Migration period of ancient Burma

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History of Myanmar
(Sri Ksetra Kingdom, Tagaung Kingdom)
(Thaton Kingdom)
flag Myanmar portal
Map of early human migrations[1]

Humans lived in the region that is now

janapadas, ancient countries in modern-day India
.

The first identifiable civilisation which inhabited modern-day

Sri Ksetra near Pyay, and in Beikthano in central Burma. The Mon are believed to have begun migrating into the area in about 3000 BC, and their first kingdom Suvarṇabhūmi (pronounced Thu-wenna-bhu-mi by Myanmar people) was centred on the port city of Thaton
, which itself was established around 300 BC.

Artifacts from the excavated site of Nyaung-gan help to reconstruct Bronze Age life in Burma and the more recent archaeological evidence at Samon Valley south of Mandalay suggests rice growing settlements between about 500 BC and 200 AD which traded with Qin and Han dynasty China.[3]

Timeline

  • 750,000–275,000 years B.P. Lower Palaeolithic men (early Anyathian) live alone; the bank of the Ayeyawaddy river.
  • 275,000-25,000 years B.P. Lower Palaeolithic men (late Anyathian) live along the bank of the Ayeyarwady river and central Burma
  • 11,000 years B.P. Upper Palaeolithic men live in Badahlin caves which situated in Ywagan township in southern Shan States.
  • 7000–2000 BCE. Neolithic men live in central Burma Kachin State, Shan States, Mon State, Taninthayi Division, and along the bank of the Chindwin and Ayeyarwady rivers.
  • 1000–800 BCE. Bronze Age Culture
  • 600–500 BCE. Iron Age Culture[4]

Out of Africa

Between 60,000 and 100,000 years ago,

Out of Africa" model.[5][6][nb 1] Homo sapiens are believed to have migrated through the Middle East on their way out of Africa about 100,000 years ago.[7][8]
Homo sapiens migration map, based upon DNA markers

  • Homo sapiens migration map, based upon DNA markers
    markers

Historical migration of human populations begins with the movement of

South Asia
by 50 millennia ago.

The Indo-European migration had variously been dated to the end of the

Paleolithic continuity theory
).

The speakers of the Proto-Indo-European language are usually believed to have originated to the north of the Black Sea (today Eastern Ukraine and Southern Russia), and from there they gradually migrated into, and spread their language by cultural diffusion to, Anatolia, Europe, and Central Asia, Iran and South Asia starting from around the end of the Neolithic period (see Kurgan hypothesis).

Through China

Southeast Asia Map

Taiwan is the

urheimat of the Austronesian languages. Archaeological evidence[9] suggests that speakers of pre-Proto-Austronesian spread from the South Chinese mainland to Taiwan at some time around 8,000 years ago. Evidence from historical linguistics suggests that it is from this island that seafaring peoples migrated, perhaps in distinct waves separated by millennia, to the entire region encompassed by the Austronesian languages.[10] It is believed that this migration began around 6,000 years ago.[11][12]

The prehistory of Taiwan includes the late Paleolithic era. During that time, roughly 50,000 BC to 10,000 BC, people were already living in Taiwan.[13][14] The Pacific islands of Polynesia began to be colonized around 1300 BC, and completely colonized by around 900 AD. The descendants of Polynesians left Taiwan around 5200 years ago. Salones and Pashu (Malays of Burma) arrived southern Burma through this sea route.

The flow of rivers from Tibet's Tibetan Plateau, into Burma form the natural highways for migration.

When Han Chinese invaded Taiwan, the ethnic minorities (including Tibeto-Burmans, Shans and Mons of future Burma) shifted to the mainland[citation needed]. Some historians believe that those ethnic minorities first came to settle north of the Yellow river (Huang He) round about 2515 BC. The Chinese annals also mentioned about their presence in the middle basin of the Yellow River in 850 BC. But new emigrants coming from Central Asia later impelled those ethnic groups to move southwards to new fertile areas between the Yellow and Yangtze (Chang Jiang) rivers and then migrated down through the present day Yunnan and descended further down into Burma.

