Tha Byu
Burmese evangelist
Tha Byu (c.1778 – 9 September 1840) was the first Karen Christian and a notable evangelist to the Karen.
Biography
Tha Byu was born in U Twa village. In his early life, he reportedly engaged in robbery and was involved in numerous murders. After being sold into slavery to a Christian Burmese, he was converted to Baptist Christianity by Adoniram Judson in 1828. Judson referred to him as Tha Byu ("younger brother") from their first encounter. Judson recalled that Tha Byu was a vicious and angry person at the time, which Tha Byu later confirmed. However, following his conversion, Tha Byu became an energetic missionary to the Karen people. Within twelve years, 1,270 Karen individuals had been baptized, along with many other believers.
References
Further reading
Mason, Francis (1843). The Karen apostle: or, memoir of Ko Thah-byu, the first Karen convert, with notices concerning his nation.
“Tha Byu” enters the record as burmese evangelist. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Burmese and evangelist can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7708708. VIAF identifies the subject as 6918519. The Library of Congress control number is nb2007008005. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1778, 1840, 1828 and 1843.
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