Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Good morning, everyone. Thank you all for being here.
I'm going to introduce our speaker for us this morning and say a word of prayer and we'll get going.
Thank you all for braving the weather. We're finally thawing out, so hopefully.
All right, so we are honored today to welcome Phumza Maung, who is an associate professor of World Christianity at Myanmar Institute of Theology.
He earned his MA from Princeton Theological Seminary and his PhD from Luther Seminary.
He's published widely, contributing book chapters, journal articles and reviews in Asia, Europe and North America.
His research focuses on Burmese Christianity, and he is currently a visiting scholar at Princeton Seminary. We welcome Maung this morning to teach us about the Karen people of Burma and their Christian experience.
Before we call him to the floor, will you folks join me for a word of prayer? Let us pray.
Loving and gracious God, your word comes to us in so many ways, in scripture, in story, in song, and in the lives of all those around the world who love and follow you.
Be with us this morning as we learn about your beloved ones in Burma.
Bless Professor Maung as he shares his prodigious wisdom with us.
In the name of your son, Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.
Thank you.
[00:01:24] Speaker B: Thank you so much, Emma, for today.
I want to say thank you to each and every one of you for coming and listening to the story of the current people and how they converted to Christianity, many of them.
Before I talk about our book and my own chapter, I want to say thank you to the church and all members for supporting my family.
Myself.
I left my country back in 2022.
I left my family back in Burma for two years and a half.
And with the support from the seminary and the church, they left the country and joined me one year and around six months ago.
I want to take this opportunity.
I want to take this opportunity to thank the church and all of you for your support.
There is not actually enough word to express how grateful I am.
We have no place to find and live peacefully, and Nassau Church and the seminary gave me and my family a sanctuary.
So we are so grateful. That's what I want to say first and foremost. And today I want to talk about our forthcoming book.
And the title of the book is Highland Christianity Modern Transformations of the China Southeast Asia Borderlands.
And I want to just read the summary of our book.
Highland Christianity Begins brings together indigenous and group scholars and external researchers to examine Christianity's complex entanglement with ethnicity and modernity across Eastern Zombia, the mountainous borderlands of China and Southeast Asia that is home to ten thousands of people.
Chapters investigated mass convergence, the creation of Bible autocraphies, the indigenization of Christian practice, the tensions of Christianization generated with lowland states and majority populations.
Contributors highlight the dramas and ambiguities of these changes world foregrounding the creative agency of highland peoples in reworking the faith to generate cohesion, cultural capital, and renew forms of belonging. Moving beyond colonial frameworks, this interdisciplinary volume maps the profound and ongoing transformations of communities across this borderland. This is the summary of our book and the book will be published on March 3 by the Penn State University Press Just I want to read two comments or prayers for the book. Then I will go to my own chapter.
First is Comment by Philip Jenkins, an extraordinary, rich and quite fascinating range of case studies of Christianity in multiple societies that stand on the margins of the better known societies of Southeast Asia. Philip Jenkins is author of Kingdoms of this World, How Emperors have Made and Remade Religions and the second one is Affite Mark Noll, author of the New Shape of World How American Experience Reflects Global Faith. He wrote a fine book with importance far beyond its revelations about this one corner of the world. This is what I read for you, the title of our book, the COVID of our forthcoming book today. My chapter is Chapter one and very long, so I don't think I will have enough time to read all of them. So I will read only some part of the chapter and I will mostly read the part that talk about current Christianity and I will not much talk about how British colonialism have impact in the course of their conversion to Christianity. So my own chapter, Chapter one is entitled Christianity, Modernity and the Current Environment.
I belong to the Qing ethnic group.
We are from the highland of western Burma and our current brothers and sisters are in eastern and south part of Burma. So before I talk about Christians, I talk about the Karen. Christians in Burma come mostly from hill people or people of the highlands, so the Karen are one of them.
And now I will talk about my chapter the current live troops of lower Burma and the area bordering western Thailand, speaking numerous mutually unintelligible dialects and comprising some 20 subgroups, with the Secor and BU representing over 70% of the entire Karen population. The name Karen is a Birmingham term, but it was the British who first classified the Karen. The actual size of the Karen population has been a puzzle to scholars and historians. Thus the British census of Burma in 1881 put it at 500.
