A Childhood place not yet exists

My name is Saw Alwyn, I was born in Kho Mu Don Village in the Karen National Union (KNU) administrative territories in the Kawthoolei area of Pa Pu Township, inside the boundaries of what the international community calls Burma.  

In the highland of Kawthoolei, my birthplace, our house was made of bamboo and thatch, and my parents were subsistence farmers—a profession they both follow to this day. I am the eldest child and have five brothers and three sisters, but one of my brothers passed away in 2002. My parents told me that my mother gave birth to me under very difficult circumstances. Only five days after my birth, my parents were forced to flee their village because of the Burmese army offense in Pa Pu Township. While we were hiding in the jungle my parents gave me a sedative to put me to sleep. They feared their infant son would cry and attract the attention of the Burmese military, the Tatmadaw, who were seeking to capture or kill them. 

My parents left the village for two months, fleeing the advancing soldiers who entered into villages to destroy all of the buildings, houses, schools and churches. The Burmese troops also shot and killed the villagers’ animals: the goats, cattle, and chickens. Some of the villagers were caught and arrested by the Burmese SPDC (State Peace and Development Council) troops, who tortured them and forced them into labor on army projects. After two months, the surviving villagers also returned, repaired the houses and other buildings. During this time my mother was worried about my health, because while they were in hiding, my mother became sick, causing a serious lack of breast milk to feed me. For many days my parents subsisted on a diet of boiled rice. Given this difficult history, I acknowledge that it is by the grace of God that I am alive today. 

I began school in my village in 1988 in a school established in Kawthoolei by the Karen National Union. I studied in these schools until I was seventeen. My memories of my village are those of a child—and later—a young adult. I remember my village as being surrounded by picturesque trees, mountains, waterfalls and lush green valleys. My home village was known for its animism and had about 40 families living there, so my parents encouraged me to study. I studied diligently, until I could write and speak the standardized Karen language correctly. The main subjects taught in the Kawthoolei School were from Karen textbooks and discussed Karen politics, Karen history, and naturally, Karen suffering. Additionally, Burmese, Mathematics, Geography, and English were also part of the curriculum. As part of this education, we were taught that the main values of the Karen people are justice, honesty, unity, loyalty, and cooperative living. All teachers were Karen and were hired and paid by the Karen National Union. They called themselves Kawthoolei school teachers and all students were recognized as Kawthoolei students. Every evening when they closed the school, the teachers and students would sing the “Motto Kawthoolei Song,” which is known in all the Karen schools of Kawthoolei and is memorized and sung by teachers and students alike. 

The lyrics of the anthem are: “Kawthoolei is my mother country or mother land. / I will always give honor and respect to Kawthoolei, / all your precious property and prettiness will be protected and respected/ Kawthoolei is the country I love the most, / I will sacrifice my life—both my body and all of my being”  

“ ကီၢ် သူ လ့ၤ ယ မိၢ် ယ ပၢ် ကီၢ်,   

က တီ ယဲ ဒၣ် ဒီး နၤ ထီ ဘိ,   

န တၢ် ထူး တၢ် တီၤ ဃံ လၤ က အံး ကွၢ် က ဟု က ယာ် 

ကီၢ် သူ လ့ၤ ကီၢ်  လၢ ယ အဲၣ် မး,   

န ဂီၢ် ဟ့ၣ် လီၤ ယ သး,  

ယ နီၣ် ခိ နီၢ် သး ခဲ လၢာ်, က မ့ၢ် န တၢ် လီၤ စိၤ လီၤ ထီ.” [1] 

These words inspired me, encouraging me to know more about my existence as a child of Kawthoolei—a nation in which I take pride and identify with—up until today. Both at home and school, the word “Burma” simply connoted the soldiers who had attacked and killed my people. However, between the ages of 14 to 16 (1994-1996), I came to know more about the Burmese troops because they came to our village more often to attack, just as they had done when I was a baby. Whenever they came to the village, the villagers ran away quickly for their safety and security. Sometimes they stayed in the forest for up to a week, a month, or even 2 to 3 months. Later, I would come to understand that these attacks were part of a wider offensive military strategy, which led to the fall of the Karen capital at Manerplaw in 1995. Today, the Burmese troops live and control the village in which I was born in 1980. 

