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 PRAISE FOR
BUILT TO INNOVATE

Built to Innovate shows how leaders can create an innovating engine

that mobilizes all the people who work for their organization. The
book offers both a big-picture conceptual framework and a proven
method developed through many years of academic research and
practice. It is filled with interesting examples and is thought
provoking. It is a must-read.
—W. Chan Kim, BCG Chair Professor of INSEAD and World’s #1
Management Thinker by Thinkers50

In today’s world, a company that does not innovate cannot succeed.

In the best organizations, everyone from the C-suite to the factory
floor is enabled and encouraged to innovate. Fortunately, there are
tools and systems that can be used to stimulate innovation in any
industry, and Ben M. Bensaou’s new book is comprehensive and
remarkable in this respect.
—Güler Sabancı, Chair, Sabancı Holding

Innovation is a core challenge for all leaders, and I am focused on it

as governor of Japan’s No. 1 industrial center, which is aiming to
shape the world’s foremost and unparalleled startups ecosystem.
Ben M. Bensaou’s Built to Innovate offers insights into the why, the
how, and the who of innovating that leaders in business, the
nonprofit sector, and government alike are sure to find compelling
and powerful.
 —Hideaki Ohmura, Governor, Aichi Prefecture, Japan

For a science-based company like Bayer, it is crucial to enable

innovation and bring it to market. This is possible only if we
encourage our employees and leverage their innovative potential. In
his inspiring book, Built to Innovate, Ben M. Bensaou provides not
only useful insights but also clear examples of how to simultaneously
lead innovation and transformation in a high-performance business.
—Werner Baumann, CEO, Bayer AG

How do we create societies where innovation is second nature? Built

to Innovate is about making innovation systemic, which is exactly
what we need to create sustainable prosperity in many nations.
—Lucy Quist, Managing Director, Morgan Stanley, former CEO of
Airtel Ghana, and author of The Bold New Normal

Many organizations struggle to innovate—not because they lack

good ideas, but because they don’t know how to create a supportive
greenhouse in which innovative ideas can flourish. Ben M. Bensaou’s
book explains in detail how to create such a greenhouse. In a world
where standing still means falling behind, business leaders need the
insights Bensaou provides to remain relevant in future unchartered
waters.
—Jan R. Carendi, PhD (h.c.), member of the Lombard International
Board of Directors, former member of the executive board of Allianz
SE and CEO of Allianz of Americas

In an era when tech rules the markets, everyone will advise you to
innovate more. Yet no one ever tells you how to do this. Ben M.
Bensaou provides an immensely valuable, nuanced set of
approaches to enhance innovating as a truly organizational process.
This is a must-read for anyone tasked with ramping up their
company’s innovating engine.
 —Toby Stuart, Helzel Professor of Entrepreneurship,
Strategy, and Innovation; Associate Dean, External Affairs; and
Faculty Director, Institute for Business Innovation, Haas School of
Business, UC Berkeley

Innovating should be everyone’s habit, but it’s usually done by a

select few. Bensaou’s BTI framework and his seven-step process
show how everyone can participate in priming the organization’s
innovating engine to forge a pathway to a profitable future.
—N. Venkat Venkatraman, author of The Digital Matrix
and David J. McGrath Jr. Professor of Management, Boston
University, Questrom School of Business

With fresh eyes, Ben M. Bensaou peers backstage into some of the
world’s most innovative companies to reveal a number of elegant
and original concepts and tools. His carefully crafted stories and
well-researched cases will teach leaders how to create a culture of
innovation and reward anyone interested in the science and practice
of innovating.
—Dr. Jon Arsen Chilingerian, PhD, Professor of Health Care
Management, Heller School at Brandeis University, and Director of
the MD/MBA and EMBA Physician Programs, Tufts University School
of Medicine
Copyright © 2022 by Ben M. Bensaou. All rights reserved. Except as
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For my father
 CONTENTS

Introduction: Why a New Book on Innovation?

PART ONE

The Innovating Habit

1 The Innovating Habit

Jump-Starting the Practice of Creativity

2 Execution and Innovating

Twin Engines Powered by Everyone in the Organization

3 The Innovating Perspective

The Supplier-Side View Versus the Customer-Side View

PART TWO

The Three Key Processes of Innovating

4 The Three Processes of Innovating

Creation, Integration, Reframing

5 Anyone, Anytime, Anywhere

 Innovation Is Everyone’s Business

PART THREE

The Three Key Roles in Innovating

6 Hands-On Creativity
How to Inspire and Empower Your Company’s
Frontline Innovators

7 Coaching Innovation
How Midlevel Managers Nurture the Systems That Make
Innovating Possible

8 Setting the Agenda

How Senior Leaders Can Focus an Entire Organization
on Innovating

PART FOUR

The Infrastructure for Innovating Governance

and Coordination

9 Igniting the Engine

Creating a Governance and Coordination Structure for
the Innovating Engine

10 Priming the Pump

A Seven-Step Process for Creating Innovative Ideas

11 Keeping the Engine Humming

Nurturing the Habit of Innovating
Appendix

Acknowledgments

Notes

Index
INTRODUCTION
 Why a New Book on Innovation?

I n a world where technological, economic, and social changes from

political upheavals to devastating pandemics seem to be
increasingly rapid and unpredictable . . . where unanticipated
sources of competitive pressure are continually arising . . . where
complicated global forces are constantly reshaping markets . . . and
where the effective life spans of successful product and service
offerings seem to be steadily shrinking—in such a world, leaders of
organizations in every sector and industry are desperately in search
of the secret of innovation. “What worked for us last year won’t work
tomorrow” is their lament. “We need to find a new and better way—
and we need to find it now, before our rivals across town or across
the planet find it.”
We live in a time when change is the rule, not the exception. And
this means that organizations (whether for-profit companies,
nonprofit organizations, or government agencies) must constantly
succeed at two very different, even contradictory activities. They
must be exceedingly good at doing what they do today—at providing
customers with the goods or services they have come to expect, and
doing so with superlative quality, efficiency, convenience,
affordability, and style. This is the challenge of execution, which
leaders in every type of organization spend a lifetime mastering.
Yet these same leaders must simultaneously excel at rethinking,
reimagining, and improving what they do today, finding ways to
improve their current products and processes as well as devising
entirely new ones that no one has yet envisioned. This is the
challenge of innovating.

