By Ko Ko Thet
To outsiders unfamiliar with the Burmese culture, the Burmese way of changing names can be perplexing. They happen too often. Burmese takes names as seriously in both public and private spheres. Burmese people believe that every name has attributes that can influence a person’s fate. An astrologer may advice a mother to change the name of her sickly child so that the child will live a healthier life. This deep-seated belief in the power of names partly explains the perplexing name changes in Burmese society. Burmese traditionally did not have surnames. For an average Burmese an ancestral name may be less important than the meaning of his or her own name. Unlike the Thai people who usually have pet names in addition to their typically long surnames and given names, Burmese do not like to be nicknamed. In Western culture, a rose by any other name may smell as sweet. In Burma, a name is everything as one of the Burmese sayings attests: ‘‘One’s attitude follows one’s name.’’ In his article ‘Reading Street Names Politically’ professor Kari Palonen (1993) points out the shortage of literature on politics of naming in the discipline of political science. No academic study of politics of naming in Burma has been done even though most writers on the country has to take pain in explaining why the country has two names. This paper, within its limited scope, explores the politics of naming in Burmese culture. In doing so it seeks historical and cultural explanation for the name culture of the country.
Politics of Naming in Old Burma
For almost two millenniums prior to the British occupation of the whole country in 1885, politics in Old Burma essentially remained a practice of syncretism of Brahmanism and Buddhism, both of which were of Indian origin. In Brahmanism, a king has to keep the court of Brahman advisors as counsellors for every public affair and performance of royal duties. The Brahmans, the learned persons in astrology to astronomy, would suggest auspicious time, place and name of any occasion under the royal auspice. The second group no less influential than the Brahmans in public affairs in a similar way was the sangha, the learned persons in Buddhist scriptures, or the Buddhist clergy. The traditional authorities of the two prestige classes , the Brahma and the sangha, were never questioned in Old Burma. The dynasties were subject to change and political upheaval, but the institutions of the Brahma and the sangha enjoyed continuity throughout the history Old Burma. Therefore the Brahma and sangha, the institutions trusted and shared by the whole population, can be seen as key legitimating factor for an absolute monarchy which had lasted until the late nineteenth century in Burma.
One of the most elaborate rituals in Old Burma was the naming of new kings by Brahma advisors at ordination ceremonies. A new king, who once had been a prince or a rebel, had to leave his own ordinary name forever. Upon the succession to the throne, he had to be given a new name befitting of a king. Inasmuch as Latin in Europe, Pali, an Indic language closely related to Sanskrit, in which the sacred texts of Southern Buddhism are written, was widely used in Old Burma for naming of public persons as well as public places. The Brahman advisors, dressed in white robes and blowing on conch shells, would declare the official title they had chosen for the new king at the most auspicious moment at the right place in front of the entire population of the palace. After receiving the title, the new king was ceremoniously blessed by the sangha. The blessing was a green light to the authority of the new king by the Buddhist clergy, who would publicly spell out their expectation that the king would become a preserver of the Buddhist faith. Just like his forefathers, the new king would be regarded as a would-be Buddha. The next logical step for the new king therefore would be to wish for the attainment of Buddhahood, the most revered status in Buddhism.
The official Pali title of King Alaungsithu (reigned 1112-67 AD) could be approximately translated as ‘the great king whose wisdom knows Buddha’s dhamma scriptures and whose reign rules all the realms of worldly and otherworldly beings.’ Sithu being his name, Burmese people simply remembers him as Alaung-sithu, meaning ‘would-be Buddhha Sithu.’ Thus the secondary function of the ordination ceremony was the entry of the new king into the status of semi-divinity. Therefore an ordination ceremony of a new king in Old Burma functioned the same way a sworn-in ceremony by a democratically elected president in today‘s liberal democracies does. By recognizing the traditional authorities of the Brahma and the sangha at the very beginning of his reign, a king tacitly acknowledged not to contradict with the institutions his people held in respect. At the same time, he also agreed to preserve the people’s religion. The ordination ceremony typically lasted several days during which the country’s paupers were fed, captives were freed and, all in all, good deeds were done in the name of the new king.
The king himself occasionally was the third institution who gave names to public places. Aung San Suu Kyi (1991:41) described how it was done in the case of Burma’s capital Rangoon:
The capital of Burma is Rangoon, a port city on the delta. ‘Rangoon’ is an English corruption of Burmese name Yangon, which means ‘End of Dangers.’ This was the name given King Alaungpaya in 1755 to the town built to house the army with which he vanquished enemy forces in the south.
