The Church in British Burma

Interactions and conflicts between ethnicities during both British and Burman rule have defined church history in Burma. American missionaries evangelized the Karen, and many Karen converted to Christianity since 1828, giving birth to the Karen Baptist church. Karen church history tells us that Karen Christians have faced persecution at the hands of their Burman rulers since the 1830s. What has to be categorically stated here is that the all-powerful Burman dominated the Karen for centuries before the advent of missionaries. ¹ When American missionaries and British colonialists arrived in this ethnically turbulent context, many Karen accepted them as their liberators and provided the colonialists with local intelligence during the first Anglo-Burman war (1824-26), enraging the Burman. When the British and the Burman finally signed the Treaty of Yandabo in 1826 to end the war formally, the Burman lost Arakan and Tenasserim to the British. Recounting what this war meant for them, the Burman historian Maung Htin Aung wrote, “The outcome of the war was a bitter blow to the Burmese.” ²

The Karen in territories still under Burman rule paid a high price, as the Burman, in revenge, arrested, imprisoned, and killed some of them—mostly Christians—with some pastors even enduring martyrdom, prompting Harry I. Marshall to recall that Karen pastor Thra Klaw Meh was “ordered to give up preaching, but, refusing to do so, was subjected to torture for days and finally was disembowel and shot.” ³ Seeking to save their lives after facing relentless Burman attacks, many Karen left the Rangoon and Bassein areas, which remained under Burman rule, and sought sanctuary in southern Arakan. The journey was fraught with perils—the high western Yoma range was the home of tigers, leopards, lions, elephants, rhinoceroses, and large serpents—and it took them six to ten days to reach Arakan. Though they found freedom from Burman tyranny, they endured a different kind of menaces: —deadly dysentery, cholera, and fever. ⁴ The sacrifices they made for their new faith show that the Christian Karen in the early 19^th century were acutely tested for practicing Christianity.

The second Anglo-Burman war (1852-53) further altered Karen church history, with enormous ramifications for the Burman and the Karen, given the subsequent dissolution of Burman rule in lower Burma. The agonizing aftermath of the first war had fueled intense sentiment among the Burman against the British, but, when they and the British eventually went to war, their military power was decimated, which resulted in loss of more land in the south—Bassein, Rangoon, and Martaban. ⁵ This rapidly evolving political landscape in lower Burma allowed missionaries to move their headquarters from Sandoway, Arakan, to Bassein, lower Burma. ⁶ Even when they based in Sandoway, these missionaries focused on helping Karen refugees from lower Burma and training future Karen pastors and teachers for church ministry and mission work, boosting the growing vitality of Karen churches in the deltas. The importance of Arakan to the Karen mission became diminished after American missionaries relocated their headquarters to Bassein. ⁷

The devastating defeat of the Burman by the British did not end the Karen suffering, however, as the Burman swiftly attacked the Karen for colluding with the British during the war. To be sure, if the fall of lower Burma was an utter disaster for the Burman religiously and politically, it was the beginning of the Karen century, as the colonialists and missionaries nurtured and supported them. ⁸ We must, however, remember that the Karen underwent plight after plight during and after the war. Maung Shwe Wa pertinently wrote, “The situation of the Karen population in the villages around Rangoon was desperate, for with homes, crops, and food reserves destroyed in the heat of passions let loose at the time of the invasion of lower Burma, they were literarily starving.” ⁹ The Burman were majority in Rangoon and elsewhere in lower Burma and abused the Karen at will. Highlighting how Karen Christians suffered, L. P. Brockett stated the Burman “were plundering, torturing, and murdering them, burning their chapels and dwellings, and threatening them with extermination.” ¹⁰

After the second Anglo-Burman war, the British occupied upper Burma and abolished the Burman monarchy in 1885, marking an end to the mighty Burman empire. This annexation, however, eluded stability and peace for the colonial regime, as the nationalistic Burman staunchly resisted the colonialists across the land, which culminated in the British undertaking a bloody pacification. Describing factors contributing to the Burman resisting the colonialists, D. M. Smeaton, a top British officer, wrote, “The Burman cannot conceive of a religion without a Defender of the Faith—a king who appoints and rules the Buddhist hierarchy,” continuing, “The extinction of the monarchy left the nation, according to the people’s notions, without a religion. We have overthrown the king and destroyed all traces of the kingly rule. Naturally they look upon this as the destruction of their nationality.” ¹¹ The removal of the king had an immediate and long-term impact undermining Buddhism. ¹² This explains why Burman fighters were restless in resisting the colonialists.

