The archaeological landscape of Upper Burma from the middle of the first millennium BC to the Bagan period in the 13th-14th century AD is a landscape of continuity. Finds of polished stone and bronze artifacts suggest the existence of early metal-using cultures in the Chindwin and Samon River Valleys, and along parts of the Ayeyarwady plain. Increasing technological and settlement complexity in the Samon Valley suggests that a distinctive culture whose agricultural and trade success can be read in the archaeological record of the Late Prehistoric period developed there. The appearance of the early urban �Pyu� system of walled central places during the early first millennium AD seems to have involved a spread of agricultural and management skills and population from the Samon. The leaders of the urban centres adopted Indic symbols and Sanskrit modes of kingship to enhance and extend their authority. The early urban system was subject over time to a range of stresses including siltation of water systems, external disruption and social changes as Buddhist notions of leadership eclipsed Brahmanical ones. The archaeological evidence indicates that a settlement was forming at Bagan during the last centuries of the first millennium AD. By the mid 11th century Bagan began to dominate Upper Burma, and the region began a transition from a system of largely autonomous city states to a centralised kingdom. Inscriptions of the 11th to 13th centuries indicate that as the Bagan Empire expanded it subsumed the agricultural lands that had been developed by the Pyu.

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Myanmar is one of the least connected countries in the world, with an estimated Internet penetration at just over one per cent. The country was ruled by a rigid military regime for half a century, who had a firm grip on the media and brutally cracked down upon any political dissent. In 2011, in a surprise move, a process of reform and a transition towards democracy began under the leadership of President Thein Sein. As a result, foreign investment in the country’s lagging telecom sector is now emerging. This thesis is a case study that partly aims to identify the major challenges facing Internet freedom as it relates to the human rights discourse and partly explores how two foreign telecom companies, Telenor and Ooredoo, are approaching responsible investment as they enter the country. Methodologically, the study is based on interviews, some of which were conducted during a two months field visit in Myanmar in 2013, and thorough document analysis. The research concludes that the major challenges facing Internet freedom in Myanmar are a deficit legal framework and the absence of digital literacy, which has contributed to irresponsible practices of hate speech in the online environment. Both Ooredoo and Telenor demonstrate an awareness of the complexities in Myanmar, whilst Telenor has a stronger formal commitment to respecting human rights.

The archaeological landscape of Upper Burma from the middle of the first millennium BC to the Bagan period in the 13th-14th century AD is a landscape of continuity. Finds of polished stone and bronze artifacts suggest the existence of early metal-using cultures in the Chindwin and Samon River Valleys, and along parts of the Ayeyarwady plain. Increasing technological and settlement complexity in the Samon Valley suggests that a distinctive culture whose agricultural and trade success can be read in the archaeological record of the Late Prehistoric period developed there. The appearance of the early urban �Pyu� system of walled central places during the early first millennium AD seems to have involved a spread of agricultural and management skills and population from the Samon. The leaders of the urban centres adopted Indic symbols and Sanskrit modes of kingship to enhance and extend their authority. The early urban system was subject over time to a range of stresses including siltation of water systems, external disruption and social changes as Buddhist notions of leadership eclipsed Brahmanical ones. The archaeological evidence indicates that a settlement was forming at Bagan during the last centuries of the first millennium AD. By the mid 11th century Bagan began to dominate Upper Burma, and the region began a transition from a system of largely autonomous city states to a centralised kingdom. Inscriptions of the 11th to 13th centuries indicate that as the Bagan Empire expanded it subsumed the agricultural lands that had been developed by the Pyu.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Ashland Theological Seminary, 2001. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 210-212).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Ashland Theological Seminary, 2001. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 210-212).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Ashland Theological Seminary, 2001. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 210-212).

