The village story teller in Burma considered a tale as a tale and no more, and would not distinguish or classify the stories that he told. But actually tales told in Burmese village could be divided into three categories.1.folk tales 2.folk legends 3.Jatakas or Buddhist birth tales. This Collection of Burmese folk tales is highly coloured and exotic. the stories illumine universal human truths. the atmosphere of these tales is of the same kind as their European counterparts. Some of the tales are highly significant in courts of low and often contain pointers as to how certain situations should be dealt with. they from the foundation of many decisions taken in courts of low.

The 21 colourful Burmese folk tales in this volume have been retold in English by teachers from the Phaung Daw Oo Monastic Education High School, Mandalay, Myanmar, formerly Burma. Accompanying the stories are 22 illustrations created by their young pupils. Herein you will find stories like THE CROW IS AS PROUD AS THE PEACOCK , THE THREE SISTERS, THE BLIND BOY, SHIN MWE LON AND MIN NANDA, THE GREEDY KING, A DISRESPECTFUL DAUGHTER and many more. Herein you will find stories like The Crow Is As Proud As The Peacock , The Three Sisters, The Blind Boy, Shin Mwe Lon And Min Nanda, The Greedy King, A Disrespectful Daughter and many more. As with most folk tales with Eastern origins, the stories have deeper meanings hidden beneath what, on the surface, may appear to be a simple story. The morals in these Burmese tales often reoccur in the tales from other cultures’. Such universal themes include traditional family values and respect, still very much to the fore in a country that to a great extent has stood still in time. 55% of the net profit from the sale of this book will be donated to the Phaung Daw Oo Monastic Education High School, Mandalay to assist with teaching materials. These funds will assist the inspired school founders, Ven. U Nayaka and Ven. U Jotika, who, to date, have helped many underprivileged children benefit from a high standard of education.

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.

Drawn from the rich storytelling traditional of Burmese folklore, twenty fables travel across time and kingdoms, myths and legends-princes and crowned, false kings dethroned, battles are fought and love triumphs. The beautiful illustrations add to the magic of this enchanting collection of Burmese folktales.

This handbook is the first in-depth overview of the fascinating world of Burmese folk-tales. Part one provides a wide-ranging and multi-disciplinary survey of folk-tale studies, together with a broad functional classification of Burma’s tales. Part two presents, mostly for the first time in a European language, the categorized actual tales themselves. With commentaries on plots and cross-cultural motifs - past and present. With index, substantial bibliography, and suggestions for further research.

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.

Orange Prize–winner Karen Connelly’s compelling memoir about her journey to Burma, where she fell in love with a leader of the Burmese rebel army. When Karen Connelly goes to Burma in 1996 to gather information for a series of articles, she discovers a place of unexpected beauty and generosity. She also encounters a country ruled by a brutal military dictatorship that imposes a code of censorship and terror. Carefully seeking out the regime’s critics, she witnesses mass demonstrations, attends protests, interviews detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and flees from police. When it gets too risky for her to stay, Connelly flies back to Thailand, but she cannot leave Burma behind. Connelly’s interest in the political turns more personal on the Thai-Burmese border, where she falls in love with Maung, the handsome and charismatic leader of one of Burma’s many resistance groups. After visiting Maung’s military camp in the jungle, she faces an agonizing decision: Maung wants to marry Connelly and have a family with her, but if she marries this man she also weds his world and his lifelong cause. Struggling to weigh the idealism of her convictions against the harsh realities of life on the border, Connelly transports the reader into a world as dangerous as it is enchanting. In radiant prose layered with passion, regret, sensuality and wry humor, Burmese Lessons tells the captivating story of how one woman came to love a wounded, beautiful country and a gifted man who has given his life to the struggle for political change.

The sequel to the international best-selling novel The Art of Hearing Heartbeats. Almost ten years have passed since Julia Win came back from Burma, her father’s native country. Though she is a successful Manhattan lawyer, her private life is at a crossroads; her boyfriend has recently left her and she is, despite her wealth, unhappy with her professional life. Julia is lost and exhausted. One day, in the middle of an important business meeting, she hears a stranger’s voice in her head that causes her to leave the office without explanation. In the following days, her crisis only deepens. Not only does the female voice refuse to disappear, but it starts to ask questions Julia has been trying to avoid. Why do you live alone? To whom do you feel close? What do you want in life? Interwoven with Julia’s story is that of a Burmese woman named Nu Nu who finds her world turned upside down when Burma goes to war and calls on her two young sons to be child soldiers. This spirited sequel, like The Art of Hearing Heartbeats, explores the most inspiring and passionate terrain: the human heart.