Henry Southby’s offer to go to Negrais, to take care of the teak timbers, and accordingly dispatched the Victoria Snow, Captain Walter Alves, to carry Mr. Southby to the Negrais. Captain Alves returned to Bengal in November, and gave the following account of the Settlement at Negrais, being cut off.
The papers concerning Negrais, and Captain Alve’s Embassy to Ava [previous issue of the SBBR], with the letters that passed on that occasion, were communicated by my much lamented friend, the late Lord Pigot...
Alexander Dalrymple (1791)

Editor's Introduction, Rebecca Redwood French

Re-ordination of Former Buddhist Nuns in the Theravāda Tradition, Petra Kieffer-Pülz

Women's Aspirations and Soteriological Agency in Sarvāstivāda and Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya Narratives, Dhammadinnā Bhikkhunī

Ideology and Law: The Three Seals Code on Crimes Related to Relics, Images and Bodhi-trees, Peter Skilling

How King Rāmādhipati Handled His Boundary Case: Sīmā, Sāsana, and Buddhist Law, Jason A. Carbine

Negotiating Modalities of Succession: The Interplay between Different Legal Spheres in Eighteenth-Century Mongolia, Dorothea Heuschert-Laage

Ludovico di Varthema of Bologna has left us an account of India and Burma from the very first decade of the sixteenth century, prior to the largescale of the First Taung-ngu Dynasty that would follow in the decades ahead. It thus provides a valuable insight into a period for which many foreign sources are not available.
The original account, in Italian, was published at Rome on the 6th of December 1510 at the request of Lodovico de Henricis da Corneto of Vicenza by Stephano Guillireti de Loreno and Hercule de Nani, both of Bologna. The translation followed here was made by John Winter Jones in 1863, edited by G. P. Badger, and published under the title of “The Itinerary of Ludovico di Varthema of Bologna from 1502 to 1508,” the same title we use in the text below.
Only material relevant to Burma has been included in the following text. Additional editorial changes include additional paragraph breaks and the addition of subject headers for clarification.

Like the other travel accounts of this issue, Ralph Fitch is among the most cited English sources for information on sixteenth century Burma. His experiences at Pegu were generally limited to a roughly six or seven week period in late 1586 and early 1587. Another aspect of the account the reader will notice is that Fitch has, in several places, repeated nearly verbatim several sections of Cesar Federici’s account, of which he must at some point have had in his possession.
Various editions of Ralph Fitch’s account are available and the vary in the completeness of the account. The one followed here was published by Samuel Purchas in his Hakluytus Posthumus of Purchas His Pilgrimes under the title of “The Voyage of Master Ralph Fitch Merchant of London to Ormus, and so to Goa in the East India, to Cambaia, Ganges, Bengala; to Bacola, and Chonderi, to Pegu, to Jamahay in the Kingdome of Siam, and backe to Pegu, and from thence to Malacca, Zeilan, Cochin, and all the Coast of the East India: begun in the yeere of our Lord 1583 and ended 1591.”
Only those sections of the acocunt relevant to Pegu and Southeast Asia have been included. In several places, the proper name of places have been clarified within brackets. Macao, for example, refers to Makaw, the river portage where goods for Pegu were dropped off by merchants for land or small boat carriage to the city of Pegu. Other editorial changes have been limited to additional paragraph breaks and the addition of sections headers.

