The wheel-turner and his house : kingship in a Buddhist ecumene / Geok Yian Goh.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Goh, Geok Yian, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

History.

Historiography.

Burma--History--To 1824--Historiography.

Burma.

Anawrahta, King of Burma, active 1044-1077.

Anawrahta.

Ku Lāʺ, Ūʺ, active 1715. Mahā Rājavaṅʻ krīʺ.

Ku Lāʺ.

Physical Description:

xvi, 251 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

DeKalb, IL : NIU Press, [2015]

Summary:

"Traces the archaeological and historical record of Anawrahta and his seminal position in forming modern Myanmar, based on the few sources that have been recovered. The Great Chronicle, an important history of the country written by the 18th-century Burmese nobleman U Kala, forms the basis for much of the knowledge we have about Anawrahta today. Geok Yian Goh examines U Kala's work in light of the context of U Kala's own time and points out the bias of his royal court, as well as the scribe's personal views from the elaborate narratives he produced. She looks at other sources as well, including unpublished palm-leaf manuscripts, to disentangle earlier knowledge about Anawrahta and 11th-century Bagan. Placing the overall study of Burmese historical tradition within the larger manuscript culture of Asia, Goh presents a critique of theoretical issues in history, especially the relationship between the past and memory"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

The genesis of the king

The king and his ecumene

The yazawin : orality and literacy

U Kala and the Anawrahta story

Makers of Burmese history after U Kala

The king as hero : memory and history in modern Burma

Postscript : the narrative comes full cycle.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780875807164

087580716X

OCLC:

903422192