Burma: Buddhism & archaeology (2/2)

[Gustaaf Houtman]

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ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY: `REMAKING MYANMAR AND HUMAN ORIGINS' - PART 2/2
an account of the role of pagoda relics and museum fossils
in SLORC-SPDC concepts of nation-building
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(c) Royal Anthropological Institute 1999
Vol 15, No 4, August 1999, pp 13-19.
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by Gustaaf Houtman
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Pondaung revealed to the world

Subsequent to these initial explorations by the respective 'national'
teams the military organised a seminar and an exhibition at the
National Museum of Ethnology, Rangoon, between 1-2 June 1998 to which
geologists, palaeontologists, anthropologists, historians and
archaeologists nation-wide were invited. At this seminar General Khin
Nyunt urged the following:

He noted that just as an individual's worth depended on his heritage
and his achievements, so also a nation's prestige could be measured in
terms of its lineage and historical and cultural background. A nation
that can provide historical evidence of its ancient roots and the
emergence and growth of its culture, traditions and national traits is
a nation in which national fervour and patriotism thrives. It is also
a nation whose people will try to perpetuate its identity, sovereignty
and independence. He said this was especially true of a country such
as ours that had once been enslaved under an imperialist power and had
had our history distorted and  misrepresented. To right this wrong,
the Government of the Union of Myanmar had laid down social objectives
which includes the uncovering of true historical records and the
resolve to correct the warped and biased versions of Myanmar history
as written by some foreign historians. He however acknowledged the
fact that Myanmar historians, scientists and researchers had
throughout the ages carried out research and study in their own
capacity and had been custodians of authentic historical facts. Now
however with full government support and sponsorship the results of
isolated or individual research could be collated for a correct
interpretation and presentation of a coherent authentic history of
Myanmar.

Lieutenant General Khin Nyunt concluded by urging the participants to
prove on the basis of the significant and substantial finds of the
primate fossils, Amphipithecus Mogaungensis and the Amphipithecus
Bahensis that 'The Myanmar people are not visitors who came from a
faraway land and settled here. Life began here in this Myanmar
environment of land, air and water. Their roots are here.' And that
'The Myanmar people are the true natives, born and bred here, who had
matured and flourished as a people with their own culture, art,
customs and traditions.'

A seminar on these discoveries at the Diamond Jubilee Hall, Yangon
University, between 2-4 June 1998. This was attended by the Pondaung
fossil expedition team and another team engaged in the study of
ancient cultural evidence in Budalin Township, Sagaing. A number of
historians, anthropologists and archaeologists were present at this
event. It was co-sponsored by the OSS and the Higher Education
Department of the Ministry of Education.

Pondaung's propaganda value

Evidently the Pondaung discoveries have implications well beyond the
realms of science. They are portrayed in the regime's publicity as
'taken to indicate the origin of man in Pondaung Ponnyar area in the
middle Myanmar', and are routinely introduced as a precursor to  the
political history of the Union and the regime's achievements. General
Khin Nyunt wanted the Pondaungia fossils to take pride of place at the
new five-floor National Museum at No. 66-74, Pyay Road, where the
Pondaungia would become central to political propaganda. Construction
of the National Museum commenced in June 1990, it was inaugurated on
18 September 1996 and by December 1997 General Khin Nyunt had decided
two things deserved pride of place, namely the Pondaung discoveries
and the last royal throne. In the official museum report it is said
that 'arrangements are under way to exhibit ancient Myanmar attire,
other cultural objects of national races and fossils including
fossilized primates excavated as well as collected by  a research team
led by Colonel Than Tun, Head of Department, Office of Strategic
Studies, from the Pondaung area and others donated by the locals.' The
regime then made a grand claim:

`Fossils are evidence . that Stone Age human beings lived in Myanmar
and  there also existed creatures in Myanmar prior to the period of
humans. It can now be firmly said that there were living beings in
Myanmar 40 million years ago and if Myanmar scholars can present with
firm and full evidence to the world, it can be assumed that human
civilization began in our motherland. The Ministry of Education is
making arrangements to invite foreign experts to a conference to look
into the facts related to the fossils and the Pondaung formation and
finally ascertain them.' (Information Sheet, 29.12.1997)

