Winai Boonlue

Karen Imaginary of suffering in relation to Burmese and Thai history: conflict, State, non-state segmenting and splitting on religion, community etc.
Winai Boonlue
PhD. Student, Faculty of Social Science, Chiangmai University, Thailand

This paper is an attempt to explore the imaginary of the Karen people who have lived in between the history Thailand andBurma for centuries. The fifty-six years of ethnic war in Burma has been imprinted on the Karen and and labeled themas rebels Due to the politics of the modern nation - state formation, the Karen people have been marginalized and has
become the non state subject. In order to survive the history the Karen has to be in to segment, splitting their religion, theircommunity in order to create their space of existence. The Karen cultural producers have attempted to preserve their waysof life by diversifying their history so it can survive the discrimination.

One of the most sophisticated and powerful cultural

hasa Jeeva Bangsa” in the case of the Malaysian govern-

heritages­­­­­ ­­­t hat humans have ever invented is language.

ment’s strategy of building their nation state. (Isager,2000)

Through language’s signs, sounds and gestures, human

Therefore, in many places around the world, minority andbeings are able to communicate beyond space and time.

indigenous languages are gradually disappearing due to theThrough these abstract invented symbols humans canimbalance of power relations and the discrimination against

transfer and transmit knowledge throughout generations.

the minority cultural language, both ancient strategy1 andThrough intangible cultural artifacts human are able to un-

modern one.

derstand each other across the globe and around the world

In this paper, I would like to explore the creativity of afrom age to age, from generation to generation. In a primi-

small group of people who live in the borderland of Thai-tive small clan society, the elders pass on their beliefs andland and Burma, who are constantly threatened by the pow-

ways of life to the new generation by storytelling, legendary

erful cultural group of linguistic oppression, who have been

imagination etc., which is a manifestation and representa-

pushed around between two linguistic states: the Karention of language in different forms. For the modern nation,

people. The Karen people have no nation of their own, havelanguage has the possibility of becoming a powerful tool forno nationality of their own in space of nation state appara-nation-state building and nation-state preserving. Therefore,tus, yet have creatively written their own language in four or

language is in itself a power. (Bourdieu, 2005)

more different ways as their tactic of linguistic preservation.

Language has many different potentials for power according to its different cultural practices and social organiza-

The Karen People: as Borderlanders

tions. It has active forces and energies to form or to unite
human imagination, even to the extent that it could turn

The Karen people have been living in the borderland regions

creative thought into an imagined nation or community.

of different cultures throughout many countries. In Karen(Anderson,1991) such as one nation, one language. “Ba-legend, they saw the world before the creation of the earth2.

1

Strategy here I use according to the definition of Michel de Certeau, which he defined as a means of domination .

2

The interview with an old Karen man who lives in the tool hill of kwai k’bau - he believes that he has remnant serrieal of the flood of theworld since Noon’s time (Genesis 1:20) he form a umprunity of 500 tamiliys, practicing eclectic religious believe, mix between karen’s traditional belief (animism) Bhudism,and Christianity. They have constructed their identity through legend of the world.

20

Karen Imaginary of suffering in relation to Burmese and Thai history

The origin of the Karen people is from the great dessert in
Gobi3. (Ronard,1980) They believe when a person is dehu-

People with history

manized to the edge of being human, such a person will
strive for the best to regain their being. In many occasions,

The construction and re-construction of Karen history cansuch a person is able to bring out what is the best of human-be viewed as a political economy of meanings. The Karen

ity. The Karen people have been pushed to the edge of being

do not have their own world, the world belongs to “Mu qa”4.

human in and during many different political states. They

They don’t have their own land, the land belongs to Ywa.

have been placed in the margins where the human condi-

The Karen don’t have their own time – the time belongs totions were so difficult to endure - placed against a wall of

the sun and the moon. And they don’t even own themselves,nothingness. Therefore, they had to struggle and strive forthis belongs to the guardians of the Gods. From a stand-the best that they could be.

point of ancient Karen mythology, nothing belongs to them.

