Videographic: China’s territorial claims

Please read my article in Burma Digest @ What’s up China?

When compare to our other good neighbour, India, you are so cruel on all the countries in South East Asia, including Burma.

You had kicked out or forced out or pushed out almost all the ethnic groups of South East Asia including all the ethnic minorities of Burma/Myanmar and the Bama people’s ancestors. After that you shamelessly bully all of us again by following to our new home land and asked for the protection money or ransom money.

See your neighbour India, it had given the great religions, Hindu, Buddhism and Islam to all the nations of South East Asia including Burma.

India had given culture, arts, literature etc to all of us, including Burma/ Myanmar.

India had just fought two wars in the whole history on our South East Asia. ( We leave behind three wars with China and wars in South Asia.)

( What’s up is an informal question meaning, depending on situation and emphasis: “what are you doing”, “how are you?”, “what is happening” or “what gives.” It is sometimes used as an informal, casual greeting in itself.)

Now I wish to ask China to repent and pay back the the historical debts it had accumulated, instead of the present shameful stance of its hindrance in  our current struggle  for the democratization movements against SPDC Junta. China is actively supporting this pariah Junta and protecting this régime in the UNSC.

Please red my article in Burma Digest, C.C.C.C. or C4 ,Communist Chinese Colonialist’s Cruelties with MAHA BANDULA pseudonym to know about the China.

If we look at the China’s long history of aggressive behaviour on its own citizens, neighbours and the world, it is quite alarming. The world must do something to protect itself from this big bully instead of closing one eye to get the big economic opportunity by supporting its one China policy and undemocratic unruly bullying on its neighbours and on its own citizens.

If we look at the history of South East Asia, including almost all of our ethnic minorities of Burma/Myanmar, almost all of us had to migrate down and out of China because of the violent, aggressive Chinese new comers that pushed or forced all of us out.

Later after settling in the new home land, Chinese Kings tried to continue their bully by demanding to pay tributes regularly. Not only Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Tibet, Burma, Thailand, Laos but far away countries like, Philippines, Taiwan, Indonesia, Bengal, Europe, Mecca and Medina are also not spared.

And during the late 60’s and 70’s, just because General Ne Win massacred the Burmese Chinese in the anti-Chinese Riots, they supported the Burmese Communist Party with 100,000 Chinese Red army troops, disguised as Wa rebels.

According to the Burmese language, Peking radio reports, 100,000 Chinese soldiers deserted with full ammunition and joined forces with the Burmese Communist rebels. So, the so called, ‘Wa Ethnic Minorities’, who could not even speak or understand a word in Burmese, became full citizens now. They could easily get the Myanmar National Registration Cards and many of them even managed to get the Myanmar Passports. Just look at the various groups of Burmese Muslims’ dilemma in getting the National Registration Cards and Passports. And our cousin brothers, Rohingyas are also unfairly discriminated.

Is that because our skin are darker than Chinese?

Is that because our nose are sharper than Chinese?

Is that because we are Muslims and could not assimilate thoroughly like Chinese who could assimilate easily?

Is that because the Burmese girls need not convert if they marry the Chinese?

Although PURE Chinese Nationals who disguised as ‘Myanmar Ethnic Minority Wa’ could grease the hands of Myanmar local and national authorities, actually just because they-are not-Indian, factor and because of their Chinese features paved their way to get the Myanmar citizenship easily. Even if the real or genune citizen Myanmar Muslims pay the same amount of under-table bribes, it is still quite difficult and sometimes the military authorities even took action on the local Immigration officers who approved the genuine cases of Myanmar Muslim National Registration Card applications.

But anyway please look back the history of South East Asia, India. [We all are not Indians but anyway Burmese Muslims are called Kalas/Indian (people of the Indian sub-continent) mixed blooded people.]

