_THE FRONTIER MOUNTAIN RACES OF BURMA._
In Burma there are in all some forty different races and tribes. These
may be grouped into two classes. First, there are the Buddhist races,
consisting of the more civilised peoples, the Burmans, Talaings and
Shans, the inhabitants of the best parts of the country, the rich
and fertile plains and valleys of the great rivers, and the great
plateau country to the east bordering on China. These races form the
bulk of the population, have each a language and literature of their
own, and far more of the arts and conveniences of life than their
more barbarous neighbours. And secondly, we have the many spirit or
demon-worshipping races, who have never yet become Buddhist—the wild,
unlettered, uncivilised tribes scattered all along the mountains on
Burma’s frontiers, north, east and west. They have never got beyond that
primitive form of religion which would appear to have been the earlier
worship of all the races of that region; and, far removed from the
pathways of commerce, their barbarous condition remains much as it was
centuries ago.
These hill-races are very various. Bordering on Lower Burma are the
Karens, now well known in the history of missions as a remarkable
instance of the rapidly regenerating and uplifting power of the Gospel.
Theirs is as cheering and striking a narrative as missionary annals
afford. What Fiji has been to the Wesleyan Missionary Society the Karen
mission in Burma has been to the American Baptist Mission.
There are some fifteen or twenty tribes of them in all, more or less
closely connected, all supposed to be of the Aryan stock. There are
different languages among them; their unlettered condition naturally
resulting in the multiplication of tongues and dialects, and the
isolation of the many tribes contributing to the same result.
The American Baptist Mission has done splendid work amongst the Karens.
They found them, like all the other hill-tribes, without a trace of
a written language. Into two of the Karen languages, the Pwo Karen
and the Sgau Karen, the entire Bible has been translated, and quite a
considerable literature has been produced. Degraded and oppressed greatly
by the Burmans in the days of Burman rule, the Burmans quite needlessly
regarding them and treating them as nothing better than animals, they
were peculiarly amenable, as all races under similar circumstances are,
to the kindly, beneficent message of the Gospel. Like the rest of the
hill-tribes, they were utterly ignorant and addicted to drunkenness. But
it has ever been found that the hindrances to the Gospel arising from a
low state of civilisation are not formidable in comparison with those
which spring from the possession of a powerful, well-defined, ancient
system of religion such as Buddhism, which claims to have a philosophy
which accounts for everything, and whose rites and observances meet
all the wants of which its followers are conscious. It is part of the
principle of compensation we find running through life, that “these
things”—the mysteries of the Kingdom—are ever hid from “the wise and
prudent, and revealed to babes.” It is part of the mercy and wisdom of
the Divine appointments, and it tends to give the uncivilised nations
their fair chance.
[Illustration: BURMESE CHILDREN.]
The following account of this interesting people, whose manners, language
and worship are quite distinct from those of the Burmans, is from the pen
of Mrs. Emily C. Judson, the wife of Dr. Judson, the first missionary of
the American Baptist Mission.
“They are a rude, wandering race, drawing their principal
support from the streams that flow through their valleys,
and from the natural products of their native mountains.
They migrate in small parties, and, when they have found a
favourable spot, fire the underbrush, and erect a cluster
of three or four huts on the ashes. In the intervals of
procuring food, the men have frequent occasion to hew out a
canoe or weave a basket; and the women manufacture a kind of
cotton cloth, which furnishes materials for the clothing of
the family. Here they remain until they have exhausted the
resources of the surrounding forest, when they seek out another
spot, and repeat the same process.
“The Karens are a meek, peaceful race, simple and credulous,
with many of the softer virtues, and few flagrant vices. Though
greatly addicted to drunkenness, and extremely filthy and
indolent in their habits, their morals in other respects are
superior to many more civilised races. Their traditions, like
those of several tribes of American Indians, are a curious
medley of truth and absurdity; but they have some tolerably
definite ideas of a Great Being who governs the universe,
and many of their traditionary precepts bear a striking
resemblance to those of the Gospel.[1] They have various petty
superstitions, but, with the exception of a small division,
they have never adopted Buddhism, the oppressive treatment
which they have received at the hands of their Burmese rulers
probably contributing to increase their aversion to idolatry.
“Soon after the arrival of the first Burmese missionary in
Rangoon, his attention was attracted by small parties of
strange, wild-looking men, clad in unshapely garments, who from
time to time straggled past his residence. He was told they
were Karens; that they were more numerous than any similar
tribe in the vicinity, and as untamable as the wild cow of
the mountains. He was further told that they shrank from
association with other men, seldom entering a town except
on compulsion; and that therefore any attempt to bring them
within the sphere of his influence would prove unsuccessful.
