Thoughts on Oo Pho Kyar’s 37 Nats Booklet first published around 1938
By Dr Myint Zan
Snippets of 37 Minns and Nats from the booklet
The educational reformist and national education officer U Pho Kyar (23 March 1891-11 April 1942) published a small booklet about the 37 Nats (37 Minn) in the pre-World II years. It was republished as a 3rd edition in July 2022 by Seikku Cho Cho press. No information is provided as to when the first edition was published. It was perhaps published around 1938.
U Po Kyar states that in two Buddhist texts (one assumes that the texts are from the Theravada tradition) there are 37 Minn. Imitating these 37 Minn from the Buddhist texts, in the Pagan (Bagan) era during the rules of King Anawrahta and King Kyansittha additional nats/minns were ‘devised’ so to speak. U Po Kyar states that these Minn, different from those mentioned in the Buddhist texts, are designated as ‘internal 37 Nats/Minns’ (အတွင်း သုံးဆယ်ခုနစ်မင်း) (pages 4 to 7).
The next section mentions the Five Major (or ‘Big’) Nats (နတ်ကြီး ငါးပါး). U Pho Kyar states that these Five Major Nats are known by slightly different names in the five historical periods until ‘now’. Significantly, U Po Kyar states that with the exception of သိကြားမင်း(Indra) which is also Buddhist, all are of ‘pure Hindu origin’ (ဟိန္ဒူ နတ်များသက်သက်ဖြစ်သည်)(page 8).
The subsequent Chapter (pages 23-34) discusses what is called အပြင်သုံးဆယ်ခုနစ်မင်း (The 37 Nats/Minn from the Outside). U Pho Kyar states that these Minns are designated as ‘outside’ Minns because they were placed outside the precincts of the Shwezigoan pagoda in Pagan (page 23). Some of these Minns began to have indigenous lineage so to speak including the Shwe Phyin Gyi and Shwe Phyin Galay brothers and also the Pagan king Alaung Sithu and even King Tabin Shwe Hti of the Toungoo era. All these indigenous Minn mentioned above as well as many others had violent deaths. Alaung Sithu and Tabin Shwe Hti were kings and they were assassinated. The Shwe Phyin brothers were executed allegedly on orders of the King. U Pho Kyar writes that among the ‘outside’ အပြင် သု ံးဆယ် ခု နစ် မင်း (37 Minn) only Indra သိကြားမင်း is of Hindu origin ‘the rest 36 are Myanmar made and are Myanmar Nats’ (page 44).
There is a short Chapter (pages 45 to 47) where U Pho Kyar explains how ‘Nats came to be worshipped’. Specific reference is made to Pabei Maung Tint Dae and his execution by the King and how people came to admire and worship him and his younger sister after their demise. U Pho Kyar adds perhaps with a tad of irony: ‘as the Nats also are within the realm of impermanence (သင်္ခါရနယ်ပယ်) we do not know with certainty whether they still exist’ (page 47).
In another Chapter, U Pho Kyar states with incredulity that even those persons who were manifestly alive (အသက်ရှင်လျက်- ငုတ်တုတ်နေလျက်) are worshipped as Nats! One of them was Hmawbi Saya Thein Gyi (1862-1942) who at that time U Pho Kyar was writing around 1938 was alive and well, residing in the town of Hmawbi. According to U Pho Kyar, Hmawbi Saya Thein Gyi was worshipped (together with other 133 Nats) inside a monastery near the town of Than Lyin (Syriam) state (around the year 1938).
In the concluding Chapter of the Book U Pho Kyar waxes (almost) philosophical and states that since the beginning of human history the Nat (spirit) worship has existed in varying degrees in all parts of the world and ‘it would never entirely disappear’ (မည်သ ည့်အခါမှလုံးဝပျောက်ကွယ်လိမ့်မည်မှာမ ဟုတ်ချေ) (page 93). In the context of the year 1938 and a fortiori (‘all the more so’ to use a Latin legal term) even in the third decade of the 21st century U Po Kyar makes this bold statement: ‘Buddhism and other religions may appear and disappear. But the traditional nat/spirit worship will not disappear from the Face of the Earth as long as humans exist’ (page 75).
A few thoughts and commentary
U Pho Kyar alternately uses Minn as in 37 Minn and Nats without fully distinguishing the different, similar or overlapping connotations of these two terms. This reviewer also alternately uses these terms.