During the colonial stage of Western power in Burma, theKaren people took sides with the British. It was the politi-

The only thing that the Karen own is their ability to take action.

cal strategy of division and rule, and the Karen were used as

This ability and desire for action has manifested itself

the power against the Burmese rulers to control a large area

through different myths and stories. Stories such as the talealong Burman-Siam border. In 1947 the new independentof the Orphan and the King - Hpo qai and Cau Pa. Hpo qai

state of Burma recognized the area as Karen but the Karen

had been deprived of all his rights of land cultivation by thethemselves did not think the constitution granted them suf-

King Cau Pa, who only allowed him to plant on a cliff of

ficient autonomy or adequate territorial holdings. (Schrock,rocks. Undeterred, Hpo Qai worked very hard to develop1970) One year later, in response to the Burmese govern-

the land, cutting different trees to put onto the rock face,ment, the Karen mobilized and formed the Karen Nationalborrowing soil from his neighbors and rice grain from his

Defense Organization (KNDO) in order to seize control offriends. With great perseverance, toil, and help from thedisputed areas and promote more autonomy for the Karen

Gods eventually he was able to grow on the rocks and wasstates.

very successful. He became a famous local hero.

Revolt soon broke out and a prolonged conflict was inevi-

The Orphan character is very prominent in Karen my-table given the tenuous Burmese/ Karen relations over thethology and history. This is the way they understandpast century. In 1952, the Karen declared an independentthemselves – as coming from nothing and having to takestate consisting of the Swaleen area and several adjacent dis-action to create themselves. Another story of an orphan

tricts. (Schrock, 1970: 804) Today the KNDO (now changed

surmounting adversity is the tale of Tiloola. Tiloola wasto KNU = Karen National Union) still remains a force inorphaned at a young age and lived with his Aunt. He had

Burma promoting the recognition of autonomy for thea big appetite and his aunt decided she could not feed him

Karen. Currently thousands of Karen live in refugee camps

anymore, so Tiloola was cast out of her house. Alone andalong the Burmese border. Some of them get resettled intowith nothing, Tiloola started his solitary journey. But alongother countries, mainly the USA, Australia and various Eu-

the way he met some friends, each one personifications ofropean countries.

the abstract: wide ears, long hands, tall teeth, hotter than

3

The Karen believe 2010 to be their year 2749. This means that they look to BC 739 as the year of their founding. In their legends Karen

speak of coming from the land of ‘Thibi Kawbi” which some have thought may indicate Tibet and the Gobi desert. Some Karen oral traditions refer to crossing a river of “running sand” as an important event in their history. There are Chinese sources which refer to the Gobi
Desert as the “river of sand,” and it is probable that the Karen originated in an area bordering Tibet. They crossed the Gobi Desert into
China, and gradually made their way into the mountainous areas of Burma. In ancient times most of Thailand’s Karen came over the eastern borders of Burma, and this is still true today. The first Karen most likely immigrated to Thailand before the Thai, and just after the Mon
Khmers. Today almost all of Thailand’s Karen live in the western part of the country along the shared border with Burma.(Roland,1981)4“Mu qa” is the good deity of the Karen myth. It is a different species of sprit than “ta mu qa” which is like ghost. Normally this ghost for

the Karen is a bad spirit
21

Winai Boonlue

fire, cooler than water, heavier than rock, lighter than wool,

myths from their “Lost Golden Book”. the collection ofand sharper than a knife. His friends all traveled with him

wisdom that God had given to all of their people which hadon his journey, and Tiloola was able to use their superhu-

been lost. The missionaries were aware of the connection

man abilities along the way. If he wanted to catch some fish

and let the Karen know that the bible “was their book.” Theto eat he put the long teeth into the stream to stop the water

Karen transfigured different traditional deities into concepts

and collect the fish. And if he had no fire to cook the fish hefound in the Bible. In certain periods of history, the Karen

used his friend hotter than fire. During storms and strong

even believed that they were one of the lost tribes of Israel.

winds he used heavier than rock to keep him grounded and(refer to Feuilles missionaries) (how the missionaries presence

protected. And when the drums of war were heard he usedshaped Karen history)

long hands to stretch out to take his enemies weapons, and

The Karen have a long history of social suffering, a his-big ears to listen to the enemies’ plans from afar. So eventory as long as it’s ancient myths. As stated earlier, one

though Tiloola was a “nobody”, a marginalized orphan withof the only things that Karens own is their ability to takenot one possession, he was able to live in this world success-action. Making connections has been one of the most im-

fully and be protected by his friends.

portant ways for the Karen to utilize their ability for action.

