The Story of Nan Saw Kyi

The author, granddaughter of Daw Nan Saw Kyi, subject of this issue’s Scholarly Curiosities, narrates the story of a courageous, independent-minded and resourceful woman who began her social and political activism early on. In 1938, together with some friends, she founded the Red Cross Association in her native town. Daw Nan Saw Kyi’s skills, dedication, perseverance as well as endurance were severely tested during the horrific fighting that raged around Mogaung in 1944 and 1945, when together with others she extended whatever aid was available to masses of streaming refugees and wounded fighters and soldiers, casualties of the slaughter that pitted British, Japanese, and Burmese armies against one another. Daw Nan Saw Kyi’s involvement was only the preliminary stage of a lifetime of activism on behalf of various communal needs, informed by her deeply held Buddhist beliefs.