"Freedom and a Burmese Buddhist"

In this lecture, Ma Thida describes life under military dictatorship in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. Using examples from her experiences as a medical doctor and a journalist, she discusses health care and the media under the current regime. She ponders the difficulties of living a free and just life based on Buddhist principles within this society, and describes how Buddhist practice saved her life while imprisoned. Could it be true, as she was told by her prison guard, that she was freer as a political prisoner than he was as her jailer?

The Rama S. Mehta Lecture at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study was established by the late Professor John Kenneth Galbraith and the late Catherine Atwater Galbraith in memory of Rama S. Mehta, who died in 1978. The purpose of this lectureship is to invite to Radcliffe and Harvard a distinguished woman in public affairs, the sciences, or the arts.

This event is free and open to the public.