The actual history that we have of the Karen people

From the beginning the Karen never had social rituals thatcomes from many different sources – primarily oral tradi-

united the community (a collective spirit), only rituals thattions and social memory (the Tha), and the interpretation

connected individual families. So they developed religion,and documentation of history by the Missionaries during

language and song that would connect them. Connecting

the Colonial period. What we know is that the Karen haveand developing Christianity also helped them to develop abeen wandering around from the Running Sand region inbigger and stronger social network. Connecting with thethe Gobi desert down to the bank of the Salawin River since

British Army helped them to gain power, something theytime memorial. Always moving around and living in differ-

were able to obtain through their characteristics of honesty,

ent mountain regions and plains. Since the start of the Bur-

loyalty and hard-work that the British admired. The Bur-

mese Kingdom, the Karen people have been pushed into themese were fervently loyal to the British, even more loyal

frontier and border regions, becoming people in-between

than many of the British troupes who betrayed their own

kingdoms (the Burmese and Mon). They have been mar-army and fought on the side of the Japanese.

ginalized from civilization, but always hoping to regain theirright in the world.

When the British left Burma they left the Karen with asense of abandonment and an enormous debt left unpaid

When the colonial era began the British aim was to de-for all of their loyalty and lives lost fighting the British war.

velop and conquer the “uncivilized” kingdom: a “white

The Karen had to learn to stand on their own again and findman’s burden” ideology, and also a strategy of divide andanother system of connection to a different group of people.

rule. When the British came into power they re-shuffled the

Now that the Burmese dictatorship was back in power, andpower structure, giving equal rights to different ethnic na-

the country was left with a new regime lacking widespreadtionalities. With the help of the British, Karen became thepopular legitimacy, the Karen moved out of the cities andethnic nationality, not a minority, of the Union of Burma.

into the border regions. They developed their religious

Many Karen joined the military, many holding important

structures, education and land. They formed a new state

positions in the British Army. They learnt the process ofcalled Kawthaoolei (free state). And this new state createddemocracy and developed a political consciousness about

an imagined community and united the Karen, starting thethemselves and their society. The colonial period thus cre-process of re-connection within their community. At theated a new space for the development of Karen history.

same time they started to connect with democractic societ-

The first American and British missionaries arrived inies outside of Burma such as the United States. In 1949 a

Burma in the early 1800s, marking an important develop-

sixty-two-year-old revolutionary period commenced wherement in Karen cultural development and history. Throughthe major aspect of Karen culture became the science of war.

the study of the Christian Bible, the Karen re-discovered

This has become the main pre-occupation in the lives of the22Karen Imaginary of suffering in relation to Burmese and Thai history

Karen, up until the present time.

versation that is animated and vivid in their memory is the5

After the fall of Manerplaw , the capital of the revolution-

story of fighting against the Burman.

ary state, the majority of the Karen people had to move into
refugee camps on the Thai border to avoid forced labor,“My mother has been running away from the militaryrape, starvation and death in the hands of the Burmese mili-since I was 2 years old. When the “bi be”7 signals to thetary. This created a new aspect in the history of the Karen,

villagers that the enemies are approaching the village, we

as they crossed over into the camps. The Karen people saw

have to grasp whatever is close to our hands that is useful

the refugee camp as an opportunity for new opportunities

for short living in the forest. We have to do that imme-

and connections - with the UN, NGOs and other ethnic

diately. We run without crying, we walk at night without

minorities - to improve the health, education and quality oflight. If we use a torch light, the enemies will shoot us

life (including the right for children to play). The refugeewith a basket of bullets. Therefore, we learn to bear pain

camp became a space of transformation, a temporary shelter

without crying. Walking in the dark without seeing thethat was in many ways better than home. In the Karen state

ground.”there was no community like the big community in the refugee camp. It was like creating a new city, and they had theRunning away from the Burmese soldier is part of theexperience of living together with a diversity of cultures andKaren’s life and culture. It is a social collective memory that

histories. The refugee camp is the new face of the history

sustains a commonality in living and caring for each other.

of the Karen people. They are able to practice their culture,

The most learned person in the village is the one has been to

religions and political views freely. The composition of thethe “front” since a very young age. The science of war means

camp extended their cultural ability to deal with different

not only going forward fighting with danger, it is also a sci-

opinions and adversity. The refugee camps are a space ofence of escaping from the enemies. The playground for theinteraction and story-telling that stimulates the discussion

Karen children is playing with weapons and guns. War hasof history, and therefore acts as an agent to transform thebecome their sport for learning to win and learning to lose.

history through the collective.

