Hla Thamein ( my, လှသမိန်; 7 February 1923 – 12 January 2000) was a Burmese scholar and writer, specializing in

Burmese culture The culture of Myanmar (also known as Burma) ( my, မြန်မာ့ယဉ်ကျေးမှု) has been heavily influenced by Buddhism. Burmese culture has also been influenced by its neighbours. In more recent times, British colonial ...

, the

Burmese language Burmese ( my, မြန်မာဘာသာ, MLCTS: ''mranmabhasa'', IPA: ) is a Sino-Tibetan language spoken in Myanmar (also known as Burma), where it is an official language, lingua franca, and the native language of the Burmans, the count ...

, and

Burmese history The history of Myanmar (also known as Burma; my, မြန်မာ့သမိုင်း) covers the period from the time of first-known human settlements 13,000 years ago to the present day. The earliest inhabitants of recorded history wer ...

Early life and education

Hla Thamein was born Hla Tin on 7 February 1923, in the town of Letpadan,

British Burma British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

, near

Pegu Bago (formerly spelt Pegu; , ), formerly known as Hanthawaddy, is a city and the capital of the Bago Region in Myanmar. It is located north-east of Yangon. Etymology The Burmese name Bago (ပဲခူး) is likely derived from the Mon lang ...

(now Bago), and grew up in

Okpho Okpho (; also spelt Okpo) is a small town and seat of Okpho Township, Tharrawaddy District, in the Bago Region of southern-central Myanmar. It lies south of Gyobingauk and north of Minhla. It contains a hospital, a pagoda, and an open ground in t ...

. He matriculated from high school in 1945.

Career

Hla Thamein began working at the Guide Daily Press in 1946 and other printing presses for 7 years. From there, he joined the Burma Translation Office, and became appointed as a senior culture officer at the

Ministry of Culture Ministry of Culture may refer to: *Ministry of Tourism, Cultural Affairs, Youth and Sports (Albania) *Ministry of Culture (Algeria) *Ministry of Culture (Argentina) * Minister for the Arts (Australia) *Ministry of Culture (Azerbaijan) * Ministry of ...

, rising to become the chief editor at the

Myanmar Language Commission The Myanmar Language Commission ( my, မြန်မာစာအဖွဲ့; formerly Burmese Language Commission; abbreviated MLC) is the pre-eminent government body on matters pertaining to the Burmese language.E. Ulrich Kratz Southeast Asia ...

until his retirement in 1980. Throughout his career, he wrote almost 200 books, thousands of journal articles, and published a few research works. He also taught Burmese to foreign diplomatic corps. Together with Madamme Benot he compiled French-Burmese and Burmese-French dictionaries. He also helped Arremiri Aschi to compile Burmese-German and German-Burmese dictionaries.

Death and legacy

Hla Thamein died on 12 January 2000 in

Yangon Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government ...

. His son, Hla Phone Aung, is also a writer and editor.

Publications

Note: Hla Thamein's name is romanized as "Lha Saminʻ " in Western libraries. * ''Dictionnaire birman-français'' * ''Birmanisches Marionettentheater''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hla Thamein 1923 births 2000 deaths People from Bago Region 20th-century Burmese historians Burmese academics