Through neglect and intimidation, Burma’s military regime tries to obliterate the memory of four heroes it wants to forget

For Burmese people, the Shwedagon Pagoda is not o­nly a sacred place of pilgrimage but also a rallying point for political movements. Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi made her first speech to a rally of hundreds of thousands of supporters at the foot of the Shwedagon.

But few visitors to Burma know of the political significance surrounding several other historical monuments located near Shwedagon. It is not surprising, though, because they are symbols of national liberty, and the country’s military regime omits them from official lists of protected sites and considers them a threat to its status and power.

These shunned sites are the four tombs of Burmese national figures, located near the southern gate of the Shwedagon. They are the tombs of Queen Suphayalat, wife of Burma’s last king, Thibaw; the great nationalist and writer Thakin Kodaw Hmaing; former UN Secretary-General U Thant; and Aung San Suu Kyi’s mother, Khin Kyi.

The life stories of these four heroes encapsulate the political struggles of the Burmese people over more than a century, and do not fit in with the generals’ version of recent history.

The Martyrs’ Mausoleum, containing the remains of Burma’s independence hero Aung San and eight comrades who were assassinated with him in 1947, also stands within the shadow of the towering Shwedagon Pagoda. The mausoleum was destroyed by a bomb in 1983, and although the structure was rebuilt, it lacks the monumental splendor of the original.

The oldest of the four shunned tombs is that of Suphayalat. Her tragic life is the elaboration of a Burmese proverb: “Pinnacle now, firewood soon.” She ascended to the throne when she was o­nly 19, but became a political prisoner seven years later. She was sent into exile in India in 1885 with Thibaw by the British. King Thibaw died in 1916 and she came back to Burma in 1919. She was 60 at that time, and lived a further six years. The British government declared a national holiday o­n the day of her funeral, but denied the royal family’s request to bury her in Mandalay Palace for fear that it would promote nationalism.

“My great grandmother was a very determined woman. She was against colonialism all her life,” says Devi Thant Zin, the daughter of the late politician Tawphayalay Aung Zay, grandson of the queen. In her view, the late queen’s greatest achievement was to bring monogamy to the palace.

In her last days, the queen’s closest adviser was Kodaw Hmaing. The queen respected him as a strong nationalist and he revered her. He played a leading role as a writer and activist in resisting British colonialists. He was later dubbed Burma’s Peace Laureate after dedicating the latter part of his life to restoring peace to Burma following the civil war after 1948.

He died in 1964, aged 89, soon after peace talks between the late Gen Ne Win’s regime and underground political parties failed. His last words were: “Before I die, I would like to see our country attain peace and unity.” But it was not to be.

In 1976, university students used the 100th anniversary of Kodaw Hmaing’s birth to gather at his tomb. More than 100 students were arrested during the peaceful anti-government demonstration.  

Since then, Thakin Kodaw Hmaing has become anathema to the military regime. His writings have been censored and even mention of his name banned from time to time. Now his tomb is facing the same fate. Even members of his family are banned from visiting it, according to o­ne relative.

When U Thant died in 1974, after serving as UN secretary-general for 10 years, his body was brought home from New York to Rangoon. But the then Burma strongman Gen Ne Win was not ready to give a deserved burial place to the international leader. In his view, U Thant had supported U Nu, whom Ne Win overthrew to take power. Ne Win denied a request by U Thant’s family for a burial place at the foot of the Shwedagon.

Outraged students snatched U Thant’s coffin and took it to Rangoon University Convocation Hall, where they buried it and built a mausoleum o­n the site of the students’ union building that was demolished by Ne Win in 1962. The army stormed the campus to remove the coffin and rebury it beside the Shwedagon. In the process many students were killed.

The last shunned tomb is that of Khin Kyi, Gen Aung San’s widow. It was her sickness that led to her daughter Aung San Suu Kyi returning to Burma in 1988 and becoming involved in the democracy campaign then under way. Khin Kyi’s funeral in 1988 inspired a political song about both Kodaw Hmaing and Gen Aung San.

These are the reasons why the four tombs are not o­n any officially protected monuments list, and why tourists are discouraged from seeing them. They are a source of embarrassment to a regime that fears they might become a meeting place for democracy activists. The tombs have fallen into a state of neglect.

“They do not want to recognize these tombs as historical sites, but at the same time they do not let [others] renovate them,” a lawyer based in Rangoon told The Irrawaddy. “They seem to prefer that these monuments disappear from public memory.”

The poet Tin Moe, who lives in exile in the US, has compared the way European countries protect their historical monuments with the Burmese regime’s approach. “It is the duty of the government. It is a shame not to protect these four tombs,” he has said.

By a macabre irony, it’s a wonder that Aung San’s neglected tomb exists at all. In 1983, a bomb planted by North Korean agents destroyed the Martyrs’ Mausoleum. The bomb exploded during a visit to the mausoleum by the then South Korean president, Chun Doo-Hwan, and his cabinet. Chun escaped, but four members of his cabinet, 13 other South Koreans and four Burmese were killed. Although rebuilt, it lacks the impressive style of the original..

The regime has dealt in like manner with Rangoon’s Kyandaw cemetery, where many political leaders, scholars, writers and artists lay buried. In 1996, the regime ordered the cemetery cleared, resulting in the destruction of many historical  tombs.