The Karen society I was raised in was instilled with the ethical values of honesty, inclusivity and cooperation, respect for property. For example, we were taught that if a child were to find money, clothes, or any other miscellany, they were to take it and hang it on the top of a stake in the middle of the road. However, if they knew the name of the person who had lost his or her things, they were to return them when they reached home. 

In addition, when the villagers go to the forest, if they see that someone has already marked a honeybee nest on the tree, they will not take it away, thus respecting the property of others. If someone in the village kills a wild animal, they share the meat with everyone in the village. Being a village with native belief, locals practiced their rituals and had special events and celebrations from time to time. On these occasions, they often drank alcohol and would sometimes end up fighting. So, the village chief or the neighbors would go to help them and send them back to their own houses. When they woke up early in the morning, they would visit each other, apologize, and ask forgiveness from each other. They usually say, “Oh Doh Hpu” which means: “(Brothers or uncles), I am so sorry for last night I don’t know anything when I am drunk”. They appeal to each other to preserve their good motives and behavior, after which they go out to the field and farm together without any malice or hatred. This is the real praxis of experience with villagers in my home village, where I lived and grew up until I was 16 or 17 years old. During these years I experienced peace, unity, brotherly (and sisterly) love in the community; something only interrupted periodically by the brutality of the Burmese army. 

During that time, I often heard the word “Kawthoolei”, and very often the headman of the village called a meeting and he explained to the villagers about the rules, the origins of the Kawthoolei strategies of the KNU, and plans to protect the villagers when they ran away from Burmese attacks on our village. The problem is though, our village was settled near to a Burmese army base (SPDC), which was only an hour-and-a half drive via a poorly constructed road through the forest. The SPDC would frequently come into our village to make tax collections from the villagers on behalf of the Burmese government in Rangoon. Many of us, including young children, were also forced at gunpoint to build army camps, roads and bridges. Often, we were drafted to be porters for the military, carrying ammunition and heavy food supplies in the mid-1990s. We had no choice. Refusal to work led only to beatings, jail or death. 

Even when we didn’t work, those of us left in the military camp were not educated properly. Every week or so it seemed we fled from the Burmese soldiers. There was no security for us. This terrible situation became increasingly worse, and we grew less food and had less money. The Burmese troops came more often and destroyed all our rice paddies during the harvest and consequently villages constantly faced food shortages and catastrophe. In fact, the tyranny and barbarous acts of the violent Burmese army pushed us into a transient life, always moving from place to place in search of safety. 

At that time I thought that if I stayed in my village anymore, I would become a criminal, or at best, an uneducated person. Finally, I asked permission from my parents to move into the Karen Refugee Camps (situated in Thailand along the Thai/Burma border) to further my studies. After some time my mother finally agreed to let me go and I left the village, departing at midnight so I could cross safely across the Burmese-held territory. The year I left my village was in 1997, I went to Mae La Camp in Tak Province, Thailand. When I left my parents, I lost the peaceful and happy moments a child has with his mother and father. 

Today approximately 120,0000 Karen people still live in refugee camps inside Thailand along the Thai/Burma border. They do not have the authority to organize themselves within the Thailand border camps. Whilst technically they are in refugee camps, they are not granted 'refugee' status. This means effectively that they are 'displaced people' or 'illegal immigrants', and as such they stay within the Thai camps with the knowledge that at any time the Thai authorities could force them to return back across the border to Burma where they would be vulnerable to face certain persecution, torture, or even death at the hands of the Burmese Military regime. We obeyed whatever the Thai leaders and camp commanders’ order and trapped in this situation, many consider their future to be quite dim. Some students there finish high school but have no chance or opportunity to study at the university level. They are not allowed to establish large buildings or institutions like colleges and universities, as in the democratic states imagined by the United Nations which have boundaries on a world map. I do not know how long and how many years my people must stay in refugee camps because some have been there for as long as 38 years or more already. Before I came to the camp, I thought that it would only be for a few weeks and then I would go back to my motherland. However, I continue to strongly trust in God and hope that as soon as possible He will let my people go back home (to the promised land (Kawthoolei-Karen state) means 'flower land’ and ‘land without evil.' 

To improve my circumstances, whilst in the refugee camp I applied to study from age 19 until age 25. During this time, I obtained my Bachelor of Theology from an unaccredited church-based college within the camp. This qualification allowed me access to study abroad. At the age of 26 I went to the Philippines to embark on further Theological training. I graduated in 2009 at the age of 28 with my Master of Divinity degree and later graduated in 2014 at the age of 34 with my Doctorate in Theology. I am currently pursuing my Doctor of Philosophy in Peace Building at Payap University. 