Except for the South Indiadynasty of Chola’s attack on Indonesia’s Srivijaya and Moghul King Aurangzeb, attacked the Arakanonce only. His elder brother Shah Shuja’ was the second son of the Mogul Emperor Shah Jahan who built the famous Taj Mahal of India. Shah Shuja’ lost to his brother and fled with his family and army in to Arakan. Sandathudama (1652-1687 AD), the Arakan King accepted and allow him to settle there but later arrested and killed. Although Aurangzeb was the enemy of the Shah Shuja’, he was upset by the massacre and attacked Arakan.

India and China shaped the present South East Asia, and the Colonial masters polished into the present finished products.

Indianized kingdoms

The concept of the Indianized kingdom, first described by George Coedès, is based upon the Hindu, Buddhist and Islamic cultural and economic influences in Southeast Asia.

Ancient and classical kingdoms

Southeast Asia has been inhabited since prehistoric times. The communities in the region evolved to form complex cultures with varying degrees of influence from India and China.

The ancient kingdoms can be grouped into two distinct categories.

The first is agrarian kingdoms. Agrarian kingdoms had agriculture as the main economic activity. Most agrarian states were located in mainland Southeast Asia.

Examples are the Ayutthaya Kingdom, based on the Chao Phraya River delta and the Khmer Empire on the Tonle Sap.

The second type is maritime states. Maritime states were dependent on sea trade. Malacca and Srivijaya were maritime states. A succession of trading systems dominated the trade between China and India.

First goods were shipped through Funan to the Isthmus of Kra, portaged across the narrow , and then transhipped for India and points west.

Around the sixth century CE merchants began sailing to Srivijaya where goods were transhipped directly. The limits of technology and contrary winds during parts of the year made it difficult for the ships of the time to proceed directly from the Indian Ocean to the South China Sea.

The third system involved direct trade between the Indian and Chinese coasts. Several kingdoms developed on the mainland, initially in modern-day Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam.

The first dominant power to arise in the archipelago was Srivijaya in Sumatra. Very little is known about Southeast Asian religious beliefs and practices before the advent of Indian merchants and religious influences from the second century BCE onwards.

• Prior to the 13th century, Buddhism and Hinduism were the main religions in Southeast Asia.

• The Jawa Dwipa Hindu kingdom in Java and Sumatra existed around 200 BCE.

• The history of the Malay-speaking world begins with the advent of Indian influence, which dates back to at least the 3rd century BC. Indian traders came to the archipelago for its forest and maritime products and to trade with merchants from China.

• Cambodia was first influenced by Hinduism during the beginning of the Funan kingdom. Hinduism was one of the Khmer Empire’s official religions.

• Cambodia is the home to one of the only two temples dedicated to Brahma in the world. Angkor Wat is also a famous Hindu temple of Cambodia.

• The Majapahit Empire was an Indianized kingdom based in eastern Java from 1293 to around 1500. Its ruler Hayam Wuruk, (1350 to 1389) dominated other kingdoms in the southern Malay Peninsula, Borneo, Sumatra, Bali and the Philippines.

• The Cholas excelled in maritime activity in both military and the mercantile fields. Their raids of Kedah and the Srivijaya, and they influence the local cultures.

• Many of the surviving examples of the Hindu cultural influence found today throughout the Southeast Asia are the result of the Chola expeditions.

• Despite being culturally akin to Hindu cultures to western historians these kingdoms were truly indigenous and independent of India.

• States such as Srivijaya and the Khmer empire developed territories and economies that rivalled those in India itself.

• Borobudur, for example, is the largest Buddhist monument ever built.

• Despite being culturally akin to Hindu cultures to western historians these kingdoms were truly indigenous and independent of India.

• States such as Srivijaya and the Khmer empire developed territories and economies that rivalled those in India itself.

• Borobudur, for example, is the largest Buddhist monument ever built. Southeast Asian rulers were founders of these states_

• and then imported the Indian ritual specialists as advisers on raja dharma, or the practices of Indian kingship.

• The Indianized kingdoms developed a close affinity

• and internalised Indian religious, cultural and economic practices without significant direct input from Indian rulers themselves.