His earnest inquiries, however, awakened an interest in the
minds of the Burmese converts; and one of them finding, during
the war, a poor Karen bond-servant in Rangoon, paid his debt,
and thus became, according to the custom of the country, his
temporary master. When peace was restored, he was brought to
the missionaries on the Tenasserim coast, and instructed in
the principles of the Christian religion. He eventually became
the subject of regenerating grace, and proved a faithful
and efficient evangelist. Through this man, Ko-Thah-Byu by
name, access was gained to others of his countrymen, and they
listened with ready interest. They were naturally docile; they
had no long-cherished prejudices and time-honoured customs to
fetter them; and their traditions taught them to look for the
arrival of white-faced foreigners from the west, who would
make them acquainted with the true God. The missionaries
in their first communications with the Karens were obliged
to employ a Burmese interpreter; and notwithstanding the
disadvantages under which they laboured, the truth spread
with great rapidity. Soon, however, Messrs. Wade and Mason
devoted themselves to the acquisition of the language, and
the former conferred an inestimable blessing on the race, by
reducing it to writing. This gave a fresh impetus to the spread
of Christianity. The wild men and women in their mountain
homes found a new employment, and they entered upon it with
enthusiastic avidity. They had never before supposed their
language capable of being represented by signs, like other
languages; and they felt themselves, from being a tribe of
crushed, down-trodden slaves, suddenly elevated into a nation,
with every facility for possessing a national literature.
This had a tendency to check their roving propensities; and
under the protection of the British Government they began to
cultivate a few simple arts, though the most civilised among
them still refuse to congregate in towns, and it is unusual
to find a village that numbers more than five or six houses.
Their first reading books consisted of detached portions
of the Gospel, and the Holy Spirit gave to the truth thus
communicated regenerating power. Churches sprang up, dotting
the wilderness like so many lighted tapers; and far back among
the rocky fastnesses of the mountains, where foreign foot has
never trod, the light is already kindled, and will continue to
increase in brilliancy, till one of the darkest corners shall
be completely illuminated.”
Since these words were written many years have passed away, and the
process of the making and upraising of the Karens has steadily proceeded.
In all the principal centres where they are found dwelling the Mission
has flourishing churches and schools; and they have been found at all
times of unrest and insurrection, when violent crime has been rife,
amongst the most loyal subjects of the British power in Burma; and of
late years, especially since the annexation of Upper Burma has been
accompanied and succeeded by a period of disorder, the British Government
has learnt how surely it can confide in the loyalty of the Christian
Karens, and what good service they can render in time of need.
The following particulars, taken from the _Encyclopædia of Missions_
recently published, give interesting information concerning the Karen
Mission in one of its chief centres.
“The Bassein Sgau Karen Mission is the crowning glory and
most perfect flower of the Karen Missions of Burma. Begun in
1837 by the preaching of Mr. Abbott, who spent but five or
six days there, the good work went on, entirely through the
labour of native converts, and the circulation of books and
tracts in Karen and Burmese, till in 1839 more than 2,000
were converted, though only one had been baptized. The fires
of persecution raged fiercely; the converts were beaten,
chained, fined, imprisoned, sold as slaves, tortured, and put
to death; but not one apostatised. Mr. Abbott and the other
missionaries were forbidden to enter Bassein under pain of
death, and in 1840 he removed to Sandoway, Arakan, which was
British territory, separated from Bassein by the Yoma range of
mountains; and from there he and his associates managed the
Karen Mission for thirteen years. In 1852-53 the missionaries
and the Sandoway Mission were transferred to Bassein. About
20 churches and 2,000 members went from Arakan, and in all
there were 58 churches, about 6,100 members, and nearly 5,000
converts not yet baptized. More than 5,000 had passed away
from Burmese cruelties, cholera and other pestilences, famine
and exposure on the mountains. The whole number of converts up
to that time had been about 16,000. Their course since then
has been one of steady progress. In 1854 the churches became
self-supporting, and missionary efforts for the heathen around
them by the native evangelists were commenced; village schools
were established, and a town High School commenced under Mr.