The Twin Engines That Drive Your

Organization
Thus, every organization needs to operate through both an
execution engine and an innovating engine.
Execution, of course, is tremendously important. Business schools,
consultants and trainers, scholars of business, and authors of
business books devote lots of time and energy to studying,
analyzing, and teaching execution methods for all sorts of processes
that take place in organizations of every kind—planning, research,
finance, manufacturing, sales, marketing, logistics, human
resources, and many more. Detailed, practical, well-designed
systems for executing these processes have been developed and
adopted by organizations, and countless employees have been
trained in carrying out these systems. And day in, day out, the vast
majority of employees in organizations devote almost all of their
time to execution. That’s understandable, since virtually all systems
for training, leading, managing, incentivizing, and evaluating
employees focus almost exclusively on execution. In fact, if we could
see inside the mind of the typical corporate worker and analyze what
that worker devotes his or her days to thinking about, we might
conclude that execution is the only thing that businesses exist to do.
This book is about the other crucial organizational engine—the
innovating engine. It explains how to embed and nurture innovating
capabilities, thereby building the organization’s innovating engine.
This can be done through the essential practices I will describe in
this book.
Notice the subtle distinction I draw between the words innovation
and innovating. Innovation refers to the output of innovating—a
product, a technology, a service, and a process. Innovation as
output tends to be associated with an individual genius, a research
and development specialist, a great designer, or a business model
creator.
By contrast, innovating refers to a process. I define it as follows:

Innovating is systematically looking for, developing, and

implementing new ideas that create value for a customer and
for the organization.
Notice that, as defined, the concept of innovating carries with it
several important implications:

Innovating is something that everyone in an organization can

do.
Systematically means both continuously and using a system—
that is, a structured method.
Innovating begins with looking for ideas—not necessarily
finding them. (After all, we can control the act of looking; we
can’t control the act of finding.) Hence the importance of
encouraging everyone to keep looking, anytime and anywhere.
A new idea is one that is new to your organization, even if it
already exists in another industry or company.
The term customer should be defined as broadly as possible.
It should include anyone you serve, whether this is based on
the purchase of a product or service or on some form of
nonfinancial exchange. A customer may also be outside or
inside the organization; for example, the customers of an
organization’s human resources department include staff
members, managers, and top executives within the
organization.
Innovating is a habit to be practiced at all times—you can
innovate in everything you do.

Most employees devote little time or energy to thinking about their

role in the innovating engine. This is not to say that the concept of
innovation is one that business thinkers ignore. In fact, bookstore
shelves groan under the weight of titles that promise to provide the
“secret sauce” that will let your organization become more creative,
vibrant, and innovative. Many of these books have some useful
insights as well as colorful stories that illustrate how particular
companies have earned their reputations as hothouses of innovation
—for example, firms like Apple, Amazon, 3M, Google, and Facebook.
The stories of innovative breakthroughs by companies in such
“creative” fields as high technology and entertainment are colorful
and inspiring—but by themselves they generally fail to provide
business leaders with concrete guidance as to what they can do to
make their organizations more innovative. Few of these books
grapple concretely with the realities of building and running an
innovating engine. Most fail to recognize that the entire organization,
including all the people who work for it, has a role to play in the
innovating engine. As a result, they don’t provide a systematic
process that can be used to make the innovating engine hum.
As I searched the literature for a book I could recommend to the
business leaders who’ve asked me for help with innovation, I was
unable to find one with the combination of features that
organizations most need:

A set of clear, simple innovating processes that companies can

use to generate valuable improvements and changes in every
aspect of their work
Principles of innovating that can help companies produce and
implement not just new product ideas but also process
improvements, customer service enhancements, new business
models, and more
An explanation of how everyone in an organization, from
frontline employees to midlevel managers to senior leaders, can
and must contribute to innovating, with specific guidance for
team members at all of these levels
A detailed, concrete explanation of the role of dedicated
innovation specialists—what I call the I-Team—in jump-starting
the work of innovating throughout the organization, including
descriptions of how successful companies have created,
organized, and implemented such a team
 A methodology with a kit of proven processes and tools that
companies in any industry can use to generate innovative ideas
that will bring new value to customers both inside and outside
the organization
Illustrative examples and cases drawn not just from the
familiar superstars of innovation—especially those from
industries like high-tech, consumer products, and entertainment
—but from lesser-known companies in industries and markets
most people don’t associate with innovation

More than 20 years ago, I set out to remedy this problem. Since
then, my research, coaching, teaching, and consulting work with
dozens of companies around the world has provided me with the
insights, observations, stories, and systems needed to fill these gaps
in our understanding of how to make innovation work. I’ve been
developing and testing tools and concepts for promoting innovation,
training managers at every level in how to use these tools, studying
the results achieved, and using those observations to refine my
thinking. The result has been an approach to innovation that many
companies have found particularly powerful in helping them enhance
their organizations’ innovative capacity. I believe the set of ideas,
tools, and stories presented in this book can do the same for you.
Many organizations are now discovering that it’s possible to
consciously develop and implement a rational, step-by-step system
for innovating that helps to ensure a steady stream of new ideas and
product or process improvements. In this book, I’ll recount my
experiences in researching and working with some of these
organizations. They include an international array of companies like
BASF, AkzoNobel, Allianz, Bayer, W. L. Gore, Kordsa, Ecocem, Fiskars,
Samsung, Recruit Holdings, Marvel Studios, Domino’s Pizza, and
Starwood, operating in industries ranging from electronics,
chemicals, and building materials to insurance, moviemaking, and
hospitality. These companies are demonstrating that innovating can
become a habit—one that provides an organization with a powerful
advantage over its rivals in the marketplace. And nonprofit
organizations and governmental agencies from around the world are
also following suit, bringing innovative excellence to arenas long
viewed as hidebound and incapable of change.
In the chapters that follow, I’ll describe in detail the roles that
employees at every level of your organization need to play in
implementing this system, from frontline workers to midlevel
managers to the executives in the C-suite. I’ll show that innovating
needs to be not just a “top-down” process driven by mandates from
on high, but also a “bottom-up” and “middle-out” process driven by
empowered leaders in every department. I’ll explain how members
of the I-Team—trained to encourage innovation, to surface the best
new ideas, and to channel them to the parts of the organization
where they can grow best—can be integrated into every department
of your company. And I’ll show how leaders at every level of your
business can use the various tools and process methodologies in my
innovating kit to stimulate fresh thinking and generate the ideas you
need to grow and thrive.