Aung San Suu Kyi's release coincided with the holding of national elections for a military-designed state to provide the ruling junta with a veneer of legitimacy. Nevertheless, the lifting of sanctions will remain the central issue facing Burma's relations with foreign countries, which will have to balance out human rights issues and investment opportunities. Aung San Suu Kyi and her treatment by the new government will play a determining role in deciding this issue. Analysis: Aung San Suu Kyi was released on 13 November 2011 after seven years of house arrest (although over the course of the past 21 years she has spent a total of about 15 years under house arrest). The military junta, led by General Than Shwe, made the release shortly after holding the first election in 20 years, although the election in 1990 was never recognised. Regime sympathisers have portrayed the timing of the release as a genuine mark of reform worthy of praise and a reduction in sanctions. In fact, this was the scheduled end of her sentence anyway and represented no shift in the regime's approach. It appears more likely that the regime timed the elections to coincide with Aung San Suu Kyi's arrest, in the hopes perhaps that the release would lend an air of authenticity to the nominal transition in power to civilian control. Aside from new structures of government, the main figures at the head of Burmese politics remain the same. The country's ruler, at least until he finally relinquishes power, is Than Shwe. The highest civilian post in the new government, the presidency, is occupied by the same man who held the top civilian post, that of Prime Minister, in the old government, Thein Sein. Under the new constitutional arrangements, the military itself will remain the dominant voice in the state. The main voice of opposition to the government remains Aung San Suu Kyi, the head of the officially disbanded, but very much alive, National League for Democracy (NLD). Like their leader, since November the party has become re-energised and appears no less popular than before. The question that will loom large over the course of the next year is what the implications of Aung San Suu Kyi's release will be for Burma. International Sanctions The main issue at the forefront of everyone's thinking is sanctions and it is the central issue influencing Burma's relationships with other countries. The two most important questions about sanctions is how effective they are, and hence how much of a role they played in the change of government structures, and whether or not these changes will prove to be sufficient for foreign governments to lift the sanctions. Recent information suggests that sanctions have been effective in hurting certain groups with close links to the junta's top families although much effort has been made to encourage the belief that they have been counter-productive. The NLD had originally encouraged boycotts on travel to Burma and for Western companies to quit doing business with the regime until democratic reforms were made, including the recognition of the 1990 election results. The obvious conundrum for sanctions supporters was that Burma was already an impoverished country and sanctions would make things worse for everyday people rather than for the privileged elite who would find other ways to profit even in the worst of times. Certainly, this is evidenced in part by natural gas deals with Western energy consortiums, which were able to evade the sanctions, and more recently Chinese companies. Deals with these interests have led to a grand enrichment of the generals and their families. Based on the few studies permitted by the regime of the economic impact on the country of sanctions, scholars have difficulty assessing how much good (or bad) the sanctions are actually achieving. Indeed, when Aung San Suu Kyi was released in November, she herself suggested that she might be more amenable concerning ending the sanctions, but only once reliable information was available regarding whether the sanctions were having an effect and if everyday Burmese were being impacted. International Monetary Fund reports on the country have not been made publicly available in recent years making this task more difficult. Nevertheless, the most recent information we have suggests that everyday Burmese are not being adversely impacted by the sanctions and that the sanctions are actually hurting the military elite, however much they have softened the blow by other means. Indeed, it is now clear that hopes of ending the sanctions were probably the main reason for the creation of the new civilian government anyway –foreign governments, the US and the EU in particular, had made these conditions for the end of sanctions–. The NLD has since rearticulated its support for the sanctions and for responsible tourism in the country, with a rollback of some sanctions only when the 2,100 political prisoners held in the country are released. The US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Joseph Y. Yun has made it clear that the US will not lift sanctions until the military junta meets several conditions. These include: (1) recognition of the NLD; (2) release of its political prisoners; and (3) engagement in dialogue with Aung San Suu Kyi. An important obstacle is that military strongman Than Shwe's personal animosity towards Aung San Suu Kyi is so great, due to a combination of her international and domestic popularity, commitment to principles, and the fact that she is the daughter of the national

Original editorial note: Mr. Royal B. Hancock and family left Maulmain on 27 November 1837 and arrived at Mergui December 3rd. On the 26th of December, he was joined by Eugenio Kincaid, as stated in former communications. For several months previous to his departure from Maulmain, he had been engaged partly on the printing office, and partly in evangelical labors in Maulmain and its vicinity.