Beecher’s efforts. The spiritual condition was improved; in
1866 all the schools were supported by the churches. Mr. Abbott
died in 1854, and Mr. Beecher in 1866. In 1868 Mr. Carpenter
took charge, and, while constantly striving for their spiritual
growth, he pushed forward educational measures and a thorough
system of schools, culminating in the Ko-Thah-Byu Memorial
Hall, till in twelve years this people, steeped to the lips in
poverty, expended in the building, supporting and endowing of
schools a sum equal to £27,000, besides building their chapels,
supporting their pastors, their village schools, and their
native missionaries; and in 1875 and 1877 sent 1,000 rupees
to the sufferers from famine in Toungoo, and to the perishing
Telugus. Since 1880, under Mr. Nichols, they have continued
to advance. They have endowed their High School, ‘the best in
all Burma,’ with about £10,000; they have 425 students of both
sexes, a fine printing office, and an extensive sawmill and
machine shop. Both board and tuition are free to those who can
pass the examination. They have enlarged their great Memorial
Hall, and built and endowed a hospital. The discipline of the
churches is strict; their pastors are well and thoroughly
trained; their benevolence is maintained on a system which
reaches every member; and in their dress, furniture, domestic
life and social condition, they compare favourably with the
country churches in Christian lands. There are now in the
Bassein Mission 89 churches, and nearly 10,000 members, with
an adherent population in their 85 Christian villages of about
50,000 souls.
“There are in all Burma about 480 Karen churches, with about
28,200 members, and an adherent population of 200,000.”
Well may we exclaim in view of these facts and statistics, “What hath
God wrought!” Seldom, indeed, has such a record as this been possible,
that in the short space of fifty years so lowly a people should not only
embrace the Gospel, but should rise to the happy conditions of civilised
life, and of educational and social progress, such as they enjoy. Most
gladly do I add my independent testimony to the thorough success of this
mission work amongst the Karens, as instances of it have come within my
own observation.
I have known intimately in Upper Burma, for years, Karens doing well in
different walks of life—in the medical profession, as teachers, as clerks
in Government offices, and as surveyors—who are as devout, upright and
consistent members of the Christian Church as are to be found anywhere.
I have sat and listened in Upper Burma with wonder and admiration to a
concert consisting of classical English music, anthems, glees, choruses
and solos, rendered by Karen young men and maidens from the High School
at Bassein above mentioned, that would have afforded the greatest delight
to any English audience, and would have been the rage of the season, if
the same had been given with such perfect musical accuracy, sweetness
and harmony in London or Manchester. I have been brought into close
daily contact for two or three years, in the work of our own Mission,
with two Karen young men, members of the Baptist Church in Lower Burma,
who came to help us at the outset of our work, and I am able to testify
that in regard to educational attainments, Christian character and
consistency, truthfulness, purity and integrity of life, I found them all
I could wish. If I had never met with any other evidence of the kind,
this alone would have been quite sufficient to prove the mighty power
of Divine grace to uplift the lowest and the most degraded, if only the
circumstances afford a fair chance and the Gospel be fairly presented.
If few fields of missionary labour have yielded such rapid and
satisfactory results, it is because in few instances indeed have the
social conditions and even the very traditions of a people afforded
such a conjuncture of favourable circumstances as was the case with the
Karens. In the case of the Mission of the same Society to the Burmans
and other Buddhist races of Burma, there has been no such striking and
phenomenal success. There are to-day twenty Karen converts to one Burman,
and the work throughout has been in like proportion twenty times as hard
in regard to obtaining success amongst the latter as amongst the former.
The question of mission work in relation to successful results, and the
tractability of different races in respect to the Gospel, is a very
wide and complex question, that has never yet received the patient and
intelligent study it deserves. People find it difficult to understand
why, in the same Mission, Burmese work should yield such different
results from Karen work, and why converts should be numbered by units
in Benares and by thousands in Tinnevelly; though they can see reasons,
when it is brought home to them, why Cornwall should be a much better
field for evangelical preaching than County Cork. And the conclusion
is often too hastily reached in favour of some pet theory or method as
against others. But a wider experience goes to show that though the right
methods and the right men are essential to success, success on this large
scale is far more than a question of methods and men. It is largely a
question of _the circumstances in which the people are found_. In the
prosecution of missionary labours in different lands, and even amongst
different races in the same country, the utmost diversity obtains in
their conditions.
We meet, for instance, with nations enjoying very ancient civilisations,
like the Hindus and the Chinese; some, like the Mahomedans, under
the power of a religion which they hold with the utmost tenacity of
enthusiasm; others again, like the Buddhists, in proud possession of a
philosophy and a literature that fully satisfies them. It is in such
cases that the Gospel is confronted with its greatest difficulties. In
conjunction with these conditions, others of a social character are
sometimes found, that greatly increase the difficulties of the situation,
as, for instance, where large communities are hedged round with the
restraints of caste, which, while they secure them in the exclusive
enjoyment of rank, influence and privilege, greatly cripple them in
respect of liberty of conscience and conduct. To win people to the
Gospel from such conditions has always been a difficult task, for it
usually requires them to give up all that human beings ordinarily value
most.