The Three Key Processes of Innovating

Many books offer tools and techniques for creativity. I’ll refer to
these on occasion. But my central purpose in this book is to provide
leaders with a conceptual framework that can guide them in
designing and continually nurturing an organization built to innovate.
This framework will suggest important new ways of thinking about
the roles of frontline employees, middle managers, and senior
executives in an organization, as well as the ways these groups of
individuals interact with one another.
Your company’s innovating engine is driven by three key processes
of innovating: creation, integration, and reframing. To build your
innovating engine—which will operate in parallel with your existing
execution engine—everyone within the company must be engaged in
these three processes in addition to his or her existing execution
engine role.
Creation is the process by which the organization continuously
generates new ideas—the raw materials of innovating. These new
ideas can relate to practically any activity that the organization
performs. For example, they can include ideas for new or improved
products or services that customers may like; ideas for identifying
and serving new customers or markets; ideas for making the
processes for manufacturing products or delivering services faster,
more efficient, safer, or more reliable; ideas for making it easier for
employees to capture, process, and share information; or any other
kind of idea with the potential to improve an organization’s
operations. When an organization has built an innovating engine, it
innovates in everything it does—in technology, products, and
services, as well as in management processes and internal functions.
And that means the process of creation is constantly happening in
every department and division of the organization.
Integration is the second process in the innovating system. This is
the process by which the dispersed innovating capabilities and
resources within the firm are brought together into a corporatewide
innovating capability. You can think of integration as the process by
which the organization “connects the dots” among all the ideas
springing from the frontline employees as well as other levels of the
organization. The integration process connects people, linking
innovators throughout the company into a social network fully
dedicated to innovating. The connecting network may also extend
beyond the boundaries of the organization, including external
innovation partners such as customers, suppliers, startup companies,
academic institutions, and more.
At great innovating companies, the integration process includes a
system for evaluating, selecting, supporting, and channeling the best
ideas that emerge from the creation process. I’ll discuss how your
organization can build a companywide system dedicated to making
innovating an everyday reality.
Reframing is the third process of innovating. To prepare for the
future, every organization has to keep questioning its existing
strategy even while implementing it. Continually challenging the
Another random document with
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raised at once, without leaving any debt for the next generation to
defray. And not only so, but it was raised in money actually
contributed directly for this purpose. There was no need to resort to
any of the well-known, artful, coaxing methods of raising funds,
which have to be adopted in more civilised countries. There was not
even a bazaar, not even a raffle! I have no hesitation in stating that
it is my belief that Buddhists spend on their religion, in edifices, on
the support of the monks, and on other works of charity, much more
per head in proportion to their means than the average of Christians
spend on theirs.
Another remarkable thing about the Shwê Dagohn Pagoda is its
bell, 14 feet high, 7½ feet across, and weighing 42 tons, the third
largest bell in the world. This bell has a history. After the second
Burmese war in 1853, the English made an attempt to carry it off as
a trophy to Calcutta, but ere they shipped it the monster toppled
over into the Rangoon river, and sank to the bottom. With the
appliances then at hand they were unable to get it up again. After a
time the Burmans made request that they might have it.
Yes, they might have the bell if they could get it.
They succeeded in raising it out of the river, and hauled it back in
triumph to the position it occupies to-day.
 GREAT BELL AT THE MENGOHN PAGODA.

When great shrines like this exist in Burma, on such a vast scale
and with such splendour, it is not much to wonder at if there should
be some specimens of unfinished and abortive undertakings, by
which the kings of Burma, in their ambition to obtain great merit and
a name, sought to equal or excel the great shrines of antiquity, but
which had to be relinquished because the resources, even of
despotic kings, are not unlimited. Such a one is the great unfinished
Mengohn Pagoda, which is built in a pleasant spot on the right bank
of the Irrawaddy, about nine miles above Mandalay. It is supposed
that this must be the largest mass of solid brickwork in the world,
and it is now nearly a century old. It covers a square of 450 feet,
and has therefore an area of 4¾ acres. Its height is 155 feet, which
is much less than it would have been had it gone on to completion.
An Englishman, Captain Cox, was there, and saw the beginning of
this huge structure. He says in his book that there was a great
square chamber built in the basement of the pagoda as usual, to
receive the offerings of the king and the people, and amongst many
peculiarly Burmese and Buddhist articles, such as models of precious
relics in gold caskets, and gold and silver miniature pagodas and
images, the miscellaneous collection included an article of Western
manufacture—a soda-water machine, at that time almost as great a
novelty in England as it was in Burma. Close by this large unfinished
pagoda is the second largest bell in the world; the largest is at
Moscow. An earthquake, which occurred in 1839, cracked this
enormous mass of brickwork, and dislodged a portion of it; but so
solid is it that it would take many earthquakes utterly to destroy it.
Notwithstanding the failure to complete this gigantic enterprise, it
did not deter a later king, the father of King Theebaw, from
attempting a still larger and more ambitious effort. Four miles to the
east of Mandalay there was to have been erected the Yankeen-toung
Pagoda, built of stone quarried from the adjoining hill; and it was to
have been larger considerably than the unfinished Mengohn. The
whole kingdom was laid under contribution to furnish men to labour
by turns, a few months at a time, on this pious work.
After four years’ labour, so vast was the extent that the basement
had only reached a height of four feet. At this stage a French
engineer was called in to make an estimate and report upon it. His
calculation was that if 5,000 men worked every day on the building,
it might at that rate be finished in eighty-four years. It never went
beyond the basement.
Since the annexation of Upper Burma, the practical British mind,
finding the Yankeen-toung stone eminently suitable for road-making,
and seeing that the roads in Mandalay, with its 188,000 people, were
not, up to that time, made of anything better than black clay, has
devoted this stone, intended for the pagoda, with which King
Mindohn had purposed, so to speak, paving his own way to Nirvana,
to the humbler, but more generally useful enterprise of mending the
people’s ways about the town.
 CHAPTER XIII.
THE BURMANS.
Of the forty or more different races and tribes dwelling in Burma
and on its frontiers, the Burmans are the leading race: first, in point
of numbers, for they far exceed any of the others; also as regards
position and advantages, for they naturally, as the leading race, have
come to occupy all the best and most fertile soil, all the tracts of
country lying between the great mountain ranges, the valleys of the
Irrawaddy and the Chindwin rivers; and still more in respect of their
prestige, for they have long been the ruling race of this region, and
their language is far more widely diffused than any other. Most of
the other indigenous races of Burma, as we have seen, are demon
worshippers, uncivilised, without a written language, and with many
and wide diversities from the Burmans. The Burmans, however, have
an ancient civilisation, an elaborate religious system, a philosophy
and a literature, and with regard to the arts, handicrafts and
conveniences of ordinary life, are quite on a par with the Hindus.
The present chapter applies to the Burman race.
The Burmans are of Mongolian origin, in common with the
Chinese, Siamese and other inhabitants of the Indo-Chinese
peninsula. Their features plainly show this, especially the almond-
shaped eye, the slightly flattened nose and the almost entire
absence of hair on the faces of the men. They are lighter in
complexion than the majority of the natives of India, and slightly
browner than the Chinese.
They show a marked contrast in many respects to the races of
India, especially in the entire absence of caste. The king was the
fountain of all position in the country. He made and unmade nobles
at his sole will and pleasure, so that there is no hereditary rank or
nobility. There is also no priestly caste like the Brahmins of India; the
Buddhist monks are recruited from all classes, from the royal family
downwards. Except the pagoda slaves, a class doomed to hereditary
servitude in connection with the more important sacred shrines, and
with a few other trifling exceptions, the Burmans as a people have
all the avenues of native life and privilege open to them. This
renders them less fastidious and more approachable than the people
of India, and does away with the withering, blighting effects of
caste. It renders them less conservative also, and makes them more
ready to take up new ideas.
The Burmese language, in common with the Mongolian languages
generally, is monosyllabic, each word consisting of one syllable. Of
course the progress of all languages tends to unite words, and in the
majority of languages this tendency has resulted in the original
monosyllables becoming so united and changed as to be not easily
capable of separation. But in Burmese and other monosyllabic
languages very many names and words are still of one syllable, and
even where they are of two or three, each syllable seems to show a
sturdy vigour of its own, and a determination to preserve its
individuality complete, and not sink into the position of a mere
servant of its neighbours. In pronunciation or reading of Burmese
this appears in a marked degree; and in writing Burmese names one
always feels inclined to follow the pronunciation, and insert the
hyphen between the syllables. Even where there is any disposition of
the syllables to cleave together in the formation of words, in
anything like a permanent form, they readily fall asunder the
moment they are touched for the purpose of critical examination.
 SPECIMEN OF BURMESE TYPE.

