Michael Aris
| Michael Aris | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Michael Vaillancourt Aris 27 March 1946 Havana, Cuba |
| Died | 27 March 1999 (aged 53) Oxford, Oxfordshire, England |
| Alma mater |
Worth School St Cuthbert's Society, Durham University School of Oriental and African Studies |
| Spouse(s) | Aung San Suu Kyi (m. 1972; his death 1999) |
| Children |
Alexander Aris Kim Aris |
| Signature | |
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Michael Vaillancourt Aris (27 March 1946 – 27 March 1999) was a British historian who wrote and lectured on Bhutanese, Tibetan and Himalayan culture and history. He was the husband of Aung San Suu Kyi, the current State Counsellor of Myanmar.
Aris was born in Havana, Cuba. His mother, Josette Aris (née Vaillancourt), was the Canadian Ambassador's daughter, and his English father, John Aris, was an officer with the British Council.
After being educated at Worth School in Sussex and upon completing his degree in modern history at St Cuthbert's Society, Durham University in 1967, Aris spent six years as the private tutor of the children of the royal family of the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan.
Aris was an academic and lecturer in Asian history at St John's College and later at St Antony's College, Oxford. In the last years before his death, he helped to establish a specialist Tibetan and Himalayan Studies centre at Oxford.
Michael Aris's identical twin brother, Anthony Aris, similarly became a scholar of Tibetan studies, and founded Serindia Publications to focus on bringing Tibetan history and culture to modern audiences.
In 1972, Aris married Aung San Suu Kyi, whom he had met while in college. They married in a Buddhist ceremony. After spending a year in Bhutan, they settled in North Oxford, where they raised their two sons, Alexander Aris and Kim Aris. During this time, he did postgraduate studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London and obtained a PhD in Tibetan literature in 1978. In 1988, Aung San Suu Kyi returned to Burma at first to care for her mother but later to lead the country's pro-democracy movement. St John's College provided Aris with an extended leave of absence as a fellow on full stipend so that he could lobby for his wife's cause.
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