This is the video of a talk given by Michael Charney on January 19, 2019 at SOAS as part of a panel with Zarni and Mandy Sadan, "Myanmar's Slow-Burning Genocide: Ethnic Persecutions and Violence amidst Aung San Suu Kyi's 'Democratic' Transition". It was sponsored by STAND and the SOAS Lawyers without Borders. You have to click the second image on the posting for the video. The first few minutes the video is sideways, but rights itself and can be viewed normally from that point on. The talks are followed up by some very hard hitting questions about contemporary Myanmar.

From the 11th century until the end of the 19th century, Burma (Myanmar) was home to a series of kingdoms that integrated the Irrawaddy Valley politically. The lasting legacy of these kingdoms was that they established political, religious, cultural, and linguistic standards and models that would prove durable and would survive the colonial period and help shape post-independence Burma from 1948.

The following documents drawn from the reign of King Tharrawaddy are intended as one contribution of many forthcoming to the project of organizing and publishing the source accounts for one of the Kon-baung dynasty's most obscure, yet critical reigns. Thus, documents included have not been selected on the basis of their high rate of interest relative to other documents of the period, but rather more with the view of making the documentary record complete. M. W. C. American Baptist Missionary Magazine 29.2 (February 1839) The king of Burmah has latterly, through his ministers, tacitly signified his royal pleasure that the same friendly understanding, which existed in his brother's reign between the two countries, should be continued. At the same time it is difficult to say what are the real intentions of his Burman majesty. The governor of Rangoon, who has charge of the lower country from Prome, and is also empowered to settle any difficulties that may arise with the English, has more than once intimated to Mr. Bayfield, the acting resident to court just yet; that the king might consider it an insult offered to him, and, getting angry, serious difficulties might arise between the two governments. He therefore recommends that the resident, who may be appointed by the governor-general, should remain at Rangoon; and he has no doubt that, in two or three years, when the palace is finished, the king will receive him in a suitable manner at court. Should the governor-general in council be as ready to meet the wishes of this officer, and, of course, of his royal master, as the acting resident appears to be, we may consider the difficulty between the two governments, respecting the treaty, as settled for the present. About two days ago, official information was received by the governor, from the court of Amarapúra, of the execution of the heir apparent and his wife, and nurse, and others—in all eight persons. The alleged crime was a supposed connivance at a counter-resolution in his favour, for which (so the report is,) his friends were preparing. A great many Burmans do not believe this report, but think that the heir apparent has run away into the Shyán country. One of the Shyán saubwás has been executed. An officer's wife has been put to death for having in her possession a valuable jewel, which belonged to the royal family.

Present in 1878 and early 1879 and then returning again to Mandalay in 1885 with British forces, James Alfred Colbeck, mission priest for the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel and latterly military chaplain, provides a unique look at the beginning and end of Thibaw’s reign (1878-1885). The letters included were originally selected and edited by George H. Colbeck, mission priest at Mandalay and were published under the title of Letters from Mandalay, A Series of Letters For the Most Part Written From the Royal City of Mandalay During the Troublous Years of 1878-79; Together with Letters Written During the Last Burmese Campaign of 1885-88 (Knavesborough: Alfred W. Lowe, 1892). The natural division and balance of the letters included warrants their division into two separate groupings, with the 1878-1879 letters included here and the 1885-1888 letters included in the forthcoming issue of SBBR. According to George H. Colbeck, the senior Colbeck died four days after his correspondence of 27th February 1888, the last letter in the published collection. Unfortunately, the original editor included few details on the circumstances of the correspondence, with some exceptions, beyond date and general point of origin (in most cases Mandalay). We are not told, for example, to whom the letters were written. Aside from these limitations, however, these letters offer valuable information not available in other source materials on Mandalay during the Kon-baung dynasty’s last, and arguably most troubled reign.

As many forced migrants fall both within Myanmar's borders and along them with neighbouring states, international actors operate under the Guiding Principles of Internal Displacement. This chapter examines how international actors help or hinder responses to forced migration and human insecurity.