They were personally known to Ne Win from the early days , and the latter often called at their place whenever he visited Mandalay . They carried on with writing , researching , organising literary seminars , giving talks and publishing material other than domestic politics , and remained active in social and community affairs . In 1975 they accepted the government 's invitation to give talks to university students from both Mandalay and Rangoon taking part in the reconstruction of the temples in Bagan damaged by the great earthquake of the same year . Amar was given the epithet ' tough by name , tough by nature ' by some people ( '' amar '' means ' tough/hardy ' in Burmese )
great earthquake
1975 Bagan earthquake
Ludu Daw Amar