It is difficult for me to say in English 5A 1 294. I think 500,000 and in the 1931 census of India put it at over 1 million. The British undertook another census in 1941, but they never completed it due to the disruption caused by world war ii which forced them to evacuate to India. According to the 1983 census of the government of Burma, the great number over 2 million people. Leaders of the Great National Union, however, claim 7 million, while most impartial estimates calculate them at around 4 million. Whatever the actual size of the actual site, this people have rich traditions four logs that suggest that the current ancestors once lived in an unknown land in the north, possibly western China, before their immigration into Burma.
Historians think the Karens were the first settlers in the land. They have maintained they have managed to remain distinct from other ethnic groups despite centuries of living among the Burman and the moon who control what will become much of contemporary Burma.
In 1885, the Italian Catholic missionary Vincenzo Sangamo wrote off the current quote, unquote, all those residing in the midst of the Burmese and penguins. They not only retain their own language, but also their dress houses and everything else are distinct from them. And what is more remarkable, they have a different religion.
In 1928, Sun Sipu, the patriarch of the current people, likewise stated, the Karen have been living for many centuries in Burma under Burmese rule, but they always manage to live apart by themselves and to retain their nationality and characteristics.
The Burmese discouraged the kreme from intermission with them when they slowly but successfully assimilated the ethnic Moon. The current were non literate, lacking their own written script and literature, and this deprived them of a chance to imagine and seek new knowledge, power and possibilities and leading for the future.
Illustrate backward and divided, they never cultivated the idea of political awareness, national sentiment or social progress. Joseph Silverstein, a renowned American scholar, precisely stated that the Karen had no sense of nationhood.
They practiced the primary religion of their ancestors, which required costly animal sacrifice to appease myriad spirits. This not only kept them under economy bondage, but also prevent them from developing an institution that could bring unity and coherence to divided current communities. They also never had their own state, religious scholars or periods of past national glory. Their powerful neighbors have consequently for the most part treated them as a subject of race. The currents portray their collective life as that of a helpless people who face oppression by and were in servitude to their hostile neighbors. They faced suffering upon suffering during wars between the Burmese and the Siamese. British colonial administrator Donor Sumitun wrote in 1887, the attitude of the current to the Burmese is distinctly hostile. The cruelty and oppression practiced by the Burmese for generations cannot be easily effaced from their memory, describing how their ancestors endured repression and ruthlessness. Sunset the position of the Cranes before the advent of the British was that of a subject raised in true Oriental fashion. They were treated as slaves. Hence they made their homes on the mountainside or on tracts of land far away from the towns and larger villages occupied by the Burmans. They couldn't remember centuries of manipulation and persecution by the Burman View intergenerational stories of how their Burman rulers had repressed and burdened them, highlighting how they suffered the yoke of Burman rule. Donald Siggin, a renowned Burman historian, contended the name of the town of Mithtila in central Burma comes from the Sego Garen Mettillo, meaning falling tears, because the Burmese forced Guran slaves to dig an artificial lake there, Unsurprisingly backed the Moon when the latter launched an uprising against the burmen back in 1740. In short, the Berman and Moon were rivals.
When the Burman crossed the Moon kingdom in the 18th century, the Guran and Moon escaped and soil refuge together. In xi A long history of troubled relations between the Burman and Gareth Dust Belie Unnut claimed that the Burman Guran conflict started only in 1942. The lack of well organized social, political and religious organizations and leadership to represent the current communities mean that they remain divided, isolated and non literary and backward.
Living for centuries in this wilderness of subjugation by their neighbors, they regarded themselves as a helpless orphan who lived at the mercy of others. And for that reason they easily came to believe that their deliverance is their deliverance would come from new knowledge, power, help and messiah. The arrival of Westerns consequently emerged as a turning point in grand history, ending the era of the Burman kingdom, liberating the grand from Burman persecution, and marking the dawn of the grand ethnic consciousness. Political Awakening Awakening I cannot pronounce English very well. My professor, Dr. Richard often correct me when I mispronounce when I study at pts because I never studied English properly. Of course I will continue social progress in this respect. John F.
Keddie contended, quote, unquote, the Karens were eventually rescued from this precarious status by British rule and by American Baptist missionary activities. Now I will move to my subtitle Current Christianity.
