Min Theinhka: An Astrologer's Career through the Lens of Biography

Abstract:This paper examines biographical material concerning an outstanding Burmese astrologer, Min Theinhka (1939–2008). His life is remarkable while the biography is also a social product of its time. One of the main astrologer's disciples, Min Theim Hkaing, authored the source used here, which is an example of the Burmese Buddhist biographical genre (attupatti). The analysis shows that the enshrining of Min Theinhka's life in the shape of an attupatti serves the project of his disciples to grant him an elevated spiritual status to that of a quasi-weikza. It also demonstrates how Min Theinhka developed his astrological skills so as to overcome his destiny and political disempowerment under military rule and how he built his career through successive shifts between close fields of practice, astrological, "religious," and spiritual.