Tibetans
.

Chinese history is that of a dynasty alternating between periods of political unity and disunity and occasionally becoming dominated by foreign Asian peoples, most of whom were assimilated into the

Chinese culture
.

The

Sayyid Ajjal Shams al-Din Omar governor in Yunnan in 1273.[16]

Tibeto-Burman language family. Humans inhabited the Tibetan Plateau at least twenty one thousand years ago.[17] This population was largely replaced around 3,000 BP by Neolithic immigrants from northern China. However, there is a "partial genetic continuity between the Paleolithic inhabitants and the contemporary Tibetan populations".[17] Some archaeological data suggests humans may have passed through Tibet at the time India was first inhabited, half a million years ago.[18] The first documented contact between the Tibetans and the Mongols occurred when Genghis Khan met Tsangpa Dunkhurwa (Gtsang pa Dung khur ba) and six of his disciples, probably in the Tangut empire, in 1215.[19]

Through India

Soan Culture. In ancient Gandhara, near Islamabad, evidence of cave dwellers dated 15,000 years ago has been discovered at Mardan
.

The major cities of the

Indus Valley civilization, such as Harappa and Mohenjo-daro
, date back to around 3300 BC, and represent some of the largest human habitations of the ancient world. It is believed that the migration in and out of India began around 6,000 years ago.
"India" is derived from the Indus River. In ancient times, "India" initially referred to the region of modern-day Pakistan along the Indus river, but by 300 BC, Greek writers like Megasthenes applied the term to the entire subcontinent.:[23]
)
Rajendra Chola I completed the conquest of Sri Lanka, invaded Bengal, and undertook a great naval campaign that occupied parts of Malaya, Burma, and Sumatra
.

Since 500 BC Buddhist Orrisa colonists had migrated towards Southeast and settled in future Burma's Irrawaddy Delta and built pagodas.[24]

In 180 BC migrants from the Hindu colonists, of Telugu Dynasty[clarification needed], from middle India settled in lower part of future Burma and established Hanthawaddy (Mon town) and Syriam (Ta Nyin or Than Lyin) in Burma.[24]

Indian Dravidian tribe in Panthwa In Chinese Chronicles Chen Yi-Sein instead gives an Indian derivation for Panthwa village, as the name of a Dravidian tribe settled in Mon's areas around the Gulf of Martaban. This group was later one of the pioneers in a 'Monized' occupation of Beikthano village, which also led to the village/city being called Ramanna-pura, linked to Mon areas of southern Burma (1999:77).[25]

According to Burmese mythology,

Tagaung dynasty. The events from the myths refer to the time around 1000-600 BC. The Tagaung dynasty is explicitly incorporated into the story of Duttabaung's mother and father; the lineage of the Queen of Beikthano is less consistent, but always intertwined with that of the Sri Kestra village rulers. In all of these, links are made between territorial control, royal patronage of Hindu or Buddhist sects and supernatural events.[25]

Little is known about life in early Burma but there is evidence that land and sea traders from China and India

rhinoceros horns, and horses with these traders. Roman envoys from Alexandria also passed through the Irrawaddy valley in 79 CE en route to China. 2nd century Burmese sea-farers, trading with Southern India across the Bay of Bengal, are thought to have brought Buddhism to Burma in the 2nd century CE. and by the 4th century, much of the Irrawaddy Valley was Buddhist including the then dominant city-state, Prome (modern Pyay).[2]
Mizos were part of a great wave of migration from China and later moved out to India to their present habitat. It is possible that the Mizos came from Sinlung or Chhinlungsan located on the banks of the Yalung River in China, first settled in the Shan State and moved on to the Kabaw Valley. The
Ayeyarwady valley and late neolithic developments in South China
. Since these cultures have been dated to 4500-4000 BCE, the Assam sites are dated to approximately that period.

