Mai soong moeng Tai,
[Prosperity in Shan land,]
Hpai mai moeng man!
[Fire in Burma!]
First, a confession. I could have faked my way through it, saying that this posting and its insight were original and first-hand experience, even peppering it with true exerpts of my more than a few, less than many late night drinking episodes in Shan State. However, that would be an out-an-out lie: not the drinking and not the toasting, but the remembering of what it was I toasted.
That information - like so many mini-notebooks I always carry around - was lost sometime ago. I wonder if I will ever remember.
So, let's go with brutal, but respectable honesty. I have to thank gifted and prolific Burma and ethnic minority researcher/journo Andrew Marshall (or here) for this handy tidbit of Shan/Tai Yai** that I have snatched from his wonderful work "The Trouser People". I picked up my copy the other day and, while admiring the numerous dogears throughout - a bad habit of mine - I came across this toast. However, before you stand up - teetering as you might after a few shots of rice wine or whiskey during a drunken night out in Kengtung or another cozy Shan town to try out this toast - read through the section below and allow yourself time for a moment of clarity. Such moments slip away only too fast and are often replaced, even more quickly, with regret, which itself is followed by a headpoundingly awful morning after.
*Without becoming mired in the politics of Shan State, something that is not the intention of this website nor a real intereste of mine, it is important to remember the situation in which many ethnic Shan live in modern-day Myanmar: things are not good and negativity and animosity are about the only two major products that the junta doesn't control outright or dabble in illegally. But, I am already getting political. Keep the advice simple: if possible, keep this 'toast' amongst close Shan friends and, preferrably, out of Burmese earshot or territory - otherwise it is only likely to create some further, unwanted animostiy or, as likely, a lingering problem that will stick around long after you and your hangover have gone. That's it. I do not wish this site to become a forum for political (pro-, anti- or other) discussion on Burma and Shan State. This toast is, in the simplest terms, a bit of information/interest on a sparsely written about, studied and generally available South-east Asian language. Jot it down and remember - period.
**I have found myself using Shan and Tai Yai (or here) more interchangeably and wonder if any others do or have been doing the same. 'Labels', largely affixed by the ill-informed and, worse still, arrogant, often create more confusion than classification, and this is one of many such cases. I welcome any thoughts on this: Is it Shan? Tai Yai? Both? Other? Myself and others would love to know.
Alright, that's all from me for now.Khun Naw Liang
