30, former missionary
ETHNICITY: Chin
BIRTHPLACE: Thantlang Township, Chin State, Burma
INTERVIEWED IN: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
As a young man in Chin State, Pa Tluang always wanted to be a preacher. Over 90 percent of the Chin—an ethnic nationality group from western Burma near the Indian border—are Christian. Pa Tluang’s family was against the idea of him becoming a missionary, as they feared the consequences in a country ruled by a repressive Buddhist regime. Despite the well-known hardships for missionaries and the threat of religious persecution of non-Buddhists in Burma, Pa Tluang followed his dreams and trained to be a missionary. He was sent on a mission to the neighboring Arakan State, where his plans were quickly and violently unraveled.11
During school, whenever our teacher asked about our ambitions, I would say I was interested in being a missionary and a preacher. It had been my ambition since childhood.
I was born on August 25, 1979, into a Christian family from the Lai tribe of Chin State.22 Lai is one of the Chin tribes. I am from Thantlang Township, in the middle of Chin State, and my village is near the border of India and Burma. It is on the peak of a mountain and so the roads are difficult. The local people of my village are all Chin, and they are Christian—there is no other religion. The villagers belong to two separate churches: the Church of Jesus Christ—CJC—and the Baptist Church. We have some differences in doctrine—for example, the CJC members do not believe in original sin, while the Baptists do. I love Christianity because I believe all creatures have been created by God, as it says in the Bible, and I firmly believe in Him and all He has done.
When I was in the eighth standard in 1994, I was only about sixteen years old. I asked my mother to allow me to join a mission to convert non-believers called the CCOC—Chin for Christ in One Century.33 The CCOC was formed as a follow-up program for American missionaries in Burma, to continue the work of the missionaries. I wanted to serve as a preacher because Jesus left a message to his disciples to go and preach around the world, but my mother disapproved of this and so I didn’t join. None of my relatives agreed with the idea either, because so many people had already died during their time as missionaries.
Most of the members of the government are Buddhist, and I believe they hate Christians. They insist that the country should be one race, one religion. Christian believers are persecuted, tortured, and forced to leave their homes and family. People fear that they will be arrested and tortured when the soldiers come to their village and see preachers. That’s why many villages, especially Buddhist ones, do not allow preachers to stay in their town. I heard that during the time of the CCOC, fourteen missionaries passed away—they were all killed by local people.
The next year, during my ninth standard, I told my mother that I would like to join a theological school instead of having a normal, formal education. When I told her this, she was so sad—she wanted me to finish high school instead. So I stayed in school, but by 1998, I was having too many financial problems to continue my studies. I started working as a ward servant in a hospital while still studying for my matriculation examination—I’d already failed three times. The matriculation exam is very important for all high school students in Burma, because it decides whether or not they can go to university or college. Since I could not pass my exam, I quit my job in 1999 and finally made the decision to work as a missionary for my career.
I couldn’t tell my mother face to face that I was leaving to become a missionary, because I was worried that she might not agree to it again. So instead I left her a letter:
Mum, do not feel sad. I am going to join the mission. I believe you’ll forgive me for disobeying you since you know it has been my ambition since childhood to be a missionary.
I WROTE MY THESIS ON CHIN CULTURE
In April of 1999, I went to Kachin State to start training and working as a missionary. I don’t know the connection exactly, but the missionary project I worked with was supported by an organization in Washington, D.C. I stayed in Kachin State until the end of the year.
The following year, I went through southern Chin State and was a missionary in four different townships. During that time, I converted one villager. Most of my experiences at that time were difficult, and I encountered many problems. Some villages warmly welcomed me, but in other villages, they didn’t allow any Christians to enter the village. The villagers would trick us and give us the wrong directions to another village. Sometimes we’d have to sleep in the forest because of that.
I thought I was poor at preaching, and so I decided to study deeper and pursue a bachelor’s course in theology. I first studied for a LTh—License of Theology—for four years. When I finished the LTh course, I studied for another year at a seminary in Rangoon Division. There, I wrote my thesis on Chin culture. After a total of five years, I finally received my bachelor’s degree in February 2006.
I HAD ALREADY PREPARED FOR THE WORST
When I had first decided to pursue missionary work full-time in 1999, that was also the last year of the CCOC. That year, the CCOC was changed into the CMC—the Centenary Mission for Christ.44 As soon as I had heard this new program would be finished in 2013, I decided that I would join the CMC before it ended. So in 2006, when I was finally ready to mission again, I joined the CMC. The CMC told me that I would be sent to mission in Arakan State. While I was preparing to travel, I heard that a church deacon in Taungup Township in Arakan State had been beaten to death by the police, the village head, and a monk. But my heart was burning to join the mission, and I didn’t care whether I died or not.