Earliest migrants amongst Burmese

Trans-Asian trade routes, 1st century CE

Mons or Talaings, an Ethnic Minority Group of Burma, migrated from the Talingana State, Telangana region of Southern India. They mixed with the new migrants of Mongol from China and driven out the above Andhra and Orissa colonists.[28] The Mon probably began migrating down from China into the area in about 3000 BC.[29]

Those Mon (Talaings) brought with them the culture, arts, literature, religion and all the skills of civilisation of present Burma. They founded the Thaton and Bago (Pegu) Kingdoms. King Anawrahta (whose Sanskrit name was Aniruddha) of Bagan (Pagan) conquered that Mon Kingdom of King Manuha, named Suvannabumi (The Land of Golden Hues).[30] The conquest of Thaton in 1057 was a decisive event in Burmese history. It brought the Burman into direct contact with the Indian civilizing influences in the south and opened the way for intercourse with Buddhist centres overseas, especially Sri Lanka.[31] Those Bagan Burmese people of central Burma had Theravada Buddhism spreading from Mons. In the next decade, Burmese or Myanmar language was gradually derived from Sanskrit, Pali, Pyu and Mon languages.

The evidence of the inscriptions, Luce[32] warns us, shows that the Buddhism of Pagan 'was mixed up with Hindu Brahmanic cults, Vaisnavism in particular.[33]

While little is known about the early people of Burma, the Mon were the first of the modern ethnic groups to migrate into the region, starting around 1500 BCE. Oral tradition suggests that they had contact with Buddhism via seafaring as early as the 3rd century BCE, though definitely by the 2nd century BCE when they received an envoy of monks from Ashoka. Much of the Mon's written records have been destroyed through wars. The Mons blended Indian and Mon cultures together in a hybrid of the two civilisations. By the mid-9th century, they had come to dominate all of southern Burma.

Forefathers of Bamars

Groupings of Sino-Tibetan languages

The Burmese language is a

Nanzhao kingdom (until the 1960s mistakenly thought to be Tai-speaking). It was during this Burmese-Yi Nanzhao domination of northern Burma that the first Burmese-Yi speakers probably entered the Irrawaddy valley in large numbers, and established the outpost of Pagan or Bagan. The naming system of the earliest Bagan kings is identical to the naming system of the Nanzhao kings. Sculptures found in Halin to the north are almost identical to Nanzhao sculptures. The Tanguts of Xixia (to the north of Yunnan around this time) spoke a Tibeto-Burman language that may also have been close to Burmese-Yi. Going further back in time, the people of the ancient kingdom of Sanxingdui
in Sichuan (in the 12th–11th centuries BCE) were probably ancestral to the later Tibet-Burmans and perhaps even more narrowly to the ancestors of the Burmese-Yi speakers at Dian and Yelang.

Geography that facilitated the migration of Tibeto-Burman, Shans and Mons

Topographical map covering southwestern China

Numerous ethnic Burmese peoples had migrated from Yunnan, which is situated in southwest China, bounded on the north by Sichuan and Sizang (Sikang), on the east by Guizhou and Guangxi, on the south by Vietnam and Burma, and on the west by Burma and Assam. It is extremely mountainous with only a limited area of level plains.

It is furrowed by the Taiping, Shweli, Salween, Mekong, Black and Red rivers.

The Salween and the Mekong are rivers of great length, having their sources in the interior part of Tibet, and flowing through Yunnan and the neighboring lands of Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.

The basins of these rivers and their tributaries form deep, narrow valleys which, with the high parallel mountain ranges running generally north and south, constitute a favourable home for numerous ethnic minorities. Yunnan shares a long common border with Burma and many ethnic groups that live in Yunnan can also be found in Burma.

Burma is like a big super-highway between India and China.[26][27] India and China are the world's biggest and ancient cradles of civilization. High, snow peaked, rough and steep Himalaya mountain ranges block the direct interaction or travelling between the two of them except for the virtual highway through Burma. So there were a lot of travelers, migrants, victims of disasters and famine, war refugees etc. moving along this Burma Highway and some of them settled in Burma.

