Burma Through The Centuries Classic Reprint PDF Download

Excerpt from Burma Through the Centuries It is astonishing how little either the Burmese themselves, or Europeans who have been long resident in the country, know of the history of Burma. Although I have lived in Burma for nearly forty years, it was only when I had occasion, last year, to write a brief sketch of that history that I realised how little I really knew about it. At the same time I discovered the cause of the prevailing ignorance. I was unable to find any book which gave a clear and intelligible account of what is really known. The late Sir Arthur Phayre's book was the only one I could discover in which the attempt is made to give a complete account of Burma through the ages. But, valuable as that book is, it is scarcely the book which the business man of scant leisure resident in the country, or the visitor, is likely to read. For one thing, to the European reader, at least, the profusion of native names introduced is very confusing. It is difficult to remember names so unfamiliar, and one is constantly turning back to see who this or the other person is. The difficulty is increased by the change of spelling which has since been introduced in the matter of Burmese words and names. Then there is a wealth of detail in matters of comparatively little importance, taken often from Burmese sources, on which but little dependence can be placed, and long accounts of ruthless wars, of wholesale murders, and of horrible cruelties, which become very tiresome. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.