The war zone is their school for live and death. Therefore,
escaping is one of the best practices to survive dominationand discrimination.

Imagination as aspiration

In The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History
Along the nation state border of Thailand and Burma, theof Upland Southeast Asia (Scott, 2009), Scott argues that

Karen people have accumulated their stock of knowledge forthe art of escaping is not only in the physical, it is also a cul-survival – in particuar the science of war and the science oftural escaping from being governed. According to Scott, thefiguring. The Karen revolution began in 1947, right after theverbal non-script cultural people who live in Zomnia, theBritish granted independence for Burma. Since that time,

range of highlands in Asia, their strategy of escaping. The

the science that has become the hegemonic paradigm of life

written culture of the low-land state is tools of dominationis science of war.

and control. The Zomnian people who live in the mountains

6

In my research area, inside the Karen state, along thehave no written text, thus their story, their ways of life, theirborder region and even in the refugee camps, the main con-history will not be entrapped and frozen in the written text.

5

Ma ner plaw is literally means victory field. It had been the Karen revolutionary capital for many years. It is the place for the developmentof Karen culture and a sense of belonging.
6

War as Sciences is manifested very clear on any occasion in the Karen conversation. On one occasion, I interview a young man who has

been soldier since he was 14 years old. The most vivid and lively conversation is about the war. He could explain in all detail of escaping,hiding, retrieve and forward in time of war. The act of threaten and creation of fear for the enemies and the encourage word for their fellow
soldiers, are all learned during the war time. Even love, he has felt love most in the war field.
7“Bi be” is the civil secret service established by the Karen National Union for spies and village watchman in all the Karen territory. When “bibe” comes to live in the refugee camp, they became the security guard of the camp.
23

Winai Boonlue

Their verbal stories could be transmitted freely without be-tion of the social order. A moral order and spiritual politics

ing confined to any written form. Therefore, the people inare preconditions for a righteous rule. (Gravers, fort com-the mountains could create a new story every moment anding)

contextualize their practices in a real situation.

The formation of the moral “subject” who should live a

Scott also discusses the “escaping crop”, crops people

life of abstinent from all kinds of violent actions against

choose to plant, such as cassava, which is difficult to pull up

nature. They will not nourish human live by killing of otherfrom the deep ground. The Karen people in the borderland

species of live. They will not live a happy life on the suffer-

have been practicing a rotational agriculture which is also

ing shoulders of their fellow man and woman. They have toa tactic of escaping from the oppressor. For instance, afterwork hard in order to accumulate “merits” for the next bet-

harvesting they would put their rice in bags and place themter life.

in the forest in different trees, covering them with sheltering

Nau hku, is a thirty-eight years old with three children,material. They will get their rice from the forest only when

but looks many years older than her age. She has threethey need it for their family’s consumption. They don’t havesons, one is nine-years-old and the other one is 6-years-

a rice barn in the village but they have rice holes in the tree.

old, the youngest 4 years old. Her husband is a soldier

Deep in the Karen state in my research area, which is ain the conflicted area. She has set up a small shop on theblack zone for the Burmese government, the Karen people

newly built road constructed by a famous monk (U Thu Za-

live in small villages with only seven to ten families livingna). The monk road is constructed to connect Tha Song

there. They keep a distance from the next village, but stayyang,Thailand and Myaing Gye Nyu, Karen state. The roadclose enough to hear warnings and escape the enemies. The

is built for the Karen people not for the Burmese soldiers.

practice of small strategy has become part of their daily cul-

U Thu Za-na ordered not to use the old Burmese military

ture. They don’t want to work in a big group. They believe

built road, but make a new survey and cut the new road. Hethat escaping in a small group could help them survive morestrictly orders his DKBA soldiers not to allow the Burmese

than escaping as a big group. “Escaping in big group die all,army use this newly built road. The territorialisation of theescaping in a small group you save more”.The Karen grouparea by making road is new strategy that derived from thethat I have been following is called the Democratic Karenold beliefs of the Karen Buddhist traditional practice. In

8Buddhist Army (DKBA) . They separated from the Karen

the myth of “the Lord footprints” which have been foundNational Union eighteen years ago.

among the beliefs of Karen people that the Lord Buddha

During the 16 years of the separation between the Karenhas marked the land by leaving his foot print on different

