Today I visited the village of Pawaimukh, 7 km downstream from Margherita on the Burhi Dihing River, to visit Chau Sa Myat Chowlik, a great expert in the Tai language and culture of Assam. Born in 1920, he is from the Tai Khamyang community, and a speaker of the Tai Khamyang language which is spoken only by a few elderly people at Pawaimukh. Of these, he is the oldest and most knowledgeable, and expert in stories, songs, proverbs, in reading and interpreting Tai manuscripts, both religious (Buddhist) and also medicinal, historical, dream interpretation and other predictions. I have been fortunate to record many of his stories, and his explanations of manuscripts and the culture of the Tai people. I used to call him Ek Number Bar Pandit (1st number big expert), because of his vast knowledge. I visited him first in January 1998, and on that occasion, as I could not speak Tai, he did not feel there would be much value in telling me any story. When I visited him again after one year, I had learned a little Tai language, and as I became ready to understand, he shared with me a great amount of his knowledge and skill which we have, most fortunately, got on tape and sometimes video. He is now very ill, and it is not expected that he will live for long. I suppose that I have seen him for the last time and tonight I feel sad, and some tears have come into my eyes. Though he may soon leave this world, I am at least glad to say that some of his knowledge will remain. I will never forget the wonderful time that I spent with him, the best of all just sitting and chatting and exchanging ideas. A true gentleman, a great human through and through. ကႃလီဢိုၺ်
Posted on: Sat, 13 Dec 2014 09:32:22 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015