A series of events afterward, meanwhile, intensified ethnic divide between the parties, since Burman fighters roaming around areas in lower Burma faced dogged resistance from the Karen, who, led by American missionaries, joined the pacification campaign against the Burman, displaying the distressed relation between the two groups. The historian John F. Cady contended, “One reason for the most prompt suppression of rebel operations in lower Burma was that the Karen population, especially the Christian Karens at Toungoo acting under missionary leadership, stood up to the attacking bands in stalwart fashion.” ¹³ Whereas the Burman were incensed, the Karen earned endless praise and recognition from the British, the new rulers of the land. In portraying why the Karen deserved British patronage and support, Smeaton underscored the interplay between Karen loyalty and British policy toward Burma, asserting, “The Karen people are at heart loyal to us, and they have proved their loyalty by freely shedding their blood in defence of our rule and in the cause of order.” ¹⁴

When neither the British nor Americans in practical terms created the ethnic problem between the Karen and the Burman, the massive implications of their presence and works immensely amplified ethnic divide between the groups. Whereas the Burman, who traditionally practiced Buddhism for centuries, sorely resented the British and Americans, many Karen, who historically practiced Karen cosmic religion, adopted Christianity, with some Burman invoking Karen ethnic identity by accusing American missionaries of separating the Karen from the Burman. In rebuking American missionaries for revolutionizing the Karen through mission education, which led to Karen national and political awakening, the Burman historian Maung Htin Aung wrote, “The terms ‘Sgaw-Karen’ and ‘Po-Karen’ were nine-teenth-century terms brought into prominence by the missionaries.” ¹⁵ The practice of Christianity was and has always been a vital source of distance between the Burman and the Karen. ¹⁶

Why have many Karen converted to Christianity? The answer to this question involves ancient Karen folklore and religious mythos strikingly parallel to Christianity, including—the concepts of “white brother,” “lost book,” “flood,” and “God”—so prevalent among them that even secular leaders like Gen. Smith Dun and Saw Tha Din, credited their conversion to Christianity via such traditions. ¹⁷ Karen religion therefore contributed greatly to the success of mission work among the Karen. Early Karen converts, especially Ko Thahbyu (Saw Tha Byu in Karen) and Saw Quala, likewise, played a critical role in proselytizing their own people, suggesting Karen missionaries etched their places in the annals of Karen church history. In 1836, American missionaries, for instance, baptized 173 Karen in Maubee, but it was Ko Thabyu, who evangelized and eventually converted them to Christianity. ¹⁸

The cost of practicing Christianity was high for the Karen, however, as they endured persecution before and during the second Anglo-Burman war. Despite such trials, church growth continued, and one of the apparent reasons for this surprising progress was a revival among Karen Christians in 1858, stirring missionary zeal. ¹⁹ The idea of self-support, taught and encouraged by missionaries, similarly played a crucial part in the course of church growth among them, as they quickly adopted and practiced it, with enduring implications for them. In his 1883 book, C. H. Carpenter, for example, recorded that, although the Karen were poor, they gave “large sums for the support of Christian preachers and teachers, for the building of chapels and schoolhouses, and for the evangelization of other tribes in Burma.” ²⁰ The adoption of this vital mission strategy served them and other Burmese Christians to move forward without much difficulties after missionaries were expelled in the 1960s.