But through all of these, I am still a child of Kawthoolei. This is a word that I have always been aware of and continues to hold a deep significance for me. This was the only “country” I knew! I had not heard the name “Burma” as a child and did not know about that “country” until after beginning school at the Karen National Union’s school in my village— Kay Puh Mission High School. I belong to the Karen nation and Kawthoolei is our country. See Figure below. 

It was only in Thailand though I was first told that Kawthoolei did not really exist for other people, only to Karen people. I was told only Thailand and Burma existed as nation-states. But I also knew a child of Kawthoolei, but there seemed to be no single place “Kawthoolei.” How could I be of something that does not exist? Both my fellow villagers and I knew from our earliest days that we were Karen of Kawthoolei, and we had our own schools, health clinics, and army. How could one have such an identity if one does not have a country? How could one be of a people or a country that does not exist on any map, or have a seat in the United Nations? 

The Geography and History of Kawthoolei 

Jeffrey Hays explained how after three Anglo-Burma Wars (1825, 1852 and 1885), Burma was conquered and transformed into the British colony which now is Myanmar. Burma became an official British colony in three stages, as the British Indian Army expanded eastward. The colonization was formalized on January 1, 1886. The British then ruled Burma as a part of India from 1885 until 1937. In 1937, Burma was made a crown colony of Britain on January 1, 1938.  Overall British rule in Burma lasted from 1824 to 1948. The British named the country Burma in honor of the Burmans, the dominant ethnic group. The Burmese called it "myanma naing ngan"—the source of the name Myanmar—or more colloquially as "bama pyi" or "country of Burma."[2] The Burmese called Karen State “Kayin Pyi Nai” in Burmese language—in Karen language-it signifies that the name of the Karen Land is Kawthoolei-as a Karen State. 

         Before the arrival of the British Karennic-speaking were spread throughout south-eastern Burma, including in the Irrawaddy River Delta, and into the highlands of what is now Myanmar and Thailand.  They were descendants of people arrived from the north, and who are considered today indigenous—anthropologists indicate that the Karennic-speaking people first arrived in the region over 2500 years ago.  As for the Burman-speaking people, they only began arriving about 1000 years ago from the north.  At the time American Baptist missionaries arrived after 1810, and British colonial power arrived in southern Burma after 1824, relations between the ruling Burmese dynasties, and the Karennic peoples spread throughout the Southeast had calcified into an unequal relationship between a ruling Burmese military elite, and peasants growing rice in the lowlands and highlands.  The Burmese-speaking peasants were favored by the ruling elites and drafted into the King’s armies.  The dispersed Karennic speaking people were pushed to the edges where they were subject to raids, enforced military service, demands for ever-more tribute. Relations between Burmese and Karen were unequal, and the Karen were subordinate.  In this context, many Karen welcomed the arrival of both the American Baptist missionaries, and even the British colonial armies which vanquished the oppressive Burmese. 

The origins of modern Karen nationalism in the late nineteenth century, began with the development of literacy by missionaries, and the alliance with the British against the Burmese.  These alliances were reinforced in World War II when the British fought against the Japanese using units composed of Karen, and other “tribal” peoples in this context, the British promised an independent Karen state after WWII to reward the many Karen people serving with the British forces. 

When the Japanese invaded Burma in 1942, many of the Karen military units retreated to India with the British. While they were away, sadly many of their wives and children were killed by the invading Japanese and the Burma Independence Army (BIA), which was mainly composed of Burmese people who hoped that the Japanese would free Burma from the British on their behalf.[3] 

In return for agreeing to fight alongside the British, the Karen were promised an independent state: a homeland of their own within Burma. They remained loyal to the British forces throughout the Japanese occupation and after the Japanese were finally driven out in 1945. But when the British pulled out of Burma shortly after the end of the war, they left all political power in the hands of the Burmans who ruled from Rangoon.  The promises that were made to the Karen by British officers were not kept.[4] Since then, the Karen leaders from both secular and religious factions sacrificed their lives for their freedom to regain and reestablish their Kawthoolei as the separate independence state—which was promised the Karen allies by the British. This is why Paul Keeman described that after independence in 1948, the Karen continued to ask for self-determination, both democratically and peacefully, from the Burmese Government. [5] 

I Am of Kawthoolei! Why Do I Exist If There Is No Kawthoolei? 

