How the Plong (often commonly referred to as Pwo) Karen community in Hpa-an, the state capital of Karen State in southeastern Myanmar, live their lives in line with the conscious pursuit of a moral existence is the focus of Justine Chambers’s new book Pursuing Morality: Buddhism and everyday Ethics in Southeastern Myanmar. Focusing on how Plong Karen choose the most ethical and moral way to live, the book highlights the importance of Thout kyar, “a promise to maintain a particular ethic that people describe as fundamental to living in harmony with each other”, to many Plong Karen.
The book takes an anthropological approach, yet remains deeply rooted in Myanmar’s political history. To ground the book in the required context, Chambers provides a robust political history of the Karen community and its often-contested relationship with the government. This nuanced political understanding is required to understand how Plong navigate their social, political and economic networks. The Plong’s role in wider Myanmar society, plus their perceptions of themselves, have been strongly affected by political developments, from colonial times to the present.This notion of Morality as a key part of daily existence was first articulated by Karen intellectuals in the early 20th century, now it is considered a cornerstone of Karen identity.
Perceptions of Karen morality date back to colonial times, with British officers describing Karen as virtuous, honest and noble simple people, in direct comparison to the Burmans who were seen as untrustworthy, nationalistic and highly resistant to both colonialism and missionary activity. While such views may be simplistic and anachronistic, their legacies have remained. Chambers writes that the
colonial administrative tradition of favouring ethnic minorities over the majority Birman population played a strong role in engendering divisions between upland and lowland communities.
Since Myanmar’s independence in 1948, Karen State has seen conflict and mass displacement Because so many Plong find the ability to make moral choices within their village, during rice production and within inter-village relations, this displacement is “perceived as a threat to the foundations of Plong society.”
Chambers’s fieldwork took place between 2015-2019, a period of immense changes for Karen State and Myanmar as a whole following initial reforms under the Thein Sein government, the 2015 Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement and then the 2016 election of the National League of Democracy. With political conflict reduced, albeit not eliminated, and widescale loosening of embargoes and sanctions and liberalisations of the economy, Karen State, being located near the border with Thailand and the Asia highway through which most trade passed, was on the forefront of this economic transition.
However, while such changes brought large economic benefits, not all were happy. Elders would proclaim a “nostalgic reverence for an idealised rural, and more moral, past”. How Karen navigated these changes is a key part of the book. For example, the liberalizations of the economy meant that many Karen were able to access new methods of pursuing a moral existence, through charitable donations. However not all new business opportunities were particularly ethical and thus the book also explores some of the moral dichotomies within everyday life, as even those involved in morally dubious business could still make moral decisions by being a benefactor for the village community. Such complexity is important as “paradoxes are at the heart of social life and are the very constitution of what it means to be a person.”
Since the fieldwork for the book was completed, even more changes in Karen State and Myanmar have taken place. The military coup of February 2021, which has seen fierce resistance in Karen state, offers new opportunities for the pursuit of morality, as Chambers explains how assisting and funding the resistance is now seen as a moral duty.
Family commitments play a key role in this search for morality. Respect for elders is seen as part of a moral service, as is supporting family. Such commitments see thousands of young Plong men and women migrating to Thailand to support their family back in Karen State. Yet such migration isn’t undertaken lightly, it brings fears of moral corruption outside of the village. How to balance the inherent loss of morality when leaving the village, with the morality gained by support their family is an example of the many moral calculations Karen must undergo.
The book is based on a PhD on the same topic. An academic text clearly directed at fellow scholars, the book, while readable, makes few concessions to the general reader. The book provides significant new academic contributions. By focusing on Plong Karen, a minority within the Karen group, Chambers demonstrates how the politically expedient idea of a unified single Karen identity doesn’t allow for a nuanced understanding of inter-Karen political, linguistic and religious dynamics.
Yet despite the conflict or the prism of conflict outsiders may view Karen, she finds everyday life were not shaped or defined by militarisation or conflict:
rather there was a sense that life was changing in deep and complex ways, affecting people’s sense of themselves, of community and of both the Karen and the Myanmar nation more broadly.
In the end “there is no single or coherent understanding of what it means to pursue morality.”