Great Lords of the Sky: Burma's Shan Aristocracy

摘要

The book under review is also available online for free in PDF format at: http://bit.ly/2vE3BuY and please note that it is better to download the uncompressed version for better image qualities, but one needs to be patient when downloading it. Since the book contains lots of images the format is in large file size. The print version of this book is available POD only on order request directly through the publisher's website. Hence, this book publication is not only environmental friendly but also independent from the main stream or more traditional way of publishing. This book presents accounts of Tai Shan rulers since the earliest time, with a focus on historical accounts of the Shan States over the one hundred years preceding 1962 including the periods of British colonial rules. When I first saw the title of this book, what immediately came to mind was a more common Shan word, which has a variation of Romanised scripts including 'saohpa' or 'saopha' or 'sawbwa', a term formally referring to the heads of each of the historical Shan States, namely the ruling system of the Tai cultural areas, now covering the regions of current Shan State and other parts of Myanmar, northern Thailand, southern China and north-eastern India. The term 'saohpa' literally means 'lord of the sky' (sao: lord, owner; hpa: sky). The Shan States before and during the British colonial rule had several saohpas (heads of the states) and for those with longer histories and larger lands were known as saohpa long, meaning 'great lords of the sky' and hence the title of this book, even though the book also covers historical accounts of both normal 'lord of the sky' and 'great lord of the sky' rulers of the Shan States. Thus, the historical accounts from a Tai Shan perspective have been narrated in this book through the use of alternative Romanisation of names and places different from those used by other academics and Western authors, who adopted the Burmese way of using the Shan terms. The aim of using these terms closer to Tai Shan tongue is clearly stated by the author: "I have used mostly Shan names in the hope that they may survive." (p. 22), and I would also like to add that these terms will be very helpful to researchers for cross referencing or comparative studies.