It is a universal truth that every human life has its own nature and origins. Humanity has its history, inheritance and provides the meaning of life to us as individuals, and human beings are intrinsically Divine Beings. People's lives in this material world provide extended opportunities to grow, to develop divine qualities and virtuous identity. The purpose of life is focused on Divine growth and service to humanity. Such purpose guides life decisions, influences behaviors, shapes goal, offers a sense of direction, and creates meaning. For some people, purpose is connected to vocation—meaningful, satisfying work. For others, their purpose lies in their responsibilities to their family or friends. Others seek meaning through spirituality or religious beliefs. Some people may find their purpose clearly expressed in all these aspects of life. Purpose will be unique for everyone; what you identify as your path may be different from that of others, while still being tied to others. What’s more, purposes shift and change throughout life in response to the evolving priorities of experience. It is a possibility to question myself, who I am, where am I coming from and where am I going? In addition, everyone has a purpose and desire to prove his or her existence and identity. Therefore, I would like to write about my being, existence, heritage and identity as a human being. I am Kawthoolei Poe, which means I am a Karen, who was born in Kawthoolei. I think in the language of Kawthoolei, and offer the testimony of this dissertation/book so that the world will understand from a Karen perspective the nature of Kawthoolei. 

I have big ambitions and desire that one day I will become a channel of blessing for my family and my Karen people. I have a dream for my people. There must be a way to liberate my people from the bondage of oppression brought about by the Burmese military which dominated my own childhood, and continue to dominate lives of refugees, Internally Displaced People in Burma, the victims of continuing attacks, and forced labor requisitions. Karens have struggled and they have suffered. A time for change is necessarily coming. Hence, I really need to hold on, press on, and strive so that our dream will become real. I will try hard and learn the best I can under God’s providing hand. For now, I hope that those of you reading this will partner with me in prayer for my country and if possible, apply whatever pressure you can bring to bear, so that the plight of my people is not forgotten. 

My testimony is that of someone who came of age in a very poor condition of spirituality, education, and health. Throughout my life of study, I encountered trials and sicknesses that have almost blocked my dream of the Kawthoolei. However, I can overcome these challenges by the help of God; as St. Paul said, “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13 ESV). This is the foundational life that I struggle to establish to gain more philosophical and theological education and administrative skills, so that I will be able to serve humbly and work effectively in the community or in the land of Kawthoolei. 

I do realize that God calls me in a very special way to conduct his ministry among my Karen people. Therefore, I will live with my people in Thai refugee camps or in the Karen State jungle, work with them to rebuild, renew and restore our mother land Kawthoolei. In order to do this, I suffer with my people and strive together in genuine cooperation, with mutual respect, mutual understanding, mutual love, and mutual coerciveness and cohesiveness towards a socio-political transformation in the land of Kawthoolei. If we do not have our homeland or Kawthoolei, the world may not come to know us and our place on this planet. Because we have everything enshrined within our Kawthoolei, we live as a nation and we have the complete forms of the nation, such as land or territory, population, government(s), language, the Karen National Anthem, our flag, National Day, the Karen New year, Karen Martyrs Day, Karen culture, music, economics and educational infrastructure. Thus, the world may come to know us as we are Karen people who are in the Land of Kawthoolei. These are the main sources of national identity through which I can prove my existence. 

What Kawthoolei Means to the Karen Nation 

The word “Kawthoolei” in Karen Language is (Pwa K’Nyaw Kaw) meaning Karen Country. Pwa K’Nyaw means - Karen, and (Kaw) is Country. Terminologically, Kawthoolei signifies the native group of people who are the sovereign over the land.[6] All ethnic groups have their own indigenous land and territory. When the British colonized Burma they named ethnic lands or territory as various states. They used the divide and rule policy, through which they wanted all ethnic groups to become one: Burmese. Therefore, when the Karen started their revolution, they also established the KNU as the governmental body of Kawthoolei. From a political point of view, Kawthoolei is a Karen nation State or country for the Karen people. This concept is based on their own cultural heritage, because all Karen people to this day actively say that “Kawthoolei is our mother land”. It is very clear that the KNU is working on Kawthoolei as Karen Nation State. Indeed, they have been struggling for the recognition of the Karen Kawthoolei Nation State since 1948, right up to the present era. Moreover, if the Karen believes that if they do not have their own Independent Nation State, they will always live in fear and insecurity and they will never grow and prosper as a nation.  There are Karen people who always flee and are always hiding in the jungle or forest—because they fear the Burmese. I, myself have fled so many times in my life when the Burmese have come to attack our village. Due to the persecution and oppressions by Burmese soldiers, the Karen people willingly struggle for their sovereignty in a Kawthoolei-Nation State. Saw Tha Toh was the first General Secretary of the KNU and he said that, “Karen country-(Kawthoolei) means that, the Karen country will be governed by the Karen Government themselves with self-autonomy and self-determination. By then, the meaning of the Karen country will appear.” See below the original text in Karen language. “ 

