Michael Aris
Encyclopedia
Michael Vaillancourt Aris (27 March 1946 – 27 March 1999) was a leading Western authority on Bhutan
ese, Tibet
an, and Himalayan
culture, and wrote numerous books on Buddhism
in those regions. He was the husband of Burmese opposition politician Aung San Suu Kyi
.
, Cuba. After being educated at Worth School
in West Sussex
and upon completing his degree in modern history at Durham University
in 1967, Aris spent six years as the private tutor of the children of the royal family of the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan
.
Aris was an academic and lecturer
in Asian history at St John's College
and later at St Antony's College, Oxford
. In the last years before his death, he helped to establish a specialist Tibetan and Himalayan Studies center at Oxford.
Michael Aris's identical twin brother, Anthony Aris, similarly became a scholar of Tibetan studies, and founded Serindia Publications to focus on bringing Tibetan history and culture to modern audiences.
, whom he had met while in college. After spending a year in Bhutan, they settled in North Oxford
, where they would raise their two sons, Alexander Aris
and Kim Aris. During this time, he did postgraduate studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies
, University of London
and obtained a PhD in Tibetan literature in 1978. In 1988 Suu Kyi returned to Burma at first to tend for her mother but later to lead the country's pro-democracy movement. St John's College provided Aris with an extended leave of absence as a fellow
on full stipend
so that he could lobby for his wife's cause.
In 1997, Aris was diagnosed with prostate cancer
which would later be found to be terminal. Several countries, prominent individuals and organisations, including the United States government, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan
and Pope John Paul II
, made appeals to the Burmese authorities to allow Dr. Aris a visa.
The Burmese government would not grant him a visa
to visit Burma, saying that they did not have the facilities to care for him, and instead urged Aung San Suu Kyi to leave the country to visit him. She was at that time temporarily free from house arrest
but was unwilling to depart, fearing that she would be refused re-entry if she left, as she did not trust the junta's assurance that she could return.
He died on his 53rd birthday in 1999 in Oxford
, United Kingdom. After 1989, when his wife was first placed under house arrest, he had seen her only five times, the last of which was for Christmas in 1995.
Bhutan
Bhutan , officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked state in South Asia, located at the eastern end of the Himalayas and bordered to the south, east and west by the Republic of India and to the north by the People's Republic of China...
ese, Tibet
Tibet
Tibet is a plateau region in Asia, north-east of the Himalayas. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpas, Qiang, and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han and Hui people...
an, and Himalayan
Himalayas
The Himalaya Range or Himalaya Mountains Sanskrit: Devanagari: हिमालय, literally "abode of snow"), usually called the Himalayas or Himalaya for short, is a mountain range in Asia, separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau...
culture, and wrote numerous books on Buddhism
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
in those regions. He was the husband of Burmese opposition politician Aung San Suu Kyi
Aung San Suu Kyi
Aung San Suu Kyi, AC is a Burmese opposition politician and the General Secretary of the National League for Democracy. In the 1990 general election, her National League for Democracy party won 59% of the national votes and 81% of the seats in Parliament. She had, however, already been detained...
.
Life
Aris was born in HavanaHavana
Havana is the capital city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city proper has a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, and it spans a total of — making it the largest city in the Caribbean region, and the most populous...
, Cuba. After being educated at Worth School
Worth School
Worth School, near the village of Turners Hill, Crawley, West Sussex, England, is a co-educational Roman Catholic boarding and day independent school for pupils aged between 11–18 years. The school is located with Worth Abbey, a Benedictine monastery, in of Sussex countryside...
in West Sussex
West Sussex
West Sussex is a county in the south of England, bordering onto East Sussex , Hampshire and Surrey. The county of Sussex has been divided into East and West since the 12th century, and obtained separate county councils in 1888, but it remained a single ceremonial county until 1974 and the coming...
and upon completing his degree in modern history at Durham University
Durham University
The University of Durham, commonly known as Durham University, is a university in Durham, England. It was founded by Act of Parliament in 1832 and granted a Royal Charter in 1837...
in 1967, Aris spent six years as the private tutor of the children of the royal family of the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan
Bhutan
Bhutan , officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked state in South Asia, located at the eastern end of the Himalayas and bordered to the south, east and west by the Republic of India and to the north by the People's Republic of China...
.
Aris was an academic and lecturer
Lecturer
Lecturer is an academic rank. In the United Kingdom, lecturer is a position at a university or similar institution, often held by academics in their early career stages, who lead research groups and supervise research students, as well as teach...
in Asian history at St John's College
St John's College, Oxford
__FORCETOC__St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, one of the larger Oxford colleges with approximately 390 undergraduates, 200 postgraduates and over 100 academic staff. It was founded by Sir Thomas White, a merchant, in 1555, whose heart is buried in the chapel of...
and later at St Antony's College, Oxford
St Antony's College, Oxford
St Antony's College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England.St Antony's is the most international of the seven all-graduate colleges of the University of Oxford, specialising in international relations, economics, politics, and history of particular parts of the...
. In the last years before his death, he helped to establish a specialist Tibetan and Himalayan Studies center at Oxford.
Michael Aris's identical twin brother, Anthony Aris, similarly became a scholar of Tibetan studies, and founded Serindia Publications to focus on bringing Tibetan history and culture to modern audiences.
Aung San Suu Kyi
In 1972, Aris married Aung San Suu KyiAung San Suu Kyi
Aung San Suu Kyi, AC is a Burmese opposition politician and the General Secretary of the National League for Democracy. In the 1990 general election, her National League for Democracy party won 59% of the national votes and 81% of the seats in Parliament. She had, however, already been detained...