• Indianization was the work of Indian traders and merchants, although later the travels of Buddhist monks such as Atisha became important. Southeast Asian rulers enthusiastically adopted elements of raja dharma,

• (Hindu and Buddhist beliefs, codes and court practices)

• to legitimate their own rule • and constructed cities, such as Angkor,

• to affirm royal power by reproducing a map of sacred space derived from the Ramayana and Mahabharata.

• Southeast Asian rulers frequently adopted lengthy Sanskrit titles

• and founded cities, such as Ayutthaya in Thailand, named after those in the Indian epics.

• Most Indianized kingdoms combined both Hindu and Buddhist beliefs and practices in a syncretic manner.

• Kertanagara, the last king of Singhasari, described himself as Sivabuddha, a simultaneous incarnation of the Hindu god and the Buddha.

• Also a significant part of the current population in South East Asia has a trace of Indian ancestry from distant antiquity. Indian and Chinese cultures blended with native cultures These kingdoms prospered from the Spice Route, trade among themselves and the Indian kingdoms.

• The influence of Indian culture is visible in the script, grammar, religious observances, festivities, architecture and artistic idioms even today.

• The influence of Indian and Chinese cultures blended with native cultures, created a new synthesis. The Southeast Asian region was previously called by the name Indochina.

• The influence of Indian and Chinese cultures are both strongly visible in this region even today, with the majority of the region being Indianized and Vietnam Sinocized.

• The reception of Hinduism and Buddhism aided the civilization maturity of these kingdoms but also subjected them to aggression by Indian and Chinese rulers.

• Cultural practices like the performances of the Hindu epic, the Ramayana across all of Southeast Asia.

• Traces of Hindu culture are visible also in the Sanskrit etymology of words in Myanmar language, Malay language, Indonesian and other regional languages as well as personal names. The Chinese ruled Vietnam for a millennium, while the Chola dynasty of South India ruled over Srivijaya briefly.

• And though Southeast Asia is an economic powerhouse in its own right, the need to balance Chinese economic and political influence with that of India remains an important factor for the region.

• Cultural and trading relations between the powerful Chola kingdom of South India and the South East Asian Hindu kingdoms, led the Bay of Bengal to be called “The Chola Lake”

• and the Chola attacks on Srivijaya in the tenth century CE are the sole example of military attacks by Indian rulers against Southeast Asia. The Pala dynasty of Bengal, which controlled the heartland of Buddhist India maintained close economic, cultural and religious ties, particularly with Srivijaya.

• The subsequent arrival of Islam, by Arab traders,

• and Christianity, by Portuguese, Spanish and Dutch colonial rulers significantly weakened the connection with India.

• Chinese influence grew with the gradual migration of Chinese traders and merchants. Chinese influence dominated in Vietnam, although other states such as the Khmer empire and Malacca were drawn into Chna’s diplomatic orbit.

• While Buddhism remains the dominant religion in mainland Southeast Asia,

• Hinduism survives in Bali and

• Christianity is the dominant religion in the Philippines and eastern Indonesia.

The History of Burma (or Myanmar) is long and complex.

Several races of people have lived in the region, the oldest of which are probably the Mon or the Pyu. In the 9th century the Bamar (Burman) people migrated from the then China-Tibet border region into the valley of the Ayeyarwady, and now form the governing majority.

‘Bamars are descendants of Sakyans who are of the Aryan Race or of some other descendants of Aryans’.

Though there is ‘scarcely any race that can claim descent from exclusively one original race’, nevertheless, Burma’s proximity to India permits the claim that the Burmans have ‘an ornamental Aryan superstructure on the existing Mongoloid foundation’, resulting in some historians proclaiming that ‘Myanmars were descendants of Aryans’.

The history of the region comprises complexities not only within the country but also with its neighbouring countries, China, India, Bangladesh, Viet Nam, Laos and Thailand.