This research focuses on the special considerations and reasons for Burmese migrants and refugees from Burma living in Mae Sot, Tak province, Northern Thailand to stay in Thailand or return to Burma/Myanmar. The researcher has more than three-years of experience of living and working in Northern Thailand. During the thesis process, the researcher lived and worked in Mae Sot. A multi-method approach was applied to compile the experiences, knowledge, opinions and feelings of migrants and refugees from Burma. The research presented in this thesis shows that, even though the push factors from leading a life in Thailand are increasing in terms of obtaining legal documents, the pull factors towards return or repatriation to Burma remain few for refugees and migrants. In terms of the labour situation, migrants can earn more money and get more value for their money in Thailand. In addition, access to affordable education and health care is much greater in Thailand than in Burma, mostly due to initiatives by international non-governmental actors. In Burma, poverty continues to be an endemic challenge: there are difficulties for families to sustain their livelihoods and obtain access to quality healthcare and education. The findings from the research explain that migrants from Burma, many of which represent a marginalized minority in terms of ethnicity and religion, do not consider a future in Burma for themselves or their families if not forced to leave Thailand.   In particular, the Myanmar Muslim subpopulation and those with lower education possess experiences or have perceived discrimination of a potential future in Burma, largely related to issues with identification documents and registration. In addition, lack of land ownership remains a large obstacle for migrant workers and refugees in the consideration of where to live and work in the future.

abstract: School failure among children and adolescents has long been a serious issue in Myanmar. The recent statistics indicate that a large number of adolescents do not complete high school. As a consequence, they lose prosperous work opportunities and ability to earn an adequate income. These outcomes highlight a need to study the factors that hamper academic success of adolescents in Myanmar. Academic success is a complex concept and needs a multidimensional perspective to gain an accurate understanding of factors associated with it. Therefore, this study used an ecological risk/protective model and identified risk and protective factors that contribute to academic success of adolescents through five ecological systems of an adolescent: individual, family, peer, school, and community. This study was conducted at one government and monastic school in Myanmar. The data was collected from a sample of 50 high school students, parents and teachers through interviews and focus group discussions. This study reviewed and analyzed the data by using constant comparative method. A total of 27 distinctive ecological risk and protective factors that contribute to adolescents’ academic success in Myanmar emerged from the study. The findings of this study provided important recommendations to inform policy and practice interventions for adolescents to improve their academic performance. The findings also highlighted the influence of schools, families and communities on academic success of adolescents and a need of school social work services in Myanmar to address school failure of adolescents. Last but not least, this study contributed to the local literature by expanding the knowledge base on the concepts of ecological model and strengths-based perspective which are very new for educators and social workers in Myanmar. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Social Work 2018

Master of Science / Department of Journalism and Mass Communications / Angela Powers / The country of Myanmar started political reforms in 2010. Along with the process of becoming more democratic, peace and reconciliation have become very important due to the decades-long civil wars that continue to rage between ethnic minority groups and Myanmar Army. The Myanmar media have the potential to play a huge role in national reconciliation. One conflict between the Muslim and the Buddhist of Rakhine State of Myanmar has gained international attention. Research shows that media play a destructive or constructive role in conflict resolution depending on which news frames they adopt in reporting. This uses the theoretic peace journalism perspective, in which media take a careful, consistent and conscientious approach to report stories that create opportunities for society at large and emphasizes non-violent responses to conflict (Lynch, 2008). Using mass media framing theory and existing peace journalism literature, this study investigates the prominence of war and peace journalism framing in the media coverage of an ongoing conflict in the Northern Rakhine State of Myanmar between a group of Muslims and Buddhists who inhabit the region. This study employed a comparative analysis to examine war and peace journalism frames from stories published in four newspapers; two from Myanmar, one from Bangladesh, and one from the U.S. The analysis was guided by Galtung’s (1986) classifications of peace and war journalism and operational definitions derived by Lee and Maslog (2005). Findings suggest that war journalism frames are dominant in the coverage of the Rakhine conflict regardless of media origin. Even though not statistically significant, the government-run newspaper from Myanmar was revealed to produce more peace journalism stories than the other three newspapers. There was a slight difference in coverage of the conflict between English-language and Burmese-language newspapers in terms of peace/war journalism framing. English news stories were more likely to be framed as war journalism than peace journalism. In addition, news stories produced by U.S. journalists and foreign news wire services such as the Associated Press and Reuters were more war-dominant than stories produced by local/regional journalists of Myanmar and Bangladesh. This study calls for international and local journalists to reevaluate their current conflict reporting practices to promote their positive roles in peace processes.