The White Younger Brother

Karen · demigod · Karen traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification

The white younger brother is the messianic figure of Karen tradition, the fair-skinned son to whom Y'wa entrusted a book of gold. In the myth Y'wa gave writing to each of his children; the Karen elder brother, careless or unlucky, lost his book, which was burnt or devoured by fowls and swine, leaving the people illiterate and diminished, while the younger brother preserved his and sailed away across the sea, promising one day to bring the book back. The expectation of that return became the engine of Karen millenarianism, and when white foreigners appeared carrying printed books in the nineteenth century, many Karen received them as the long-awaited brother, which helps explain the exceptional success of Christian mission among them. The same longing also fed non-Christian and syncretic movements that awaited a golden-book deliverer. Sources differ on the brother's precise place in the divine genealogy, but agree on his defining act, the bearing-away and promised restoration of the lost book.

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