Andrew Selth outlines why past generations’ accumulated literary and scholarly work on Myanmar is at risk of being lost — and what this might mean for the country’s future.
There is an old Myanmar saying that ‘wisdom is in the literature’.[1] This was particularly the case before 1988, when the country was virtually closed to foreigners and fieldwork of any kind was very difficult. The Internet was still in its infancy and Myanmar-watchers of all kinds were heavily reliant on books, serials and other documentary sources, both to acquire information and to present their findings to a wider audience.
Access to Myanmar is now much easier and the past few decades have seen a flood of foreign officials, scholars and others intent on conducting primary research. As noted on New Mandala, this has contributed to a dramatic increase in the number of books, reports and articles written about the country. A new Griffith Asia Institute study lists over 1,800 monographs published in English alone, and in hard copy, over the past 25 years.[2]
At the same time, however, there is an increasing danger that the accumulated knowledge of earlier generations of Myanmar-watchers will become dispersed, if not actually lost.
In the past, it was common practice for the personal libraries of major figures in Myanmar studies to be purchased by institutions. The British Library, the University of London, Cornell University and Princeton University, among others, acquired large collections of books, manuscripts and ephemera from former officials, academics and others with close connections to Myanmar.[3] Even before the country became fashionable in the West, there was a wish to preserve its scholarly and literary heritage.
Read the full “The wisdom in the literature” article in the New Mandala by Griffith Asia Institute Adjunct Associate Professor, Dr Andrew Selth.
