Saya Maung Khin Min (Danubyu): A Doyen of Myanmar language, linguistics and literature
By Myint Zan
Contact with Saya Maung Khin Min
in the last few weeks of his life
ON 2
January 2025, I telephoned Saya Maung Khin Min (Danubyu), (24
January 1940-28 January 2025) to wish him a ‘Happy birthday’. Saya told me that
his actual birthday was 24 January. In Grade XII Myanmar Sar Text where one of
Saya’s essays is reproduced with a brief biography, it is stated that he was
born on 24 January 1940. During our conversation which was not actually on his
birthday, I informed him that I had bought and had then partly read what turned
out to be his second-last book titled in translation ‘A Guide to Sixty
Treatises on Myanmar Language and Literature’ (hereafter ‘Sixty Treatises’), မြန်မာဘာသာစကား
ကျမ်းခြောက်ဆယ် အညွှန်း published in November 2024. I told him that it was, to
me, in parts the more difficult book among the seven or so of his books which I
have read. His magisterial မြန်မာစာပေခရီး (‘Journey of Myanmar Literature’),
first published around 2013 and History of Myanmar Literature during the
Colonial Period (ကိုလိုနီခေတ် မြန်မာစာပေ သမိုင်း)(first published 2010) was, in
comparison an easier read, I told Saya. (In an obituary on 29 January 2025 GNLM
it was incorrectly translated as ‘Journey of Myanmar Language’. စာပေ is
literature, ဘာသာစကား is language.) I requested Saya, if he will, to send me a
few of his books to me. From 1979 to January 2025, he had published a total of
133 books!
Saya Maung Khin Min (hereafter MKM) is
indeed an astonishing writer. In one of the essays which was reproduced in the
Myanmar Sar Text for Matriculation students for the academic years 1969-70 to
1985-86, there is an article by Dagon U Tun Myint (27 June 1908-8 October 1974)
titled ‘An Astonishing Writer’ (အံ့ဖွယ်စာရေးဆရာ). Several months ago, in
another phone conversation, I complimented Saya that he was also an
‘astonishing writer’.
On 20 January 2025, I sent four of my
books to Saya MKM care of the Myanmar Sar Board address and Saya sent me three
of his books to me. We exchanged seven books on that day. Saya signed each of
the books that he presented to me. I also signed the books that I presented to
him. I wrote that they were presented for his 85th
birthday. I also wrote as per the usual salutation but with
sincerity that he may live healthily past the age of 100 (အသက်ရာကျော် ရှည်ပါစေ).
Alas, it was not to be.
Very few glimpses at very few of
Maung Khin Min’s books
One of the three books that Saya sent me
was the book which he wrote in a colloquial style. It may be the first and
probably the last book he wrote in that style. The title in translation is
‘Notable Events, Notable Statements’ အမှတ်တရ ဖြစ်ရပ် အမှတ်တရ စကား Saya wrote
brief vignettes of 40 personages. They were his teachers, and senior colleagues
from his kindergarten days through University until his retirement and
post-retirement years. Coincidentally, almost ominously I finished reading the
book around 12:45 am after midnight on 28 January 2025. This apparently was
perhaps within half an hour of Saya’s demise.
I also telephoned Saya to wish him his
real birthday on 24 January 2025 when he reached the venerable age of 85 years.
I stated that I had finished reading his treatise on Guide to Sixty Treatises.
I queried and made brief comments on the treatises of the second Kyaw Aung San
Htar Sayadaw of the mid-18th century,
writer and the brilliant linguist and leftist the late Min Latt Yin Gaung’s
treatise in the early 1960s regarding Myanmar linguistics. I praised Saya’s
efforts in collating, researching and presenting the sixty treatises in a
compact, concise but very informative format. Saya had been mostly
complimentary of most of the authors of the sixty treatises. But a few critiques
of a few Chapters perhaps are natural and justifiable. In particular, MKM
critiqued the gratuitous comment of U Thein Pe Myint (10 July 1914-15 January
1978) regarding linguistics which appeared in his column ‘Let me talk frankly’ ပွင့်ပွင့်လင်းလင်း
ပြောပါရစေ of 15 February 1972. U Thein Pe Myint was a prominent author in the
contemporary literary firmament. Nevertheless– dare I say it- he was not an
expert in Myanmar linguistics as Maung Khin Min was. Hence Saya’s brief
criticism of U Thein Pe Myint’s article of more than 52 years ago if belated
was justified.
A brief glimpse at Maung Khin
Min’s academic career and scholarly contributions
A few-indeed very few snippets
concerning Saya’s achievements and his illustrious career may be stated. Saya
MKM passed the Matriculation exam in 1959 with distinctions in Burmese (as it
was then formally called) and Mathematics. Saya wrote that during that year the
Matriculation pass rate was less than four per cent. Contrast this with the
pass rate of around 56 per cent for Grade XII Matriculation results in 2024.
