Than Tun

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Dr. Than Tun (6 April 1923 - 30 November 2005) was well-known as a historian as well as an outspoken critic of the military junta of Burma. He joined Rangoon University, Burma, where he obtained both his M.A degree in 1950 and B.L degree in 1952. He was awarded the Ph. D in 1956 with a paper on “Buddhism in Pagan Period" from London University, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS).

Than Tun was a student of renowned Pagan scholar professor G H Luce at University College, Rangoon and a life-long member of now-defunct Burma Research Society, founded by a respected British civil servant J S Furnivall.

Than Tun retired from his official teaching duties for the Burmese government in 1983. From 1982 to 1987 he worked as a Research Fellow and Visiting Professor in Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Department of African and Asian Languages and Cultural Studies, Tokyo International Christian University and Osaka University at Foreign Studies. Later, he went to the USA and worked as a visiting professor in Northern Illinois University where he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Literature in 1988. From 1989 to 1990, he was a visiting scholar at the University of Michigan. He compiled and translated into English, the “Royal orders of Burma” in 10 volumes and many other works on ancient Burma. In 1990 he came back to Burma and worked as a Member of the Myanmar (Burmese) Historical Commission and Emeritus Professor in Yangon (Rangoon) University in the Departments of History and Archaeology.
During the Second World War, in 1943, he became the secretary of Ngathaingchaung’s Asian Youth League, and was appointed the chairman of Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League (AFPFL) in the following year. Due to his outspoken critics to military juntas, his well-researched books on Burma, had often been banned by the authorities or sidelined by publishers for fear of punishments.

Most of all, Than Tun criticized the military junta’s tourism works on ancient temples, Old Pagan.

Professor Than Tun is a close friend of a famous Burmese writer Ludu Daw Amar from Mandalay. He died at the age of 83 after attending Ludu Daw Amar’s birthday party at Taung Lay Lone monastery in Mandalay.