With foreign missionaries, Karen missionaries and teachers proselytized the Chin, Kachin, Lahu, Wa, Akha, and others, who still practiced animism, altering the lives and communities of these highlanders. One can, thus, hardly understand the history of the church in Burma without exploring the history of Karen missionaries and teachers evangelizing and educating the non-Karen groups. In her 2018 essay, Yoko Hayami analyzes Karen church history and the role of Karen missionaries in evangelizing to both Karen and non-Karen. ²¹ The Karen, who lived and worked for and with the Chin and the Kachin for decades, have therefore acquired deep respect and gratitude from the present-day Chin and Kachin, fostering ethnic and religious ties among them. In recognition of the gallant sacrifices they made for the Kachin and Chin missions, Kachin and Chin scholars and leaders have immortalized the historic role of pioneer Karen missionaries and teachers in the annals of Kachin and Chin churches. ²²

While emphasizing the noteworthy work of Karen missionaries and teachers for the Kachin and Chin missions, we must recall American missionaries, who sacrificed everything for the Chin and the Kachin. In 1877, they started proselytizing the Kachin, which transformed Kachin history and society beyond recognition, especially with Ola Hanson making himself vital to Kachin history and venerated among the Kachin. He created Kachin orthography, translated the Bible into Kachin, composed a Kachin grammar, wrote a Kachin dictionary, and authored books on the Kachin. In 1920, after 30 years of his acclaimed service in the Kachin country, Hanson preached at the Pennsylvania Avenue Church, Des Moines, Iowa. Gustaf A. Sword, who attended that worship service and replaced him as a missionary, quoted him as saying, “If I were a young man and could begin my life over again, I would give my life in foreign mission service. I would ask to be sent back to the Kachins in Burma. In fact I would like to live my whole life over again, if I could be permitted to serve as missionary among the Kachin people.” ²³

American missionaries arrived in Chin country in 1899 and started evangelizing with notable success, given the vast majority of the Chin now practice Christianity. Chin historians and scholars attribute what has uplifted the collective status of the once-backward Chin, including mission education, Chin literature, ethnic awakening, and social progress, to their missionaries. In his classic Chin history book, the eminent Chin historian Lian H. Sakhong argues that the transformation Christianity has brought to the Chin is beyond calculation, and that Christianity and Chin identity have become intertwined. ²⁴

Though Karen Christians made an indispensable contribution to mission work among the Chin, Kachin, and others, they never constituted a majority of the Karen, with Karen scholars estimating them to be around 250,000 by 1947. This was about 15 percent of the Karen at that time, but their collective social, political, and economic influence surpassed all the non-Christian Karen combined. When they thought of Christianity, Karen Christians thought of education; accordingly, Christianity and education became intertwined. Christians emerged as the most sophisticated and educated elite shaping the future destiny of the Karen, thanks to education provided by missionaries. ²⁵ The first college in Burma, Judson College, founded by Baptist missionaries and often called Karen College, trained and educated the best minds of the Karen. ²⁶

A subsequent Burman uprising against the colonialists, known as the Saya San rebellion (1930-32), ignited further conflict between the Karen and Burman, when a mostly rural Burman population, armed with rudimentary weapons, fought against the British, because of economic depression and tough taxes. The colonial administration ordered their armed forces, including Karen and Chin soldiers, to pacify that armed unrest, which ended in the killing of Saya San and thousands of his followers. ²⁷ Karen levies joined this campaign as professional soldiers, who only followed orders from the government, but the Burman perceived them as ethnic armies suppressing the Burman. The Karen subsequently faced revenge attacks from the Burman when the Japanese occupied Burma (1942-45). Some units of the Burma Independence Army (BIA) perpetrated atrocities against the Karen, when they, along with the Japanese, entered Burma from Thailand at the end of December of 1941, devastating Karen churches. Historians claim thousands of the Karen, mostly Christians, lost their lives. Ian Morrison, writing in 1947, claimed that on May 26 of 1942 alone, the Burman killed hundreds of Karen men, women, and children in the town of Myaungmya, including Father Blasius, Father Pascal, Father Gaspar, four nuns, Saw Pe Tha, his English wife, and three of his four children. ²⁸