, whom he had met while in college. After spending a year in Bhutan, they settled in North Oxford
North Oxford
North Oxford is a suburban part of the city of Oxford in England. It was owned for many centuries largely by St John's College, Oxford and many of the area's Victorian houses were initially sold on leasehold by the College....
, where they would raise their two sons, Alexander Aris
Alexander Aris
Alexander Aris Myint San Aung, , is the elder son of Aung San Suu Kyi and Michael Aris. He is a grandson of Aung San, who founded the modern Burmese army and negotiated Burma's independence from the United Kingdom in 1947 and the pioneer of democracy in Myanmar.-Life after mother's detention:In...
and Kim Aris. During this time, he did postgraduate studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies
School of Oriental and African Studies
The School of Oriental and African Studies is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the University of London...
, University of London
University of London
-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...
and obtained a PhD in Tibetan literature in 1978. In 1988 Suu Kyi returned to Burma at first to tend for her mother but later to lead the country's pro-democracy movement. St John's College provided Aris with an extended leave of absence as a fellow
Fellow
A fellow in the broadest sense is someone who is an equal or a comrade. The term fellow is also used to describe a person, particularly by those in the upper social classes. It is most often used in an academic context: a fellow is often part of an elite group of learned people who are awarded...
on full stipend
Stipend
A stipend is a form of salary, such as for an internship or apprenticeship. It is often distinct from a wage or a salary because it does not necessarily represent payment for work performed, instead it represents a payment that enables somebody to be exempt partly or wholly from waged or salaried...
so that he could lobby for his wife's cause.
In 1997, Aris was diagnosed with prostate cancer
Prostate cancer
Prostate cancer is a form of cancer that develops in the prostate, a gland in the male reproductive system. Most prostate cancers are slow growing; however, there are cases of aggressive prostate cancers. The cancer cells may metastasize from the prostate to other parts of the body, particularly...
which would later be found to be terminal. Several countries, prominent individuals and organisations, including the United States government, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan
Kofi Annan
Kofi Atta Annan is a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh Secretary-General of the UN from 1 January 1997 to 31 December 2006...
and Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II
Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...
, made appeals to the Burmese authorities to allow Dr. Aris a visa.
The Burmese government would not grant him a visa
Visa (document)
A visa is a document showing that a person is authorized to enter the territory for which it was issued, subject to permission of an immigration official at the time of actual entry. The authorization may be a document, but more commonly it is a stamp endorsed in the applicant's passport...
to visit Burma, saying that they did not have the facilities to care for him, and instead urged Aung San Suu Kyi to leave the country to visit him. She was at that time temporarily free from house arrest
House arrest
In justice and law, house arrest is a measure by which a person is confined by the authorities to his or her residence. Travel is usually restricted, if allowed at all...
but was unwilling to depart, fearing that she would be refused re-entry if she left, as she did not trust the junta's assurance that she could return.
He died on his 53rd birthday in 1999 in Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
, United Kingdom. After 1989, when his wife was first placed under house arrest, he had seen her only five times, the last of which was for Christmas in 1995.
Publications
- Freedom from Fear and Other Writings: Revised Edition (Paperback) by Aung San Suu Kyi (Author), Václav Havel (Foreword), Desmond M. Tutu (Foreword), Michael Aris (Editor). Penguin (Non-Classics); Rev Sub edition (1 March 1996). ISBN 978-0140253177.
- Tibetan Studies in Honour of Hugh RichardsonHugh RichardsonHugh Richardson was a stipendiary magistrate for the Saskatchewan district of the North-West Territories. Richardson was the man who, at the conclusion of the 1885 trial of Louis Riel, sentenced Riel to hang....
. Edited by Michael Aris and Aung San Suu Kyi. Preface by Michael Aris. (1979). Vikas Publishing house, New Delhi. - "Notes on the History of the Mon-yul Corridor." In: * Tibetan Studies in Honour of Hugh Richardson, pp. 9–20. Edited by Michael Aris and Aung San Suu Kyi. (1979). Vikas Publishing house, New Delhi.
- Hidden Treasures and Secret Lives: A Study of Pemalingpa (1450–1521) and the Sixth Dalai Lama (1683–1706) (1450–1521 and the Sixth Dalai Lama). Kegan Paul; 1st edition (May 1989). ISBN 978-0710303288.
- The Raven Crown: The Origins of Buddhist Monarchy in Bhutan (Hardcover). Serindia Publications (1 October 2005). ISBN 978-1932476217.
- Lamas, Princes, and Brigands: Joseph Rock's Photographs of the Tibetan Borderlands of China. Joseph F. Rock (Author), Michael Aris (Editor). 1st edition 1982. Reprint: China House Gallery. China Institute in America (June 1992). ISBN 978-0295972091.
- Bhutan, the Early History of a Himalayan Kingdom. (Aris & Phillips Central Asian Studies) (Paperback). Aris & Phillips (May 1979). ISBN 978-0856681998.
- Views of Medieval Bhutan: The Diary and Drawings of Samuel Davis 1783 (Hardcover). Roli Books International (1982).
- High Peaks, Pure Earth: Collected Writings on Tibetan History and Culture (Paperback) by Hugh Richardson (Author), Michael Aris (Author). Serindia Publications (October 1998). ISBN 978-0906026465.
- Ceremonies of the Lhasa Year (Heritage of Tibet) (Paperback) by Hugh Richardson (Author), Michael Aris (Editor). Serindia Publications (June 1994). ISBN 978-0906026298.
- Sources for the history of Bhutan (Wiener Studien zur Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde) (Unknown Binding). Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien, Universität Wien (1986).
- Tibetan studies and resources in Oxford. (6 pages only – unknown publisher and binding)
External links
- A copy of The New York Times' obituary on Aris, From the Wayback Machine, 4 April 2006. Retrieved on 1 April 2007.