------------------------ BurmaNet ------------------------ "Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies" ---------------------------------------------------------- The BurmaNet News: September 21, 1995 Issue#232 Headlines: ======== BKK POST: MOEI RIVER BANK ENCROACHER TO BE PAID COMPENSATION NATION: JAPAN TO DECIDE ON GRANT TO BURMA BY NEXT MONTH BKK POST: A SUCCINCT LOOK AT BURMESE THEATRE ---------------------------------------------------------- Produced with the support of the Burma Information Group (B.I.G). The BurmaNet News is an electronic newspaper covering Burma. Articles from newspapers, magazines, newsletters, the wire services and the Internet as well as original material are published. The BurmaNet News is e-mailed directly to subscribers and is also distributed via the soc.culture.burma and seasia-l mailing lists and is also available via the reg.burma conference on the APC networks. For a free subscription to the BurmaNet News, send an e-mail message to: majordomo@igc.apc.org In the body of the message, type "subscribe burmanet-l" (without quotation marks) Letters to the editor, comments or contributions of articles should be sent to the editor at: strider@igc.apc.org ------------------------------------------------------------- INFORMATION ABOUT BURMA VIA THE WEB AND GOPHER: Information about Burma is available via the WorldWideWeb at: FreeBurmaWWW http://sunsite.unc.edu/freeburma/freeburma.html [including back issues of the BurmaNet News as .txt files] BurmaWeb: http://www.uio.no/tormodl Burma fonts: http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~lka/burmese-fonts/moe.html Ethnologue Database(Myanmar): http://www-ala.doc.ic.ac.uk/~rap/Ethnologue/eth.cgi/Myanmar TO ACCESS INFORMATION ABOUT BURMA VIA GOPHER: gopher csf.colorado.edu. Look under the International Political Economy section, then select Geographic_Archive, then Asia, then Burma. ---------------------------------------------------------- BURMANET SUBJECT-MATTER RESOURCE LIST BurmaNet regularly receives enquiries on a number of different topics related to Burma. The scope of the subjects involved is simplytoo broad for any one person to cover. BurmaNet is therefore organizing a number of volunteer coordinators to field questions on various subjects. If you have questions on any of the following subjects, please direct email to the following coordinators, who will either answer your question or try to put you in contact with someone who can: Arakan/Rohingya/Burma- [volunteer needed] Bangladesh border Art/archaeology/: [volunteer needed] Campus activism: [on summer vacation] Boycott campaigns: [Pepsi] wcsbeau@superior.ccs.carleton.ca Buddhism: Buddhist Relief Mission, c/o NBH03114@niftyserve.or.jp Chin history/culture: plilian@asc.corp.mot.com Fonts: tom@cs.colgate.edu History of Burma: zar@mcc.wisc.edu Kachin history/culture: 74750.1267@compuserve.com Karen history/culture: 102113.2571@Compuserve.com Karen Historical Society Mon history/culture: [volunteer needed] Naga history/culture: Wungram Shishak, z954001@oats.farm.niu.edu Burma-India border [volunteer needed] Pali literature: "Palmleaf" c/o burmanet@igc.apc.org Shan history/culture: [volunteer needed] Shareholder activism: frdc@igc.apc.org "Attn. S. Billeness" Tourism campaigns: bagp@gn.apc.org "Attn. S. Sutcliffe" World Wide Web: FreeBurma@POBox.com Volunteering: christin@ksc.net.th [Feel free to suggest more areas of coverage] ******************* BKK POST: MOEI RIVER BANK ENCROACHER TO BE PAID COMPENSATION September 20, 1995 THE Commerce Ministry yesterday agreed to pay 600,000 baht compensation for shophouses removed from the Moei River bank for alleged encroachment. The encroaching shophouses and stalls were knocked down on Saturday which soured relations with Burma. Deputy Commerce Minister Montri Danpaibul said his ministry will set aside a budget of 600,000 baht to pay owners of the stalls. The decision was reached at a meeting yesterday between ministry officials and representatives of 10 provincial chambers of commerce neighbouring Burma. It was seen as a compromise between both sides as owners of the stalls initially needed 1.6 million baht for the damage. The money came from the International Trade Development Fund, the ministry's funds set to promote trade, he added. The Interior Ministry ordered the shophouses removed in July after Burma alleged that owners of stalls in Mae Sot District had encroached on the river and demanded the dismantling of the river rock bank which diverted the river current. The problems led to the suspension of construction of the Thai-Burma Friendship Bridge in Myawaddy. Dismantling the stalls and shophouses is one of three conditions Rangoon set for Thailand to tackle before seeking an improvement in bilateral relations. The Burmese Government also urged Thailand to stop supporting opium warlord Khun Sa's Mong Tai Army and resolve the case of murdered Burmese fishermen. Deputy Commerce Minister Pairote Suwanchawee will visit Rangoon early next month