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History of Burma 1 History of Burma History of Burma 1 History of Burma The history of Burma (Myanmar) covers the period from the time of first-known human settlements 13,000 years ago to the present day. The earliest inhabitants of recorded history were the Pyu who entered the Irrawaddy valley from Yunnan c. 2nd century BCE. By the 4th century CE, the Pyu had founded several city states as far south as Prome (Pyay), and adopted Buddhism. Farther south, the Mon, who had entered from Haribhunjaya and Dvaravati kingdoms in the east, had established city states of their own along the Lower Burmese coastline by the early 9th century. Another group, the Mranma (Burmans or Bamar) of the Nanzhao Kingdom, entered the upper Irrawaddy valley in the early 9th century. They went on to establish the Pagan Empire (1044–1287), the first ever unification of Irrawaddy valley and its periphery. The Burmese language and culture slowly came to replace Pyu and Mon norms during this period. After Pagan's fall in 1287, several small kingdoms, of which Ava, Hanthawaddy, Arakan and Shan states were principal powers, came to dominate the landscape, replete with ever shifting alliances and constant wars. In the second half of the 16th century, the Toungoo Dynasty (1510–1752) reunified the country, and founded the largest empire in the history of Southeast Asia for a brief period. Later Toungoo kings instituted several key administrative and economic reforms that gave rise to a smaller, peaceful and prosperous kingdom in the 17th and early 18th centuries. In the second half of the 18th century, the Konbaung Dynasty (1752–1885) restored the kingdom, and continued the Toungoo reforms that increased central rule in peripheral regions and produced one of the most literate states in Asia. The dynasty also went to war with all its neighbors. The kingdom fell to the British over a six-decade span (1824–1885). The British rule brought several enduring social, economic, cultural and administrative changes that completely transformed the once-feudal society. Most importantly, the British rule highlighted out-group differences among the country's myriad ethnic groups. Since independence in 1948, the country has been in one of the longest running civil wars that remains unresolved. The country was under military rule under various guises from 1962 to 2010, and in the process has become one of the least developed nations in the world. Early history (to 9th century CE) Prehistory The earliest archaeological evidence suggests that cultures existed in Burma as early as 11,000 BCE. Most indications of early settlement have been found in the central dry zone, where scattered sites appear in close proximity to the Irrawaddy River. The Anyathian, Burma's Stone Age, existed at a time thought to parallel the lower and middle Paleolithic in Europe. The Neolithic or New Stone Age, when plants and animals were first domesticated and polished stone tools appeared, is evidenced in Burma by three caves located near Taunggyi at the edge of the Shan plateau that are dated to 10000 to 6000 BC.[1] About 1500 BCE, people in the region were turning copper into bronze, growing rice, and domesticating chickens and pigs; they were among the first people in the world to do so. By 500 BCE, iron-working settlements emerged in an area south of present-day Mandalay. Bronze-decorated coffins and burial sites filled with earthenware remains have been excavated.[2] Archaeological evidence at Samon Valley south of Mandalay suggests rice growing settlements that traded with China between 500 BC and 200 CE.[3] History of Burma 2 Pyu city-states The Tibeto-Burman-speaking Pyu entered the Irrawaddy valley from present-day Yunnan, c. 2nd century BCE, and went on to found city states throughout the Irrawaddy valley. The original home of the Pyu is reconstructed to be Kokonor Lake in present-day Qinghai and Gansu provinces.[4] The Pyu were the earliest inhabitants of Burma of whom records are extant.[5] During this period, Burma was part of an overland trade route from China to India. Trade with India brought Buddhism from southern India. By the 4th century, many in the Irrawaddy valley had converted to Buddhism.[2] Of the many city-states, the largest and most important was Sri Ksetra, southeast of modern Prome (Pyay). In March 638, the Pyu of Sri Ksetra launched a new calendar that later became the Burmese calendar.[5] Eighth century Chinese records identify 18 Pyu states throughout the Irrawaddy valley, and describe the Pyu as a humane and peaceful people to whom war was virtually unknown and who wore silk cotton instead of actually silk so that they would not have to kill silk worms. The Chinese records also report that the Pyu knew how to make astronomical calculations, and that many Pyu boys entered the monastic life at seven to the age of 20.