India has been particularly influential in Burmese culture as the cradle of Buddhism, and ancient Hindu traditions can still be seen in brahmins presiding over important ceremonies such as_

1. weddings

2. and ear-piercings

3. but most notably in Thingyan, the Burmese New Year festival.

Traditions of kingship including coronation ceremonies and formal royal titles as well as those of lawmaking were also Hindu in origin.

India has been particularly influential in Burmese culture as the cradle of Buddhism, and ancient Hindu traditions can still be seen in brahmins presiding over important ceremonies such as_

1. weddings

2. and ear-piercings

3. but most notably in Thingyan, the Burmese New Year festival. Traditions of kingship including coronation ceremonies and formal royal titles as well as those of lawmaking were also Hindu in origin.

1. Early history of Burma Humans lived in the region that is now Myanmar as early as 11,000 years ago, but the first identifiable civilisation is that of the Mon. The Mon probably began migrating into the area in about 3000 BC, and their first kingdom Suwarnabhumi (pronounced Suvanna Bhoum), was founded around the port of Thaton in about 300 BC.

Oral tradition suggests that they had contact with Buddhism via seafaring as early as the 3rd century BC, though definitely by the 2nd century BC 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 Myanmar. From that time, Northern Burma was a group of city-states in a loose coalition.

The ‘King’ of each city-state would change allegiance as he saw fit, so throughout history.

1. Pyu, one of the three founding brothers of Shwe Bama village was believed to be mixture of three groups;

(i) one local inhabitant since Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age,

(ii) another came from India bringing in Hinduism and Buddhism along with their cultures and literatures successively

(iii) and the another group believed to came down from north, Tibeto-Burman group. Mon was also rumoured to have two groups of ancestors:

(i) One came down from above like

Shan, (ii) and another from India , Orrisa village and Talingna village bringing in Hinduism and Buddhism to our land. Talaings originated from the Talingana village of India and arrived to lower  Burma , met and intermarried with Mons, who came down from Yunnan, spreads through Burma up to Thailand, Laos and Kambodia.

They give us the Buddhism arts, culture, literature etc.. Our  Burmese spoken language was from Tibeto-Burman family and there are a lot of similarities with Chinese spoken language.

But our Burmese writing language was from India, Brami Script we took not from our native Mon but her cousin Mons resided in Thailand.

Settlements of Indian Migrants in Ancient Burma Orissa

Orissa, Indian Buddhist colonists, arrived lower Burma, settled and built pagodas since 500 BC.

Andhra Dynasty Hindu colonists, of Andhra Dynasty, from middle India (180 BC) established Hanthawaddy (Mon town) and Syriam (Ta Nyin or Than Lyin) in Burma.

Talaings or Mons Mons or Talaings, an Ethnic Minority Group of Myanmar, migrated from the Talingana State, Madras coast of Southern India. Mon

Early History of Burma_

Humans lived in the region that is now Burma as early as 11,000 years ago, but the first identifiable civilisation is that of the Pyu although both Burman and Mon tradition claim that the fabled Suvarnabhumi mentioned in ancient Pali and Sanskrit texts was a Mon kingdom centred on Thaton in present day Mon state.

The 6th century Mon kingdom of Dvaravati in the lower Chao Phraya valley in present day Thailand extended its frontiers to the Tenasserim Yoma (mountains). With subjugation by the Khmer Empire from Angkor in the 11th century the Mon shifted further west deeper into present day Burma.

Oral tradition suggests that they had contact with Buddhism via seafaring as early as the 3rd century BC and had received an envoy of monks from Ashoka in the 2nd century BC.

The Mons adopted Indian culture together with Theravada Buddhism and are thought to have founded kingdoms in Lower Burma including Thaton in the 6th or 7th century and Bago (Pegu) in 825 with the kingdom of Raman’n’adesa (or Ramanna which is believed to be Thaton) referenced by Arab geographers in 844–8.

The lack of archaeological evidence for this may in part be due to the focus of excavation work predominantly being in Upper Burma.