Yangon also meant ‘end of strife’ and Alaungpaya meant ‘would-be Buddha.’ The enemy forces in the south Alaungpaya vanquished was that of the ethnic Mon people who had dominated Lower Burma. More often than not, names Burmese kings gave to strategically importantly places such as Yangon were also meant to remind his enemies of his victorious campaigns forever. As in other monarchies, the Burmese kings also rewarded his distinguished servants and soldiers with honourable titles in Pali, which extolled the virtues of the honoured person.
In 1857, when almost two-third of Burma was already occupied by the British, King Mindon (reigned 1853-78) moved his capital to the foot of Mandalay hill, after learning a prophecy that the site would become a great Buddhist centre in the future. A whole new city emerged from an empty plain. To boost the morale of the populace, the king named his royal city ‘lay kyun aung mye’ meaning ‘the land which would conquer the rest of the lands.’ The new kingdom was called Yadanabon, Burmese corruption of Pali word radanapura meaning bejewelled land. King Mindon put different vocational groups of people in separate quarters outside the palace. Achoke-tan is a quarters for tailors and sewers, a-the dan for the traders or sellers, and babe-tan for goldsmiths. Mandalay was a planned city in which the political administration resided within the walled and moated palace and was separated from the stratified society living outside in their own quarters. The practice and projection of political power at Mandalay may be what Dovey (1999:71-86) call ‘hidden power’ practiced by the Chinese emperors from the Forbidden City. On the other hand, Mandalay was the first modern city in Upper Burma, which was built after a city plan of a network of straight streets and rectangular living quarters or blocks surrounding the palace. King Mindon’s attempts to modernize the country, however, failed due to political infighting within the palace. In 1885, during the reign of Mindon’s successor king Thibaw, Mandalay was captured by the British. The palace was renamed ‘Fort Duffeerin,’ and became British headquarters for Upper Burma. Despite this setback, Mandalay in the due course of time would become a cultural capital and a great Buddhist centre in Burma.
Besides ‘naming from above’ of public places and persons by the three institutions, ‘naming from below’ by the people was also common in Old Burma. Most of the names of the public places in Burma dates back to the time immemorial and the origins of such names cannot be established with certainty. There was no practice of naming a place after a person in Old Burma. The names of the persons and places belong to different naming categories. When it comes to the names of the kings, only the names given from below persist in social memory of the Burmese people. A king may never be addressed by the name given by the people during his lifetime. Nonetheless, some of the monarchs in Burmese historiography have always been referred to by their nicknames, the names people wanted to call them. The King Narathihapate (reigned 1254-87) has been known as ‘Tarokepyemin’ or ‘the king who fled from the Chinese’ for fleeing the Tartar invasion from China’s Yunnan province in the thirteenth century (Harvey 1967:68). On the other hand, another king who conquered what is present-day Thailand and repelled Chinese invasion in the eighteenth century has been known as Hsinbyumyashin (reigned 1763-76), or the lord of white elephants.
Naming from Above: Renaming as a Tool of Legitimation
The Western practice of naming a public place after a public person in his or her honour only began during the colonial era. Rangoon was expanded under the British plan and all new major streets were named after distinguished British officers. A major thoroughfare in Rangoon was named Scott Road, and the market on it was called Scott Market, after a British Municipal Commissioner C. Scott. A popular resort town in Shan State was called Maymyo (May’s Town) after British Major May who planned it. The British administration did not bother to change the existing Burmese names of the places to English names. New British names were introduced only when new places were born. In Rangoon and Mandalay, some streets’ names in downtown areas were numbered like those in some American cities. There was no resistance against the colonial naming of public places during the anti-colonial nationalist struggles in the 1920s and 1930s, when all-out campaigns and boycotts against all things British were waged. It was only after the independence in 1948, successive Burmese governments tried to redeem the nationhood by changing some colonial names back to Burmese names.
To honour Aung San the architect of Burma’s independence, who was assassinated by a political rival in 1947, Scott Road was renamed Aung San Road, Scott Market became Aung San Market. The statue of Aung San can be seen at Aung San Park by Kandawgyi lake Rangoon. Aung San, being the most popular politician of all time in Burma, his name was used and abused by successive Burmese regimes. In this manner, Burmese people got accustomed to the naming of places after public personalities. Every anti-colonial nationalist hero ‘got a street’ in Burma. Changing colonial street names back to indigenous names is not unique to Burma. In Vietnam, all street names in French or streets named after French public persons were renamed after Vietnamese revolutionary heroes after communist victory. Despite the official name change of Saigon to Ho Chi Minh City, southern Vietnamese still call their city Saigon.
