Mrs. Leslie Milne


Mary Lewis Harper Milne known as Mrs. Leslie Milne was an English anthropologist who traveled extensively and wrote about the ethnic peoples of the Shan State in Northern Burma. Her best known book, The Shans at Home, was an account of the cultural practices and day-to-day life of the Shan people of the village of Namkham in Shan State and was based on the many months she spent living in that village. She was also the author of The Home of an Eastern Clan, a book about the life and culture of the Palaung people, and wrote the first, and what is possibly the only English-Palaung dictionary. Writing about The Shans at Home and her book on Palaung grammar, The New York Times commented "it would be hard to find a more complete and yet readable account of the habits, customs, and religious ideas of a tribe or small nation than the ones she has given of the Palaungs" and called The Home of an Eastern Clan a "mine of information" for
ethnologists.

Published works

Mary Milne is the daughter of Carter Milne and the paternal-granddaughter of William Milne.