The first recorded kingdom that can undisputedly be attributed to the Mon people was Dvaravati, which prospered until around 1000 AD when their capital was sacked by the Khmer Empire and most of the inhabitants fled west to present-day Burma and eventually founded new kingdoms. These, too, eventually came under pressure from new ethnic groups arriving from the north.

Mon kingdoms ruled large sections of Burma from the 9th to the 11th, the 13th to the 16th, and again in the 18th centuries. About the same period, southward-migrating Burmans took over lands in central Myanmar once dominated by Pyu city-states and the Tai started trickling into South-East Asia.

The Burman ( Bamar ) established the kingdom of Bagan. In 1057, Bagan defeated the Mon kingdom, capturing the Mon capital of Thaton and carrying off 30,000 Mon captives to Bagan.

After the fall of Bagan to the invading Mongols in 1287, the Mon, under Wareru an ethnic Tai, regained their independence and captured Martaban and Bago, thus virtually controlling their previously held territory.

Mon kingdoms A main body of ethnic Shan / Tai migration came in the 13th century after the fall of the Kingdom of Dali to the Mongol Empire and filled the void left by the fall of the Bagan kingdom in northern Burma forming a loose coalition of city-states. These successive waves of Bamar and Tai groups slowly eroded the Mon kingdoms, and the next 200 years witnessed incessant warfare between the Mon and the Burmese, but the Mon managed to retain their independence until 1539. The last independent Mon kingdom fell to the Burmese when Alaungpaya razed Bago in 1757. Many of the Mon were killed, while others fled to Thailand.

Hanthawaddy (or Hanthawady; in Thai ??????? Hongsawadi) is a place in Burma. Hongsawatoi ( Bago/Pegu/ Handawaddy ) Hongsawatoi, Capital city of old Mon kingdom. It was destroyed by Burman King, U Aungzeya or Aloungpaya in 1757. Hongsawatoi ( Mon language pronounce) (Pali Hamsavati) Bago is about 50 miles from Rangoon. According to legend, two Mon princess from Thaton founded Bago in 573 AD.

It was written in the chronicles that eight years after enlightenment, Lord Buddha along with his disciples went air-borne around Southeast Asian countries. The earliest mention of this city in history is by the Arab geographer Ibn Khudadhbin around 850 AD. At the time, the Mon capital had shifted to Thaton. The area came under rule of the Burmese from Bagan in 1056. After the collapse of Bagan to the Mongols in 1287, the Mon regained their independence. From 1369-1539, Hanthawaddy was the capital of the Mon Kingdom of Ramanadesa, which covered all of what is now lower Burma.

The area came under Burman control again in 1539, when it was annexed by King Tabinshweti to his Kingdom of Taungoo. The kings of Taungoo made Bago their royal capital from 1539-1599 and again in 1613-1634, and used it as a base for repeated invasions of Siam.

They mixed with the new migrants of Mongol from China and driven out the above Andhra and Orissa colonists.

Those Mon (Talaings) brought with them the culture, arts, literature, religion and all the skills of civilisation of present Myanmar. They founded the Thaton and Bago (Pegu) Kingdoms. King Anawrahta of Bagan (Pagan) conquered that Mon Kingdom of King Manuha, named Suvannabumi (The Land of Golden Hues). 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 Ceylon.Many Burmese dishes and breads came as a result of Indian influence, prominently reflected in the Burmese version of Indian biryani.

PYU

The Pyu arrived in Burma in the 1st century BC and established city kingdoms at Binnaka, Mongamo, Sri Ksetra, Peikthanomyo, Halingyi (Hanlin), Kutkhaing in the north, Thanlwin coastal line in the east, Gulf of Mataban and its coast in the south, Thandwe in the southern west and Yoma in the west. During this period, Burma was part of an overland trade route from China to India.

In 97 and 121, Roman ambassadors to China chose the overland route through Burma for their journey.

The Pyu, however, provided an alternative route down the Irrawaddy to Shri Ksetra and then by sea westward to India and eastward to insular Southeast Asia.

