BELIEFS

Beliefs

By Tha Peng Cung

Photo:Michael

As the title indicates, this essay is a brief attempt to confute that some beliefs of Chin and Myanmar that are believed to be true. According to the Oxford Dictionary, the belief is a strong feeling that something or somebody exists or is true; confidence that somebody or something is right or good. In this essay the two concepts of Chin community and the three concepts of Myanmar people will be presented viz. the origin of the Chin, the first literacy of Chin (which was lost), one of the beliefs of Buddhist “Thadinkyut festival”, the concept of the Union Spirit of Myanmar was originated from King “Anawrahta”, and the last is “Democracy”. 

In the belief of the origin of Chin people, it is commonly believed and accepted that originally Chin people emerged out of a “Lailun”, in English “Chin Cave” which was situated around the Valley of the Yellow River. However, nobody knows from where the term “Chin” comes or who are the actual “Chin” people originally, because Chin people had had no literature and hence no records of the ancestors of long long ago. Another belief is that Chin people were derived from the Jin emperor who built the Great Wall. In addition, the Chin people are believed to have departed “Lailun” in around 250 CE and, then came to the eastern Chinddwin River in around 713 CE. From the Chindwin Valley it seems that the Chin also moved up into Kalay-Kabaw Valley about 400 years ago. They fled to the Chin Hill when Shan King Reigned in Ava and sent a sawbwa, Kyitaungnyo who was a real tyrant and the ancestors could not endure his persecutions in 1374 CE in which it is deduced that the Chins migrated to the Chin Hills about the same time.

The above paragraph explains where the Chin people came from, who the ancestors were, how the ancestors were civilized in ancient time in a brief way. It, however, is illogical to claim that Chin people were derived from the Emperor of Jin. First, Jin Emperor built the Great Wall. It is sure that those who built such an amazing things had civilization and techniques. Nevertheless, at a glance to the Chin Hill after 1374 CE, there were no houses which were properly built. It was noted on the 15th March, 1899 in which the first arrival of Mr. and Mrs. Carson, who were the first missionaries, that the living standard of the Chin people were so low that people were practically without decent clothing’s to speak of (lived like barbarian). Other point to be mentioned is about the Chin literacy.

 

It is considered that there was a literature in Chin language on the hide of animal. That manuscript was eaten by the dog due to the hide, and the consequences allegedly are the literacy was gone. It can be said that the above subject matters are the myth. It is necessary to know what the myth is. According to the Oxford dictionary the myth is something that many people believe but that does not exist or it is false. Therefore, it is unreasonable that the Chin ancestors were Jin Emperor and the literacy was destroyed by the dog. 

It is considered that there was a literature in Chin language on the hide of animal. That manuscript was eaten by the dog due to the hide, and the consequences allegedly are the literacy was gone. It can be said that the above subject matters are the myth. It is necessary to know what the myth is. According to the Oxford dictionary the myth is something that many people believe but that does not exist or it is false. Therefore, it is unreasonable that the Chin ancestors were Jin Emperor and the literacy was destroyed by the dog.
In this part of the essay, it takes to discuss about the “Thadinkyut Festival” which is one of the festivals from the belief of Buddhist. Firstly, I would like to mention that it is not intended to slander the religious point of view. Scores of percentages of Buddhist believed that the Buddha descended from the “Tharwadaindar” where the place of the abode of celestials in the belief of Buddhism. At that place, Buddha preached “Thandudidah” who was the mother of Buddha in the previous life for three months.

For the next point, every school boy and school girl was taught that the spirit of Union for Myanmar was originated from the King Anawratha when they were young in the school. As the consequence, the King Anawratha became who brings the ideas of united for all ethnicities. However, he was the King for just Upper Myanmar nearby Pagan, not for other ethnic groups. Anawratha founded the unified state nearby Pagan during the 11th century whereas other ethnic groups different time: Chin entered in 8th century from Chindwin, Mon came perhaps as early as 3000BCE, Shan 12th century. In addition, Alaungpaya, one of Burmese Kings of Pagan, in 13th century CE, had called out all the tribal representatives of his neighbors. By studying this era of migrating to Myanmar, it is cleared that all students are brainwashing. 

Finally, the absolute belief in Democracy for Myanmar takes to discuss in this section. People from grassroots level believe that their lives would be lifted up and look forwards to live a normal life as other people do as soon as the democracy was practiced in anyways. The fact that democracy brings the capitalist system was neglected and also the hidden face of capitalist system cannot be seen obviously. Democracy was blindly believed as the only way out of poor people who live under poverty. It is considered that The Democratic Government eradicates the gap between the poor and wealthy people. Nonetheless, when the international experiences of outcomes of democratic process were reviewed after 1995, it is revealed that 86 countries attempted to establish the democracy.Among those countries, 7 countries reversed from democracy which means the system of democracy was failed. 40 countries ended in chaos whereas 24 countries were frozen. Those who got liberalization democracy are merely 15 countries (12.9%). Moreover, the thing to be aware that almost all of the grassroots level does not notice is that the conditions for possible reverse ways. They are:

1. Level of economic development
2. Concentration of sources nation wealth
3. Identity-base division
4. Historical experiences with political pluralism and
5. Non-democratic neighborhood.

Therefore, it can be deduced that the democracy was believed incompletely by the community. However, it is needed to have the awareness on the hidden face of capitalist, the real situation of the system.
To sum up, there are, actually, the fallacious beliefs namely; the ancestors of Chin people, how the Chin literature was lost, the person who got the ideas of the spirit of Union and the blindly belief on democracy in the Myanmar community. It is needed to exterminate these false beliefs to open the eyes of the walk layer of people. 

Remark : : It can be refuted (or) attacked by the ideas, not a person.