Thura Ma Chit Po (Burmese: သူရ မချစ်ပို; February 1908 – 8 April 1949) was a Burmese woman who was the one and only civilian woman to have received the Thura medal for bravery.[1] She gathered intelligence on the Karen National Defence Organisation (KNDO) on behalf of the Myanmar Military before she was caught and executed by the KNDO insurgents.[2]
Biography
Chit Po was born in February 1908 in Tavoy (Dawei), Tenasserim Division.[2] She married Corporal Hla Maung (a cook in No.1 Military Engineer Battalion), in Maymyo (Pyinoolwin) in 1947.[2][3]
Service
In 1949, the Myanmar Military (Tatmadaw) was fighting against the insurgent group called Karen National Defence Organisation (KNDO).[4]
One of the issues the Tatmadaw had was a lack of access to intelligence.[3] Chit Po, using a variety of disguises, which included a helmet, a cane for herding cows and a sleeping bag, entered the KNDO camp and reported back enemy artillery positions.[3][5]
Shortly afterwards, Chit Po was arrested, interrogated, and killed by the KNDO on 8 April 1949. She was 41 (in her 42nd year). On 16 May 1949, her body was buried in a military ceremony.[2]
Legacy
Chit Po was posthumously awarded the Thura Medal in 1950.[2] She is still the only female recipient of the medal; 516 medals have been awarded to men.[2] Her name is inscribed on the Memorial to the Fallen Heroes (Nay Pyi Taw) in Naypyitaw.[2]
A statue of Chit Po was erected in the Friday Garden in her hometown of Launglon Township, Dawei District, in 2017.[6] The sculptor was Maung Kyaw; the statue is over two metres tall, and shows Chit Po holding a machete and a bag of grenades.[7]
The 110th anniversary of Chit Po's birth was commemorated in Pyin Oo Lwin in February 2018, organised by the Pyin Oo Lwin Township Writers' Association.[2]
Chit Po is the subject of Maymyo Chit Swe's biographical book Thura Ma Phit Po (မြန်မာ့သမိုင်းတွင် တစ်ဦးတည်းသော သူရဘွဲ့ရအမျိုးသမီး သူရမချစ်ပို), first published in 2014.[8] Portrayed by Soe Myat Thuzar in 2017 film Thura Ma Chit Po.[9] In the Hall of Tanintharyi Region, Ma Chit Po is memorialized with a bronze bust.[citation needed]
See also
References
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