Pyu (also Pyuu or Pyus; in Chinese records Pyao) refers to a collection of city-states and their language found in the central and northern regions of modern-day Burma (Myanmar) from about 100 BCE to 840 CE.

The history of the Pyu is known from two main historical sources: the remnants of their civilization found in stone inscriptions (some in Pali, but rendered in the Pyu script, or a Pyu variant of the Gupta script) and the brief accounts of some Chinese travellers and traders, preserved in the Chinese imperial history.

India and Arakan Intercourse

Wesali founded by Hindu Chandras “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 (Indian name of Vaisali).

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.

• It seems to have been founded in the middle of the fourth century A.D.

• Thirteen kings of this dynasty are said to have reigned for a total period of 230 years.

The second dynasty was founded in the eighth century by a ruler referred to as Sri Dharmavijaya, who was of pure Ksatriya descent. His grandson married a daughter of the Pyu king of Sri Ksetra. Hindu statues and inscriptions in Wesali

The ruins of old capital of Arakan – Wesali show Hindu statues and inscriptions of the 8th century AD.

Although the Chandras usually held Buddhistic doctrines, there is reason to believe that Brahmanism and Buddhism flourished side by side in the capital.

Chittagong is from Tsit-ta-gung The Arab chief was the Thuratan, in the Arakanese utterance whom the king of Arakan Tsula-Taing Tsandra (951-957 AD.), claimed to have defeated in his invasion of Chittagong in 953 AD.

1. In memory of his victory the Arakanese king set up a stone trophy, in the conquered land. And inscribed on it the Burmese word,

2. “Tsit-ta-gung”

3. meaning “there shall be no war”.

4. And from this remark of the monument, according to Burmese tradition, the district took its name, Chittagong.

Chittagong under Arakanese rule Nearly a century, from about 1580 till 1666 AD

Chittagong was under almost uninterrupted Arakanese rule. Arakanese captured and sent numbers of the inhabitants of Bengal into Arakan as agricultural and slave labours.

Pyu

Pyu, one of the three founding father of Bamar or Myanmar race was believed to be the mixture of three groups;

(i) Few insignificant local inhabitants since Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age,

(ii) many migrants came from India bringing in Hinduism and Buddhism along with their cultures and literatures successively

(iii) and the last group believed to came down from north, Tibeto-Burman group. Pyu language started in 5AD in Southern Rakhine.

The famous Mya Zedi Pagoda stone inscriptions were written in Pyu, Mon, Bama, and Pali in 1113AD.

1. Pyu had written records, dated from 1st century A.D.

2. and Mon from 5th century A.D.

3. and Bama had its own written records only in 11th century A.D. Beikthano (Vishnu) Beikthano (Vishnu) at the end of 4th. AD (9Khmer troops occupied 210-225 AD. (Taung Dwin Gyi) after which the Mons moved in, giving the cities names Panthwa and Ramanna pura.

Religious remains show both forms of Buddhism, Mahayanism and Hinayanism, together with Vishnu worship.

There are large stone Buddhist sculptures in relief in the Gupta style, bronze statuettes of Avalokitesvara, one of the three chief Mahayanist Bodhisattvas, and so many stone sculptures of Vishnu that the city was sometimes referred to as ‘Vishnu City’.

Pyu chronicles speak of a dynastic change in A.D. 94. Sri Ksetra village was apparently abandoned around A.D. 656 it was sacked by the Nan Cho Chinese Shan in the mid-9th century, ending the Pyu’s period of dominance.

Pyu Kings are Maharajas

In Chinese Chronicles they recorded Pyu as ‘P’aio’. But Pyu Called themselves Tircul..

• There are records of Nan Cho and Tibet alliance in 755 AD to defeat Chinese.

• Nan Cho king Ko-lo-fen communicate with Pyu. Pyu Kings were called Maharajas and Chief ministers were called Mahasinas.