But in the case of races like the Karens of Burma, the Pariahs and
other low castes of India, and the negro slaves of the West Indies,
Christianity finds human beings suffering from special disabilities, a
lowly people, shut out, by the selfishness of those above them, from
all the ordinary chances of bettering their lot, ill-used, oppressed,
enslaved, kept in unlettered ignorance, deprived of all that makes life
worth living. When the Gospel messenger speaks to them hopefully of a
better state of things, and holds out a helping hand, it is evident, even
to their dark minds, that this is their one chance of improvement, both
in temporal and eternal things. They have everything to gain and almost
nothing to lose by embracing the Gospel, and the consequence is that the
success of the Gospel amongst such races is usually rapid.
Another class of races there is, consisting of tribes wild and barbarous,
beyond the confines of civilisation, and from time immemorial left to
themselves, whose state of primitive savagery precludes the possibility
of any elaborate form of religion, quite unlettered, and without
a written language. Such are many of the races of the interior of
Africa, many of the hill-tribes of Asia, and the inhabitants of the
groups of islands in Polynesia. Here, again, are found the conditions
generally favourable for a rapid ingathering, notwithstanding their
extreme barbarism and coarse brutality at first, amounting sometimes to
cannibalism. For even the savage is conscious before long that he has
something to gain by adopting the ways of civilisation. Where mission
work has been conducted with perseverance in such countries it has always
been successful.
When we have fully recognised the mighty power of the Holy Spirit, to
whose gracious influences we are indebted for _all_ Gospel success, and
when we have said all we have to say about different methods and men, the
student of missions will still feel that he has not fully accounted for
the marked diversity in the successes; he must also take account of the
social and economic conditions of the different races, when the Gospel
addresses them, and the hold their own religions generally have upon
their minds. For the Gospel is like every other force in the universe,
whether moral or physical, in this, that it always proceeds with most
energy along the track of the least resistance; and he will find, if he
carefully studies the matter, that the difficulties arising from social
disabilities, and from a low state of civilisation, are not the greatest
possible hindrances to the Gospel.
In the approaching revival of missionary activity and enthusiasm these
questions are sure to receive more careful attention; and when these
problems come to be considered, Burma with its different races will
contribute not a few interesting facts and experiences.
The success of the Gospel amongst the Karens causes one to look wistfully
at some others of the frontier mountain races of Burma. The religious
views of all these primitive tribes are of much the same type, and their
religious observances, what few they have, are similar. Their religion
consists in the worship of _nats_ or demons. They believe all nature is
filled with _nats_; every stone, and tree, and pool, and breath of air
has its spirit inhabiting it; and these _nats_ are malevolent in their
nature. Their religious observances consist not so much in worshipping
them, as in propitiating them by means of offerings. They practise no
regular system of worship, but consult the _nats_ occasionally, whenever
things do not go well with them, or whenever there seems special reason
to fly to the supernatural for guidance. Thus they have not much to
cling to in the way of a religion, and their life and surroundings are
so barbarous as to appear, even to themselves, obviously capable of
improvement.
In the north of Burma, on the mountains in the neighbourhood of Bhamo,
are found the Kachins, a warlike hill people who have, since the
annexation of Upper Burma, given the British some trouble by their
raiding propensities. Amongst them the bones of sacrificed animals and
other articles are placed outside the villages, to prevent the _nats_
from entering in search of victims. It is believed that by this means
their attention is called off. Some of the Kachins have taken to coming
down from the hills and settling in Bhamo for work as labourers; and a
successful work is being carried on by the American Baptist Mission
there.
Since the annexation a good deal has been done in the way of exploring
the country, and bringing to light interesting facts with regard to these
barbarous tribes on our frontiers. Lieutenant R. M. Rainey, Commandant
of the Chin Frontier Levy, has published some interesting notes of his
observations amongst the Chin tribes bordering on the Yaw country in the
Pakokku district. The following facts are largely culled from his notes,
many of them having been corroborated by what the writer and a missionary
companion witnessed, in a recent visit to the tribe of the Chinbôk Chins,
living nearest to the district described.
The Chins of that region consist of various tribes all more or less
distinct in language, and to some extent in customs, the Weloung Chins,
the Boungshès, the Chinbôks, the Yindus, and the Chinbôns. No less than
eight different dialects are spoken by these tribes, the Chinbôk language
itself subdividing into three.