I talked about it with my mother. She didn’t think that I should go, but I wanted to because within the state there are many K’Cho-Chin, a sub-ethnic group of Chin.55 They are looked down on by the Rakhine, and I wanted to help them and lead them.66 And besides, I had no choice—the CMC program did not allow me to choose the place, so I had to go to Arakan State.
I had never met a Rakhine person before I went to Arakan State, but I’d heard about them through my friends—how they are rude and how they are bad. But I insisted on going to Arakan State. Before I left my village, I told my mother that if I died in Arakan State to please donate my thesis to the youth in my village. I thought that it would be nice to leave something to help them understand Christianity.
I left Rangoon on May 30, 2006, with some higher-ranking preachers who accompanied me to Taungup in Arakan State.77 We arrived that night, and left again early the next morning for the village, arriving on June 1. The preachers told me nothing about what to expect for my mission, but I was already well prepared for the worst.
When we arrived in the village, one of the preachers who accompanied me introduced me to the villagers, who were K’Cho-Chin. I was warmly welcomed by the K’Cho-Chin elders and the village leaders. Most of the K’Cho-Chin villagers were Buddhists, and some were Christians who had been converted by missionaries. After they’d become Christian, they built up a community and shared the Bible with each other to improve their spiritual movement. They also sometimes managed a temporary space for all the missionaries.
Although I had been warmly welcomed, that first night the village youngsters tried to shoot me with slingshots, with dried clay as bullets. Then again on the second night, and the night after—they continued this for two months. They never hit me, but they tried. The other Christians watched out for me and they were always around me, so the youngsters couldn’t hit me and they got angry. Then after two months, all the youngsters of the village surrounded my house and pelted it with stones. I was sleeping inside the house and was very scared by the noise. Fortunately it was not life-threatening. Because I had already prepared for the worst since I’d left, I never thought about turning back home.
At the start, I dared not introduce Christianity, and so I would ask the locals about their lifestyle and their culture, and we talked about that. There were Rakhine people residing twenty minutes away from the K’Cho-Chin village, and I always went there to buy vegetables, rice, and groceries. I helped them on their farms and also with building their houses from bamboo.
The Rakhine were wiser than I expected. They had favorable living standards, and in their morality, they were fine. Most of them, especially those studying in the school, were kind and communicated with me very well. Only the leaders of the villages disliked me and didn’t communicate with me much, as they didn’t accept missionaries in the region. The Rakhine have been influenced by Buddhism for many years, so they don’t want to convert to Christianity.
Those first few months, I was so sad when I found out that they disliked Christianity. They strongly believed in Buddhist reincarnation, and they also thought of Christianity as a path to poverty, because those who are Christians are also very poor.
Before I arrived at the village, there was no one who had been baptized. Then on Christmas Eve 2007, I converted and baptized three K’Cho-Chin villagers. We were having a worship service, and then we went to a nearby stream for the baptism. Some Buddhist K’Cho-Chin villagers watched us in amazement because they had never seen this before. At around noon, Burmese soldiers and the VCC—Village Council Chairman—came to our village.88 They knew that new converts were being baptized and they didn’t like that. The SPDC soldiers would usually come to the village, but there was a problem that day specifically because of the baptism. The village is only one mile from the other Rakhine villages, and so the villagers were in the area and they had seen us. I expected that something might happen, so I had already told the new converts that if the soldiers asked them why they were being baptized to reply that it was not because of me, but that it was their own choice to be baptized. The three new converts agreed.
I saw them coming. They were a big crowd, and they came and surrounded us. The Buddhist people were shouting that they would kill all the Christians. They beat me up in the church, and then the police, monks, and the chiefs of nearby Rakhine villages took me to the nearby VCC’s house. I told them, “I will follow you as you wish,” so they didn’t need to tie me up or carry me there. Some leaders of the church followed me to the VCC’s house, and some ran away. Both a police officer and a soldier interrogated me there.
They didn’t do this with the other preachers because I was the only outsider. I was also the one who was responsible for that church. In the interrogation, they asked me why I’d come there. They asked me if I had any recommendation or permission letters from the government. I claimed that I used my own freedom to do this, but they replied that all the words they spoke were the law. They said they didn’t like their children to be taught in Sunday school; they told me that there was no right to teach children who can’t choose, who are under ten or eleven years old, because they don’t know what is good and what is bad. Afterward they confiscated my identity card and told me not to have the worship service anymore. I was forced to sign a paper saying that I would also not teach Sunday school. I usually taught them sol-fa, staff notation and music, and they also stopped that program.99 I was forbidden to have Christian worship service, and to celebrate Christmas.