က ညီ ကီၢ် စံး တၢ် န့ၣ်,  

က ဘၣ် မ့ၢ် ကီၢ် တ ဘ့ၣ်  

လၢ ပှၤ က ညီ အ ပ ဒိၣ် ပၢ အီၤ  

လၢ အိၣ် ဒီး နီၢ် က စၢ် တၢ် စံၣ် ညီၣ် ပၢ လီၤ သး အ ပ တီၢ် န့ၣ် လီၤ.  

ထဲ န့ၣ် မး က ညီ ကီၢ် အ ခီ ပ ညီ က အိၣ် ဖျါ ထီၣ် ဝဲ န့ၣ် လီၤ.”[7] 

Saw Baw Kyaw Heh of the KNLA said that what the Kawthoolei Means to the Karen Nation is “one country for the Karen people”. In addition, he said that there will be more Karen people that will die for their freedom—full self-legislation and self-determination is enough for the Karen, and then we will be able to grow, develop, and prosper as a nation.[8] From a theological point of view, religious leaders have proved that Kawthoolei is our promised land. The religious leaders from the Kawthoolei Karen Baptist Churches, Thai Karen Baptist Convention, Karen Baptist Convention from Kaw Lah, Burma—annually have a GKBF-Global Karen Baptist Fellowship summit on October 25 to 28. In the most recent summit, the selected topic was “To the Promised Land”. In this gathering, they wrote down that their (Road Map) is the road map to Kawthoolei, to the Promised Land. It means “Kawthoolei” is the Promised Land for the whole Karen Nation. Furthermore, they proved that we Karen a long time ago lived in the Karen State-Kawthoolei, but since 1985 the Karen have had to flee away from it. Some have lived in Thai Refugee Camps, while some went out to work in Asian countries, and still some Karen people have gone to third countries. Nevertheless, someday sooner or later, the Karen will be coming back to their promised land—Kawthoolei.[9] Terminologically, Kawthoolei signifies the particular primitive group of people who hold sovereignty over their land. In Thuleibo’s book he mentioned that the original name (Kawthoolei) was bestowed by the Karen forefathers. Throughout the sundry movements of the Karen people from ancient to modern times, the word Kawthoolei is the most commonly accepted Karen name for their homeland (or state), which a large group have been trying to establish since the late 1940s.[10] Martin Smith explained that the precise meaning of the name “(Kawthoolei) is disputed even by the Karen themselves. Various interpretations include ‘Land of Flowers’ and ‘Land without Evil” [11] Therefore, the Karen people continue to celebrate Kawthoolei’s Day every year since June 14, 1949, when mass rallies were held asserting Karen independence. Karen people have built up an ideology to live as a nation based on the meaning of Kawthoolei.[12] 

As I have mentioned and described all about my life and experiences in the land of Kawthoolei, I would like to say that, from a political perspective, Kawthoolei is the legitimate authority for the Karen lands in Southeastern Burma and seeks to maintain what Max Weber called “the legitimate monopoly over the use of coercive power in a given territory. The Karen people have their own country, an imagined community like any other; this is why the Karen people have been calling themselves part of the nation of Kawthoolei for a long time. Moreover, the word “Kawthoolei” is significant to the Karen people all over the world. Indeed, the KNU officially recognized the Kawthoolei Government as being the main component of the Karen National Liberation Army. They celebrate the Karen National days, which are Kawthoolei day, Karen New Year Day, Karen Martyr’s Day, Karen revolution day etc.; and do so at the risk of attacks by the Burmese army. They sincerely consider these special days as synonymous with the identity of the Karen people. Therefore, Karen from all over the world strongly regard the significance of the word Kawthoolei as signifying a Karen Country which has sovereignty over legitimated power and natural resources in a given geographical area. It is the special, original land for the Karen people in which they may live a peaceful and meaningful life.