The renowned historian Martin Smith also remarks, “No final figures have ever been tabulated of Karen casualties, but in Myaungmya district alone the official report put the Karen death toll at over 1,800 and recorded the destruction of 400 Karen villages.” ²⁹ This unprovoked atrocity has never left the historical memory of the Karen, as Morrison noted, “The Burmese quickly forgot the communal trouble of 1942. But it seared the consciousness of the Karens.” ³⁰ What has to be categorically stated here is that religion played a role in this killing, given Karen Christians were singled out for massacre. Ashley South rightly contends, “Christian congregations were targeted in particular, further exacerbating pre-war tensions between Burman Buddhist and non-Bama communities.” ³¹

Further, ethnicity played an important part during the war, since the Chin, Kachin, and Karen intensely sided with the British and Americans, whereas the Burman threw their full weight behind the Japanese, intensifying ethnic divide between the parties afterward. ³² Therefore, while neither the colonialists nor missionaries created this ethnic divide, distressing events before and during the war profoundly deepened existing ethnic rifts between the Burman and minorities, with enormous ramifications. In this respect, Andrew Selth writes, “The war period probably saw a greater hardening of divisions between the majority Burmans and minority hill peoples.” ³³ Overall, the interaction between religion and ethnicity during the war militated against the two belligerent parties coming together.

The Kachin had not evaded suffering either, for the Japanese entered the Kachin country. Churches saw little damage from fighting between the two superpowers in the beginning, because the British withdrew to India quickly. The departure of missionaries at that time was, however, difficult for them, but that experience made them self-reliant. They, indeed, suffered the destructive consequences of war, when the British and Americans reentered Burma and attacked the Japanese. Recruited and armed by the British and Americans, Kachin fighters played an important role in devastating the Japanese. Underscoring the level of destruction facing the Kachin, Herman G. Tegenfeldt wrote, “As a result of American bombing and Chinese-American army operations, every town in the Kachin area was almost totally destroyed. . . Kachins in the villages near the lines of military movement often suffered heavily in the destruction of houses and livestock.” ³⁴

Chin, Kachin, and Karen levies made an important contribution to liberating Burma by fighting and expelling the Japanese from Burma. Highlighting how the Japanese suffered at the hands of the Karen, who agonizingly endured the horrors of violence under the Japanese rule three years earlier, Morrison wrote that in 1945, Karen levies killed 12,500 Japanese combatants. ³⁵ The end of the war after the demise of the Japanese required political reorientation between the Burman and minorities. Seeking reconciliation between the Burman and the Karen to hold the state of modern Burma together, Aung San, the father of Aung San Suu Kyi, insisted on the appointment of the Karen in the national armed forces. He was assassinated before independence, but his politically wise policy became fulfilled, when Lieut-Gen Smith Dun, a Christian Karen, was made the commander-in-chief of the national armed forces. ³⁶

Modern Burma was eventually founded in 1948, after Aung San and Chin, Kachin, and Shan leaders signed the historic Panglong Agreement in 1947, but the young nation quickly found itself being torn apart, as the Burman started what has been called Burmanization. They attempted to make Burma a racially homogenous state, because minorities like the Chin, Kachin, and Karen belong to an ethnic category whose existence has been thought to threaten the unity, identity, and survival of the nation. This policy provoked minorities to start an armed uprising against the state. All Karen officers in the military, including Dun, were purged and replaced with the Burman in 1949, as the special position of the Karen during the colonial era evaporated with the demise of colonialism. ³⁷ Like the Karen, the Kachin and Chin launched their respective armed uprising a decade later against Burmanization.

In this way, conflict and war deriving from the close interplay between ethnicity and religion defined the church in British Burma, as this politically and racially intricate backdrop profoundly shaped the history, life, and destiny of the church before 1948. It is therefore unsurprising—albeit unfortunate—that ethnic conflict and war have continued to mark the lives of Christians in modern Burma, as Burmese history during the colonial era reveals such war ever-present through church history and that the ethnic conflict shattering churches in contemporary Burma reflects a continuity of this past.