Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- 1 A bronze drum
- 2 Boar Tusk's children
- 3 White collar Flowerland
- 4 True Love at home
- 5 Water child, land child
- 6 A simple man
- 7 Fighting mean, fighting clean
- 8 Great Lake and the Elephant Man
- 9 Bartholomew's boarders
- 10 The three seasons
- Interlude: from the Kok river
- 11 Last of the longhouses
- 12 A delicate bamboo tongue
- 13 True Love in love
- 14 Fermented monkey faeces
- 15 Perfect hosts
- 16 Old guard, young Turks
- 17 True Love and White Rock
- 18 Insurgents in a landscape
- 19 True Love and sudden death
- 20 Portraits
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
7 - Fighting mean, fighting clean
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 October 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- 1 A bronze drum
- 2 Boar Tusk's children
- 3 White collar Flowerland
- 4 True Love at home
- 5 Water child, land child
- 6 A simple man
- 7 Fighting mean, fighting clean
- 8 Great Lake and the Elephant Man
- 9 Bartholomew's boarders
- 10 The three seasons
- Interlude: from the Kok river
- 11 Last of the longhouses
- 12 A delicate bamboo tongue
- 13 True Love in love
- 14 Fermented monkey faeces
- 15 Perfect hosts
- 16 Old guard, young Turks
- 17 True Love and White Rock
- 18 Insurgents in a landscape
- 19 True Love and sudden death
- 20 Portraits
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The quietest and most harmless people in the world.
Major Snodgrass (1827, p. 141)Karen have an equitable temperament and are not savage or arrogant. They can justly be termed gentle.
Preecha Chaturabhand (1987, p. 180)When the [Karen] party reach the house, the first rush is made by the two volunteers, and the rest follow. The house is stormed. All the men are killed, whether armed or unarmed. Such women as are thought likely to be useful or profitable as slaves are taken and bound. All the rest are killed. Infants are always killed, and children are often barbarously massacred. Their hands and feet are cut off, and their bodies hacked into small pieces.
D. M. Smeaton (1887, p. 86)New heroes have come forward since the days of Ba U Gyi and Bo Jakay. I met one of them in a comic-book while I was staying a weekend, with True Love and Bartholomew, at the house of the headman of Barterville – a fine big house on a high bluff overlooking the river.
The title of the comic was Bright Red Blood, the Karen phrase implying an immaculate clarity as well as brilliant colour. On the cover, which depicted one of the hero's exploits, the title had originally been printed in Burmese – an offensive blunder. A Karen version had been gummed on top.
The hero's name was Eh Ha. ‘You could translate that as “Mr Cool”’, said True Love. ‘I knew him. I met him down at Pa-an before either of us joined the KNLA. He was a good musician, lead guitarist in a group, and we played together.’
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- True Love and BartholomewRebels on the Burmese Border, pp. 102 - 117Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1991