Kachin Scholar Receives Lifetime Achievement Award from American University

The Kachin Post

May 6, 2004 — A Kachin scholar was granted a lifetime achievement awards from US based Fordham University for his work as a civil engineer and a leader in the Catholic community in Burma, according to the University news.

Luke Tang Gyi, a native Kachin from northern Burma and a former student of the New York based Fordham University, will be honored by University’s 1953 Class during the occasion of the Golden Rams dinner on May 30.

He arrived at Rose Hill, New York in 1949 after having been received a scholarship from the St. Columban Fathers. He graduated as a bachelor of economic and later continued to study at the University of Detroit. He left for his country after studying in US.

For more than four decades, Tang Gyi has helped build a network of roads in the Kachin State, the rugged and sparsely populated northern part of Burma that shares borders with India and China. Incidentally, Tang Gyi’s father, an officer in the British Army, was also an important road builder.

During World War II, he was captured by Japanese forces, but he escaped from the infamous prison camp depicted in the 1957 film ‘The Bridge on the River Kwai’. He went on to help American forces to build the Ledo Road after the Japanese had cut off the main supply route, the Burma Road. Although both roads have since lost their former importance, the British officer's son has been responsible for building most of the key roads in northern Burma today.

Throughout his career, Tang Gyi has also been responsible for restoring many of the country's cultural monuments, including the centuries-old pagodas and temples in Bagan, Burma’s ancient city that was sacked by Kublai Khan in 1287 and never rebuilt.

Tang Gyi is now retired, however, he still serves as a consultant on road construction projects and, spends much of his time working closely with Bishop Paul Grawng, a Catholic Archbishop of Diocese of Upper Burma, to improve the quality of Catholic education there.

No foreign Catholic missionaries have been allowed entry since Burmese military took control the power in 1962. Many Catholic schools have been taken over and nationalized, and many priests’ residences, convents and church buildings have been transferred to government control.

Ten years ago, Tang Gyi attended his class 40th reunion in Rose Hill and he is hoping to reunite his fellow alumni at golden jubilee this year.