A CIVIL SERVANT IN BURMA

Buddha’s Foot.

A CIVIL SERVANT
IN BURMA

BY
SIR HERBERT THIRKELL WHITE, K.C.I.E.

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS

LONDON
EDWARD ARNOLD
1913
(All rights reserved)

[Pg iv]
[Pg v]

TO
MY WIFE
WHO SHARED
MY LIFE IN BURMA
FOR MORE THAN THIRTY-TWO YEARS

[Pg vi]
[Pg vii]

PREFACE

This is not a guide-book, or a history, or a study of manners and customs. It is a plain story of official life for more than thirty years. It does not compete with any of the books already written about Burma, except, perhaps, the monumental work of General Fytche. While pursuing as a rule a track of chronological order, I have not hesitated to wander into by-paths of dissertation and description. I could not write without attempting to give fragmentary impressions of the people and their character. As far as possible I have limited my narrative to events within my own knowledge; my judgments are based on my own observation.

I have to express my acknowledgments to the friends who have given me photographs to illustrate the book. My special thanks are due to Mr. A. Leeds, I.C.S. (retired), for a large number of characteristic and charming pictures.

H. T. W.

September, 1913.

[Pg viii]
[Pg ix]

CONTENTS

NOTE

Burmese words are spelt according to the Government system of transliteration. Consonants have the same power as in English. Y after g combines to form a sound approximating to j: gyi = “jee”; after every other consonant it is short—my̆o. Yw is pronounced “yu.” Vowels and diphthongs have the sounds given below: