Phases of Pre-Pagan Burma

Component identifier:

Series 4

Content Summary:

This book was based on lectures delivered by Luce in 1966 at the Ecole des Langues Orientales Vivente at Paris. Having published Old Burma - Early Pagan in 1969-70, he had intended to complete similar works on the earlier and later periods. Phases of Pre-Pagan Burma was still incomplete when he died in 1979 and it was subsequently edited by Dr Eugenie Henderson. The work, including numerous word lists, was published posthumously in two volumes in 1985 by Oxford University Press and the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London

The eight chapters of the text (vol. 1) cover Southern Mon-Khmer, Northern Mon-Annam, Karens, Sak-Kantu (Thet-Kadu), Tircul, Pyu, Piao, Kyan (Chin), Mru and K'umi (N. Arakan), and Burma-Lolo.

Luce compared old Burma to the moon: one can see phases of the ancient history only and not the complete picture. “But it may yield partial glimpses of various phases of genuine history. In particular, it may show that some half-forgotten peoples, still surviving in remote corners of the hills, are not just primitive barbarians, but are, in reality, the fathers of Burma's civilization as it is to-day.” (Luce from Preface dated Nov. 1972.)

Up to now, this is the only work which provides a comprehensive survey of the early languages of Burma.

Names:

G. H. Luce

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