To compensate for the convenience of expression afforded in most

languages by inflections, much is made in the Burmese of particles.
Indeed, the grammar of the language, which is very simple, consists
largely of the classification of the monosyllables that serve as
particles, and a great deal of variety of meaning is expressed by
tones. The alphabet is derived from the ancient Nagari, the common
source of the alphabets of many of the Indian languages, but the
characters themselves belong exclusively to the Burmese tongue,
except that they have been adopted for the Shan and Karen
languages. The alphabet is called the them-bon-gyee or great basket
of learning, and it well deserves the name; for what with the 10
vowels, the 32 consonants, the vowel-consonants to the number of
10 × 32, and a very numerous series of characters to express many
combinations of letters, it really is a very great basketful indeed, and
occupies 28 pages of a closely printed pamphlet with the characters
alone.
One of the difficulties to a foreigner in picking up the spoken
language is the Burmese custom of dropping the sound of the final
consonants of syllables. This is not, as it is with some English
people, a bad habit, but is sanctioned by the usage of the language.
In the grammar of the language some interesting features appear.
Thus in many verbs the intransitive is changed into the transitive by
the mere aspiration of an initial consonant: as kya-thee, to fall;
khya-thee, to throw down, or cause to fall; loht-thee, to be free;
hloht-thee, to set free. The adjective does not precede but follows
the noun it qualifies. The accusative is followed by the verb that
governs it.
Burmese abounds with honorific expressions. First of all is the
ever-recurring ordinary honorific form daw, placed after nouns and
verbs, to indicate that the thing or action named has to do with
some person out of the common order. The first personal pronoun
has three distinct forms, so that a speaker is able, by choosing one
or other of these three, in a word, as it were, to place himself on an
eminence above, on an equality with, or in a position beneath the
person he is addressing; a great convenience, surely. What could the
framers of our own poor language have been thinking about, to
neglect to secure for us such an obvious advantage as that?
 The second personal pronoun is even richer, for it counts no less
than six well-defined gradations of expression, not to mention
several more supernumerary forms, that may be employed if the
regular forms of the pronoun are not enough. By means of these the
person addressed may be treated with veneration, gently flattered,
addressed with easy familiarity, made to feel his relative littleness,
scolded, or abused, as occasion may require. And all this variety of
expression in the mere choice of the pronoun in the second person!
What a language it must be in the mouth of a competent person!
Again, with regard to “Yes,” our affirmative of assent, the Burmese
can vary its form, by means of well-sanctioned idioms in constant
use, from something equivalent to the American “That’s so,” through
several more and more polite affirmatives, up to “What you say is
appropriate, my Lord,” an expression reserved of course for the king,
the monks, some respectable European, or Burman of distinction.
Where such various expressions would sound very stilted in English,
the Burmese idiom can give them as ordinary forms of politeness.
Thus again, the ordinary man is said to “eat”; the monk “nourishes
his body with the alms of the pious”; but the king tops them all, for
he “ascends to the lordly board.” It is asserted of a man when he
dies merely that he has “changed the bawâ,” i.e., left one state of
existence and gone into another; but in the case of a monk we may
safely go further and say, as the idiom does, that he has “returned
to the blissful seats”; the king, when he dies, is politely said to have
“ascended to the village of the nats” (beings superior to men).
These Oriental peculiarities of language and idiom are interesting
and amusing, and the frequent discovery of them, in the course of
his studies, does much to compensate the foreigner for the drudgery
involved in learning the language thoroughly, provided he is not
devoid of the sense of humour, and can appreciate them when he
finds them.
But perhaps the chief oddity of the Burmese language to the
foreigner is the use of numeral auxiliaries. In using numbers you
make quite a business of it, by adding in the case of each of the
things mentioned, a special term descriptive of the class of things to
which they belong. It is on this wise: first, you name the things
spoken of, then the number, and finally the appropriate numeral
auxiliary. Thus if you wish to say “six dogs” you must put it in this
form to be idiomatic, “dogs six living creatures.”

