Don’t understand how he could have become what Craig Reynolds terms a “White Orientalist Gentleman” or what this would have entailed, elaboration on this point would be most interesting.

Things certainly seem to be a lot more complicated than this nowadays. Take for instance University of Hawaii professor Michael Aung-Thwin’s book “Mists of Ramanya” that argues that early Mon history is just a creation of European orientalists. He terms this a “Mon paradigm” but in the end posits a “Pyu Paradigm” which actually mirrors the most extreme Burmese nationalism. Aung-Thwin claims to be part genetically Mon in the book, supposedly as racial justification for erasing the history of (his own) minority group. He doesn’t read Mon, much less study their ancient historical manuscripts (that would make him an “orientalist” I guess).

Anyway, this was a major point of discussion at the international conference on Mon history and culture at Chulalongkorn University last week. In the end, I really do sympathize with the Mon, but of course this perhaps opens me to “white orientalist gentleman” potshots from genetically Burmese and Mon Aung-Thwin, “white orientalist” does seem to be a little bit of a red herring nowadays.