Burmese Monk’s Tales

The book opens with a substantial historical and cultural discussion of Burmese Buddhism before the British conquest, explaining the role of monks in education, village life, monastic discipline, royal patronage, lay devotion, and the changing conditions of Burmese religious society. The main body then presents “Tales by the Thingazar Sayadaw,” a large collection of moral, humorous, and didactic narratives such as “The Hungry Man from the Hills,” “A Cure for Asthma,” “The Puppet Master Who Yawned Away the Night,” “The Monastery-Donor Who Had His Eyes Washed,” “The Two Monks Who Fought,” “Soft Music Is Better than Medicine,” “The Haughty Ferryman,” “The Writing on the Wall,” and “The Mad Abbot and His Confessional.” These tales combine Buddhist moral instruction with lively depictions of monks, laypeople, donors, villagers, officials, merchants, and householders. A further section, “Tales by Other Monks,” expands the collection with additional stories such as “How the Pole Star Changed Its Place,” “The Quiet Chicken,” “The Scriptures as a Mischief-Maker,” and “The Village Wiseman and the Elephant Tracks,” showing the broader narrative tradition of Burmese monastic storytelling.