Two Edged Swords in Bagan

Mark · 27th March 2007, 09:10 PM

Very interesting. I had heard of the legend of Maung Tint De, but not the other stories.

Nats have been very integral to Burmese life, and history. The delivery of bad news regarding a defeat of the Burmese army by the Chinese was supposed to have been delivered by a nat. As the story goes, the nats themselves fought in the air above the battle, and one (I forget his name) was shot by an arrow and fell from the sky. This in part lead to the Chinese victory, and the wounded nat flew back to the palace and woke up one of the king's advisors to give him the news (and the cause of the defeat, of course), which the advisor passed on to the king. The king was so terrified that he abandoned the capital and fled south, becoming subsequently known as "The King Who Fled From the Chinese" (again, I forget the precise name of the king, but the events are historical).

It stikes me as pretty clever to have a nat deliver the bad news to the king, as well as take some blame for the defeat. Otherwise the unfortunate (human) messenger, and likely the commanders of the army, would have probably lost their heads. You can't much complain if a nat is involved, though.

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27th March 2007, 09:10 PM	#10
Mark Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 987	Very interesting. I had heard of the legend of Maung Tint De, but not the other stories. Nats have been very integral to Burmese life, and history. The delivery of bad news regarding a defeat of the Burmese army by the Chinese was supposed to have been delivered by a nat. As the story goes, the nats themselves fought in the air above the battle, and one (I forget his name) was shot by an arrow and fell from the sky. This in part lead to the Chinese victory, and the wounded nat flew back to the palace and woke up one of the king's advisors to give him the news (and the cause of the defeat, of course), which the advisor passed on to the king. The king was so terrified that he abandoned the capital and fled south, becoming subsequently known as "The King Who Fled From the Chinese" (again, I forget the precise name of the king, but the events are historical). It stikes me as pretty clever to have a nat deliver the bad news to the king, as well as take some blame for the defeat. Otherwise the unfortunate (human) messenger, and likely the commanders of the army, would have probably lost their heads. You can't much complain if a nat is involved, though.