Warring Societies of Pre-colonial Southeast Asiasimilar examples across time as well, for there were moments during
which rural tactics again came to the fore in reporting, such as with
the taking of the Arakanese ruler Min Ranaun’s head in 1494 and the
occasions when Alaunghpaya’s men did so in his 1752–1756 war with
Pegu.^34 And, of course, there is the head taking by highlanders in the
mainland until well into the twentieth century.^35
Another feature of local, rural warfare common in this war and gener-
ally found in the region historically was the use of bamboo and brush for
the defence of rural settlements. In this kind of warfare, there was little
distinction between combatant and non-combatant. As mentioned, The
Graphic almost exclusively depicted images that portrayed the Burmese
who resisted the British as bandits. Even so, on one occasion it published
a series of panel illustrations by an indigenous (“native”) artist of the
fighting as seen through non-European eyes. This series of panels pro-
- On the Min Ranaun episode, see Nga Mi, “Rakhine Razawin”, 141b.
- This is also interesting because of similar experiences elsewhere in Southeast Asia
when state forces faced rural fighters. A good example is Luzon, where during the
Philippine War from 1898 until 1902, American troops also responded, like the
Indian Army, by taking heads, many heads, themselves, leading to complaints back
in the United States.
Figure 6.1: The taking of cattle as booty (Source: The Graphic, 1 March 1890)