• Nan Cho conscripted Pyu soldiers to attack of Hanoi in 863 AD.

• In 832 AD Nan Cho looted Han Lin village from Pyu. Pyu kings named Vishnu as in Gupta, India Inscriptions in Pyu language using a South Indian script, showed a Vikrama dynasty ruling there at least from AD 673 to 718.

• On Pyu’s stone inscriptions, kings names with Vikrama were suffix with Vishnu. The same tradition was noticed in Gupta era India 100 BC. and in Sri Kestia, Mon in south, Thai and Cambodia.

• Statue of Vishnu standing on Garuda with Lakshmi standing on the lotus on left.

• And Brahma, Siva and Vishnu thrones were also found.

• Name, Varman indicated that there was influence of Pallava of India.

• The mentioning of Varman dynasty, an Indian name, indicated there was a neighbouring and rival city, but Old Prome is the only Pyu site so‘ far to be excavated in that area.

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 Myanmar (1999:77).

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.

Thamala and Wimala.

Two princes named Thamala and Wimala (Myanmar version of Indian names-Thalma and Vimala.) established the town Bago in 573AD. Tabinshwehti (Taungoo Dynasty) conquered it in 1539 AD.

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

Chinese trade Chinese merchants have traded with the region for a long time as evidence of Magellan’s voyage records that Brunei possessed more cannon than the European ships so it appears that the Chinese fortified them.

Malaysian legend has it that a Chinese Ming emperor sent a princess, Han Li Po to Malacca, with a retinue of 500, to marry Sultan Mansur Shah after the emperor was impressed by the wisdom of the sultan.

Han Li Po’s well (constructed 1459) is now a tourist attraction there, as is Bukit Cina, where her retinue settled.

The strategic value of the Strait of Malacca, which was controlled by Sultanate of Malacca in the 15th and early 16th century, did not go unnoticed by Portuguese writer Duarte Barbosa, who in 1500 wrote “He who is lord of Malacca has his hand on the throat of Venice”.

The following is a list of tributaries of Imperial China.

• Brunei

• o Malacca (??? / ???) ?????

• Indonesia[citation needed]

o Java

o Lanfang Republic

• Japan

o Wa[3] (also Wae, Wei, ?)

o Nippon (??)

• Korea

• Philippines[10]

o Manila

o Sulu (??)

• Thailand[3]

o Siam ??

• Bhutan ??

• Nepal ???

o Karakum (????)

o Yuli (also Weili, ??)

o Kushana (also Ku???a, Guishuang, ??)

o Boluo’er (???)

• Vietnam[3]

o Âu L?c (??, ??)

o Champa (also Chiêm Thành, Lin-yi, ??, ??)

• Korea (since 1369, first every year or every three years, after 1403 every year)

• Nippon (??)

• Liuqiu (Ryukyu Islands, every two years since 1368)

• Annam (every three years since 1369) • Cambodia (Chenla, since 1371 (?))

• Siam (every three years since 1371)

• Champa (every three years since 1369)

• Java (1372, 1381, 1404, 1407, every three years for some time after 1443)

• Pahang (1378, 1414)

• Palembang (1368, 1371, 1373, 1375, 1377)

• Brunei (1371, 1405, 1408, 1414, 1425)

• Samudra (on Sumatra (?)or Dvarasamudra in Southern India, 1383, 1405, 1407, 1431, 1435)

• Chola (1370, 1372, 1403)

• Sulu (1417, 1421)

• Calicut (1405, 1407, 1409)

• Malacca (1405, 1411, 1412, 1414, 1424, 1434, 1445ff, 1459)

• Borneo (SoLo?) (1406)

• Kollam (1407)

• Bengal (1408, 1414, 1438)

• Ceylon (1411, 1412, 1445, 1459)

• Jaunpur (1420)

• Syria (Fulin?, 1371)

• Cochin (1404, 1412)

• Melinde (1414)

• Philippines (1372, 1405, 1576)

• Maldives,

• Burma (YaWa),

Lambri (NanWuLi),

• Kelatan,

• Bengal (PengJiaNa),

• Kashgar

• Sairam

• SaoLan (identical to Sairam?)

