By Myint Zan
FIRST person to obtain a PhD in Myanmar from the University of Yangon Dr Aung Myint Oo (born 25 May 1960) is a retired Professor of Myanmar. He was the first person to get a doctoral degree in Myanmar (language and linguistics) from the University of Yangon in 2001.
Before AMO’s doctorate, there were at least three other Burmese who obtained their doctoral degrees from Universities in Great Britain, writing their theses which can be considered to be in the genre of Burmese literature. Former University of Rangoon (as it was formally called) Vice-Chancellor Dr Htin Aung (18 May 1909- 10 May 1978) obtained his PhD from the University of Dublin around the year 1935. The title of Sayagyi Dr Htin Aung’s doctoral thesis was ‘A Comparative Study of Burmese with English and European Drama’. Later, shorn of the comparisons with European and English Drama, Dr Htin Aung’s work Burmese Drama was first published by Oxford University Press in 1937.
Another PhD thesis concerning Burmese literature was submitted to the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London in or around 1944. The thesis was about the dramatic works of drama-writer U Pote Ni’s Kumara Pyazat and it was written by Sayagyi Dr Hla Pe (1913-2007). In an obituary of Dr Hla Pe in SOAS Bulletin of Burma Research (Volume 5, 200&) written by the late Saya John Okell (1934-3 August 2020), he stated that parts of Dr Hla Pe’s thesis were published as Kumarat Pyazat. (Volume 1, Introduction and Translations, London, 1952)
In the year 1955 a Dr Shwe Baw submitted his thesis ‘The Origin and Development of Burmese Legal Literature’ at the University of London. As the title indicates, it deals with legal literature. Dr Htin Aung, Dr Hla Pe and Dr Shwe Baw’s doctoral theses (written in English) were on the genre of literature. Dr Aung Myint Oo’s doctoral thesis title in translation is ‘The Burmese language in the Pagan/ Bagan period (around 12th to 13th century Common Era). It was in the general topic of language or linguistics. AMO told me that he had not published his thesis yet.
AMO passed the Matriculation exam in 1977 with a distinction in Biology. He informed me that he specialized in Biology in his first year at Regional College and shifted to Mass Communications in the second year. After reaching Rangoon Arts and Science University (RASU), he specialised in Burmese at the Department of Burmese (as it was then called; now Department of Myanmar). He later became Head of the Department and served in that position from 2006 to 2020. Dr Aung Myint Oo currently teaches the Myanmar language at a University in Chiang Mai.
AMO has published in the Myanmar language a lot of books. Maybe a dozen or more. Here I will write only brief notes and comments on four of his books dealing with the Myanmar language and literature. All of the books are written in Burmese.
Bar that Za Gar Thu Ta General knowledge on linguistics
Sometime around 2013, AMO presented to me the book he authored with the title above. I cannot retrieve the book currently.
In a slim volume, AMO deals with comparative linguistics, not necessarily restricted to Myanmar linguistics. AMO wrote that ‘primer’ in colloquial Burmese (A Pyaw Sagapyay), not in the formal style (A Yay Sagapyay). From my recall, AMO stated that the national language of Brazil or the language most Brazilians speak, is Spanish. It is not. Brazil was not a former colony of Spain. It was a former colony of Portugal. Hence, the national language of Brazil is Portuguese.
Sarpay pinle htei ga hlaing galay (‘The little wave in the sea of Burmese literature’)
The above book is a collection of 28 delightful essays mainly on Myanmar poetry, dealing with ancient, medieval, modern and contemporary poems. It deservingly won the national literary prize in the category of General Knowledge (Arts) in the year 2020. Most of the essays were first posted on social media (Facebook) during the COVID-19 crisis. Indeed, the final essay (essay No 28) is entitled ‘After Covid, Let’s go to Tahiti’. This is a reference to a poem composed by Dagon Taya (10 May 1919-19 August 2019), ‘Let’s go to Tahiti’. It was published in 1949. (After the title was the sub-heading: ‘The poet’s escapism’). In 2004 and 2005, I had the chance to meet Saya Dagon Taya in Yangon. At that time, I was teaching in the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu. I taught at the School of Law at the University of the South Pacific in Port Vila, Vanuatu, for nearly three years. I also taught in Fiji for about ten months. I asked Saya Dagon Taya whether he had visited Tahiti. He said, ‘Of course not. ’ I too had never visited Tahiti, though I had lived and worked in the nearby island nations (the distance between the South Pacific islands is not that near) of Fiji and Vanuatu for nearly four years. AMO cleverly used the isolation he and his wife faced during the COVID-19 crisis with the ‘escapism’ of visiting Tahiti.
