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A review by blearywitch
The Glass Palace by Amitav Ghosh
5.0
There is a strange, beautiful feeling that wraps itself around your heart when you read a book with familiarity - the places you have been, the places you have lived, the history, the food, the language, the people. This story is about the fall of royalty, of love across the sea, of memories, and of war, destitute, and deaths. It's lovely, and it's sad.
Oh Burma. Beautiful, and mystical as if it's heaven on Earth which you'll find out if you visit Bagan, and full of surprises. All its people want is to be left alone to devote themselves to the Buddhist ways and to attain Nirvana. It is unfortunate that the world does not account for that and the more ruthless of nations will always ravage the meek and humble and win the wars. Internally, the royal family of Burma entered a decline when faced with a harder world. There seems to be a lack of intelligence gleaned from the telling of history so the royal family should not be expected to stand for their people much less plan strategic wars. The fate of their land is sad. There is also the fact that the fate of Burma was left in the hands of a Queen Supayalat, whose greed and selfishness only serves herself and in the end even she is destroyed. There were many great women leaders in history but she failed to grasp the rungs.
It is depressing to read of trampled thrones and looted treasures. Who would have thought that the loss of a nation is a loss to history and preservation of its people, and riches. The British brought much to us in Asia but nevertheless, they stole more than they gave. Among the gems stolen they have the Kohinoor from India, and they have the Ngamauk from Burma. I fail to understand how King Thibaw was so trusting, so naive.
"In Burma no one ever starved, everyone knew how to read and write, and land was to be had for the asking: why should they pull rickshaws and carry nightsoil?"
"What vast, what incomprehensible power, to move people in such huge numbers from one place to another - emperors, kings, farmers, dockworkers, soldiers, coolies, policemen. Why? Why this furious movement - people taken from one place to another, to pull rickshaws, to sit blind in exile?"
Oh Burma. Beautiful, and mystical as if it's heaven on Earth which you'll find out if you visit Bagan, and full of surprises. All its people want is to be left alone to devote themselves to the Buddhist ways and to attain Nirvana. It is unfortunate that the world does not account for that and the more ruthless of nations will always ravage the meek and humble and win the wars. Internally, the royal family of Burma entered a decline when faced with a harder world. There seems to be a lack of intelligence gleaned from the telling of history so the royal family should not be expected to stand for their people much less plan strategic wars. The fate of their land is sad. There is also the fact that the fate of Burma was left in the hands of a Queen Supayalat, whose greed and selfishness only serves herself and in the end even she is destroyed. There were many great women leaders in history but she failed to grasp the rungs.
It is depressing to read of trampled thrones and looted treasures. Who would have thought that the loss of a nation is a loss to history and preservation of its people, and riches. The British brought much to us in Asia but nevertheless, they stole more than they gave. Among the gems stolen they have the Kohinoor from India, and they have the Ngamauk from Burma. I fail to understand how King Thibaw was so trusting, so naive.
"In Burma no one ever starved, everyone knew how to read and write, and land was to be had for the asking: why should they pull rickshaws and carry nightsoil?"
"What vast, what incomprehensible power, to move people in such huge numbers from one place to another - emperors, kings, farmers, dockworkers, soldiers, coolies, policemen. Why? Why this furious movement - people taken from one place to another, to pull rickshaws, to sit blind in exile?"