Sampan’s Speaker Series brings together writers, historians, artists and activists to explore the stories that shape Myanmar, India and Bangladesh. These are conversations about people and places, memory and identity – unfolding over drinks, dinner, and good company.

Our previous events included author Abir Mukherjee speaking about the heritage of British and Bengali detective fiction, Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent on her travels in the Naga Hills, Sam Dalrymple on the partitions that made modern Asia, and K.S. Nair exploring the Bangladesh 1971 Liberation War in the context of the Cold War. What connects each talk is a desire to look closer and ask questions.

For our Speaker Series events in Yangon, we offer a certain number of free tickets to Myanmar youth. Let us know if you think you are eligible and would like to attend an event.

Contact us for more information and check below for upcoming events.

Dr Robert Lyman: “Rangoon & WW2”

Tuesday 3 February 2026 – Yangon

“By 4 March, Rangoon was a city of the dead. Fires began to fill the night sky in the residential areas, where bands of hooligans looted the houses of the wealthy and set them ablaze when they had taken what they wanted. The press photographer George Rodger wandered through the blazing suburbs, revolver in hand, to see whole streets alight. In one place a temple wall had collapsed, and a row of twenty Buddhas, twelve feet high, glowed red-hot against the darkness …”

Military historian and author Rob Lyman joins Sampan in Yangon to explore the city’s pivotal role during the Second World War. Once a thriving colonial port, Yangon (then Rangoon) became a crucial battlefield, a place of evacuation and occupation, and a symbol of the shifting fortunes of empire in Asia.

In this talk, Rob traces the dramatic events of 1942, when British and Commonwealth forces were driven out of Burma, and the city fell to the Japanese. Drawing on his extensive research and fieldwork, he examines how the war transformed Yangon’s landscape and its people — from the chaos of the exodus north to the resilience of those who remained.

A former British Army officer and one of the leading historians of the Burma Campaign, Rob brings deep insight and humanity to a story often overshadowed by other theatres of war. His talk offers a rare chance to see Yangon through the lens of those turbulent years — and to reflect on how the war continues to shape the city today.

Rob leads Sampan’s Forgotten War Tour and Beyond the Chindwin WW2 tours.

RSVP with amy(at)sapantravel.com

“Modern Myanmar Art”

TBC – Yangon

From the pioneering work of Ba Nyan in the early twentieth century to the bold, often subversive practices of contemporary artists, modern Myanmar art tells a story of continuity and rupture. Shaped by colonial encounters, decades of isolation, and periods of intense political pressure, artists in Myanmar have long found ways to adapt, innovate and quietly resist.

This Speaker Series talk explores how painters and sculptors reworked classical techniques, absorbed global influences, and responded to censorship and constraint – creating a visual language that is both deeply local and outward-looking. We will trace key movements and figures, consider the role of art schools and informal networks, and reflect on how artists continue to work today, often in difficult circumstances.

An introduction to a rich but under-explored artistic tradition – and an invitation to look more closely at Myanmar through its art.

Date, location and further details of this event to be confirmed. Please email amy(at)sapantravel.com if you are interested in finding out more.

Annabel Venning: “To War with the Walkers”

TBC – Kolkata

Author Annabel Venning joins the Sampan’s Speaker Series to discuss her acclaimed book To War with the Walkers, a moving account of one family swept up in the vastness of the Second World War. Drawing on letters, diaries and family memory, Annabel follows her grandfather and his five siblings as they serve and live through different theatres of the conflict – from Europe to the Burma Campaign – each confronting the war in their own way.

Of particular interest to Sampan’s guests will be the story of Annabel’s grandfather Walter who fought in General Bill Slim’s Fourteenth Army in Burma, and his brother Peter who was a POW on the infamous Death Railway.

In this session, Annabel reflects on the personal cost of global conflict, the resilience of wartime families and the challenge of piecing together history through intimate, often fragile traces. To War with the Walkers is both a family chronicle and a window onto the lived experience of the 1940s – and this talk promises a powerful exploration of courage, loss and the ties that endure.

The date and location of this Speaker Series session is yet to be confirmed. Please contact us to express your interest.