to hold talks with Burmese Trade Minister Tun Kyi on promoting border trade and the border trade agreement plan. ***************************************************************** NATION: JAPAN TO DECIDE ON GRANT TO BURMA BY NEXT MONTH September 20, 1995 TOKYO _ Japan is considering giving Burma grant-in-aid worth Y1.5 billion to Y2 billion (US$ 14.4 million to US$19.2 million) to repair nursing schools in Rangoon, a foreign ministry official said yesterday. The final decision on the grant is expected to be made next month, he said, refusing do confirm a Sankei Shimbun newspaper report that Japan was to give Burma a grant OF about y1.6 billion next month. Foreign ministry study mission visited Burma in June, before Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was released from nearly six years of house arrest, and in late August to early September, he said. Formerly Burma's biggest aid donor, Japan joined western nations in suspending aid after the military coup in Burma in 1988. _ agencies France-Press. ***************************************************************** BKK POST: A SUCCINCT LOOK AT BURMESE THEATRE September 20, 1995 Since 1911, changes in Burmese theatre are more of scandals than of contributions to the performing arts. Burmese Dance and Drama Noel F. Singer. Kuala LumPur. Oxford University Press 1995. 94 pp. Illustrations. M$35 (629 baht). Following on his very successful book on Burmese (not, thank goodness, Myanmarese) puppets, Noel singer, alias Nay Myo, has now produced this attractive little book on the Burmese theatre in general. Many of the excellent illustrations are from his own hand, and are handsomely complemented by old and recent photographs. The book is divided into eight short chapters, the first of which deals with the performing arts in Burma to 1885, starting with the visit of a cultural troupe of Pyu dancers and Mon musicians to the T'ang court at Ch'angan in A.D. 802, with the event being recorded in the new T'ang Dynasty. The emperor Dezong was duly impressed. After a succinct overview of music and dance in this sarly period, Singer covers the court musicians of the Konbaung dynasty, these were highly regulated, and not allowed to perform outside the palace, though those which played at funerals of members of the royal family were not permitted inside it. Theatricals at the Konbaung court are covered in detail. Burmese theatre had already received Thai influences since the fifteenth century, the influx of Thai artist after the sacking of Ayutthaya in 1767 led to a style known as yodayar which was "equated with refinement" versions of Inao and the Ramayana were very popular, though the 45 nights required by the latter for its complete performance meant it was more often produced in parts. Western-style theatres first appeared in the Second Anglo-Burmese War of 1852 and were increasingly used, even in Mandalay under Thibaw, though he sat under a large traditional circular umbrella structure in front of the raised stage, while spending huge sums on his actors and orchestras. Singer gives some amusing gossip concerning favourite actors and actresses _ one of whom was a Thai called "Delicate Mist" _ of the period. Entertainment for the common people understandably took different forms. There were religious narratives, drum dancing (Schwebo had a drum "rain calling songs" similar to north-east Thailand), and dramatic performances with Mintha (prince) and Minthamee (princess), who retained their courtly robes even when they portrayed poor people. There were a few masks and virtually no props, and performances took place from about 2 a.m. to dawn. The removal of the court with the British occupation of Mandalay in 1885 led to the dispersal of palace entertainers and a freeing of theatrical traditions. Innovations from Rangoon caused popular Mintha actors to set up their own theatres and perform contemporary Burmese plays. Among the many female impersonators, Aung Bala was wildly acclaimed while all-female dance troupes became the rage in lower Burma. The period from 1911 to the present saw further changes to Burmese theatre, with many Mintha "remembered not for their contributions to the performing arts, but for the scandals left in their wake." Recent developments include the influence of films and videos, and the establishment of state Schools of Fine Arts to preserve dance and drama traditions. The last chapter on alternative theatre covers trance dancing for the nat and the post-war phenomenon o dancing transvestite mediums who also now appear in theatrical companies. This surprisingly complete little book comes with a bibliography and a select index (in which the play Enaung, mentioned several times does not appear, nor does the Ramayana), and is written by someone who clearly knows on and feel for his theatre. ***************************************************************** Typed by the Research Department of the ABSDF [MTZ] 20.9.95 *****************************************************************