K Za Win (; 1982 – 3 March 2021) was a Burmese

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

and former Buddhist monk, best known for his collection of long-form poems, ''My Reply to Ramon''.

Early life and education

K Za Win was born Chanthar Swe () in 1982 in the town of Letpadaung,

Sagaing Division Sagaing Region (, ; formerly Sagaing Division) is an administrative divisions of Myanmar, administrative region of Myanmar, located in the north-western part of the country between latitude 21° 30' north and longitude 94° 97' east. It is border ...

, Burma to a peasant family. His family lost land to the Letpadaung Copper Mine, a Chinese-owned mine.

Career

He published his first poem at the age of 16, in a school magazine. K Za Win became an activist, involved in educational reform and land rights. He participated in student-led protests to reform Myanmar's educational system, in opposition to the Myanmar National Education Law 2014. On 10 March 2015, he was jailed at Tharrawaddy Prison for over a year. He was a member of the Monywa Poet's Union. In the aftermath of the

2021 Myanmar coup d'état A coup d'état in Myanmar began on the morning of 1 February 2021, when Elections in Myanmar, democratically elected members of the country's ruling party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), were deposed by the Tatmadaw, Myanmar's milita ...

, he organised anti-coup demonstrations in

Monywa Monywa (; ) is the largest city and capital city of Sagaing Region, Myanmar, located north-west of Mandalay on the eastern bank of the River Chindwin. Monywa is one of the largest economic cities in Myanmar. It is also known as 'Neem City' beca ...

. On 3 March, security forces killed him by gunfire, after firing at a crowd of protesters in Monywa. He became one of at least four prominent poets, alongside Myint Myint Zin, Khet Thi, and Sein Win, to be killed that month.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Burmese male poets 21st-century Burmese poets People from Sagaing Region 1982 births 2021 deaths Deaths by firearm in Myanmar Burmese Buddhist monks