On that same day, the Rakhine youth, other Rakhine people, soldiers, and the police cut down the houses of the Christians with saws. My own house was burned down. I saw who burned my house—the village chief was involved in that, and so were a monk, two Burman soldiers, and many police. The rest were about 150 local people who had followed them.
MY WIFE IS COURAGEOUS
When I first arrived in the K’Cho-Chin village, the year before the baptism incident, a Chin woman involved with the youth group came and greeted me. She often came to the church for choir rehearsal. Since we lived in the same village, she also took care of me when I got sick and that’s how we got to know each other. Eventually we fell in love and we were engaged to get married by the pastor.
My wife and I married in a church in February 2007, in the K’Cho-Chin village. Both of our families and the leaders from the Lai Baptist Church in Rangoon approved, and the leaders arranged our marriage in the village. We celebrated, and served our guests tea and rice. It was a very pleasant time, especially because all the arrangements were made by our religious elders and by my wife’s relatives. We played cassette tapes, and there was a choir. It went smoothly.
My wife is courageous and patient, and she is also very devoted to Christianity. Because of her efforts, her parents and her grandmother were also converted. In October 2008, we had our first child. Her name is Grace. I was not at home at the time my wife delivered because I was traveling and preaching, but I arrived home five days later. I was very happy because our baby was God’s blessing.
Before I arrived, the K’Cho-Chin village had a primary school, but after some people converted to Christianity, the primary school was closed. The school was accused of allowing Christian children to study, and so the government ordered to shut it down. Afterward, the chief of the Rakhine village, who was also in charge of the K’Cho-Chin village, forbade the building of any school in the K’Cho-Chin village after they heard that some villagers had converted their faith. So my wife started informally teaching writing to some of the children in the village. One night, when she was teaching at our house, a monk and some Burmese soldiers came to the house along with the Rakhine village chief, and they started hitting her. Around that region, it is said that if someone is a Chin, he or she doesn’t have the right to study past the fourth standard. The non-Christian villagers and the Rakhine feared that the K’Cho-Chins would get ahead through education.
Chin people in Burma also face discrimination when it comes to traveling inside Burma and in the ability to have an ID card. Almost every town has a checkpoint on the outskirts of town, where people could be arrested or fined by Burmese military soldiers for not having an identity card while traveling out of town. So many people do not dare to travel.
I believe the Chin people in Arakan State living in the region have even more problems, because of both their religion and their ethnicity. The Chin people in this region get treated very unfairly. For example, one VCC can rule many villages, but only the Rakhine can serve as VCC and the Chin people pay more taxes and even need to get the VCC’s permission to kill their own livestock. Furthermore, the Chin people who wanted to kill their livestock had to pay 6,000 kyats for permission from the chief.1010 If the livestock owner slaughters without paying, the chief would fine that person more than 6,000 kyats for breaching the rules. This policy was enacted only for the Chin people who had migrated to Arakan State. In this region, the Chin people had to pay whatever the government demanded from them, whenever it was demanded.
I WAS LEFT UNDOCUMENTED
There was a second incident. On Christmas Eve 2008, twenty new converts were baptized. Around fifty people, including people from surrounding villages, came for the Christmas and baptism celebrations. The next day, I was conducting a sermon at the church; the sermon was about when the prophets announced that Jesus would soon be born into the world. Suddenly another big crowd came. I could see them coming as I was preaching and I became afraid. I knew something was wrong. They started shouting that they would kill every Christian and that they would destroy Christianity. They claimed only the Buddha as God.
Some church members started running right away. Then they started beating everybody. I was punched in my eye—even now my eye is still not good. Among the crowd, there were soldiers, police, village leaders and a monk. Apparently the local people had reported us. But even if there were people in the village who wanted to stop the crowd from attacking the Christians, no one dared to get involved in that incident. The soldiers give the orders and they are the law.
On that day, seventeen out of the twenty new Christian converts converted back to Buddhism. Only three were left. They had been called to the military camp in the village and interrogated about their baptism. A police officer and a few monks asked the new converts if they had been forced or persuaded by someone, and seventeen of them replied that they had been persuaded. They feared being tortured and having atrocities committed upon them by the Burmese military, so they abandoned their new beliefs. But the three that were left, their belief was unchanged, and they claimed that they themselves chose to be baptized. No one had pushed them. Luckily, they were not beaten up or punished, but the police officer said the three new converts would no longer be considered part of their tribe, and they would be removed from the list of registered villagers. Among them, one woman was forced by her family to leave her house.