Five horses = “horses five beasts of burden.”

Four men = “men four rational beings.”
Three monks = “monks three highly respectable characters.”
Two rupees = “rupees two flat things.”

Always to have to supply, on the spur of the moment, whilst

speaking, the correct classification of the objects named in making
use of numbers, seems to the foreigner a very needless and
arbitrary demand, and so new to him that, until he gets accustomed
to it, he is constantly liable to overlook it. The classification of things
made in this way does not extend, however, beyond some twenty-
one categories. In addition to those named there are things in a line,
things in a circle, things long and straight, things nearly round or
cubical, things which are used as tools, trees and plants (which class
includes hair!), and some others. But the classification of things
provided for by the use of these numeral auxiliaries is neither very
scientific nor very complete, for the list is soon exhausted; and when
you come to such things as chairs, bedsteads and a multitude of
other things which come under none of the recognised classes of
things, they are all slumped under the head of “individual things,”
which is disappointing after the hopes raised of a complete
classification of all things.
Burmese literature is largely devoted to Buddhism. Of popular
works the most common are the Zats, stories of embryo Buddhas,
and what they did in their different births, before they arrived at that
state. Here is obviously much scope for fancy in tracing the buddings
of their wisdom and glory, and all their miraculous adventures and
deliverances, together with much about the nats or spirits supposed
to haunt the universe. Christian literature is miserably meagre as
yet, and there is much scope and need for more. All Christian
workers, and indeed all foreigners who aim at learning Burmese, are
deeply indebted to Dr. Judson, the first missionary of the American
Baptist Mission, for his excellent translation of the whole Bible, and
for his English-Burmese and Burmese-English dictionaries, his
Burmese grammar, and other minor works. To multitudes in England
and America Dr. Judson is famous for what he suffered; but amongst
those who know and can appreciate his literary work, that alone is
sufficient to entitle him to an imperishable fame.
“THE BUDDHIST MONASTERIES ARE FINE, SUBSTANTIAL ERECTIONS, MASSIVE,
SPACIOUS AND VERY RICH IN DECORATION.”