The first American Baptist missionary to Burma, Adoniram Jasan, arrived in Rainco, Yangon in 1813 and evangelized the Burmese and moon for 15 years. But his efforts to convert them to Christianity were often frustrated since they had practiced Buddhism for centuries and remain content with that faith. The British meanwhile invade Burma in 1824 and Jackson was charged with Ben, a British spy and imprisoned.
Perhaps because the king was unaware that the relationship between the United States and Britain was fraud at the time, which had been an important factor in the redirection of Johnson's missionary war to Burma. From India, Johnson moved to Molamia, a city that had recently come under British control, and turned his attention and vigor to the Karen, many of whom welcomed him and accepted Christianity. The year 1828 marked the beginning of Karen Christianity as Kuta Pyu, an ex slave and convicted murderer, was baptized by George D. Bothman in Tawe.
The most remembered native missionary in Burma, Guta PYU was relentless in evangelizing his people, meaning he made a remarkable contribution to the formation of the Karen Baptist Church. What made the Quran so receptive to missionaries evangelizing them that the Quran still practiced the primary religion of their ancestors made them more open to Christianity then those who had already adopted world religions like Buddhism. To the surprise of missionaries, the currents had their own cosmology, traditions and prophecies such as the Lost Book, White Brother Yua Flood and afterlife death. Because of the striking parallels to Christian stories and scriptures play crucial roles in their conversion to Christianity. Regarding these parallels, different conjectures have emerged that Decorum were the lost tribe of Israel, that they had long ago made the Nestorian Christians, that they had met the Jews and that they received biblical stories from Italian missionaries who had gone to Burma in 1740.
Whatever the explanation, this parallel proved effective when missionaries and early grand converts amplified them for missionary purposes. For instance, during his notable evangelization war among his people in the jungles, Guta Pyo appealed to those age old prophecies and traditions that remain deeply embedded in Korean memories. And he succeeded in converting thousands of the Korean to Christianity.
In underscoring the similarities between Karen religion and Christianity, Michele Gravel, Danish scholars claims that many Quran believed that Christianity is their rediscover lost knowledge. It was the grand who appropriated the biblical teachings within their own setting, played an active role in the course of their conversion and made Christianity their own religion. First they own the legends of the White Brother and the Lost Book for centuries and awaited the return of their white brother with the Book. Missionaries attributed this tradition to conversion among pioneer current Christians, including so Kuala. The first grand convert after Gudavyu. Francis Mason, American missionary, stated that it was Gutha Piou who proselyted Sogwala in describing the way in which Guta Piu preached and Sogwola at Martin called Sokola as saying, I believe when I first heard and I said to myself, is not this the very thing we have been waiting for?
When Jonathan Wood, American Baptist missionary, preached in June 1831 and all current leaders asked him if he had brought with him the Karen book, instead of practicing what the Bible taught them, they couldn't worship the Bible.
According to Mahsan, who together with Wade was among the first missionaries to the Quran, Iwar Jasan, son of Adonaram Jasan, similarly stated that upon receiving what they thought was their lost book, the Quran ardently worshipped it. That book turned out to be the Book of Common Prayer with psalms.
According to British colonial officer Alexander I cannot say his last name.
Many Karen embraced the British partly because American missionaries brought with them the book for which they had so long yearned.
In short, it was the grand who possessed retain and appropriate their forelocks when as opposed to Christianity.
James Scott, an American anthropology at Sales University, is therefore correct when he stated it was the good fortune of the American Baptist missionary to have brought the Bible to a people who had long believed in Messiah. Second, Karen Christians themselves played a pivotal role in the making of Korean Christianity.
Since 1828 they had been making enormous contributions to mission and evangelization work among their own people, impelling American Baptist missionaries to acknowledge legendary native Christians and to produce accounts of them. For instance, back in 1843 Mahsin wrote a biography of Kutapio, documenting his remarkable work and importance during the formative years of the Grand Baptist Church. With profound affection he remarked, from the day of his baptism to his death, he never intermitted his labors in preaching Christ where the Savior had not so much been named. From Tawe to Siam, from Marthaban to the borders of Zingme, and from Rangong to Arakan.
