The Rohingya people of Myanmar (Burma)
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The children sat with eyes wide open on the floor around the old woman: “Grandma, tell us again about the past when there was peace. We cannot imagine how it was like and Dad also does not remember.” The grandmother replied with trembling voice: “Well, children, that is long, long ago, when I was still a young girl and the British soldiers were still around. It is more than 60 years ago since we last enjoyed peace.”
Tensions between Muslims and Buddhist Rohingya
Stories like this are commonplace in Arakan, the mountain range along the west coast of Myanmar (formerly Burma), the homeland of the Rohingya (pronounced Rohinja) people. About a thousand years ago, Arab maritime traders settled along the coast of the Bay of Bengal and intermarried with the local Hindu and Buddhist population. Thus a Muslim presence already existed in northern Arakan even before Islam reached Bengal in the 13th century.
For centuries, Muslims and Buddhists lived peacefully side by side. Muslims held influential positions in the Arakan army and the royal court. The palace grounds of the Buddhist king even housed a mosque. Britain annexed Arakan in 1826, making it part of British India. During this time, there was some immigration of Muslims from other parts of India into Arakan. During World War II, the British fought fierce battles against the Japanese in Arakan, which brought terrible suffering to the civilian population.
In 1948, Burma gained independence and the tensions between Muslims and the Buddhist majority increased. After the military coup in 1962, Muslims were discriminated against, or even openly persecuted. In practice a citizenship law denied the Rohingyas the right to be full Burmese citizens. This situation, worsened by severe human rights violations, led to mass refugee movements in 1978 and 1992. More than 250,000 Rohingyas fled across the border into Bangladesh. Though most of them have now been repatriated, their problems remain unresolved. Up to two million Rohingyas are in reality stateless, without any appropriate identity papers. They cannot travel from one village to another without having special permission. The condition of the Rohingya education system and economy is disastrous. It is illegal to publish any literature in the Rohingya language.
Rohingya Seeking spiritual help
Most Rohingyas are despondent and without a future; some are turning towards radical ideas. Hopes of leaving Myanmar illegally are growing. An estimated 1-2 million Rohingyas are already living in foreign countries such as Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Malaysia. This complicated situation has given them the name “Asia’s new Palestinians”.
There is no known church or individual believers among the Rohingyas. Strongly influenced by folk Islam, the Rohingyas seek spiritual help by wearing charms, following magical rituals and visiting the tombs of saints. While their physical situation may be terrible, their spiritual situation is even more desperate.
Prayer for Myanmar (Burma):
* Pray for Myanmar’s Christians to have opportunities to evangelise the Rohingyas. Pray that God will call labourers to work among them.
* Pray that the Rohingyas will find help for all their difficulties through God’s intervention.
* Pray that the Word of God, Christian literature, videos and radio broadcasts will be produced in the Rohingyan language.
Background, map and statistics about Myanmar (Burma) are here.
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Filed under: Asia, East by TDI
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April 21st, 2007 at 10:06
We Rohingya have an excellent writing system that can exactly pronounce our tonque like what do you write what you speak or vice versa. The system consists of 26 English alphabets, 5 accented vowels and two other characters Ç and Ñ. Example:
“Añárar leka bicí cúndor ar asán ar toratori cíki fare ar computer arde internet ót bála gori leká za.” which means:
“Our writing is very beautiful and easy and can be learnt quickly and can be easily wriiten in computer and Internet media.”
April 21st, 2007 at 10:19
Good insight, thanks.
June 4th, 2008 at 8:50
Rohingya Language writing system has been officially recognized by ISO (International Organization for Standardization) on July 18, 2007 as being the writing system of Rohingyas, the aboriginals of Arakan State of Burma (Myanmar).
It is one of the easiest writing systems ever developed making learn the language extremely easy. You can read exactly how the aboriginals speak because the writing speaks how Rohingyas speak.