At Exhibition '98 to Revitalize and Foster Patriotic Spirit, held
between 1-30 November 1998 at the Tatmadaw [Army] Convention Centre,
General Khin Nyunt explained the aims of this exhibition: to promote
dynamism of patriotic spirit and national pride; to strengthen the
spirit of preserving traditions of origin, lineage and the national
character; to contribute towards a correct way of thinking and firm
lofty concepts; and to enable the younger generation to learn true
historical events. His major pride was that 'primate fossils found in
Myanmar are the evidence of the existence of manlike creatures in the
nation 40 million years ago when man had not evolved yet and that this
has been approved by international experts'. Furthermore, 'there are
firm historical links that Myanmars have evolved through Stone Age,
Bronze Age, Iron Age and different stages of civilization in their own






nation'. The result of such an excellent history of biological and
cultural, superior and independent development means that 'there are
records that Myanmars have fine traditions, possessing a high-standard
culture, and always repulsed the many foreign aggressions with
unyielding spirit throughout various eras'. The essence of the
exhibition, he is quoted as saying, is to 'promote dynamism of
patriotism and national pride for the youths to possess the conviction
to safeguard independence and sovereignty with correct knowledge and
view and thoughts in their heart', while 'protecting youths from being
deceived by internal traitors to put them under the colonialists'
influence'.

Furthermore, under the central heading 'Myanmar Today' the regime's
Internet site has a sub-section 'Culture and Traditions' in which the
pride of royalty, with which the army identify, is linked to the
Pondaung finds, indicating 'the existence of Myanmar culture and
traditions since time immemorial'.

A critique of Pondaung politics

In the course of exhibiting their finds, the regime displayed what was
supposedly a human fossil from the same region where U Thaw Tin and U
Ba Maw had found fossils in 1978. Though these two Burmese academics
had at the time tried to share their discoveries with the
international community, they were arrested and the fossils were
confiscated by the BSPP. Since that time, it was not known where these
fossils were kept. General Khin Nyunt explained that at the time they
had conserved the fossils in a secure place so they could be studied
'for the advancement of the people'.

However, it would appear that the two who had originally discovered
the fossils  did not hypothesize that the human race originated in
Burma. Furthermore, In a paper delivered in November 1995, well before
Khin Nyunt ordered his Pondaung missions into the field, Professor
Than Tun, one of the most respected scholars in the field of Burma's
historical research (not to be confused with OSS Colonel Than Tun who
led the Pondaung Expedition), provided a serious critique of Ba Maw's
early work on the Pondaung fossils during the BSPP era (1962-88) and
urged that 'we shall have to wait for more discoveries'.

Professor Than Tun found archaeological speculations about the
origination of mankind in Burma to be quite ill-informed and based on
unsystematic research, causing unnecessary confusion in the
archaeological world. He has furthermore criticized the general state
of archaeological research in Burma. He says that, though the
department of archaeology will celebrate its centenary in 1998, 'its
operations are still being carried out  in the early 19th century
style'. Stronger still, 'like the looters of old, they take what they
want and leave what they don't want'. He encourages the keeping of
records, the central reporting of all finds, research on them, and
accurate dating. Undoubtedly, were there a free press, such criticism
would have been amplified and joined by others to temper some of the
regime's spectacular cultural and archaeological visions.

If this casts doubt on the regime's archaeological methodology, Win
Thein, benefiting from living abroad and the freedom to say what he
thinks, has indicated the Pondaung project merely represents regime
propaganda to instil patriotism in the people, saying that though
General Khin Nyunt and his colleagues have been working very hard in
Pondaung, their attempt represents 'a new evolutionary theory which no
one can accept' and he points out that there is no academic freedom in
Burma and that 'the regime has previously coerced academics into
writing history as they want it recorded'.