My whole body hurt because I had been beaten so many times. I was arrested and taken to another village where I was beaten and tortured by them again. I prayed as my eye bled. I was taken to a lockup in the nearby Rakhine village, an unofficial detainment center for all perpetrators. Whenever the soldiers and policemen came they would beat my shins with a stick. They accused me of violating the law, because I had been told not to conduct any more gatherings, teach the children, or baptize any more converts. I was accused of violating all the “promises” that I’d given them during the first raid the year before.
My identity card had already been confiscated during the first raid, and in the second raid, they prepared to kill me because they accused me of being a supporter of the CNA—the Chin National Army.1111 They wanted to kill those in the CNA because it was formed by people who don’t like the current military government. They accused me of having no identity card and said I must be from a rebel group. In reality, I don’t think they really suspected that I had any connections to the CNA at all. They just accused me of this because they wanted a reason to detain me. These kinds of incidents, they never appear in court and they never make trial. The Burmese military does whatever it wishes. Even if we appeared in court, we would lose because we have no right to defend ourselves. Like I said, they are the law.
I was held in the jail for one week. I was so frightened. I prayed all the time. I was in fear because that group of Buddhist Rakhine people, soldiers, and police had killed one of the deacons after my arrival there. During my imprisonment, some fellow Christians came and told me that they’d received information that I would be killed because of my suspected connections with the CNA. When they confirmed that I was to be killed, I decided to break out of the jail.
It was early morning. No light. I was locked inside the room and I didn’t know whether there was a guard outside or not. But I wanted to escape because I wanted to live for my God, to serve him longer. The lockup was not a normal lockup. It was in a village, near the river, and it was built from bamboo. I broke through the wooden window frame on the back side of the lockup and escaped. That night, I had to sleep in the jungle.
I was headed for my home village, and traveled from place to place with the help of my fellow Christians. I was lucky to have Christians in every village help take care of me. They arranged all my travels and sometimes they even accompanied me between villages. There was a nurse who treated my injuries at the request of my Christian friends. I recovered, thanks to her, but my eyesight is still blurry to this day. In order to avoid the army and police, I chose footpaths. If we heard that military troops had arrived in certain villages, I would wait and hide in another village until they’d left.
The journey took me three weeks. To be honest, I was scared to go back because of how the villagers might receive me. When I got home, I knew that my parents had already deleted my name from their family registration card, because it was near the time of the referendum. The constitutional referendum was held on May 10, 2008 by the military government of Myanmar in order to know whether the people of Burma approved of the new constitutional draft.1212 Those who were absent at the time of registration were all deleted. My mother said the representatives of the immigration department had come and told them to delete the names of family members who were not staying in the village at that time. Also those who were living in Malaysia and other foreign countries, their names are erased from their family registry. The government only held the referendum because they wanted to deceive the world into thinking that the people in Burma approved their constitution.
So when I got home, I was left undocumented. I could be arrested at any time and charged by the Burmese soldiers with whatever they wished. I felt unsafe in my home village and so I dared not stay. At that time, my wife and daughter were still in the K’Cho-Chin village, and so I needed to go back to them.
I went through the whole journey by foot again. It was faster than before but it still took more than two weeks to reach my wife. At the start of the journey, I was very scared about traveling alone and what would happen to me once I arrived and the K’Cho-Chin villagers saw me. But as I neared the village where I had missioned for three years, met my wife, and started to raise my child, I could not wait to get back. I stopped being afraid. I entered my wife’s family farm at night to avoid the villagers and the army. My wife was crying, and she was amazed and overjoyed to see me—she thought I had died.
During my absence, the Burmese military threatened to arrest my wife if she couldn’t bring me back to them. And so when I returned to the village, it was impossible for us to live there any longer. It was also impossible to go back to my home village. I stayed on our farm for three nights, and then in May we managed to flee to Malaysia.
STANDING ON THE EDGE OF DEATH
I first heard about Malaysia during my bachelor’s studies in theology. I’d heard that there were many arrests and raids on Burmese people, so I knew going there that there would be many difficulties. But I decided to go because there are lots of Chins in Malaysia, and I hoped that they could help me and I could rely on them. In Thailand there are only a few Chins, but in Malaysia there were people I was familiar with—many of them were from my native village in Chin State.
