The tales contained in this collection were first told in the dark decade of Burmese history (1876–85) during the coming event of the British conquest. The stories combine exotic background with strong details that offer the Western reader both a picture of Burma in the nineteenth century and an understanding of the basic good sense, gaiety, and gentleness of the Burmese people and the Buddhist clergy. The characters that appear in the book illustrate timeless truths about human nature, which today's reader can apply to existing people and situations. For the first time since the eleventh century the future of Burmese Buddhism became uncertain, and there was widespread fear, both in Upper Burma still under a Burmese king and in Lower Burma already under British rule, that the final fall of the Burmese kingdom would result in the total extinction of both the national religion and the Burmese way of life. Told with the purpose of allaying this anxiety and fear, these tales give a full and faithful résumé and appraisal of the position of Burmese Buddhism on the eve of the British conquest of 1886.

This 99-page report written by longtime Burma watcher Bertil Lintner, describes the repression Burma's monks experienced after they led demonstrations against the government in September 2007. The report tells the stories of individual monks who were arrested, beaten and detained. Two years after Buddhist monks marched down the street of the detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, hundreds of monks are in prison and thousands remain fearful of military repression. Many have left their monasteries and returned to their villages or sought refuge abroad, while those who remained in their monasteries live under constant surveillance--Human Rights Watch web site.

collected and retold by Edna Ledgard The people of Burma/Myanmar call it Shwe Pyidaw, the Golden Land, their fertile valley cradled in a horseshoe of mountains. When squabbling Western nations vied for control of the newly-mapped country a century ago, the local population had already lived in the mountainous land for over a millenium. Throughout those centuries, the legends and tales rooted in animist religions created a rich tapestry of spirits that underlie the later arrival of Buddhism. "Nat" spirits, dragons, winged lion-dogs, ogres, mythical galon birds, sorceresses and many more populated the land. This volume brings together 25 of the most-loved of these folk tales.

From the author of the internationally bestselling The Art of Hearing Heartbeats comes this charming collection of folktales that offer a window into Burma’s fascinating history and culture. Since 1995 Jan-Philipp Sendker has visited Myanmar (Burma) dozens of times, and while doing research for his novels The Art of Hearing Heartbeats and A Well-Tempered Heart, he encountered numerous folktales and fables. These moving stories speak to the rich mythology of the diverse peoples of Burma, the spirituality of humankind, and the profound social impact of Buddhist thought. Some are so strange he couldn’t classify them or identify a familiar moral, while others reminded him of the fairy tales of his childhood, except that here monkeys, tigers, elephants, and crocodiles inhabited the fantastic lands instead of hedgehogs, donkeys, or geese. Their morals resemble those of the Brothers Grimm or Hans Christian Andersen, illustrating how all cultures draw on a universal wisdom to create their myths. The Long Path to Wisdom’s evocative stories run the gamut of human emotions, from the familiar to the shocking, and are sure to delight fans of The Art of Hearing Heartbeats as well as those newly discovering the magic of Sendker’s incandescent writing.