There is no attempt at any system of laws or government amongst them,
beyond the fact that they have something of a village system, and there
are certain customs which all observe. Quarrels are wiped out with blood.
Their religion, in common with that of all the other mountain tribes of
the frontiers, consists in propitiating and consulting the _nats_. For
this an animal must be slaughtered—a buffalo, a bullock, a goat, a pig,
a dog, or a fowl. The slaughtered animal is always afterwards eaten.
In consulting the _nats_ they observe the direction in which the blood
of the sacrificed animal flows; this and similar omens are observed
and acted upon. When raiding, or on a journey, or passing through a
notoriously unhealthy jungle, sacrifices are frequently made, the animals
being taken with them on purpose. Dogs are preferred for this object,
as they follow, and require no carrying or leading. If the omens prove
unfavourable they fear to carry out their purpose. Raids are frequently
abandoned in this way at the last moment, and after they have travelled
long distances.
If, when the omens prove unfavourable, the parties are nevertheless
desirous of accomplishing their purpose, as for instance in the case
of an intended marriage, the _nats_ are periodically consulted until
they are favourable. This must always happen in time if they are only
consulted frequently enough.
The Chins are very much given to drunkenness, and are inclined to make of
any and every incident a special occasion for getting drunk. A visitor,
a birth, a marriage, a death, a case of sickness, are all possible and
likely occasions for a carousal. In this worship of Bacchus they differ
essentially from their Buddhist neighbours; but they may fairly claim
to resemble in that respect many individuals of a distant race, and a
race laying claim to a far higher civilisation. They have a novel mode
of drinking the rice beer they manufacture for these occasions. The
liquor is stored in jars standing two feet in height, and half full of
fermenting grain. A hollow bamboo, the thickness of one’s little finger,
is thrust into the jar and pressed well down into the grain. The company
sit round and take sucks in turn.
Of medicine and surgery they know nothing. When they fall sick they make
no attempt at medicine, but merely consult the _nats_ to ascertain the
result, and propitiate them to avert the calamity.
Scarcely any clothing is worn by the men, and that of the women, though
sufficient for mere decency, is scanty, the legs being entirely bare.
They are all fond of ornaments. Necklaces of beads of all kinds are
much worn, cocks’ feathers appear in the topknots of the men, and a
kind of brass skewer is worn in the hair. They are also fond of wearing
deer’s teeth and cowries. Telegraph wire, a new importation into their
territory, forms a great temptation to them, inasmuch as a few inches of
that metal, bent into a circle, forms a most becoming earring.
Their weapons consist of bows and arrows, which they use with great
dexterity. They often carry a short spear, and every man has a kind
of weapon, which is dagger, knife and hatchet all in one, which sadly
too often does murderous execution in their quarrels, and which, when
not in use, is worn on the person in a bone scabbard consisting of the
shoulder-blade of the buffalo.
Their cultivation, though of a very rude description, is a laborious
business. They have first to fell the jungle on the steep slopes of
the hills, and after some months, during which it has had time to dry,
they burn what has been felled. The grain is then sown without further
preparation. They can only cultivate in the same place in this primitive
fashion for two years together. In the third year the grass has grown so
strong that cultivation is impossible. They then usually leave the land
for five years, during which the jungle again grows up, when it is again
cleared and cultivated as before. Their crops consist of rice and other
grains, a considerable variety of yams and roots, including ginger, beans
and vegetables, also cotton.
[Illustration: TATTOOING OF THE FACES OF CHIN WOMEN.]
The propensity of the Chins for raiding upon their weaker neighbours,
and especially upon the Burman villages, is that which has compelled the
British as the governing power to take account of them. Several military
expeditions have had to be organised in order to punish this raiding, and
to impress upon them the fact that it cannot be allowed. Many are the
tales of the sudden descents of the Chins upon the peaceful villagers in
the plains, robbing them of money, cattle and other property, and taking
away prisoners, who are removed to the Chin villages, and held to ransom.
If not quickly redeemed by their people they are often sold from village
to village, which renders it difficult to trace and recover them. Many
of these unfortunate captives have been rescued through our military
expeditions.
Perhaps the most extraordinary custom they have is that of tattooing the
faces of their women. The process is commenced when they are young, and
is gradually completed. Although the result is hideous to our eyes, it
is said that the beauty of a woman is judged by the style in which the
tattooing has been done. Thus fashion rules the world despite appearances
and common sense. The Yindu women are tattooed in lines across the face.
The Chinbôns tattoo jet black, and are the most repulsive in appearance,
though often fair-skinned. The Chinbôk method is to have several lines
down the forehead, the nose and the chin; and the cheeks are covered with
rows of little circles.