The most drastic name changes in Burma occurred in 1989, when the country’s name was changed from Burma to Myanmar. News about shooting and killing of thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators in Burma had shocked the world a year earlier. It was the Burmese military in the name of State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) attempting to restore the tarnished image of the country in the aftermath of 1988 pro-democracy uprising. They argue that Myanmar has been the name by which the country had been known since the tenth century. They cite the use of the word Myanmar in ancient stone inscriptions. Chinese call the country ‘Miandian.’ As to what may be the origin of the word myanmar is a moot point and myanmar as a combined word does not mean anything. The military regime, nonetheless, deconstructs Myanmar into myan and mar and insists that ‘myan’ means ‘‘being imbued with quick wit, presence of mind and valour to overcome difficulties including military marching and advancing whenever they arise, and ‘mar’ means being imbued with unrelenting perseverance and strong national pride to accomplish everything to the satisfaction of one's own heart.’’ To them, Myanmar is a country in which the Myanmar have been living in peace and prosperity. The opposition argue that the country’s name should not be changed unilaterally by the military and insist on calling it Burma. Citing the complex pronunciation rules in Burmese language, linguists contend that the country’s name is spelled Myanmar but pronounced Bhama from which the word Burma derived, and therefore the use of Burma or Burmese should not be an issue. One can tell political leaning of a person by the way he or she addresses the country when it comes to issues concerning Burma. Some official documents and academics try to remain impartial and stay out of the controversy by using dual name Burma/Myanmar.
Not only the country’s name was changed. The English spellings of all the names of public places in Burma were changed to approximate the Burmese sound. Thus Rangoon became Yangon, the River Irrawaddy became Ayeyawadi, Sittang became Sittaung and so on. Arakan state in Western Burma became Rakhaing state. The Western international community has imposed economic and diplomatic sanctions against the SLORC since 1988. In response, the Burmese regime began to display fervent xenophobia and began the process of what anthropologist Houtman (1999:10-48) calls ‘Myanmafication’ of Burma, which basically meant continued isolation of the country, unambiguous reinvention of Burma as Myanmar and Burmese as Myanmar people. Poorly-planned satellite towns were built near Rangoon to forcibly relocate the poor from overcrowded Rangoon suburban areas following the 1988 uprising. To project an image of progress, the new towns were named Shwepyitha (golden land) and Dagon Myothit (the new Dagon), Hlaing Thaya (the pleasant Hlaing) and so on. In 1997, the SLORC changed its name to State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), suggesting that they had restored law and order and they had begun leading the country to peace and development.
The pattern of name changes in the SLORC/SPDC era suggests that the Burmese leadership has been harkening back to the glorious days of Burmese kings. Since Aung San’s daughter Aung San Suu Kyi came to prominence as an opposition politician, Aung San’s name was dropped from political discourses altogether. Instead the military leaders, who fancied themselves as Burmese kings, looked for new names to relate to in the history of Old Burma. Victoria Cape at the southernmost part of the country was renamed Alaungpaya Cape, after the King Alaungpaya who had conquered the area. Many buildings such as bridges and dams built under the military regime have been named after the successful Burmese kings of Old Burma. When the country’s capital was moved to Pyinmana, 600 km north of Rangoon, in November 2005, the new capital was named ‘naypyidaw’ or the royal kingdom. These measures have been consciously developed as a legitimating tool by the military leadership. They help build the image of the Myanmar regime as a monarchy, preservers of Buddhist faith and custodians of Myanmar customs, and Myanmar as a country ruled by philosopher kings whose wisdom and legitimacy should never be questioned.
Naming from Below: Nicknaming and Nom de Guerre as a Tool of Opposition
Naming from below, renaming or nicknaming of a place or a person by the people, has always been a way of showing dissent. When Burma was changed to Myanmar, an opposition politician suggested that Buddha should be changed to Muddha in the same logic. It became a instant joke all over the country. The military condemned the activist with blasphemy and jailed him. Palonen (1993) notes that ‘manufactured names’, or forming of unofficial acronyms and initials of official names, can sometimes become a genius act of resistance. He argues that it is ‘‘possible to invent ingenious acronyms from the initials and in general using manufactured names, which do only indirectly refer to words in common language or which attempt to create new words (Palonen 1993:111).’’ Soon after the Burmese military formed SLORC in 1988, the people called it by Burmese acronym nyeinpi, meaning ‘quietly suppressed’, suggesting the repression by the military. The military banned the use of nyeinpi and came up with its own initials na-wa-ta. When the SLORC was renamed State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), the military was quick to give it a proper Burmese initials na-ah-pha. This, however, did not stop quick-witted Burmese people to talk of na-ah-pha as the initials for nwa ah phwe, meaning the organizations of cows. On the other hand, a distinguished Burmese academic nicknamed the NCGUB (National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma), the Burmese government in exile, Nagote Group. A Na-gote, being a bull with crooked horns, cannot be effectively engaged in fights. It only hurts itself whenever it gores other bovines.
