Than Tun

Than Tun (, ; 6 April 1923 – 30 November 2005) was an influential Burmese historian as well as an outspoken critic of the military junta of Burma. For his lifelong contributions to the development of worldwide study of Burmese history and culture, Professor Than Tun was awarded the Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize in 2000.

Early life and education Than Tun was born in Daunggyi village, Ngathaingchaung Subtownship, Irrawaddy Division to Bo Htwe and Daw Tin and completed his high school in 1938 in Ngathaingchaung. Than Tun entered Rangoon University in 1939, and received bachelor's degrees in history and law in 1946 and 1948, respectively and an MA in history in 1950. During the Second World War's Japanese invasion of Burma, he studied astrology in Ngathainchaung and became the chairman of Ngathaingchaung's Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League and got involved with student union organisations. He also got married in 1948 to Khin Yi, also a native of Ngataingchaung Subtownship. In 1956, he received his PhD in history with a paper named "Buddhist Church in Pagan Period" from University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS).

Academic career Dr. Than Tun became a lecturer in University of Rangoon’s Department of History and Political Science in 1948. In 1965, he was promoted to the Professor and Head of Department in History at University of Mandalay. Professor Than Tun left Mandalay in 1982 for University of Kyoto’s Center for South East Asian Studies where he was a Research Fellow and Visiting Professor from 1982 to 1987. Later, he was a visiting professor in Northern Illinois University where he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Literature in 1988. From 1989 to 1990, he was a visiting scholar at the University of Michigan. In 1990 he came back to Burma and worked as a Member of the Myanmar (Burmese) Historical Commission and Emeritus Professor in University of Yangon in the Departments of History and Archeology. Often irreverent towards the country’s military leadership, he once commented in an interview with The Irrawaddy in 2003 on the generals’ obsession with white elephants as bringers of good fortune that "they are animals, whether they are white or black."

Legacy The Ludu Library in Mandalay houses a complete collection of Than Tun's works.

Publications

ငါပြောချင်သမျှ ငါ့အကြောင်း ၂၀၀၁ မေ။

မြန်မာသမိုင်း နိဒါန်း ၂၀၁၀။

မြန်မာ ထီးမူနန်းယာ ၂၀၀၃ ဇူလိုင်။