''The Burman: His Life and Notions'' (1882) is a book about the peoples and customs of Burma (now

Myanmar 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 C. Wells, Joh ...

). First published under the pseudonym Shway Yoe, the book was written by the

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

journalist and

British colonial The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...

administrator

James George Scott Sir James George Scott (pseudonym Shway Yoe, 25 December 1851 – 4 April 1935) was a Scottish journalist and colonial administrator who helped establish British colonial rule in Burma, and in addition introduced football to Burma. Life He wa ...

. The book caused a sensation when it was first published because it was considered impossible that a Burman could write so well in English - Shway Yoe's unbiased tone and positive curiosity is also one reason that the author was presumed Burmese by the British. The author made an extremely detailed description of the Burmese people and their culture, from their

pagoda festival Pagoda festivals ( my, ဘုရားပွဲ; ''paya pwe'') are regular festivals found throughout Burma (Myanmar) that commemorate major religious events in pagoda's history, including the founding of a pagoda and the crowning of the pagoda's ...

s to their lacquer, traditions, religion, dressing, food, and many other categories.

References

See also