And Saya was the only candidate to obtain distinction in Burmese in the whole
country that year! Saya thanked his own Sayagyi Burmese Professor U E Maung (27
February 1905-1 February 1985) in his ‘Notable Events, Notable Statements’
book for awarding to him the sole Burmese distinction and therefore the highest
mark in the country (on page 76). One could add that Sayagyi U E Maung also
awarded or approved the sole Burmese distinction (in the year 1955) to the
matriculation paper of Saya ဂုဏ်ထူး U Thein Naing (born 27 March 1936). Saya U
Thein Naing is, as of 29 January 2025, hopefully, recovering and recuperating
from an operation at a hospital in Yangon. One can only provide best wishes and
send Metta to Saya U Thein Naing for his full recovery. Poet Saya Tin Moe (19
November 1933- 22 January 2007) also obtained distinction in Burmese in
Matriculation in 1957. I have read the distinction-winning essays of both Saya
U Thein Naing and Saya Tin Moe. But not that of Saya Maung Khin Min. I do not
know whether or not Saya MKM has rewritten his distinction-winning essay and
produced it in one of his 133 books.
In those days of old the compulsory
Burmese essay question was worth 25 marks out of 100. Ordinarily, three
unseen topics were given and candidates had to choose one to write an essay.
From what I recall there is no limitation of how many paragraphs students must
write. Nor is there an outline of the essays which students must adhere to
which has been the practice of Matric exams in Myanmar Sar papers for perhaps
the past 15 years or so.
Saya began as a tutor in Burmese in 1963
and he had been posted to various Colleges and Universities including in
Bassein (later Pathein) College, Prome (later Pyay) College, Rangoon Arts and
Science University (as it was then formally called), Institute of Education and
of course as Professor and Head of the Department of Myanmar in University of
Yangon. He was also a Visiting Professor of Myanmar from 1997 to 1999 at the
University of Foreign Languages in Osaka, Japan. Saya MKM retired from
full-time teaching in 2002. Free of his full-time teaching duties he produced
more literary work during his post-retirement of 22 years than he had when he
was in government service. The title of the book he published in his 76th year was ‘76th book of my 76 years’.
It was published in 2016. It was his 87th book.
From 1979 to 2002 when he was a
full-time academic Saya published 18 books. From January 2003 to January 2024
the month he passed away he published 115 books! To repeat MKM was really a
contemporary author nonpareil as far as Myanmar language, linguistic and
literature genre is concerned.
In his book about his own Sayas, Sayamas
and senior colleagues Saya sadly recounted the last days – sometimes a few
years – where some of his own Sayagyis and Sayamagyis did not recall their own
former students. A few were bedridden for months and even a few years. One of
them was Sayagyi U E Maung, who was his mentor. MKM wrote that his own Sayagyi
U E Maung was bedridden for a few years before his passing.
Activities and contributions in
his last days
In contrast, Saya MKM lived to the age
past eighty-five. He was active till the very end. Social media posts on the day
of his passing (28 January 2025) showed a video of his teaching Myanmar Sar on
23 January 2025 at the State Sangha University in Yangon. Another social media
post stated that on 25 January 2025, he attended a teacher homage ceremony at
the (now) University of Education for students he taught in the years 1971 to
1977. (Contrast this with his own Sayagyi E Maung who in his seventies, due to
health reasons, was unable to attend the teacher homage ceremony that was held
in the early 1980s.) On 24 January 2025 his 85th
birthday he was at a monastery for donation and gave homage to
the monks. On 27 January 2025 hours before he passed away, he attended the
Myanmar Sar board meeting. Two elderly members of the Myanmar Sar board stated
that Saya looked slightly tired on that particular date and went back to his
apartment inside the car of a student around 2:30 pm. Sadly, about 10 hours
later, Saya was no more.
I may be allowed to end this humble
tribute with a personal note. On 20 January 2025, Saya kindly phoned me that he
had received the books that I presented for his 85th
birthday. He stated that he had sent three of his books to me.
He, in particular, mentioned his collection of his essays titled in translation
‘Research Papers Concerning Language and Literature’. There are 14 essays in
the Myanmar language and four essays in English in the book. He mentioned that
a few of the essays were papers he presented at international conferences. He
stated with humility, so unselfconsciously and shall I say with the charm that
his ‘English is not very good’ ကျွန်တော် အင်္ဂလိပ်စာ က မကောင်းပါဘူး. And he
asked me to make comments or correct his writings in English. I am touched by
Saya Maung Khin Min’s humility. I stated to him in an earlier phone conversation
that in his commentaries in ‘Sixty Myanmar Language Treatises’ he was critical
of parts of only two treatises. His comments on Saya U Thein Naing’s မြန်မာစာ ဋိကာ
(Commentary on Myanmar Sar) first published in 1968 is largely complimentary.
Still, at the conclusion of his comments, he made the observation (not quite a
critique) that some parts of Myanmar Sar Hti Kar were quite extensive but some
were brief. MKM wrote that the short Chapter seems more like coaching high
school students on grammar. I mentioned that his comments were not critical but
merely pointed out a small anomaly in Myanmar Sar Hti Kar. Saya MKM said that I
read his treatise very carefully. (ဆရာက သေချာဖတ်သားပဲ).
Saya MKM with politeness called me
‘Saya’. I am considerably younger than and junior to him. I feel reluctant အားနာတယ်
to request him just to call me ‘Ko Myint Zan’. Throughout this humble tribute,
I have eschewed the more revered and perhaps in a few contexts (only) the
slightly contrived term ‘Sayagyi’. Let me state now that Sayagyi Maung Khin
Min’s demise constitutes a great loss. His bereaved family, the very few senior
colleagues that survive him, many of his junior colleagues, and former and
indeed current students (since Saya was teaching three days before his demise)
will fondly miss him. The solace is that his scholarly contributions have been
immense, he lived his life to the full and was active socially and
scholastically to his last day.
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