[1]

Himalaya Maps

Himalaya-formation

Indian and Burmese settlement in Arakan

The Arakanese chronicles claim that the Kingdom was founded in 2666 BC.[34]

Wesali or Vaisali was founded by the Chandra Dynasty. "The area known as North Arakan had been for many years before the 8th century the seat of Hindu dynasties. In 788 AD a new dynasty, known as the Chandras, founded the city of Wesali. This city became a noted trade port to which as many as a thousand ships came annually; the Chandra kings were upholders of Buddhism, ... their territory extended as far north as Chittagong;---- Wesali was an easterly Hindu kingdom of Bengal --- Both government and people were Indian.[35] So far as Arakan is concerned, the inscriptions show traces of two early dynasties holding sway in the north. The earlier one, a Candra dynasty, seems to have been founded in the middle of the 4th century AD. Its capital was known by the Indian name of Vaisali and it maintained close connections with India. Thirteen kings of this dynasty are said to have reigned for a total period of 230 years. The second dynasty was founded in the 8th century by a ruler referred to as Sri Dharmavijaya, who was of pure Kshatriya descent. His grandson married a daughter of the Pyu king of Sri Ksetra.[36]

Hindu statues and inscriptions were found in Wesali. The ruins of old capital of Arakan – Wesali show Hindu statues and inscriptions of the 8th century. Although the Chandras usually held Buddhistic doctrines, there is reason to believe that Brahmanism and Buddhism flourished side by side in the capital.[citation needed]

"The Burmese do not seem to have settled in Arakan until possibly as late as the tenth century AD. Hence earlier dynasties are thought to have been Indian, ruling over a population similar to that of Bengal. All the capitals known to history have been in the north near modern Akyab".[37]

Salones (Moken) and Pashus (Malays)

In the southernmost part of Burma, the Salones (Moken) and Pashus (Malays) migrated into Burma from the south and sea since prehistoric time. The Burmese call the Moken Selung, Salone, or Chalome.[38] In Thailand they are called Chao Ley (people of the sea) or Chao nam (people of the water), although these terms are also used loosely to include the Urak Lawoi and even the Orang Laut. In Thailand, acculturated Moken are called Thai Mai (new Thais).

The Moken are also called Sea Gypsies, a generic term that applies to a number of peoples in southeast Asia. The Urak Lawoi are sometimes classified with the Moken, but they are linguistically and ethnologically distinct, being much more closely related to the Malay people.[39][40] They refer to themselves as Moken. The name is used for all of the proto-Malayan speaking tribes who inhabit the coast and islands in the

Ranong, up through the Mergui Archipelago of Burma.[41]
The group includes the Moken proper, the Moklen (Moklem), the Orang Sireh (Betel-leaf people) and the Orang Lanta. The last, the Orang Lanta are a hybridized group formed when the Malay people settled the Lanta islands where the proto-Malay Orang Sireh had been living.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ A previous theory, the "multiregional continuity theory", held that the Asian Homo sapiens evolved from the Asian Homo erectus. This has been disproved by DNA findings which show that all living humans descended from a common African ancestor who lived within the past 200,000 years. The Homo erectus species then ceased to exist.[5]