As stated, the last essay in the book is on contemporary or modern poetry written in 1949. The very first essay in the collection is about an ancient short poem written by an unknown author in the 11th century Common Era (CE). It is about a lake (perhaps an artificial lake) by the name of Mya Kan (Emerald Lake), which existed during the Bagan era. Now, the lake has gone dry. AMO reproduced the English translations of both ancient or early Burmese poems written roughly eight hundred years apart: the ‘Emerald Lake’ poem by an unknown composer in the 11th century and the ‘Let’s go to Tahiti’ poem composed by Dagon Taya in 1949. Both translations were done by the Burmese scholar and translator Win Pe (pseudonym Mya Zin) (15 June 1927-9 November 2021).
In essay 19, two short poems of two poets who flourished over 100 years apart are discussed. Both poems used the metaphor of flowers to depict romantic love themes. The poets were U Ponnya (1812-1867) and Minthuwun (10 February 1909-15 August 2004).
A few essays can be described as ‘literary detective work’ by AMO. Essay 2 is an analysis of at what age the medieval Burmese Buddhist monk poet Shin Mahratta Sara (1468-1529/1530) started to compose poems.
Two other essays (essays 7 &8) delve into who would be the first lover of poet-king Natshinnaung (January 1579-1613).
Five essays (essays 5, 9, 10, 14, and 15) are discussions of five Burmese poets from the 18th to 19th centuries.
Essay 18 discusses two favourite poems of AMO from his high school days.
Two essays discussed the literary contributions of an elderly Myanmar scholar and another elderly Myanmar poet, who, as of 2 August 2025, are still alive. Essay 25 discusses the Myanmarsar literary contributions of scholar and teacher Goanhtoo U Thein Naing (born 27 March 1936), who, sadly, as I write (2 August 2025), health-wise is in a ‘fragile’ situation.
AMO discusses his meeting in 2019 with the New York-based poet Maung Swan Yi (born 17 February 1937) in Yangon and commented on four of his poems in essay 25.
Yours truly has learned new information about Myanmar poets and poetry from almost every essay in this superb collection. The essays were written in the colloquial style rather than the formal style. Writing in the colloquial style does not detract from the academic nature of the discussions and makes the subject matter easily discernible for the general reader.
A Study of the Mon inscription at Kyaiktalan Pagoda
This small booklet of 108 pages is not on the Myanmar language or literature. It is on the Mon language. The Mons are one of the indigenous peoples of Myanmar. Till about the 11th century, the Mons had a separate kingdom in what can now be called lower Myanmar. The Burmans (Bamars) owed at least some of their culture to the highly cultured Mons. The historian Dr Than Tun stated in his book History of Buddhism in Burma AD 1000 to 1300 (republication Seikku Cho Cho press, 2020) stated that in the 11th century, the Court, or shall we say regal language in Pagan, was Mon. Only in the late 12th century was Burmese used in the palace, Dr Than Tun wrote.