The generals are probably less interested in these finds than in the
many magical ('mundane knowledge') myths about Pondaung. In the
tourist litereature it has been described as subject to 'tall tales
and supernatural mysteries' where 'witches and sorcerers . molest
visitors' and alchemists produced elixirs by powdering the strange
fossils they gathered. The uniqueness of the archaeological finds, at
a time when Burma is in such turmoil, may lift the spirits of some,
but it demonstrates a questionable addiction to proving the unique
superiority of the 'Myanmar' race. It reveals to us how determined the
army are to waste public resources, including its top intelligence
officers, to track down culture, to detect components that may be used
to help construct a new Myanmar. It has furthermore attempted to build
large museums to compete with pagodas. The resulting culture is a
'dead' culture, devised by the military for their own ends in which
the people are denied agency.

A critique of Pondaung archaeology

The generals are striving for the mythological realization of
'Myanmar', and different national teams have clambered onto the
bandwagon to attain privileged access to Burma's archaeological sites.
As a result they provide the regime with the credibility it craves for
in its archaeological and cultural propaganda.

Russell Ciochon was the only western scholar to have researched the
original 1979 discoveries in any detail and to have retained a focus
on Burma's palaeontology in the context of developments elsewhere in
Asia, in particular in Southern China, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. He
is thoroughly familiar with the evidence and the debates - indeed, to
a large extent he contributed to constituting it.

Between 1977 and 1983 he received seven research grants specifically
for work on Burma, mostly from the L.S.B. Leakey Foundation and had
carried out fieldwork in Burma in 1975, 1977, 1979 and 1982, mainly in
conjunction with Mandalay University. Between 1979 and 1981 he aired
some theories about Burma through the mass media suggesting that
Asia's earliest primates were to be found in Burma and that in this
country was to be found the missing link in the evolution of primates
in Asia, for Burma 'is the only place in the world that has yielded
fossil evidence of an important link in the primate order'. By 1985
Ciochon openly argued, on the basis of the 1978 Mandalay University
jaw bone discovery, that 'this fossil substantiates the view that
southeast Asia was the center of anthropoid origins.' His conclusion
was that 'extended correlations with radiometrically dated rocks
indicate that the Pondaung fauna lived between 40 and 44 million years
ago', and so 'the Pondaung primates of Burma pre-date the earliest
known African anthropoids from the Fayum region of Egypt by at least 5
million years'. He concludes that 'therefore, when consideration is
given to their morphology, geographic position, and
40-million-year-old age, Amphipithecus and Pondaungia document the
earliest record of primates that were adaptively anthropoids, raising
the possibility that the origin of the Anthropoidea could have been in
southern Asia.'

His relationship with the Burmese regime seems to have lapsed after
1982. Nevertheless, Ciochon continued to theorize about the origins of
man in Burma. On 10 January 1987 he gave two lectures at the Institute
of Archaeology, Hanoi, Vietnam, that clearly set on record his view
that earliest primates were to be found in Burma; he addressed the
Asian perspective on Hominoid Evolution and on 'The origin of
anthropoids in Burma'.

Apart from the earlier mentioned scholars from France and Japan, the
regime is sustained in its quest by an array of scholars interested in
ancient architecture and other subjects deemed important to the
regime's propaganda machine.

It may well be true that the earliest anthropoids originated in Burma.
However, true or not, the seriousness with which the military pursues
Myanmafication means, of course, that archaeology and culture have
been placed, like the economy and ethnicity, and virtually everything
else, into the realm of national defence. When a concept enters the
realm of national defence, it must then be 'defended' and 'protected',
and it becomes classified as a national secret. The most important
archaeological objects were hidden from view and from all forms of
inspection during the BSPP era (1962-88) because they were classed as
national secrets. Today, however, these 'secrets' have been turned
into national assets  behind glass in the National Museum, where they
supposedly engender the pride of race in the Burmese peoples and help
unify the country. Dozens of museums have been built in the last
decade to commemorate the regime's attempt to draw Myanmar
civilization within its own controlled orbit.