In 1856 he also penned a story of Sogwala, who had played an indispensable role in the success of missing Wood among the grand and baptized more than 1500 converts and in the area of Tawet alone, missionaries typically document their own challenges, sacrifice and success stories for their home churches. Rarely do they write about the labors of native Christians.
That they did so about these two current apostles shows how much they felt they deserve special recognition and a place in church history.
Third, from the 1830s to the 1840s the non native missionaries left the Renkong Myeongya Pating Dongmu stretching area in lower Burma were most current leave for British control Rakhine and Tenantari as the Burman were obstructing their mission efforts.
This resulted in grand Christians attenuating and proselytizing their own people with notable success.
Yet the departure of American missionaries caused a challenge because all those current missionaries could convert the current they lacked church authority to baptize them, meaning aspiring baptisms had to journey to distant places where American missionaries lived to perform the initial rituals. Therefore, it was largely grand missionaries who evangelized and converted the current and American missionaries who baptized new converts, meaning grand Christians played an active role when the seekers accepted Christianity.
4 Since then, Guran Christians have seen Christianity as their own religion, not as a foreign religion, and have sent their missionaries to proselytize non Karen upland groups that still practice the primary religion.
Once current churches were founded, current Christians adopted the idea of self support for their churches, mission schools, and native mission work, and they further evangelized the upland peoples. American and Korean missionaries went together and worked with and for the Qing, the Keqing, the Lahu, the Wa, the aka, the Naka, the Xian, the Chinese, and others to spread both the gospel and modern education among them. This means that Gurin Christian played a vital role in the course of Christian mission in Burma during and after the 19th century and that one therefore cannot understand the history of Burmese Christianity without understanding and appreciating grand missionaries. Grand Missionaries Contribution to the Qing Mission the people, my people, for instance, were so great that the missionaries never left the collective memory of the Qing.
Karen missionaries also played a pivotal role in the making of Kaching Christianity, and many of them even gave their lives while working with and among the Kachin, enhancing ethnic and religious ties between the two ethnic groups. The success stories of missing work among the Qing and the Keqing would have been very different had it not been for Karen missionaries. Commitment and PERSEVERANCE There were additional factors influencing the Karen's openness to missionaries. The cosmic Karen religion was, as stated before, costly, for it required its adherents to offer sacrifice to appease countless spirits.
When the Kurans adopted Christianity, they became liberated from the economic bondage of their religion.
The emotive impact of having no literacy and yearning for it also strongly motivated them to accept Christianity.
Yoko Hayami, a Japanese scholar, argues that historically this deep desire for literacy was an important motive for Karen converting to Christianity.
The impact of uneasy relations between the Burmese and Karen must not be underestimated either, for the Karen vowed to resist their traditional oppressors. Upland people in Southeast Asia unsurprisingly, adopted Christianity as a means of keeping their distance because, as James Scott pointed out, it had two great advantages. Christianity had its own.
Millenarian cosmology and it was not associated with the lowland states from which they might want to maintain their distance.
Christianity, after all, attracted the current partly because it was considered the religion of the British who had defeated the Burman. The emotional influence of the Westerners who promised to advance the long term interests of the current must have been significant to them in this regard. John Keddy observed that Christianity was hugely popular among the current as a religion of the new rulers of Burma, as a cultural link with the liberators, and as an alternative to Burmese Buddhism. In what follows, I present the historically remarkable role of Christianity in revolutionizing and modernizing the current people.
Do I still have time?
I will read the second part.
Please stop me when my time is over.
Karen Modernization that the Karen once lived in rural and secluded village in removed jungles made socio political advance impossible and many of them, encouraged and supported by missionaries after their conversion, consequently founded new grand villages in the lowlands where churches and schools were established for their social economy and religious cooperation.
Tens of thousands of them left their village and backwaters in the upland forest and resettled permanently in lowland towns like Bethung, Hindara, Dharawadi, Engsing, Yangkong, Dongmu and Molomin to have access to the higher level of the higher level western education the missionaries offer.
In 1828 Sen Sipu wrote 40 years ago in the Tongue of Basing with a population of 30,000, there were only two current houses outside the mission compound, but now there are hundreds of houses in various quarters of the town.
