Saw Ba Yi
စောဘရီ
Died1951
AllegianceUnion of Burma
Rankcivilian
AwardsAung San Thuriya

Saw Ba Yi (Burmese: စောဘရီ [sɔ́ ba̰ ]) is an ethnic Karen and the only civilian to have won the Aung San Thuriya Medal, the highest award for gallantry and bravery in Burma (Myanmar) in 1951.[1] Under normal circumstances, the medal is only awarded to members of the Myanmar Armed Forces.[2]

Service to the country

Saw Ba Yi volunteered in saving a group of government officials sieged by KNDO rebels in Thandaung in 1951. Though his acts of valour and self-sacrifice preserved the lives of hostages, he was killed in action. He was honoured and awarded the medal posthumously by the President of Burma then.

Commemorations

  • Aung San Thuriya Saw Ba Yi Street in downtown Yangon is named in his honour.[3]

References

  1. "သမုိင္းဝင္ဘြဲ႕ထူးတစ္ခုႏွင့္ ေန႔တစ္ေန႔ကိုလွစ္ဟျခင္း". 7Day Daily - ၇ ရက္ ေန႔စဥ္ သတင္းစာ. 2015-02-04. Retrieved 2018-05-26.
  2. Tapʻ ma toʻ; Puṃ nhipʻ reʺ nhaṅʻʹ Cā ʾupʻ Thutʻ ve reʺ Lupʻ ṅanʻʺ (1993). 48th anniversary Armed Forces Day commemorative book, literary and art. Printing and Publishing Enterprise. p. 177. Retrieved January 1, 2011.
  3. "Aung San Thuriya Saw Ba Yi Street, Yangon, Myanmar (Burma)". placesmap.net. Retrieved 2017-09-01.


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