I am sure that the palaeoanthropologists and archaeologists involved
are doing what they think is best for their discipline and their
careers. It is well known that palaeoanthropologists who work in China
have to tailor, to some degree, their public scientific opinions to
the ideological and nationalist sensibilities of their hosts in order
to retain access. However, what I would like to see is less emphasis
on national teams in archaeological explorations, and a greater
awareness by scholars from all disciplines of the ludicrous use to
which their scientific discoveries are put. Archaeologists intent on
interpreting archaeological finds from Burma should read The Politics
of the Past (ed. P. Gathercole & D. Lowenthal, Unwin Hyman 1990) and
Bruce Trigger's 'Alternative Archaeologies' (Man 19 1984). Above all,
they should be careful not to mislead the inexperienced  Burmese
military officers hosting and accompanying them about the finds.

Archaeology as an academic discipline is by and large a western
invention. The regime, in emphasizing archaeology as the military
instrument of conquering the past, has exceeded its self-acclaimed
prerogative to govern by means of indigenous values alone (exponents
of the democracy movements are invariably characterized as 'foreign').
Yet Burmese claims to civilization and to national unity have
historically been strongly rooted in and are legitimized by mental
culture; it is the instrument of mind (byama-so taya) that uproots the
hard-edged selfish concepts of identity. The paradox is that the
instruments of both enlightenment (mental culture) and archaeology
(culture) negotiate the limits of civilization, reach out beyond the
boundaries of human existence, relativize  existence in time and
space, and are also productive of super-beings (arya). They do so
ultimately through the discovery and representation of human remains.

However, that is where in my view their similarity ends, for byama-so
taya and Myanmar civilization address these limits through the
intermediary of Brahma in very different ways. Mental culture has its
own archaeology. Ariya, rather than referring to Aryan, the
Indo-European race that invaded India, in Buddhism came to mean 'the
noble ones', namely those of whatever cultural or racial background
who, by ridding themselves of mental impurity through spiritual
practices (mental culture) will soon no longer be reborn in the cycle
of life. Four stages are recognized, ranging from stream-winner, for
whom there are still seven lives left, to arahant, for whom no
rebirths remain. These are celebrated in the erection of pagodas built
as part of the duty of charity, the first royal duty, in which saintly
relics are housed and commemorated. In this pre-modern model of the
polity, ariya are counter-evolutionary for their centrepoint is not
culture, nation or museum, and they cannot be confined by secular
powers of the military. They continuously evade capture and are beyond
the grasp of the generals.

The regime needs the Pondaung fossils  within their grasp to become
the corner-stone of a conservative nationalism that centralizes and
draws firm boundaries around ethnic identity from which no one can
escape. The fossils are today housed  behind glass and are guarded by
soldiers at the museum entrance. Mental culture unbounded has given
way to archaeology imprisoned. Liberating hermit practice is giving
way, once again, to insular Hermit State. The regime hopes to silence
its reflexive critics  by pointing at the threat of the foreign Trojan
horse that only the military, as guardians of 'traditional
civilization' can fight. In the process it is turning pagodas with
their complex live histories into museums controlled by the military
alone. This happened to the national Shwedagon Pagoda, where Aung San
Suu Kyi launched her political career on 26 August 1988 when she gave
her first major political speech at which she characterised the
democracy struggle as 'the second national independence struggle'. Her
father, too, gave his most inflammatory speeches against foreign
colonial occupation at the Shwedagon. It is ironic that, with the aid
of foreign archaeology, this commemoration of the Buddha's
enlightenment and vibrant icon of Burmese ideas of political and
personal freedom should today be turned into a museum, a
representation of Burma's status as 'a prison without walls'.

> From temple relics to museum fossils

The Burmese people are still deeply religious, and religious
commemoration matters to them more than museums, which have in the
West become such dominant  institutions, absorbing palaces and
churches. The museum is a new concept in Burma introduced by  the
regime to enhance its national and international prestige. It has
built exceedingly large museums to compete with pagodas. In Pagan one
of the largest structures is the new archaeological museum and Pagan
is now commonly referred to as a 'veritable museum'. However, the
museums seek almost exclusively to represent Burmese tradition for
tourists in the hope of collecting dollars. These museums, for
whatever public they are  organized, local or tourist, are sheer
propaganda. They do not respond to the intellectual sensibilities of
the Burmese peoples and do not open their eyes to what is happening
worldwide just in case they see how backward Burma is under military
leadership.