The same was true of other urban centers. Such immigration marked the beginning of current urbanization, which profoundly shifted the course of Gharen history. When the Ghran entered the wider modern world, the era of isolation and grand history came to an end after many of them accepted Christianity. The religious leaders who emerged through Christian education then also strengthened Garen baby life by providing moral and spiritual leadership.
Stressing such an unprecedented change in 1887, Smithson wrote the pastor decides more suits, settles more disputes and does more real business than half a dozen local judges.
They now had their own learn galleries playing pivotal roles in their social, political and spiritual affairs. This new elite form Baptist associations and representatives form churches usually gather to share their stories, experiences and visions for a better future during the annual association meeting, playing a central role in awakening grand ethnic consciousness. In 1881, leaders of Baptist association spearheaded by Reverend T. Dave and Reverend Sothe founded the Korean national association, the first political organization in British Burma and in fact in British India whose aim was to unite the Christian and non Christian Karen and seek an independent Ghran country under the British. In this regard, Scott argues that Christianity offers a powerful way of creating a place for new elites and an institutional grid for social mobilization.
The invention of a written script for non literary people like the Karen was also revolutionary. Jonathan Wade established the Ritten school language in 1830 and produced a dictionary and grammar of the Sago and po dialect. In 1853 Francis Mason completed the translation of the Bible into the Seco language. Following this, D.L. breyton, another American Baptist missionary, translated the Bible into the bull language. In 1843 my son established a current newspaper called the Morning Star in Towe which fostered the rise of Akaren national imagination, consciousness and identity. The first ever the first vernacular and longest running newspaper in Burma from 1842 to 1962 this newspaper symbolize the advance of the current but ne win, the first dictator of our country closed it down after his 1962 military coup.
Missionaries usually prioritize education when they started the labor of mission among non literary people and the missionary who worked with and for the Karen similarly started missing schools in the 1830s.
The Korean became convinced that education was the foundation upon which all progress rested and so cherished it that by 1910 they had established hundreds of current schools. They managed and funded their churches, schools and other social works for their communities without much assistance from foreign churches, validating the missionary policy of self support and and self governed government from the beginning to emphasize how much their treasure education.
Harry Marshall, American missionary, wrote in 1927 that grand churches historical and Christian in Bething had constructed multiple buildings for their high school at the cost of quote unquote over US$200,000.
To understand the historical gravity that such education had on the course of modernizing the Karen, one needs to be aware of the influence of young Karen men who return to south and educate their people after they themselves had been educated in the West.
In 1833, Sol Chetiang went to the United States and assisted Jonathan Wood in teaching the Sako language to new missionaries there.
Justice Vinton subsequently took Mi A N Gun Loong took Bukharin with him to the United States for the labor of bible translation.
In 1853 and 1856 respectively, Santa and Sane went to the United States to study.
Four years later, Reverend Norman Harris brought Ghassar N Pagatu to the United States for study.
In 1866, Bukonong, another Korean, went to the United States and earned a medical degree from the University of Chicago Reverend ET Darby, co founder of the kna, was the first grant to earn a bachelor degree in theology, the United States in 1871. The Progress Grant Christian made in education was so remarkable that in 1871American Baptist Missionary Magazine identified nine current students who have studied in the United States Abrar Buchanan, Edwin Gacha, Miucho, Mitsa, Puttoko, Tan Bu, and Zhao Ba, the first to leave Burma and study in the West.
So I will read conclusion that's just one or two sentences.
So conclusion we can draw some lessons from this study of the interaction between Christianity and modernity and intricate history of the Karen during and after British colonialism. Educated current Christian elites, mostly the Seco and Westerners, construct the core idea of a distinct Karen ethnic identity by developing the ethnic, cultural, social and religious differences between the Korean and the Burmese and facilitating the remarkable rise of the Korean in education, politics and the military. Eventually, Korean leaders sought to create an independent Korean country in lower Burma, but their political struggle has never succeeded, primarily because geographical, religious, linguistic and social differences among the Karen have prevented Karen elites from uniting all the Karen toward a single identity.