In the latter part of the book, U Pho Kyar states again that Hindu concepts, Hindu nats have not faded. In the worship of the nine Buddhas (ဘုရားကိုးဆူ) the worship of the Hindu pantheon of nats should be noted (သတိပြုလေ) writes U Pho Kyar. In addition, the arrangements, rituals and recitals (ရွတ်ဖတ်ပုံ) at coronation ceremonies, investitures and marriage ceremonies are generally usages (အသုံးအနှုန်း) from Hinduism (page 75).
This writer has spill-over thoughts regarding the mix of indigenous local and foreign nats/ minns or ‘spirits’. Just as worship of spirits in various parts of the world has had and still has mixed local/foreign and imported/indigenous elements so with the adoption of law especially but not limited to customary laws. The 19th-century German jurist Frederick Carl von Savigny (21 February 1779-25 October 1861) states that Roman law (emanating partly from the Roman Empire around 2000 years ago) did influence the development of German law initially but as German law develops historically it began to acquire a peculiar if not almost unique character. Still, almost unique as it is, German law would have inchoate ‘remnants’ so to speak of Roman law. Around a century after Savigny wrote U Pho Kyar also stated that the initial pantheon of Nats going back a thousand years during the Pagan era was solely of Hindu origin. But several hundred years later at the latest by the 17th century with the exception of Indra သိကြားမင်း all the Nats were ‘made in Myanmar’ so to speak (pages 41,44).
In the field of Burmese customary law, the late Sayagyi Dr E Maung (1898-1977), among others, a Supreme Court Justice in the 1950s and the late Sayagyi Dr Htin Aung (18 May 1908-10 May 1978), among others, Rector and Vice Chancellor of the University of Rangoon from the late 1940s to the late 1950s wrote that Burmese customary law is (almost entirely?) free of Hindu influence and Hindu law. This writer does not think that the two Sayagyis categorically state that Burmese customary law is entirely free of Hindu influence. Extrapolating what Savigny wrote regarding the development of German law vis-à-vis Roman law it can perhaps be argued that though Burmese customary laws develop through Burman notions of law, ethics, and norms the influence initially of Hindu law(s) cannot be totally ignored. And writing less than two decades before Justice E Maung and Dr Htin Aung made, in the 1950s, the claims of independence of Burmese law from Hindu influence Sayagyi U Pho Kyar around 1938, categorically stated the definite influence if not almost total domination of the Hindu Nats in the initial pantheon of Nats in the Pagan era, lasting perhaps a few centuries. Yet as U Pho Kyar himself states at the latest by the 17th century the overwhelming majority of Nats are of Myanmar origin. Hence it could be suggested that though Burmese customary law has developed throughout the centuries in almost uniquely ‘Myanmar way’ influence as it is by aspects of Theravada Buddhism, the initial influence of Hindu legal concepts should not entirely be neglected.
In the neighbouring country of Malaya/ Malaysia the arrival of Islam around early 13th century to parts of the Malay peninsular did influence the development of Malay adat (custom) but the initial influence of Hindu laws, and customs can still be seen in inchoate forms. Textbooks on the Malaysian legal system do mention the role of a few Hindu concepts and practices especially but not entirely in the past, in Malay custom.
U Pho Kyar’s statement that so long as humans exist spirit worship (here this writer eschews the use of the nats in order not to ‘localize’ the variegated forms of spirit worships that exist all over the world) would continue to exist (page 93) can be mentioned here again. A teaching or chiding poem ဆုံးမစာကဗျာ composed by the Buddhist monk Shin Mahasilavamsa (ရှင်မဟာသီလဝံသ) (1453-1518) is reproduced in the booklet. Sayadaw (‘royal teacher’) Mahasilavamsa composed a long poem around the year 1492 chiding, indeed censuring nay condemning the belief and practices ‘for a very long time of humans [who had the sense of] cows ကာလရှည်လျား လူငနွားတို့) worshipping from grandparents to grandchildren the evil nats (နတ်မိစ္ဆာ). Necessarily, dutifully and approvingly Sayagyi U Pho Kyar reproduces two stanzas or paragraphs of Sayadaw Shin Mahasilavamsa’s poem (pages 97 to 100).
It is now more than 500 years since Sayadaw Mahasilavamsa composed his great poem. As detailed in U Pho Kyar’s booklet much more than 500 years before Shin Mahasilavamsa’s time nat worship existed and more than 500 years after the epic teaching poem of the Sayadaw during the Ava period various forms of nat worship continue. In regards to the long past, present and perhaps long-term future as well U Pho Kyar’s prognostication is well and truly made.
Book Title: 37 Minn
Author: National Education Office (အမျိုးသားပညာဝန် )U Pho Kyar
Publisher: Seikku Cho Cho (July 2022, 3rd edition), 108 pages, K2,000
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