References

  1. ISBN 3-8289-0741-5
  2. ^
    ISBN 978-0-374-16342-6
  3. ^ Dr Than Tun (History Professor, Mandalay University) The Story of Myanmar told in pictures
  4. ^ "Facts about Myanmar, History of Myanmar". Archived from the original on 22 November 2018. Retrieved 19 January 2010.
  5. ^ a b Peking Man Archived 2014-04-19 at the Wayback Machine. The History of Human Evolution. American Museum of Natural History. 23 April 2014.
  6. ISBN 978-1-57607-770-2
    . p. 173–174.
  7. ^ The Arrival of Homo Sapiens. Archived 2014-04-19 at the Wayback Machine American Museum of Natural History. Retrieved 23 April 2014.
  8. ^ Expansion of Homo Sapiens Archived 2014-04-19 at the Wayback Machine American Museum of Natural History. Retrieved 23 April 2014.
  9. ^ e.g., Bellwood, Peter (1997). Prehistory of the Indo-Malaysian archipelago. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press.
  10. PMID 10693781
    .
  11. ISBN 9789576716324
    .
  12. ^ a b "Language trees support the express-train sequence of Austronesian expansion" Archived 28 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine, Nature
  13. ^ "Archaeological Theory; Taiwan Seen As Ancient Pacific Rim" Archived 25 May 2008 at the Wayback Machine, Taiwan Journal published 19 November 1990, URL retrieved 3 June 2007
  14. ^ Tainan County Government Information division website (autotranslated from Chinese) Archived 16 April 2014 at the Wayback Machine last updated 1 September 2006, URL retrieved 3 June 2007
  15. ^ Tan Chung (1998). A Sino-Indian Perspective for India-China Understanding Archived 6 June 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  16. ^ John Man Kublai Khan, p.80
  17. ^
    PMID 19955425
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  18. ^ Laird 2006, pp. 114-117
  19. ^ Petech, L. Central Tibet and The Mongols. (Serie Orientale Roma 65). Rome: Instituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente 1990: 6. Shakabpa, 61.
  20. ^ The appearance of Indo-Aryan speakers Archived 5 May 2008 at the Wayback Machine, Encyclopædia Britannica
  21. ^ Trivedi, Bijal P (14 May 2001). "Genetic evidence suggests European migrants may have influenced the origins of India's caste system". Genome News Network. J. Craig Venter Institute. Archived from the original on 26 December 2017. Retrieved 27 January 2005.
  22. ^ Genetic Evidence on the Origins of Indian Caste Populations -- Bamshad et al. 11 (6): 994 Archived 1 June 2008 at the Wayback Machine, Genome Research
  23. ^ Henry Yule: INDIA, INDIES. In Hobson-Jobson: A glossary of colloquial Anglo-Indian words and phrases, and of kindred terms, etymological, historical, geographical and discursive. New ed. edited by William Crooke, B.A. London: J. Murray, 1903
  24. ^ a b HGE Hall, "History of Southeast Asia."
  25. ^ a b D. G. E. HALL, BURMA
  26. ^ a b Bagan Culture page 42, Professor U Than Tun M.A., B.L., D. Lit., PhD
  27. ^ a b Ancient Pyu page 3&4 Professor U Than Tun M.A., B.L., D. Lit., PhD
  28. ^ The Muslims of Burma: A study of a minority Group, by Moshe Yegar, 1972, Otto Harrassowitz. Wiesbaden.
  29. ^ Dr Than Tun, History of Burma in pictures
  30. ^ H G E Hall History of Southeast Asia
  31. ^ D. G . E. HALL, M.A., D.LIT., F.R.HIST.S.Professor Emeritus of the University of London and formerly professor of history in the University of Rangoon, Burma. Third edition 1960. Page 16
  32. ^ Luce, G. H. "Burma's Debt to Pagan". Journal of the Burma Research Society. XXII: 121.
  33. ^ BURMA, D. G 1960. Page 16
  34. ^ A.P. Phayre, History of Burma London, 1883, pp. 293-304.
  35. ^ M.S. Collis, "Arakan's place in the civilization of the Bay", Journal of the Burma Research Society, 50th Anniversary publications No.2, Rangoon, 1960, P. 486.
  36. ^ BURMA, D. G . E. HALL, M.A., D.LIT., F.R.HIST.S.Professor Emeritus of the University of London and formerly professor of history in the University of Rangoon, Burma. Third edition 1960. Page 8-9
  37. ^ D. G. E Hall, A History of South East Asia, New York, 1968, P. 389.
  38. ^ Anderson, John (1890) The Selungs of the Mergui Archipelago Trübner & Co., London, pp. 1-5
  39. ^ "Classification of Urak Lawoi language". Archived from the original on 15 December 2012. Retrieved 20 January 2010.
  40. ^ Dr. Supin Wongbusarakum (December 2005), Urak Lawoi of the Adang Archipelago, Tarutao National Marine Park, Satun Province, Thailand, archived from the original (DOC) on 28 June 2006
  41. ^ "Video -- "This Bulb" -- National Geographic". Archived from the original on 6 February 2010. Retrieved 20 January 2010.

Further reading

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