• Badakhshan

• Bukhara(?)

• PaLa(?)

• Shiraz

• Nishapur

• Kashmir

• Samarkand (1387, 1389, 1391 etc, after 1523 every five years)

• Arabia (TienFang, Mecca?) (somewhere between 1426 and 1435, 1517, sometimes between 1522 and 1566)

• Medina (somewhere between 1426 and 1435)

• A number of Tibetan temples and tribes from the Tibetan border or the southwest. Qing Dynasty This list covers states that sent tribute between 1662 and 1875.

Korea (annually, with very few exceptions)

• Siam (48 times, most of them after 1780)

• Burma (17 times, most of them in the 19th century)

• Laos (17 times)

• Sulu (1726, 1733, 1743, 1747, 1752, 1753, and 1754)

• Nepal (1732(?), 1792, 1794, 1795, 1823, 1842, and 1865)

• Russia (1676 and 1727)

• England (1793, 1795 (no tribute presented), and 1816)

• Holland (1663(?), 1667, and 1686)

• Portugal (1670, 1678, 1752, and 1753)

• Holy See (1725)

• Kirgiz (1757 and 1758)

Europeans

Europeans first came to Southeast Asia in the sixteenth century. It was the lure of trade that brought Europeans to Southeast Asia while missionaries also tagged along the ships as they hoped to spread Christianity into the region.

Portugal was the first European power to establish a bridgehead into the lucrative Southeast Asia trade route with the conquest of the Sultanate of Malacca in 1511.

The Netherlands and Spain followed and soon superseded Portugal as the main European powers in the region.

The Dutch took over Malacca from the Portuguese in 1641 while Spain began to colonize the Philippines (named after Phillip II of Spain) from 1560s.

Acting through the Dutch East India Company, the Dutch established the city of Batavia (now Jakarta) as a base for trading and expansion into the other parts of Java and the surrounding territory.

Britain, in the form of the British East India Company, came relatively late onto the scene.

Starting with Penang, the British began to expand their Southeast Asian empire.

They also temporarily possessed Dutch territories during the Napoleonic Wars,

In 1819 Stamford Raffles established Singapore as a key trading post for Britain in their rivalry with the Dutch. However, their rivalry cooled in 1824 when an Anglo-Dutch treaty demarcated their respective interests in Southeast Asia.

From the 1850s onwards, the pace of colonization shifted to a significantly higher gear. This phenomenon, denoted New Imperialism, saw the conquest of nearly all Southeast Asian territories by the colonial powers.

The Dutch East India Company and British East India Company were dissolved by their respective governments, who took over the direct administration of the colonies.

Only Thailand was spared the experience of foreign rule, although, Thailand itself was also greatly affected by the power politics of the Western powers.

1. By 1913, the British occupied Burma, Malaya and the Borneo territories,

2. the French controlled Indochina,

3. the Dutch ruled the Netherlands East Indies

4. while Portugal managed to hold on to Portuguese Timor.

5. In the Philippines, Filipino revolutionaries declared independence from Spain in 1898

6. but was handed over to the United States despite protests as a result of the Spanish-American War.

Colonial rule had a profound effect on Southeast Asia.

1. While the colonial powers profited much from the region’s vast resources and large market,

2. colonial rule did develop the region to a varying extent.

Commercial agriculture, mining and an export based economy developed rapidly during this period.

Increased labor demand resulted in mass immigration, especially from British India and China, which brought about massive demographic change.

The institutions for a modern nation state like a state bureaucracy, courts of law, print media and to a smaller extent, modern education, sowed the seeds of the fledgling nationalist movements in the colonial territories.

Reference

Wikipedia

 

 

Tags: Burma, Burmese Communist, Burmese language, China, India, Myanmar, National Registration Card, Southeast Asia