In Burma pagodas are vibrant and alive in local and national folklore.
The regime wishes to control these places of independent worship. What
better excuse than occupying and overshadowing these in the name of
heritage conservation? Though it attempts to museumify the pagoda
environment, it is unwilling to concede that it cannot control all
aspirations of all people all of the time; people need independent
institutions and practices that positively and independently stimulate
their intellectual curiosity and religious sensibilities.

Today, regrettably the only culture untainted by the regime's grasp is
therefore mental culture, the culture produced in personal meditation
that uproots the walls and partitions of the house, 'all your rafters
are shattered - my mind is free from active thought.'. Behind prison
bars these practices today are yielding new martyrs (azani) with fresh
relics - such is the resilient politics of enlightenment. Fossils are
no comfort and reproduce themselves differently in very different
spheres of exchange. Meditation traditions are flourishing in Burma
today, as never before. END
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caption
One of the many popular vipassana (insight contemplation) sessions,
held in a community neighbourhood centre in which temporary yogi find
momentary respite from their everyday worries by contemplating the
impermanence, suffering and insubstantiality of existence. The
technique is often practised by intellectuals and government
reformers, and it is particularly important today among  those
advocating non-violent government reform and among the large
population of Burma's political prisoners. This practice is held up by
some in the democracy movement as one of the last hopes for political
reconciliation.

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ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY front cover caption:
Our front cover illustrated the article on Burma by Gustaaf Houtman in
this issue (p. 13); it shows both sides of a photograph amulet card
depicting the Thamanya Sayadaw in his 20s, after he had spent seven
rainy seasons as a fully ordained monk (i.e. in addition to
novicehood) in the monastic order. Such photographs are distributed to
pilgrims and commonly displayed in situations of danger. Most taxi
drivers in Rangoon keep a picture of this monk on their window screen
for safety. On the reverse side are his hand-prints, indicating his
sanctity.
Today in his 80s, the Thamanya Sayadaw (`sayadaw'='abbot'), also
knownn as U Winaya, resides at the foot of Thamanya Mountain near
Pa-an in the Karen State in East Burma, an area that has never been
fully under control by Burmese central government. He has become a
potent symbol of monastic independence from government and is visited
daily by busloads of pilgrims, who may eat a plentiful vegetarian
(i.e. free from killing) meal at no charge. His monastery is
surrounded by about 7,000 families within a three mile radius, all of
whom take care of infrastructural projects voluntarily as an act of
merit, and partake of a vegetarian diet in sympathy with his emphasis
on loving-kindness (metta). Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's first visit after
release from her house arrest in 1995 was to this monk. She herself is
said to have become vegetarian under his influence and her philosophy
of democracy is also that of metta. This monk is much respected also
by the military, even though his monastery has been an oasis for the
poor and deprived and for refugees passing through. Further
information may be found in Houtman's book Mental Culture in Burmese
Crisis Politics.

Caption
Cartoon by Saw Ngo, 1995 from Bang! Bang! SLORC, published by Green
November-32, Thailand, 1996._(Green November-32 proclaims to be the
first Burmese organization devoted to human rights and environmental
issues).

Caption
One of the 'totem emblems' or 'symbols of the clans of the national
races' from the Guide to the National Museum, Yangon (Rangoon).

Caption:
Cartoon by Saw Ngo, 1995, commenting on the representation of Burma by
a (male) general at the UN_Conference on Women, Beijing. (From Bang!
Bang! SLORC, published by Green November-32, Thailand, 1996).

Caption
Government advertisement in Myanmar Business and Economic Weekly,
July-August 1996. All publishers must bind this full or abbreviated
series of slogans in every copy of all substantive publications,
including newspapers, magazines and books.Dissent is often marked by
'accidentally' leaving the page uncut so that the slogans become
invisible.

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Gustaaf Houtman
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ghoutman at tesco.net
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Mental Culture in Burmese Crisis Politics:
Aung San Suu Kyi and the National League
for Democracy (Tokyo Univ. of Foreign Studies, 1999)
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read a full electronic version of this print-published book at
http://homepages.tesco.net/~ghoutman/index.htm
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