Win Maung History - About Dr. Than Tun

The teacher passed away on November 30, 2005. It will be eight years since he passed away. We cannot forget him. When the teacher passed away, we went to the funeral of his wife, Daw Khin Yi (who we affectionately call Ma Mari). Similarly, as students, we also miss the teacher and miss him deeply.

I could see and hear the teacher's beautiful face, his smiling expressions, his eyes twinkling and giggling when he laughed, his sarcastic remarks, and his occasional outbursts.

“This time, Thaung Ko is very sure,” he would say. His expression “sure” is divided into “sure” and “sure” and is a “slang” with a small “slang”. The “sure” he uses means “sure, sure, sure.” He does not pronounce the word “sure” but pronounces it clearly as “sure-sure”. He always speaks and says these sarcastic words to all his students. We miss these words very much and want to hear them again.

With this nostalgia, I thought back to the times I spent with my teacher and tried to answer.

"You guys don't say anything about the research papers I write with serious effort, they like the ones I write in a flash," the teacher said, and I read everything I had to say about myself. "Dr. Than Tun called me "Ho Ha Gyi" many times. "Ho Ha Gyi" sounded like a nickname. I'm so happy to write.

Oh.. now someone who can write well has appeared again. It's Win Maung (History) who is very talented. In this book, Win Maung immerses his teacher in his heart and builds a new world between him and the teacher. The teacher teaches him, instructs him, teaches him, and molds him into a historian. It is described in detail how he does it.

The teacher's appearance, behavior, speech, and habits are described. Win Maung's book clearly shows how he did his research work to the extreme, how he worked so hard that U Than Htut, a retired professor at the University of Education, once called him a "terrible worker," and how he really worked, as the teacher himself said, "You have to work hard and be thorough, so that you can excel." Win Maung's book clearly shows how he really worked.

“The teacher forged his own path, he only did what he believed in and what he was passionate about, he only did what he wanted to do, he immersed himself in achieving his goal,” Win Maung wrote.

Win Maung highlights these points one by one. You will find and read the highlighted points repeatedly in this book. It is not written in a way that is too exaggerated to be considered a masterpiece, but it is not exaggerated either. It is not exaggerated in the slightest, but it is a true account of the facts.

Then, the reader will see how Win Maung teaches “Research Methods.” He teaches how to write a history book. He teaches how to choose the topic of a history book, how to find evidence for that topic, how to evaluate the evidence found, how to compile a list of sources for the source, how to make notes, how to make cards, how to show footnotes and references, how to make a sketch, how to draw up that sketch, and how to write the book.

In the outline, what will you emphasize for the entire book you will write, how many chapters will you describe, how will you summarize the conclusion of each chapter, how will you summarize all the conclusions written in each chapter? How will you write a review that is contextualized, how will you write a concise and short summary that will show that the whole book you have written is good, the teacher will solve the problems of these many “peppers” one by one. Then the teacher will say. He also teaches, “Write so that the reader of your book does not think that you are a “boss”. In short, you will find that Win Maung has passed on the legacy of the “history writing method” he received from the teacher to the reader. In fact, Win Maung did not get this legacy from the teacher easily. He had to overcome many difficulties and hardships for many years.

“We have to travel around and search for evidence. When we hear that there are ancient documents, manuscripts, and records, we have to go there. The teacher often asks us to go and copy them,” Win Maung said about his work. Once, “Ye Oo has some evidence from U Thaung. Go copy it,” so Win Maung stayed with Ye Oo for three nights and copied it. When I read everything I had copied to the teacher, the teacher took out a large folder and said, “Here is Ye Oo’s collection of U Thaung.”

“You came here,” he said, pointing to Win Maung. Win Maung also became a little excited and interrupted.

"If you have it with you, give it to me. I'm out of money and I'm tired."

“Why should I give it to you so easily? You people value it so much that I, like you, have to endure hardships and hardships to copy it,” he said, and then, to comfort Win Maung’s sorrow, he said, “I ask you to do research, to find books, to copy them yourself, information will enter your head, and you will get ideas. If I give it to you so easily, you will not be able to do anything. There is no shortcut to education.” Win Maung recorded the teacher’s advice.

Win Maung also wrote about how his teacher taught him his “Mandalay Buddhist Religion” book. The teacher also explained the difference between the meanings of “religion” and “religion.” He also explained the terms “religion ownership” and “religionist.” He explained in detail that during the reign of the Burmese kings, there was no such term as “religion ownership.” He taught Win Maung in one sentence, “No one owns religion.” Win Maung forgot this and was scolded for using the term “religion ownership” that he had been using all his life. Ever since he saw a student of the Mahawijza scriptures throw away his book in front of him as “This is a thesis,” Win Maung had been terrified. Under such circumstances, Win Maung’s history book was criticized. He was not beaten with a feather, but with an iron brush. He was given fire, hellfire. The teacher read his book letter by letter, line by line, and paragraph by paragraph. Why did you use this vocabulary? “This book is written in Burmese, not Pali characters.” “You read a lot of monks’ writings and it’s like monks’ writings.” He was criticized. “What evidence did you use to write this sentence? I asked you to show evidence. I asked you to show the evidence in a footnote. Since I couldn’t show evidence, Win Maung would also be included in the “Is this the thesis?” I wrote this and didn’t write this. I was repeatedly told to delete, correct, and rewrite. It was like pouring a big pot of red ink over the entire book of Win Maung. “Winner Maung” couldn’t help but become “Winner Maung.” Win Maung also rewrote it as he was told. Second, third, fourth. The slogan “Even if you write it well, it’s rough” began to appear frequently.

When I read Win Maung’s letter about how the teacher was teaching and supervising, I thought, “Is this our teacher?” Like Win Maung, we were also taught and instructed in this way. In a nutshell, I remember my childhood in the classroom. My teacher, who was a kind person, would hold my hand and draw me little balls. One, two, three, etc.

And then -

"Pull from the bottom to the right, that's the waloon," he said softly, like a song, and taught me how to draw the waloon. That was the teaching method of the "young waloon teacher." The teaching method of the "old waloon teacher" was "this is the thesis."

That's why the teacher would speak in such a harsh, harsh, and harsh tone when reading our thesis. It must be because he was feeling it. If the teacher wasn't teaching like this