This diversity will continue to be an uphill challenge to present and future Karen leaders who claim to speak for the entire Korean population. The last paragraph. Moreover, the Karen were active players and agents in the adoption and practice of Christianity and this has elevated and transformed the collective life of the Karen. Their conversion to Christianity has also caused deep division among them. Many religions have been a source of unity and division at the same time. Whereas Christianity has united the fragmented current and southern world, it has generated profound alien. Alien. This is the very word Professor Richard Young corrected me kindly.
Alienation. I call ally. So he called. He told me you need to say alien. So out of good memory I told about him.
I would just it has generated proof of alienation between Christian and non Christian grands. The demise of British rule marked the end of the current century with the Burmese swiftly taking control of the young nation, excluding the Karen from state power and dominating them. In the face of such challenges, Christianity has provided the Karen with an enduring source of vitality to survive and even flourish. They now have their own written script, their own vernacular Bible, their own seminaries, their own non religious leaders, their own religious organization and their own broad networks with global Christians. They had none of this when they practiced their cosmic religion back in 1828. They were an agriculture and non literary people living in upland villages. By the turn of the 20th century they had become a group of literary and partly urban people extensively involved in education.
The Military, commerce and politics.
Thank you.
[00:43:43] Speaker A: Thank you so much.
I think we may have time for one question. I see a hand.
[00:43:54] Speaker C: I would like to know, were you.
[00:43:56] Speaker B: Raised Christian and how many generations of your family were Christian?
My parents converted to Christianity, so I am the second generation Christian.
[00:44:13] Speaker C: Thank you, Mon.
I understand of course, that you had to leave Burma because of some of your political views and comments against the. The military. Could you talk about that a little bit?
Why you had to leave your country?
[00:44:30] Speaker B: Thank you, Tom.
I have been criticizing the military regime for actually over a decade. I will say almost two decades. And then back in 2007, there were several revolutions and I was in Mandalay and. And I was actively participating in that protest. And back in 2017, I returned to Burma and when I was in Rangoon, the military returned to power. And every single day we protested for two months and many of our friends were killed.
And actually they also killed some of my students one day. They came one day when I was with my colleagues at mit. We were doing orientation for our students.
Right after I was at my office and the military intelligence agents came, some of them with guns, to arrest me.
It was the pandemic time, so the campus was mostly quiet. We did everything online in my office. I was sitting, I heard people talking.
What happened? And when I went out, they just phoned me. They asked me, are you bum zaemang? And I told them yes. And then we came for you.
Then they told me we will bring to the integration center, which is the place where people were tortured, right? Tortured. Some people tortured to death.
I called my wife, okay? They came for me, pray for me, I will be fine.
But she knew what happened to people who were brought there. And I was brought to one door. They came by two cars and I was sitting in the back seat of one of their cars. The police officer speaking to, I think his superior.
And people, many of them are military intelligence. Some people are the military bureaucrats. How do they call in English? I don't know. So they came together and mit, some faculties and friends surrounded me at that point.
I prepared myself for the possible worse when I try to support my wife by saying that I will be fine, but we know what can happen.
Maybe seven or five minutes later, the officer told me, we will bring back to your office and we will interrogate you in your office.
And I was taken back to my office and interrogated me for two hours.
And they checked my Facebook, they asked me for my password, people I contact and then what kind of things I did.
Then eventually they took my photo. I was sitting, and they took my portal and my identity card number, everything they want from me.
And they checked all my office, my files, everything, anything that belonged to me. And eventually, before they left, they asked me, where do you live? And I told them, I live on the campus, don't go anywhere.
And then they left. And I also left. And I just went to Thailand.
And my American friends helped me get out of that place. I was in Bangkok for 70 days.
My American colleagues and my American professors at Luther sent me the money to survive.
At that time, if I go a little bit more, I cannot extend my visa in Thailand.
I cannot return to Burma.
So my only hope is to come to the United States, my second home. And I contact my friends in the US, including Dr. Young at PTS.
So it's how I came to the US and then since then, all of you become part of my story. Thank you.
[00:49:18] Speaker A: Thank you so much. That's a. Thank you so much for sharing your story and for your research as well.
I have been asked to remind everyone that next week starts our LinkedIn series.
So for Lent. Snuck up on us, didn't it?
So Matthew Novenson will be here next week beginning a close reading of Paul's letter to the Philippians that will be starting next week with Philemon.
And we hope to see you all there. Have a great morning.