Although there are in Burma so many pagodas, monasteries and

other religious buildings, which are fine, substantial erections,
massive, spacious and very rich in decoration, the dwellings of the
people are, as a rule, very poor in accommodation, and are of
bamboo, the flimsiest of material, and specially liable to destruction
by fire. The posts of the house are of teak, the floor is of bamboos,
and raised from two to six feet from the ground, the walls are of
bamboo matting not much thicker than stout brown paper, and the
roof is of bamboo thatch. These houses, though so slightly made,
are warm enough for the climate. The floor especially seems very
frail to a stranger, made of half bamboos, round side upwards, and
lashed together with strips of cane. It gives and sways under your
feet as you walk over it in an alarming manner, but the bamboos,
though they bend, do not easily break. The Burmans like that kind of
a house. It is cool and airy. The floor shows a space between each
bamboo, and those spaces are particularly convenient for an easy-
going people. All kinds of miscellaneous things not required,
including scraps and remnants of food, can be dropped through the
floor, so that it requires no sweeping. The mighty host of ownerless,
homeless, starving dogs that roam over the town can be safely
trusted to find anything there is to eat, and they are not of dainty
appetite. All cooking has to be done outside the house, either in a
separate building, or more commonly in a little square hole dug in
the ground for the purpose, to prevent, if possible, sparks being
blown about by the high winds that prevail at certain seasons of the
year.
Owing to the extremely inflammable nature of the buildings in
Burma, fires are of frequent occurrence, and are exceedingly
destructive. In addition to the ordinary risk from cooking fires and
paraffin oil lamps, the people are exceedingly careless in handling
fire, and they are all smokers. They smoke a kind of cigar made of
chopped tobacco mixed with some light woody substance, and
enclosed in the outer leaf of the maize cob, or some other leaf used
for the same purpose, and these cigars drop sparks in all directions.
The end of the hot, dry season, in April and May, when everything is
like tinder, and when the high winds prevail, is the most destructive
time for fires, and every year at that time they are of daily
occurrence in Mandalay, and sometimes scores and sometimes
hundreds of bamboo houses are swept away. During the four years I
have lived in Mandalay I have known many large portions of the
town destroyed time after time.
The most destructive fires that have occurred since the annexation
took place on March 31st, 1892, and the following day. The first of
these fires originated in 27th Street, near the centre of the town.
Exceptionally high winds from the south carried the flames in a
northerly direction. All the wooden and bamboo buildings in front of
the fire were consumed in an incredibly short space of time. Very
soon the flames reached the central telegraph office, a new
Government building that cost about £2,000. The flames leaped
across a very wide street, and destroyed the office. The fire burnt its
way through the town due north for two miles, and ceased only
when it had burnt itself out. There is a good fire-engine
establishment since the British rule, but fire-engines are of no avail
in a case like that.
The first great fire was still smouldering when, on the following
day, another broke out in the eastern town. It spread in the same
way from south to north about two miles. In the line of this fire, and
extending the whole way, were a series of remarkably fine
monastery buildings, including some of the finest in Burma, all built
of teak, and covered with decorative carving, and two of them
covered with gold leaf within and without. One of these monasteries
was built by King Mindohn at a cost of 16 lakhs of rupees; the entire
loss caused by this one fire alone is roughly estimated at 100 lakhs
(say £600,000). The same day a third fire broke out in the north end
of the town, and destroyed several hundreds of Burmese houses.
This fire was caused by gross negligence, the sparks from a
Burmese cigar igniting some Indian corn. When these fires occur the
Burmans do not seem to concern themselves. They remove their
household goods if they have time, but make no real efforts to stem
the progress of the flames. Much valuable property is destroyed, but
it is seldom any lives are lost.
 All Eastern nations pay great attention to the rules relating to the
degree of state and dignity such and such classes of the people may
assume. Amongst the Hindus the pariahs and other low castes are
most rigidly kept down, and the least sign of alteration for the better
in their dress, houses, or circumstances renders them liable to the
persecution of the higher castes. I have known in Ceylon amongst
the Hindus prolonged struggles between certain castes, involving
serious breaches of the peace, the point at issue being only this—
whether a certain caste of people ought or ought not to be allowed
to carry umbrellas at their weddings and on other special occasions.
In the native kingdom of Travancore, a few years ago, serious riots
took place because the women of a certain class of people known as
the “slave caste,” having come under the influence of the Gospel,
desired to dress themselves with something like decency, whereas
the inexorable rule was that neither man nor woman of that caste
was to clothe the body above the waist or below the knee.
In Burma, though there is no caste, the sumptuary laws were
stringently carried out. The title “Thootay” (rich man) was enjoyed
only under royal edict. For funerals five different degrees of rank
were all minutely laid down, and the state and show must be
accordingly. The umbrella question was regarded as a most vital and
important one. In the matter of the use of that great emblem of
dignity minute directions were issued and observed. Gilt umbrellas
especially were only for the chosen few. The white umbrella no one
must assume but the king and the Lord White Elephant. Under
Burmese rule any one appearing in public under a white umbrella
would have had to answer for it. Where in English we should say
“the throne,” or “the crown,” as the emblem of royalty, in Burmese
literature it would be “the white umbrella and the palace.”
I remember on one occasion unwittingly making what, in Burmese
times, would have been a serious breach in my manners, and it
shows how easy it is to do that in an Eastern country. It was at
Pagân, a town on the Irrawaddy. Happening to be there one day
when the Chief Commissioner of Burma, the representative of our
Queen-Empress, was expected, I went down to the river bank,
where many Burmans were assembled to see him, and do him
honour as he landed from the steamer. The day was bright and the
sun very hot, and as usual I put up an umbrella I always carried with
me, of the ordinary English alpaca, but with a white cover, for
additional protection from the sun’s rays. I saw the Burmans looking
and making remarks, but being in blissful forgetfulness that I was
holding an umbrella at the time, I never thought it referred to me,
until suddenly I remembered that there was I, in the presence of the
representative of royalty, assuming the white umbrella, and,
according to Burmese etiquette, guilty of something approaching to
high treason! I hauled down my flag at once.
The royal titles of the King of Burma were perhaps the most
pompous and pretentious of any monarch—“His most glorious and
excellent Majesty, Lord of the Tshaddau, King of Elephants, Master
of many White Elephants, Lord of the Mines of gold, silver, rubies,
amber, and the noble serpentine, Sovereign of the empires of
Thuna-paranta and Tampadipa, and other great empires and
countries, and of all the Umbrella-wearing Chiefs, the Supporter of
Religion, the Sun-descended Monarch, Arbiter of Life, and great King
of Righteousness, King of Kings, and Possessor of Boundless
Dominion and Supreme Wisdom.”
As may be surmised from this lengthy and extravagant title that
ancient doctrine known as the divine right of kings was held in
Burma out and out, without the slightest qualification or limit. Every
subject was the king’s born slave, with no legal right to any property.
The king was the absolute master of the lives, the liberties, the
property, and the very labour of his subjects. There was little or no
private ownership of land; the land belonged to the king. The
cultivators were merely the king’s tenants, raising produce for his
benefit, he graciously allowing them to have some of the produce for
their own support.
But there is a principle of compensation running through all
human affairs, and even absolute monarchs cannot have things all
their own way; and a throne is not always a bed of roses. The more
grinding the despotism the greater the danger of revolution. Hence
the only real limit to the power of the king was his dread of
assassination, and this was a very real and well-grounded fear,
especially in the case of a ruler like King Theebaw, with a faulty title
and with no natural ability for wielding power. The King of Burma
was little better than a prisoner in his own spacious palace and
grounds, for he could scarcely ever leave them, for fear of the
palace, and the arsenal close by, being seized in his absence by
some pretender to the throne. If that should happen there was small
chance of his recovering them. The chief cause of the king’s
insecurity was the unbridled polygamy of the Burmese court. This
resulted in crowds of queens, princes and princesses, all possible
claimants to the throne, and it sometimes happened, as in the case
of King Theebaw, that there was no rest for him till most of them
were put to death.
The Burmese Government was throughout characterised by
oppression and misrule. No fixed salaries were paid to officials, but
princes, ministers, queens, concubines and favourites were
supported by the grant of a province, and known by the title of
“Myo-tsa” (province-eater), a title which only too aptly indicated its
own meaning. It was the policy of the Myo-tsa to squeeze as much
revenue as he could out of the people, in order to pay the required
amount at Mandalay and to pay himself. Subordinate to the
province-eater came the functionaries in charge of circles of villages,
and then of the individual villages; and in each case it was the same
thing, all intent on making as much as they could out of it. This was
with regard to the tax levied on each family or house. The same
primitive and essentially vicious methods applied to the other items
of taxation—viz., that on produce, fees on law cases, and
occasionally, extraordinary contributions to Government for special
needs—gave rise to the same kind of fleecing of the people. Towards
the end of King Theebaw’s reign things grew worse and worse. The
sale of monopolies became very common, and state lotteries for the
benefit of the revenue did great harm amongst a people naturally
fond of gambling. When at last Burmese rule came to an end it was
a clearing away of much that was rotten and hopelessly out of date,
and on the whole it was a great blessing to the people to substitute
for it British rule.
 CHAPTER XIV.
BURMESE HOME LIFE.
The Countess of Dufferin’s fund for the training of female nurses
in midwifery, for the benefit of women in the East, is nowhere more
sorely needed than it is in Burma, for there are among the Burmans,
in connection with that critical period, usages that render some more
enlightened method of treatment urgently to be desired.
Immediately on the birth of the child, it is the earnest endeavour of
those in charge to place the mother as near as possible to a very
large fire. Hot bricks are applied, rugs and blankets are piled upon
her, irrespective of the state of the weather, in a country where for
two months of the year the thermometer stands at 110° in the
shade of the verandah. This continues for seven days, and is with a
view to dispel the noxious humours supposed to be generated. This
treatment, in addition to the drinking of much medicine at the same
time, renders that crisis of life more than usually hazardous to the
mother.
 “EVERY BURMAN YOUTH, AS HE GROWS UP, IS TATTOOED FROM THE WAIST
TO THE KNEES.”

