Emma Larkin
Volume 8 (PDF full article)
"The Self-conscious Censor: Censorship
in Burma under the British
1900–1939" pp.64-101

It is often assumed that censorship was not used to any great degree by British authorities in Burma. Yet, by looking at the way the British colonial government reacted to a variety of media including traditional Burmese drama, western blockbuster movies, and Burmese political pamphlets agitating against colonial rule, it is possible to see that censorship was very much a part of the British administration. British authorities censored pamphlets, books, dramas, and movies not only to contain political thought contrary to colonialism, but also to control the image of British officials as seen in the eyes of the Burmese.

Jacques P. Leider
Volume 9 (PDF full article)
"Text, Lineage, and Tradition in Burma:
The Struggle for Norms and
Religious Legitimacy Under King
Bodawphaya (1782–1819)"
pp.82-129

Jacques P. Leider is a French historian following in the footsteps of U Pe Maung Tin, who pioneered the academic study of Burmese history through the editing, translating, and interpreting of primary textual sources. Leider examines a little-studied period of Burmese history, the reign of King Bodawphaya, whose radical attempts at religious reform laid the groundwork for the later 19th century monastic reform movement in Burma.

Volume 10 (PDF full article)
"Specialists for Ritual, Magic, and
Devotion: The Court Brahmins (Punna)
of the Konbaung Kings (1752–1885)"
pp.159-202

Though they formed an essential part of Burmese court life, the Brahmins have hitherto attracted no scholarly interest outside Burma. Based on a study of royal orders and administrative compendia as well as recent Burmese research, this article gives for the first time an overview of the origins, the ritual and ceremonial functions and the organization of the punna. The main section is preceded by an overview of sources and research questions. Special emphasis is given in the last part to the noteworthy role played by punna in King Bodawphaya’s reform policies.

Marilyn Longmuir
Volume 3 (PDF full article)
“Footnote to Burmese Economic History:
The Rise and Decline of the Arakan
Oil Fields" pp. 47-76

After the annexation of Upper Burma in 1886, the modern Burmese oil industry expanded at Yenangyaung, the long-standing center of hand-dug wells worked by twinza. An earlier attempt to establish a commercial industry in Arakan in the late 1870s was thereby eclipsed. On the islands off the Arakan coast–Ramree, Cheduba, and the Boronga Islands–British explorers had drawn attention to oil pools and seepage. In 1878, the first modern oil well in Burma was drilled on Eastern Boronga Island. However, the eager oil speculators had not done their homework, and the Arakan oil industry declined because the oil-fields were poor producers and thus not economically viable for mass production. The Arakan experience nonetheless influenced the early commercial exploitation of the Yenangyaung fields.

Volume 5 (PDF full article)
"Yenangyaung and its Twinza: The
Burmese Indigenous "Earth-Oil"
Industry Re-examined" pp.17-48

In the early nineteenth century, the indigenous oil industry at Yenangyaung may have been the largest in the world. The article summarizes and evaluates the descriptions of nineteenth and early twentieth century European observers, with special attention to the pre-colonial uses of the oil, the legends about the site, the local institutions governing ownership of the wells, the indigenous methods of oil extraction, and the Europeans’ estimates of production levels.