A real sagarwaing (discussion circle) with relatives and friends

I was fortunate to have attended the birthday party of my wife's aunt. She is over 80 now but still sharp and keeps a good memory (of the past and present). After the party all the nephews, nieces and some friends sat down for coffee and fried rice with pebyoke (steamed beans, Burmese style, yummie). You know, fried rice with pebyoke is our breakfast dish in Myanmar (or Burma is you prefer, it does not matter to me at all).

As we sipped our coffee and gulped down spoonfuls of the delicious rice (cooked by our aunt), we showed this blogspot about "Myanmar History lessons". One of my nephews posed this question to me, "where did the Burmese come from?". That was how our very interesting topic started. I told him that I have put all the good references on this blogspot. He said, "Uncle, I can't wait till I have read all your books, tell me something right now, please."

So I started the story of how our Myanmar people came from some where from the China mainland, in search of rich pastures. At one point we were driven farther and farther away from the most populous regions by other competing tribes of clans and gradully ended up going up on the Tibetan plateau. There we integrated with the Tibetans and assimilated some Tibetan words. By the way, the present day Myanmars/Burmese belong to the Tibeto-Burman group (according to historians and anthropologists).

Then our conversation drifted to the founding of the first Myanmar Empire by King Anawrahta (Aniruddha according the Pali version of his name) till the dynasty ended during the reign of Tayoke Pye Min (the king who ran away from the Chinese). He was also known as "Shwe Nan Kyaw shin" (because he spent a majority of his time beautifying his palance). [so one history lesson is this - if a ruler neglects other things and spends too much time on less important things, the country may be invaded by foreigners).

My point in writing this particular blog posting is this. It is really fun and refreshing for three three generations of relatives and friends to talk and discuss about our history. Really fun and refreshing.

Wish I could have more opportunities like this one.

This is what I would like to call in the Myanmar language: "yarzawin sagar waing".

A discussion circle about history.

... and the nice coffee and the fried rice with the wonderful steamed beans (Pebyoke) made this event memorable.