The boy goes to the monastery school as soon as he is able to

learn, and is there taught to read and write, and is initiated into the
teachings of Buddhism. He learns the five universal commandments,
the five subsidiary rules, and the Pali formulæ used at the pagoda
worship. At the monastery he is made familiar, at the most
susceptible period of his life, with the routine of the life of the
monks, learning, amongst other things, idleness as a fine art, and he
is taught to look upon the condition of the monk as the holiest man
can attain in this life. If I were asked which I considered the
strongest point Buddhism holds in the midst of the Burmese people,
I should at once lay my finger on this—the influence of the
monastery school on the boys. There can be no doubt that before
any great inroads can be made upon Buddhism—before Christianity
can have a fair chance of success—the missionary will have to enter
into an honourable competition with the monastery schools. These
are days of competition. He will have to provide a better and a wider
system of vernacular elementary education than the people can get
at present, and by providing a better article, he can attract the
people to him. Let him fearlessly permeate the teaching through and
through with Christian truth (not anti-Buddhism), and he will find
that will not lessen, but increase, his popularity. In all Oriental lands
the heathen instruction of the indigenous schools is a hindrance to
Christianity, but I know of no country where it is more so than in
Burma.
Every Burman youth, as he grows up, is tattooed from the waist to
the knees.[2] It is considered an indispensable token of manliness for
the thighs to be completely covered with various figures of birds,
animals, scrolls and letters. This tattooing would be too painful if
done all at once. It is done little by little. Besides this universal
method of tattooing, other styles are followed. Sometimes the chest
is covered with cabalistic squares and symbols in vermilion, in
connection with which many foolish superstitions are entertained.
The Burmans have a great notion of some kinds of tattooing as
special preservatives against wounds from bullets and sword cuts,
and as a means of warding off the evils, and securing the
advantages, of life. There was a great deal of this in the troublous
times through which we passed after the annexation, and until the
country settled down. Many of the dacoit leaders made use of this
method to increase the confidence of their followers, by making
them invulnerable; but not a few who put their trust in this defence
found themselves mistaken.
Then there are talismans specially used by Burman dacoits,
consisting of charmed or consecrated objects, inserted under their
skin, and embedded permanently between the skin and the flesh.
Many famed dacoits have long rows of them on their chests.
It is a sign of the ability of this people to take up new ideas, that
the Burman tattooers have lately taken to pushing business amongst
the English soldiers, who, as a class, are very fond of being
decorated in this way. For this purpose these artists have had the
tact to leave the patterns fashionable amongst their own
countrymen, and have taken to imitating English pictures, devices
and emblems. Many a “time-expired” soldier who has served in
Burma, now in England, is able to show these decorations (?) on his
arms and chest in more than one colour.
The Burmans are a nation of smokers. The children begin at a
very tender age, and are not checked. Men, women and children
smoke; the most dignified of matrons and the smartest of young
damsels not only smoke, but prefer to have their portraits taken
cheroot in hand. The Burman can never bring himself to look upon
his cigar as out of place, even in the most august presence; it seems
a part of himself. If he should drop in to a Christian service he will
light up, if you will allow him, as he sits to hear the address.
The staple food of the Burmans is boiled rice, and curry made of
vegetables stewed, with the addition of condiments, and meat or
fish, if they can get it. Though they are very scrupulous themselves
about taking any animal life, they are not at all averse to animal
food. Did not the Buddha eat flesh? His last illness is said to have
been caused, in extreme age, by a meal of pork, which disagreed
with him. The Burmans are coarse feeders. They will readily eat that
which has died of itself. We had direct evidence of that one day,
when two of us were travelling, and arrived in the evening at a
village. A military convoy of elephants, mules and ponies carrying
stores, had that day passed through the village, and one of the
ponies had died there, and was lying by the roadside. Next day we
met the people carrying portions of the flesh, and on inquiry, they
told us it was that same pony, and that they were going to eat it. On
our return the whole of it was cleared away. Even snakes and lizards
do not come amiss to them.

“THE MOST DIGNIFIED OF MATRONS AND THE SMARTEST OF YOUNG DAMSELS

NOT ONLY SMOKE, BUT PREFER TO HAVE THEIR PORTRAITS TAKEN CHEROOT IN
HAND.”

