05.11.2006
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The White-Shirt Prayer Campaign
[Eingyi Phyu Hsuu Taung Bwair]
_ by David Law, Atlanta
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On her hair is also a brown The Byay*, On my hair is also a brown The Byay. In our land, the flowers of The Byay That are handed out by our women Are very fresh. |
Thu. gaung hmar lair The Byay Nyo, Nga. gaung hmar lair The Byay Nyo. Doh. pyay hmar doh. may kann det The Byay Nyo Shwe Bo Pann har Lann lyet par goh. |
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On her head is a blood-red wound, On my head is a blood-red wound. In our land because Slorc is brutal, From many kinds of people, large streams of blood Are flowing. |
Thu. gaung hmar lair Thway Gwet Ni, Nga. gaung hmar lair Thway Gwet Ni. Doh. pyi hmar Nyein Peet kyann loht Lu paung zone thway chaung gyi har See lyet par goh. |
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On her body is a white shirt, On my body is a white shirt. In our land while wearing white shirts, Let us Pray for Peace, Let us campaign!! |
Thu. ko hmar lair eingyi phyu, Nga.ko hmar lair eingyi phyu. Doh.pyi hmar ingyi phyu woot pyi Nyeinn chann yay hsuu taung gya boht See yone gya zoht !! |
Many years ago when I was in high school in Rangoon, we had to learn poems by heart as part of our Burmese studies. Verse one is actually a quotation from Say Zaw Gyi's "The Byay Nyo" which was written to honour the Independence patriots who struggled against British colonial rule. I can only remember this first verse and how our Burmese teacher explained the true significance of this perfectly innocuous act of wearing The Byay leaves in one's hair. * (The Byay is pronounced just like in the English words, the bray, with a hard Th- sound, as in "the", and a single syllable for Byay, as in bray. Dividing into two sounds, By - ay is incorrect)
First of all, let me explain the tradition of The Byay leaves: it is usually placed at the altar, or phayah zin, at home as an offering to Buddha. Bus drivers will usually have some plants in a vase just above the windscreen, underneath a sacred portrait of Buddha. Students who are studying for exams will offer these leaves at the pagoda and bring home some to be placed in a flower pot on the study desk. In all, having The Byay leaves is part of prayers for good fortune and success, and during the British era it meant prayers for Freedom from colonialism.
It was a peaceful and passive way of demonstrating against the British who could not arrest anyone for just wearing some leaves in the hair, especially when there are hundreds, if not thousands of people doing this. Thus, wearing these leaves was a sign of Resistance that could not be suppressed.
In the aftermath of 1988, after reading about how then SLORC had been viciously brutalizing people left and right, I remembered that old poem and bitterly wrote Verse 2, changing the format to bloody, red wounds in the head since many of the victims were beaten badly, some of them to the point of death.
Recently, with the news about the White-Shirt Revolution, I suddenly realized that wearing these shirts was just like wearing The Byay leaves in the hair. In fact, it was an even MORE brilliant stratagem than The Byay leaves because you don't need to go out and buy them. Once you have the leaves, they last for only several days, and then you have to go and buy some more.
Whereas, in a hot climate like Burma's, everyone has white shirts that are worn most of the time, and the government cannot go around arresting everyone wearing a white shirt. All school children and teachers were white on top and green on the bottom; nurses and doctors wear white tops, office workers, officials, lawyers, judges, --everyone has a white top. Even pilgrim women coming to meditate and pray at the pagoda -- wear white blouses and dark brown htameins (longyis), and brown scarves across their shoulders.
How can the government, even one as brutal as the SPDC, arrest every one of these people? It is impossible. Thus, I say that the White Shirt symbol is an even more potent one than the The Byay leaves. Furthermore, the White Shirt Campaigners have declared that they are simply going to pray for Peace, and that they are not engaged in any politics. Hence they cannot be touched by any SPDC thugs since they are not breaking any law in existence.
[A question to our Readers: would it be useful to run a parallel campaign that anyone NOT wearing a white shirt, but instead wears the Army Green and Army Camouflage Green, is against Peace in Burma? This should include also dark blue, grey and khaki to include the murderous firemen, police, navy, and air-force.]
So, finally, now, we have a nation-wide symbol of Peace, but not only that, but also for Justice, Freedom, Democracy and so on. How can we derive other values from the blank colour white? Well, Peace can be achieved only when there is Justice, Freedom, Democracy, Human Rights, Compensation, Progress and Ethnic Equality.
Think of high school physics: ordinary white light is made of VIBGYOR, that acronym we learned in class as youngsters -- the seven colours: violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, and red. Recall that when all these colours are parts of coloured segments of a wheel and that wheel is turned around very fast in the physics lab, the resultant colour is white. Thus, only when Freedom, Democracy and the rest of these seven values come together will we get Peace.
Meanwhile, in the city of Mae Sot, Thailand, there has been an inter-religious prayer meeting comprising of Muslim, Buddhist, and Christian expatriates from Burma who prayed for Peace in keeping solidarity with the White Shirt Campaigners inside Burma.
Likewise, wherever we are in the world, let us also join them in prayer, and together, perhaps we can finally bring Peace to Burma.
Notes for Burmese Language Learners
¨ Thu. gaung = her head Nga. gaung = my head
¨ Doh. pyay hma = In our land
¨ Doh. may kann det = what our women hand out
¨ Nyein Peet = Silence, Don't Move! Crushed! , a popular way of referring to SLORC, because in Burmese the full meaning is called State Law and Order Restoration Council, or Naingnandaw NYEINwootPEETbyahmu teesaukye` aphwet. As you can see, it is such a long, shah-shay (long-tongued, or extraneous) title that no one wanted to say it out in its full name. Thus, people picked out just those two syllables, Nyein and Peet. Needless to say, Slorc never liked to be called as such. Nyeinwootpeetbyahyay, by the way, literally means "silent and unmoving, crouched (as in bowing all the way down to the ground), crushed, flat condition" which is the government's translation of the word, Order.
¨ Naingnandaw is State or National
¨ Aphwet is Council
¨ Teesaukye` is restoration
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