[5] It was a long-lasting civilization that lasted nearly a millennium to early 9th century until a new group of "swift horsemen" from the north, the Mranma, (Burmans) entered the upper Irrawaddy valley. In the early 9th century, the Major Pyu city states (Pagan not Pyu city states of Upper Burma came under constant attacks by the Nanzhao contemporary) Kingdom in present-day Yunnan. In 832, the Nanzhao sacked then Halingyi, which had overtaken Prome as the chief Pyu city state. A subsequent Nanzhao invasion in 835 further devastated Pyu city states in Upper Burma. While Pyu settlements remained in Upper Burma until the advent of the Pagan Empire in mid 11th century, the Pyu gradually were absorbed into the expanding Burman kingdom of Pagan in the next four centuries. The Pyu language still existed until the late 12th century. By the 13th century, the Pyu had assumed the Burman ethnicity. The histories/legends of the Pyu were also incorporated to those of the Burmans.[2] Mon kingdoms As early as 6th century, another people called the Mon began to enter the present-day Lower Burma from the Mon kingdoms of Haribhunjaya and Dvaravati in modern-day Thailand. By the mid 9th century, the Mon had founded at least two small kingdoms (or large city-states) centered around Pegu and Thaton. The earliest external reference to a Mon kingdom in Lower Burma was in 844–848 by Arab geographers.[5] The Mon practiced Theravada Buddhism. The kingdoms were prosperous from trade. The Kingdom of Thaton is widely considered to be the fabled kingdom of Suvarnabhumi (or Golden Land), referred to by the tradesmen of Indian Ocean. History of Burma 3 Pagan Dynasty (849–1297) Early Pagan The Burmans who had come down with the early 9th Nanzhao raids of the Pyu states remained in Upper Burma. (Trickles of Burman migrations into the upper Irrawaddy valley might have begun as early as the 7th century.[6]) In the mid-to-late 9th century, Pagan was founded as a fortified settlement along a strategic location on the Irrawaddy near the confluence of the Irrawaddy and its main tributary the Chindwin.[7] It may have been designed to help the Nanzhao pacify the surrounding country side.[2] Over the next two hundred years, the small principality gradually grew to include its immediate surrounding areas— to about 200 miles north to south and 80 miles from east to west by Anawrahta's ascension in 1044.[8] Principality of Pagan at Anawrahta's accession in 1044 History of Burma 4 Pagan Empire (1044–1287) Over the next 30 years, Anawrahta founded the Pagan Empire, unifying for the first time the regions that would later constitute the modern-day Burma. Anawrahta's successors by the late 12th century had extended their influence farther south into the upper Malay peninsula, at least to the Salween river in the east, below the current China border in the farther north, and to the west, northern Arakan and the Chin Hills.[8] (The Burmese Chronicles claim Pagan's suzerainty over the entire Chao Phraya river valley, and the Siamese chronicles include the lower Malay peninsula down to the Straits of Malacca to Pagan's realm.)[2][9] By the early 12th century, Pagan had emerged as a major power alongside the Khmer Empire in Southeast Asia, recognized by the Chinese Song Dynasty, and Indian Chola dynasty. Well into the mid-13th century, most of mainland Southeast Asia was under some degree of control of either the Pagan Empire or the Khmer Empire.[10] Anawrahta also implemented a series of key social, religious and economic reforms that would have a lasting impact in Burmese history. His social and religious reforms later developed into the modern-day Burmese culture. The most important development was the introduction of Theravada Buddhism to Upper Burma after Pagan's Pagan Empire during Sithu II's reign. conquest of the Thaton Kingdom in 1057. Supported by royal Burmese chronicles also claim Kengtung patronage, the Buddhist school gradually spread to the village level in and Chiang Mai. Core areas shown in darker yellow. Peripheral areas in light the next three centuries although Tantric, Mahayana, Brahmanic, and [7] yellow. Pagan incorporated key ports of animist practices remained heavily entrenched at all social strata. Lower Burma into its core administration by the 13th century Pagan's economy was primarily based on the Kyaukse agricultural basin northeast of the capital, and Minbu district south of Pagan where the Burmans had built a large number of new weirs and diversionary canals. It also benefited from external trade through its coastal ports. The wealth of the kingdom was devoted to building over 10,000 Buddhist temples in the Pagan capital zone between 11th and 13th centuries (of which 3000 remain to the present day).
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