National Union (KNU) and Democratic Karen Buddhist

mountains. Wherever the Lord Buddha left his food prints,

Army (DKBA), a DKBA’s spiritual leader U Thu Za-na has

the ground has become a sacred place, the people who live

been successful in creating a Buddhist moral community

in such area have to be also a holy people by practicing thearound the eastern Karen state, Myaing Gye Nyu. The Karen

Lord teaching especially the five precepts.Along the roadmonastic lay movement or network emphasizes that spiri-sides where he newly built, he also ordered the people totual and moral capital must define the morally enchanted

build pagoda at the highest point of the mountains top.

subject as a fundament for political power and rule. Leader-Nau hku one of the monk soldier’s wife, she was allow toship has to be morally enchanted and all subjects must strive

do a small trade at the road side. She sells several products

to acquire knowledge about Buddhist ethics and use theirbrought from Thai borders. She communicates with people

knowledge in practice. The moral subject is thus at the fore

who stopped by her shop in Sgaw Karen, Plong Karen, Bur-of this movement and the basis for the possible transforma-mese and also in Thai. She was very good at persuading her

8

The formation of the Democratic Kayin Buddhist Organization Army (DKBA), in December 1994, was one result of the KNU leader-

ship’s denial of legitimacy to elements of the Karen’s grass-roots. General Bo Mya and colleagues failed to deal effectively with this subaltern rebellion, and by the end of January 2005 the DKBA had allied itself with the Tatmadaw, and overrun the KNU’s Mannerplaw headquarters. A new wave of 10,000 Karen refugees fled into Thailand, and life in the insurgency would never be the same again.

24Karen Imaginary of suffering in relation to Burmese and Thai history

customers to buy a small thing from her.Prior to her business of becoming a small vender on the road side, Nau Hku
was working in Bangkok, Thailand as a housemaid. Being ahousemaid in Bangkok for the Thai elite is considered a very
undignified job for most people. But for her, a poor woman,being a housemaid was a big step for her in life. She wasable to accumulate skills and learned to communicate withpeople on a different level.

Photo of their cousin who live in the third country

At first I thought it might be because she wanted to lookmodern, but this was not the case. She needed the photo tosend to her cousin who lived in the third country and had
been sending their photograph into the border. She wanted
to be seen as having a good time in at home in the border.
The new Karen identity during the last 30 years are ‘suffering borderlanders”. They have accumulated all sort ofShe did not want her photo be taken

suffering as identities (See Esther Benbassa and G. M. Goshgarian, 2010). They defined such experiences as suffering
by referring to the original definition of human being as “Pgahaw hko hpo”. Pga haw hko hpo could be defined into twodimensions; children of the earth or a crying people. Mostof Karen studies have represented the Karen as a suffering
people; a crying children and a non being or an imperceptible naked being (Decha,2006). It seems to repress the active
agent of being human.
Yet all human are condemned to be free as Satre believed.
Therefore, the refugee camp is a inventive tactics of borderlanders to challenge the state hegimonic discourse of power

This is the look she wanted to be takenover borders, frontiers, borderline,borderland - the sovereignty over borderland and subvert it to a place of liveable

The concept of accumulation of imagination is manifested

space. The most powerful argument of borderlander has

in Nau Hku’s reaction when I wanted to take her photo. She

been “We have never been trandgressing state boundaries,

refused to let me take a photo of her, no matter how much

but the state has always been transgressing our lives”. Bor-

I insisted. When I tried one last time to convince her, shederlanders do not cross the line but the “line” has cross theirasked me to wait for her. I agreed to let her take as much as

lives. Then we need to cross the lines.

time she needed. After I had been waiting for almost twenty

I would like to view this as the capacity for humanminutes, she came back totally transformed and ready tobeings to become the imagination that they create forbe photographed. She was so confident when she returned

themselves, and of themselves. Imagination become as-that I lost my confidence to take her photo. I could not un-pirations in life. Because this imagination of being some-derstand how she could come back so confident after such athing to her cousins than who she really was, it fulfilledlong refusal.

a subjectivity of her being. I would like to argue that the25Winai Boonlue

subjectivity of a person could better themselves in any opportunity they could have. We do not need a position orhigh status in society in order to feel our subjectivity. In alittle gap of situation, human being could insinuate theirsubjectivity which give the meaning to life.The accumulation of imagination become real in their life and sustain
their culture. In living in such difficult situation.
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