Thakhin Kodaw Hmaing’s Grand Congratulatory Laycho for the Saturday Nagani Journal Inaugural Issue

Thakin Kodaw Hmaing is arguably the most important Myanmar writer of the last century, known to young and old, both for his politics and his contributions to Burmese literature. He was the first of only two Burmese (the second one being U Thant) to be honored, however reluctantly, by U Ne Win’s government, with a grant of land plot for a private burial shrine near the Shwedagon pagoda. This literary figure’s immense national prestige encourages the Journal of Burma Studies to introduce one of his most famous poems to its readers, a novel development in the after life of the hugely influential Thakin who is utterly unknown beyond his country’s borders.