The Back Page (August-September Issue)

Thein Zaw: Jack-of-all-Trades

Poems, music and film are all members of the same family. Or so says the renowned Burmese performer Thein Zaw.

He should know. The traditional dancer gained fame in the 1980s for his impressive renditions of centuries-old dance routines. He has also played major roles in several cinematic films and is a popular poet.

“I often recite my poems while performing Zat-pwe (the traditional Burmese drama performance that includes a variety of music and dance),” Thein Zaw told a journal in Rangoon recently.

His latest effort, a two-CD release titled “The Golden Flower Petal”, or Shwe-pwint-hlwar, is a collection of his poems and songs. The first disc is the full audio version; the other is the karaoke video version of the album.

Burma’s Spooky History

“We are the invisible government,” boasts Colonel San Pwint, in his new book titled Intelligence in the Era of Burmese Kings.

The military intelligence officer’s Burmese language tome reviews nearly a millennium of Burma’s spying practices, from the Pagan dynasty-era until the late 19th century, when the last Burmese king was deposed by British colonists.

The colonel pored over numerous stone inscriptions and palm-leaf manuscripts recorded over the centuries and he studied several historic wall paintings from temples in Pagan. He calls attention to one depiction of the Jataka, or tales about the Buddha, which portrays a man crouched behind a gathering of people and eavesdropping on the meeting.

But much of the book focuses on the activities of the early western visitors and their colonial pursuits in the Golden Land. Whether as traders, settlers, missionaries or diplomats, writes San Pwint, nearly all worked as spies for the British.