Thiri Pyanchi This article considers the religious, military and civil orders, decorations and medals of Union of Myanmar. Religious honorary orders Before and after Myanmar's independence, governments presented two religious orders, Abhidhaja Maha Ratht ...

Min Thu Wun ( my, မင်းသုဝဏ်; 10 February 1909 – 15 August 2004) was a Burmese poet, writer and scholar who helped launch a new age

literary movement Literary movements are a way to divide literature into categories of similar philosophical, topical, or aesthetic features, as opposed to divisions by genre or period. Like other categorizations, literary movements provide language for comparing ...

called Khit-San (Testing the Times) in

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

. He is the father of

Htin Kyaw Htin Kyaw ( my, ထင်ကျော်, or ; born 20 July 1946) is a Burmese politician, writer and scholar who served as the ninth president of Myanmar from 30 March 2016 to 21 March 2018. He was the first elected president to hold the off ...

president of Myanmar The president of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar () is the head of state and constitutional head of government of Myanmar. The president leads the Cabinet of Myanmar, the executive branch of the Burmese government. The current preside ...

from 2016 to 2018.

Distinguished career

Born Maung Wun at Kungyangon in Mon state in 1909, he was of Mon and

Bamar The Bamar (, ; also known as the Burmans) are a Sino-Tibetan ethnic group native to Myanmar (formerly Burma) in Southeast Asia. With approximately 35 million people, the Bamar make up the largest ethnic group in Myanmar, constituting 68% of th ...

(Burman) descent. He started writing poems at the age of 20 for Rangoon College (later

Rangoon University '') , mottoeng = There's no friend like wisdom. , established = , type = Public , rector = Dr. Tin Mg Tun , undergrad = 4194 , postgrad = 5748 , city = Kamayut 11041, Yangon , state = Yangon Regio ...

) magazine. It was in university that he, along with the other students of Professor

Pe Maung Tin Pe Maung Tin ( my, ဖေမောင်တင် ; 24 April 1888 – 22 March 1973) was a scholar of Pali and Buddhism and educator in Myanmar, formerly Burma. Born to an Anglican family at Pauktaw, Insein Township, Rangoon, he was the fifth chil ...

–

Theippan Maung Wa Theippan Maung Wa ( my, သိပ္ပံမောင်ဝ ; 5 June 1899 – 6 June 1942) was a Burmese writer, and one of the pioneers of the '' Hkit San'' literary movement. The movement searched for a new style and content in Burmese lit ...

and Zawgyi, pioneered the ''Hkit san'' style of short stories and poems, published in the university magazine, and ''Ganda Lawka'' (World of Books) magazine which he edited, under the tutelage of

J S Furnivall John Sydenham Furnivall (often cited as JS Furnivall or J.S. Furnivall) was a British-born colonial public servant and writer in Burma. He is credited with coining the concept of the plural society and had a noted career as an influential histor ...

, founder of the

Burma Research Society The Burma Research Society ( my, မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ သုတေသန အသင်း ) was an academic society devoted to historical research of Burma (Myanmar). Its aims were "the investigation and encouragement of Art, Sci ...

. The year 1934 saw the publication of ''Hkit san pon byin'' (Experimental Tales) – a collection of short stories to test the readers' reaction, written by Zawgyi, Min Thu Wun and Theippan Maung Wa among others. The writing was distinct and novel in style using shorter sentences and moving away from the traditional literary vocabulary. In 1935 Min Thu Wun received his master's degree in

Burmese literature The literature of Burma (or Myanmar) spans over a millennium. Burmese literature was historically influenced by Indian and Thai cultures, as seen in many works, such as the '' Ramayana''. The Burmese language, unlike other Southeast Asian lan ...

. He went to study at

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to th ...

, and achieved a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

in literature in 1939. Whilst Theippan Maung Wa was famous for his prose, Min Thu Wun and Zawgyi were best known for their portrayal of the daily lives of ordinary people and for their appreciation of nature in their poems. Zawgyi became the most respected literary critic, and Min Thu Wun the best loved poet.

Publications

#''Nursery Songs for Maung Khway'' – 13 songs in Burmese with music and English translations by

Gordon H Luce Gordon Hannington Luce was a colonial scholar in Burma. He was born on 20 January 1889 and died on 3 May 1979. His outstanding library containing books, manuscripts, maps and photographs – The Luce Collection – was acquired by the National ...

of 60 years ago were reprinted in 2002. #''Stories for Children'' – his translation of 26 stories for children from around the world from 1955 to 1961 were also collected into a book in 1965. Min Thu Wun's prolific writings on literature, both classical and modern, in numerous articles were later collected into 3 important books. #''Pan hnin pinzi'' – The Tree Trunk and the Blooms (1965) #''Myanma sa Myanma hmu'' – Burmese Life and Letters (1965) #''Pyinma ngokto'' – The Tough Tree Stump (1968) Min Thu Wun explained in a book review the nature of "light" and "serious" literature. He went on to create the Burmese version of

Braille Braille (Pronounced: ) is a tactile writing system used by people who are visually impaired, including people who are blind, deafblind or who have low vision. It can be read either on embossed paper or by using refreshable braille disp ...

for the blind. He also helped compile Mon – Burmese and

Pali Pali () is a Middle Indo-Aryan liturgical language native to the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist ''Pāli Canon'' or '' Tipiṭaka'' as well as the sacred language of '' Theravāda'' Buddh ...

– Burmese dictionaries.

Politics

In 1990 he was elected as a

National League for Democracy The National League for Democracy ( my, အမျိုးသား ဒီမိုကရေစီ အဖွဲ့ချုပ်, ; abbr. NLD; Burmese abbr. ဒီချုပ်) is a liberal democratic political party in Myanmar (Burma). It ...

(NLD) Member of Parliament, although he resigned 8 years later under pressure from the

military regime A military dictatorship is a dictatorship in which the military exerts complete or substantial control over political authority, and the dictator is often a high-ranked military officer. The reverse situation is to have civilian control of the m ...

. His work has also been banned from publication. A popular publication called ''Sapei Gya-ne'' (Literary Journal) was also blocked in its attempt to dedicate its June 1995 issue to Min Thu Wun. He died on 15 August 2004 at the age of 95.

Notes

External links

official website
''Rose'' (1932) p38, ''The Pyima Stump'', (1949) p41
Poems translated by Dragan Janikovic

Poems translated by Hla Myo Nwe
Poems by Min Thu Wun
English translation by Dr Maung Maung Nyo
Sayagyi Min Thu Wun Centenary
old photos in '' Burma Digest''
''Myanmar sa Myanmar hmu'' (Burmese Literature and Culture)
Min Thu Wun, in Burmese, ''Scribd''
NLD party youth marked Min Thu Wun 100 Year Anniversary
''MoeMaKa'' Radio & Multimedia {{Authority control Burmese writers 1909 births 2004 deaths University of Yangon alumni Alumni of the University of Oxford People from Ayeyarwady Region Burmese people of Mon descent Recipients of the Thiri Pyanchi

Distinguished career

Publications

Politics

See also

Notes

External links