They are exceedingly fond of a condiment of fish paste called

ngapee. This is fish dried a little in the sun, salted, and then mashed
to a pulp. As the fish for ngapee is not properly cured, the effluvium
emitted from it is particularly obnoxious, and can be detected a very
long way off. The smell might be described as strong, pungent, high;
but none of these adjectives serves properly to characterise it.
Having never ventured to eat any I cannot describe the taste. Yet
this fish paste is so liked by the Burmans that a meal is hardly
complete without it. It gives the food a relish.
The Burmans clothe themselves in very bright colours, and in
good taste as regards the harmony of the colours. A good deal of
what they wear, both silk and cotton cloth, is locally manufactured.
The weavers and dyers have some exquisite shades of pink, of red,
of primrose, of navy blue, and other colours. They spend more on
dress than the natives of India, and less on jewellery. Many of the
people wear silk. The women dress their fine, luxuriant jet-black hair
very tastefully. It is combed up from all sides very neatly, and made
into a coil on the crown of the head. They wear no headdress but a
bunch or wreath of flowers. That the Burmans cannot be considered
an uncivilised race is clear from the perfect familiarity of their ladies
with the mystery of the chignon, and with the manufacture and use
of cosmetics for the improvement of the complexion, to say nothing
of scents and artificial flowers, also locally made.
The Burmans have some taste, too, in music. They have a fair ear,
pick up English tunes without difficulty, and sing them sweetly. Their
musical instruments are primitive, and not very elaborate. They have
a kind of pipe or clarionet, also a kind of trumpet; but they are
greatest in drums. A performer on the drums will have around him in
a circle something like a dozen, of different sizes, and varying in
pitch, so that he can almost play a tune on them. For private
instrumental solos they have a kind of dulcimer, made of strips of
bamboo, which is wonderfully musical and rich in tone, especially
considering the material it is made from. It seems strange that the
Karens should so excel their neighbours, the other races of Burma,
in the capacity for music, especially when we consider that
civilisation came to the Karens so late. The relative aptitude for
music amongst the different races of the earth, from all one can
learn, seems to hinge on something other than the mere extent of
the civilisation attained. What does it depend upon?
The Burman artists paint a good many pictures, judging by the
great numbers offered for sale and hawked round. The pictures are
mostly palace scenes, with kings and queens seated stiffly in state,
receiving company, with courtiers standing round, and soldiers
posted here and there. Latterly, Thomas Atkins, of the British
Infantry, has been the approved type of the soldiery; perhaps with a
view to a better sale for the pictures. The artists are adventurous,
and willing to attempt anything, and they do not spare the colours,
but the pictures are very stiff and the perspective is bad.
The frescoes at the Arakan pagoda in Mandalay, representing the
eight hells of Buddhism, are for many reasons a curious study. Those
pictures are more of a success from the standpoint of dogmatic
theology than from that of high art. The scenes depicted are realistic
and definite beyond any manner of doubt. The artist, one would
think, had made up his mind to be very “faithful” with us, and to
shrink not from depicting what he considered the truth on the
subject. Human beings are there seen writhing in torturing fire, fixed
on thorns, torn by dogs, dragged by black monsters in human form,
thrown by them into torments with pitchforks, or starving by inches,
with every bone in their bodies showing, and with faces of
unutterable woe. One wretch is represented attempting to climb a
tree, his brains being picked out by a bird from above, and his feet
being torn off by dogs from beneath; another is seated on the
ground, while two men are sawing him in halves, right through the
head downwards, the blood all the while flowing in gallons! In one
instance, the head, having been entirely severed from the body, is
looking on in consternation at the rest of the body being chopped
up.
In the matter of sculpture, the numerous marble images of
Gautama (Buddha) show considerable ability in execution, especially
in the faces, which show regularity of features and true likeness to
the human face, as well as the correct expression of calm meditation
appropriate to the Buddha; but there is much room for improvement
in the general design, and for accuracy and variety in the various
details. But we must remember that the sculptor of a Gautama is
bound down by conventional canons of taste as to the postures, and
as to the expression of the face, which he may not depart from.
 In wood-carving, where there is scope for taste and fancy, we get
from the Burman really wonderful results. There is nothing in which
they excel more than in this, whether it be in the way of small
delicate work in picture frames, brackets, and other articles of small
and beautiful workmanship, or in the numerous elaborate
adornments of the monastery buildings. Many of the more noted
monasteries are quite a study of sumptuous carving in teak wood,
the whole building in many cases being one mass of scrolls and
decorations, with many well-executed figures of men, cattle, horses
and supernatural creatures. In the case of some monasteries whole
histories are depicted in the carvings.
Marriage amongst the Burmans is not a very close bond. It is a
civil institution, and altogether non-religious, and divorce for trifling
causes is common and easy. I know a well-to-do couple who had
been married for some years, and lived happily; but at length a
difference of opinion unfortunately arose between them, and a
quarrel ensued about a mere trifle, affecting the expenditure of a
sum not more than a shilling, and after the quarrel they calmly
agreed to separate, on the ground of incompatibility of dispositions.
Many a man has had several wives, one after another, and parted
with them successively. In case of the dissolution of a marriage, the
woman retains whatever property she possessed before marriage,
together with what she may have gained by her own separate
exertions, or inherited.
Polygamy is sanctioned by usage, but is not very common, as it is
costly; concubinage is by no means uncommon. The wealthy, such
as ministers of state and men in high position, usually kept more
than one wife. The king was the worst offender in this respect, for
he set a very bad example. King Mindohn, the last king but one, had
fifty-three recognised wives, of whom thirty-seven survived him,
besides numerous concubines; and he had one hundred and ten
children, of whom fifty survived him. He himself, however, in
conversation with the English envoy, deplored this bad custom, as
productive of much intrigue, revolution and bloodshed in the palace.
There was sad confirmation of this after his death, in the two fearful
massacres during the reign of King Theebaw, that cut off nearly all
the surviving members of the royal family, besides many other
innocent persons.
One very peculiar and unseemly custom was for the reigning
monarch to espouse, as his principal queen, one of the royal
princesses, who was therefore his half-sister. It is undoubtedly a
blessing for Burma that such a rule, so hopelessly corrupt and
demoralising to the nation, so incompetent to keep order, and so
determinedly Oriental, conservative and out of date, has become a
thing of the past.
The position of woman in Burma, notwithstanding the blemishes
on their social system, is not nearly so down-trodden and degraded
as in most Eastern countries. This undoubtedly arises from the fact
that there are no zenanas among the Burmans, no keeping of
women shut up. They are as free to come and go, and take part in
the business of life, as women are in England, and they avail
themselves of their liberty, and take a very considerable share in the
business that is done. In money matters in the family they have
always enjoyed an equality with the other sex, which was only of
late years accorded to women in England; that is, the power to
retain in their own right for themselves and their heirs the property
they possessed before, or gained after, marriage. As the women, as
a general rule in Burma, are far more industrious than the men, and
quite as shrewd and business-like, this tends towards maintaining a
healthy sense of equality with the other sex. If a man has a
managing wife who can run a stall in the market, or greatly assist in
supporting the family by keeping a shop at home, as is very often
the case, the husband will think twice before he leaves her, or
provokes her to leave him. The wife and mother sits by, and gives
her opinion on things in general, in the family conclave, and hen-
pecked husbands are not unknown in Burma.
 “MANY OF THE MORE NOTED MONASTERIES ARE QUITE A STUDY OF
SUMPTUOUS CARVING IN TEAK WOOD.”

The Burmans are very fond of games. They have an excellent

game of football which they very often play, but it is a very different
thing from the rough game known in England by that name. English
football is too violent an exercise for that climate. It is more on the
principle of shuttlecock. Six or eight young men stand around in a
circle, with their garments tucked up so as not to impede their
movements. A light, hollow wickerwork ball is started by one of
them, and the object of the game is to keep it going as long as
possible. They must not touch the ball with the hand, but they show
great skill and activity in catching it with the foot, either side of the
ankle, the heel, the toe, the knee, the shoulder. It is a clever stroke
to leap up two or three feet into the air, and meet and kick the ball
with the heel, as it is descending; one still more difficult is to leap
up, catch the ball between the feet, and jerk it up again into the air