# BOOKS & MOVIES related to BURMA

Whether you are a movie watcher or a book reader, I like to recommend you some few books and movies on Burma so that you understand more when visiting my country. 

There are tens of books and movies about Burma nowadays. Among them, here are a couple of books I love and reasons why. 

Book #1. From the Land of Green Ghosts, written by Pascal Khoo Thwe. The author is a men from Padaung hill tribe. We are actually going to see a family or a group of Padaung women in day 14 of this trip. The Padaung are famous for their 'giraffe women' -- so-called because their necks are ritually elongated with ornamental copper rings.

This book will give you a good insight of Burma from Socialist regime to military dictatorship. The author was a waiter, his girlfriend was raped and murdered by soldiers. He finally escaped through the jungle with a guerrilla army. He was eventually rescued with the help from a Cambridge don. He finally has had a chance to learn "English" and write this book. It's so dramatic. 

Book #2. The River of Lost Footsteps, written by Thant Myint-U.*( "u" is pronounced like the "ue" in the word "due,") He is a grandson of U Thant - a Burmese diplomat and the third Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1961 to 1971. 

This is a heavy book because it is so much involved with old and new Burmese history. He portrays Burma's rise and decline in the modern world, from the time of Portuguese pirates and renegade Mughal princes through the decades of British colonialism, the devastation of World War II, and a sixty-year civil war that continues today and is the longest-running war anywhere in the world.

My recommendation to read this book more easily is to turn the page right away to Colonial period. And read on...  *(if you are done, you can read "those front sections" you missed. because the earlier history of Burma is complex, especially "names" are difficult for you to remember.) 

Movie #: The Lady, about the Nobel laureate as well as a democratic icon from Burma called Aung San Suu Kyi. It's 135 minutes long. But I'm sure you will definitely love this movie as much as I love it. 
This will enhance your "knowledge on Burmese political background" along with her life story while she was under house-arrest. The story begins from her arrival to Rangoon to take care of her ill mother. Later she was encountered with "uprising against socialist government" in 1988. The Uprising was known as 8.8.88. *(August 8, 1988). The movie ends at latest uprising led by Buddhist monks against Military Dictatorship known as "Saffron Revolution" in September 2007. Apparently the film was made outside of Burma, and it has been blacklisted in Burma until 2013 when censorship was reduced.