Realizing that the SPDC is fond of changing names, some subversive Burmese suggest that the name Myanmar should be changed again to Yemisia after Malaysia and Indonesia. Yemisia in Burmese means ‘shortage of electricity and water.’ In March 1988, in what would become the beginning of a nationwide uprising for democracy, the students who took to the streets in Rangoon were met with police violence at ‘White Bridge’ on Prome Road near Rangoon University. Estimates of slaughtered students and school kids varied between twenty to and more than a hundred (Lintner 1990:4-6). After the event, the place White Bride has been known as Red Bridge, for it had been painted with the blood of the students.
Another type of name which is designed to undermine the authorities in Burma is nom de guerre, an assumed name under which a person engages in secret and subversive activities. The first instance of nom de guerre in modern Burma was that of the ‘thirty comrades’ who went to Japan to seek help to fight against the British at the beginning of the Second World War. All the thirty comrades, when they entered Burma in 1942, assumed noms de guerre that not only would confuse the British but also impress the populace. They took the names which would suggest the names of traditional Burmese warriors in Old Burma. Aung San became Boh Teza, Hla Pe became Boh Letya and so on, Boh being a title for a military officer in pre-colonial Burma. Even the Japanese mentor of the thirty comrades, Colonel Suzuki was renamed Boh Moegyo, after a popular prophesy which suggested that the British empire would be struck by a lightening or Moegyo. A more recent case of nom de guerre was that of Min Ko Naing, which originally was the name of a group of students during the 1988 uprising in Burma. Many students wrote under the name Min Ko Naing to incite the people to join them in the cause for democracy. Numerous subversive pamphlets and papers written by ‘Min Ko Naing’ were printed and circulated in the whole country. Soon the name Min Ko Naing itself became anti-government. Understandably, the military was badly shaken by Min Ko Naing, whose name means ‘the conqueror of kings.’ After the military takeover and subsequent crackdowns, student leader Paw Oo Tun, arrested in March 1989, boldly declared that he was Min Ko Naing in order to protect his colleagues. Min Ko Naing became one of the best-known prisoners of conscience in Burma, only to be released in November 2004.
Conclusion
As Palonen (1993) has it, naming of public space involves political decisions and it will always be a potential for political conflicts. In the case of Burma, the conflict has become more evident since the Burmese takes names most seriously. The opposition and the military junta, which have been engaged in a political deadlock since 1988, still cannot agree on the name of the country, let alone to find common grounds on more political matters. Public names are subject to change vis-à-vis political circumstances. The pattern of changes in public names reflects the political direction and aspiration of people in power.
On the other hand, naming from below attests to the fact that, even in the most repressed societies, governments do not necessarily have complete control over the politics of naming. Resistance takes a number of forms, and nicknaming and nom de guerre are just one form of cultural resistance. Despite the heavy-handed persecution, even for cracking a mild political joke, nicknaming and noms de guerre continue to question the legitimacy of the military regime and undermine the authorities in Burma. Like any form of cultural resistance, naming from below is an effective tool of opposition and cannot be eliminated by brute force.
Ko Ko Thett
References:
1) Aung San Suu Kyi (1990): Freedom from Fear, Penguin Books, London
2) Dovey, Kim (1999): Framing Places. Mediating Power in Built Form. Routledge: London
3) Fink, Christina (2000): Living Silence: Burma Under Military Rule, White Lotus, Bangkok
4) Harvey G.E. (1967): History of Burma, Frank Cass and Co. Ltd, London
Lintner, Bertil (1990): Outrage: Burma’s Struggle for Democracy, White Lotus Bangkok
5) Palonen, Kari (1993): Reading Street Names Politically, pp. 103-121 in Reading the Political, The Finnish Political Science Association, Helsinki
6) Tucker, Shelby (2001): Burma: The Curse of Independence, Pluto Press London
7) U Kala Mahayazawin Gyi (1959) (The Great History of Burmese Kings by U Kala): Burma Research Society, Rangoon (In Burmese)
Webpages
Footnote 4: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandalay#History (accessed on 20.4.2006)
Footnote 5: http://www.myanmar.com/Union/origin.html (accessed on 20.4.2006)
Footnote 6: http://www.asiantribune.com/show_news.php?id=14762 (accessed on 23.4.2006)