This Mon inscription on a stone slab was constructed around 1098 Current Era. It was written in Mon, which probably indicates that Myanmarsar was not as established at that time and what Dr Than Tun wrote that the ‘regal’ language at that time was Mon could be true. AMO reproduced photos of the stone inscription and retyped the Mon inscription. He also translated the Mon inscription into Burmese and explained the context of the inscription. I could barely read the Mon inscription far let alone understand it. In pages 69 to 92, AMO reproduced, in columns, the words and phrases in early Mon language, medieval Mon language, and contemporary Mon usage with translations into modern Myanmar Sar. He also stated from which foreign language source the Mon words are derived. Two main sources in the ancient period for the Mon language were the Pali and Sanskrit languages. According to the table provided by AMO, certain Mon words have linguistic and philological roots in both Pali and Sanskrit.
The explanations and elaborations of this Mon inscription, which goes back more than 900 years to the late 11th century by AMO, were written in formal Burmese as befitting an academic exploration. This is the most difficult of AMO’s books among those which I have read. The difficulty was largely linguistic since around a third of the book are reproduced in the Mon language. Without the Burmese translations many readers who, like myself, are not familiar at all with the Mon language will also be at a loss. It is a credit to AMO that he took some time to research into Mon language and its roots and translated with commentary on the Mon inscription in this small booklet. The booklet contains valuable and substantial information, especially for those interested in linguistics and cultural research.
Myanmarsar Yae Yar a-phya-phya (‘Concerning various matters on the Myanmar Language’) (Volume I)
This book consists of 15 essays. It deals mainly with the Myanmar language. The use of similar words and in the context in which they can be used and which should not be used in the Myanmar language is the topic of the first three essays. Most of the essays are written in the direct colloquial style. But Essay 8 is written in the formal style. It deals with the teaching of the new curriculum for Myanmarsar for high school students starting from the 2020-21 academic year, where the students can now matriculate only after completing Grade XII (12th standard). Up till the 2019-2020 academic year students matriculate after they passed Grade X (tenth standard). Hence, the compulsory Myanmar Sar curriculum for Grade XI (11th standard) and Grade XII (12th standard) had to be revised or perhaps ‘devised’. AMO explained in detail how the new curricula for Grade XI and Grade XII Myanmar Sar texts had to be made. In a place or two, AMO stated that at least some of the students (perhaps most of the students regurgitate the contents of the text or ‘learned by heart’. The curriculum was drafted to obviate or lessen such by heart learning, he wrote. My query here is: has this somewhat lofty aim been achieved or not? For about twenty years in Matric exams, Myanmarsar papers in essay questions have prompts or a gist of what candidates are expected to write. If they do not adhere to the prompts, they will not get good marks for the essay question. In the 1970s (definitely) and the 1980s may be up to the 1990s, there were no ‘prompts’ for students to write in the compulsory essay question of the compulsory Myanmar Sar paper. Maybe there are limits on how many paragraphs candidates should write, but no prompts during those days. This writer has heard that the provision of prompts was started may be twenty or so years ago, for the Myanmar Sar papers. Ostensibly, the reason for doing so is to avoid students from cramming essay topics in advance and regurgitating them in writing their essay. This cramming and regurgitation can and perhaps does occur when almost identical or similar topics come up in the essay segment in the exam. But is the provision of prompts in essay questions an effective way to avoid ‘cramming’? Moreover, I understand that in the Myanmarsar papers, 15 marks may be up to 20 marks (out of 100) are allotted to true/false questions, multiple choice questions, and objective type questions. This was not the case in the good old days of the 1970s and 1980s, where there were no ‘objective’ ‘true or false’ questions in the Matric Myanmar Sar papers. Hence, for the ‘cramming’ candidates and indeed ‘non-cramming’ candidates as well at least 20 marks are almost ‘guaranteed’. My view is that the inclusion of objective type questions at least indirectly not only does not obviate the ‘cramming’ and ‘regurgitating’ issue but may have the effect of encouraging it.
Dr Aung Myint Oo posts almost daily on social media about many issues concerning Myanmar Sar. I raise these points regarding the Matric Myanmarsar paper, which Dr Aung Myint Oo and other interested persons can address or comment on.
The four books by AOM, which I have discussed above, are very informative and educational. AOM continues to write on matters Myanmarsar. Dr Aung Myint Oo has made notable contributions to the enhancement of Myanmarsar.
