NIU’s strong reputation in Southeast Asian Studies was put to the test in the 1980s when the national association of Burma scholars (known as the Burma Studies Group) was seeking a location for its extensive collection.
The fact that NIU had been building a strong reputation in Southeast Asian studies for more than two decades weighed heavily in its favor, as did the relationships built with political and education leaders in each of the nine countries that comprise the Southeast Asian region.
In the end, NIU beat out the University of Michigan, University of Wisconsin, Cornell and the Smithsonian Institution for the right to house the nation’s first and only Center for Burma Studies.
Richard Cooler, a specialist in Burmese art and faculty member in the College of Visual and Performing Arts, became the first director of the NIU Center for Burma Studies. The first American scholar allowed to do research in Burma in since the country closed in 1960, Cooler had spent 13 months in the country in 1973.
The Center’s dedication ceremony took place in 1987 and featured a traditional “merit-making ceremony” led by a Burmese Buddhist monk.
A report from the event said the monk invoked blessings and protection from “infectious diseases, fear, imprisonment, loss of wealth, quarrels, accidents, conflagration, floods, heretics and dangers from beasts, ghouls, scorpions and other disasters.”
Attending the opening ceremonies were more than 200 Burmese scholars and the former Burmese Prime Minister U Nu. The event was broadcast live to Burma via the Voice of America.
Click on photos to enlarge.
