The traffic police officers who conducted the passage of his somber procession from Wat Papao to the Sankulake cemetery were surprised by the turnout. “Who is this guy?” asked one.

Hseng Zeun, who died at the age of 59, was a native of Manghseng, a town in the Wa territory of Shan State. He had written more than 300 songs, some 120 of them sung by himself.

The best known and loved is Lwi (The Swimmer) which was translated, copies of it distributed among the mourners, and played before his cremation. The song is about a freedom fighter, who likens himself to Janaka, the hero of a Buddhist Jataka tale who refused to give up and let himself be drowned when his ship was wrecked.

Parts of the song read:
“It’s not because I see the shore nearby
It’s not because I know when I’ll get there
Whatever’s going to happen is going to happen but I still have to try to swim this sea
No matter how vast the sea is and how far the shore is
Dead or free, I’ll go on swimming”

The rendition brought tears to several mourners including the monks who are supposed to remain serene and calm in the face of death and sorrow.

The funeral of Hseng Zeun, known by his fans as Sakhaha, who died on 15 September in Chiangmai of liver cancer (though he was not a drinker), was organized jointly by members of the Shan Herald Agency for News (SHAN) and Freedom Way, the band he co-founded in 1984 with 6 other friends, of which 3 of them are still alive and active.