The 91st birthday of Burma’s most prominent woman literary personality, Ludu Daw Amar was celebrated today at the home of her daughter, west of Mandalay city to avoid the prying eyes of the military regime.

For a change this year, given security concerns, her birthday reception was held at the residence of her daughter Dr. Mya Mezu instead of Tuang Lay Lone monastery near Taungthaman Lake shore in south Mandalay where it is ritually held every year.

Reports suggest that celebration in the monastery was cancelled by Ludu Daw Amar’s family as it attracts the attention of the authorities, who are known to keep a close surveillance on the abbot.

Despite the shift in location, the birthday celebration was attended by over 300 well-wishers, including writers, poets, artists and students.

“A lot of people turned up at the reception. And the house is a bit small to accommodate the large number of people,” Nay Myo Kyaw a youth who attended the reception told Mizzima.

Daw Amar, who got her title of Ludu – meaning the people – from the Ludu Daily News, which she co-founded with her late husband Ludu U Hla in 1946, is known as an energetic political commentator, a left-oriented journalist with the spirit to resist injustice which she still articulates in her works.

At the age of 25 she was actively involved in the struggle for freedom from British colonial rule. Her political activism started in 1936 after she enrolled in Rangoon University. However, she combined her political activism with her passion for literature and journalism and by 1938 she had made a lasting impression on Burma’s literary landscape.

In 1953, she took her political activism a step forward to the international arena and attended the World Democratic Women’s Conference in Copenhagen, the World Peace Conference in Budapest , and the International Youth Festival in Bucharest.

Given her outstanding personality and pioneering journalism in standing up for truth, Ludu Daw Amar is today revered by Burmese journalists, writers, poets and artists. So much so that her birthday is observed by Burmese journalists and literary figures world wide.

On November 22, 2006 Burmese journalists, artists, poets and writers in exile at the sidelines of Burma Media Conference observed Ludu Daw Amar’s 91st birthday in advance.

At Taungthaman Lake in Mandalay, where Ludu Daw Amar’s birthday has been celebrated every year – except this year – well-wishers were seen in groups celebrating her birthday.

“There are a lot of people scattered here and there near the lake. Well-wishers have made it a point to be here at the lake on this day just to mark her birthday,” said Nay Myo Kyaw, who was among the many well-wishers.