My wife’s relatives helped us with the initial expenses for leaving Burma. From our village in Arakan State, we walked on foot to a sea port, and from the port we went by boat to Thailand. From Thailand, we contacted a broker who was willing to help us get to Malaysia.1313
The whole journey took around two weeks. It was very difficult. We were never sure whether we would live or die. We had no choice but to ride in any vehicles and boats arranged by the broker—there were eight people traveling in our group with the agent. In order to avoid being arrested by authorities, we would sometimes walk by foot across the deep jungles at night. We crossed forests, villages, and fields. We often slept in cars as there were no other places to sleep. We were with our newborn baby the whole time, but she is a very good child—even on our way to Malaysia, she never cried.
Although I was with my family, my trip to Malaysia was the hardest journey I’d ever faced, because I was leaving my home country. I’d never imagined leaving Burma. Along the way, I would sometimes secretly cry by myself. We were in such despair, but we encouraged each other by reminding ourselves that God would bring us safely to Malaysia and grant us a better life there.
When we finally arrived in Malaysia, there were many more hardships than I’d imagined.
Making a livelihood has been especially hard here. After a week, I found work laying wires. But it was very difficult for me because my eyesight is now so poor, and my boss complained about this. I went to the hospital and I was told that I needed treatment for my eye, but it would be expensive, about 5,000 ringgits.1414 My employers often cheat me on my salary, and so I haven’t been able to get treatment.
There is no organization that helps us, but many relatives and friends give us a hand. Still, we cannot even afford to pay our rent—sometimes we just have no money. If we feel sick we have no money to go to the hospital. During the day we eat rice, eggs, and vegetables. But sometimes I worry that we are starving. I feel like we’re standing on the edge of death.
THEIR OWN GOD
Life in Malaysia isn’t for me. I am always thinking about our survival, and how to earn money. I am always worried about our lives here. We cannot contact our parents because we don’t have enough money. But I have nothing to talk to them about anyway, except the poverty and the difficulties we face here.
I don’t want to stay in Malaysia. I don’t like it here because there are so many raids. If I could get a UNHCR card, then it would be easier for me to find jobs and maybe to get asylum in another country. I don’t know much about the UNHCR, but I do know that it helps those who fled their countries, and those who are helpless.
I do wish to become a preacher again. Even though I don’t think Burma will gain democracy—since the generals want to keep their thrones—I would want to go back to Burma if there were any possible way, because we are facing a lot of difficulties here. I am absolutely in despair.
Right now I can’t have any dreams or hopes for my future. I can only pray to God. I think God will punish those who attacked me. Even though they are not Christian, they have their own god, and their god may not be happy with them. I think God is teaching me through these difficulties and hardships, because the more difficulties and problems I have, the more I trust in God.
1 According to the UNHCR, there are 82,200 refugees from Burma living in Malaysia, of which approximately 38,700 are Chins. According to community refugee organizations in Malaysia, the actual numbers are higher than the UNHCR estimates; they estimate there are approximately 50,000 Chin refugees in Malaysia.
2 Lai is a subgroup of the Chin. The Chin are comprised of six major subgroups: Asho, Cho, Khuami (M’ro), Lai (Laimi), Mizo (Lushai), and Zomi.
3 The CCOC was formed in the late 1970s with the goal of converting the entire Chin population to Christianity.
4 Centenary Mission for Christ (CMC), which ran from 2000 to 2003, focused on missionary work outside of Chin State and helped to further the goals of the former Chin for Christ in One Century (CCOC).
5 K’Cho-Chin live predominantly in southern Chin State and in northern Arakan State. The women are traditionally distinguished by their tattooed faces.
6 Rakhine is the original word for the majority Buddhist ethnic group that lives in Arakan State. Arakan is the name given by the British to describe both the state and the people. In this book, we use the term Arakanese for anyone from Arakan state and Rakhine to demarcate the ethnic group.
7 Taungup Township is a municipality in southern Arakan State.
8 Village Council Chairman is the head of the local Village Peace and Development Council (VPDC), which is in charge of local government under the Burmese state.
9 Sol-fa is a reference to the solfège method of sight-singing by learning a particular syllable for each note of a musical scale (do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti).
10 Approximately US$6.
11 The Chin National Army (CNA) is the military wing of the Chin National Front (CNF). The CNA opposes Burma’s military regime.
12 For more on the 2008 constitution and referendum, see pages 469-470 of the appendix.
13 A broker is someone who is paid for assistance in illegally crossing a border.
14 Approximately US$1,500.