Burmese literature

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Burmese literature, the body of writings in the Burmese language produced in Myanmar (Burma).

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Southeast Asian arts: Burma

In Burma, unlike India and other parts of the British Empire, English did not fully replace Burmese as

the language of administration. In the almost classless Burmese society the language of the court and

of literature was also the language of the people, which…

The stone inscription is the oldest form of Burmese literature; the date of the
earliest extant specimen is 1113. During the next 250 years, more than 500 dedicatory
inscriptions similar in pattern but more developed in style were engraved on stone. Many of
these inscriptions contain eloquent prayers and poems composed by royal ladies. Later
inscriptions from the 14th to the 19th century were in a similar vein.
Imaginative literature scratched on a palm leaf with a stylus or written on folded paper in
steatite pencil originated under the auspices of Buddhist monarchs in Myanmar and flourished
from the 14th century until after printing became prevalent in the 19th century. The authors
were Buddhist monks, monastery-trained courtiers, and a few court poets. This literature’s most
notable features were Buddhist piety and a courtly refinement of language. Historical ballads,
panegyric odes, metrical versions of Buddhist stories, and various other types of poetic forms,
along with exhortatory letters, constitute this literature. Prose works written in Burmese during
this long period are comparatively few.
The introduction of printing into southern Myanmar led to a change in Burmese literature. From
1875 onward, under British rule, the owners of printing presses began to publish popular works
such as plays, complete with songs and stage directions. The tragic dramas of U Ku were
extremely popular and dominated the period between 1875 and 1885. In 1904 the first Burmese
novels appeared. The emergence of literary magazines in the 1910s stimulated the popularity of
short stories and serialized novels. Nationalist and anticolonial themes were common in
literature from the 1920s to the 1940s. Following Burmese independence in 1948, many writers
tried to use literature to help create an egalitarian society. After the military coup led by U Ne
Win in 1962, however, the government pressured writers to adapt the themes and style
of Socialist Realism, and freedom of expression continued to erode through the turn of the 21st
century.
The literature of Burma (or Myanmar) spans over a millennium. Burmese literature was historically influenced
by Indian and Thai cultures, as seen in many works, such as the Ramayana. The Burmese language, unlike
other Southeast Asian languages (e.g. Thai, Khmer), adopted words primarily from Pāli rather than
from Sanskrit. In addition, Burmese literature tends to reflect local folklore and culture.
Burmese literature has historically been a very important aspect of Burmese life steeped in the
Pali Canon of Buddhism. Traditionally, Burmese children were educated by monks in monasteries in towns and
villages. During British colonial rule, instruction was formalised and unified, and often bilingual, in
both English and Burmese known as Anglo-Vernacular. Burmese literature played a key role in disseminating
nationalism among the Burmese during the colonial era, with writers such as Thakin Kodaw Hmaing, an
outspoken critic of British colonialism in Burma.
Beginning soon after self-rule, government censorship in Burma has been heavy, stifling literary expression.[1]

Classical literature[edit]
The earliest forms of Burmese literature were on stone engravings called kyauksa (Burmese: ကျောက်စာ) for
memorials or for special occasions such as the building of a temple or a monastery. Later, palm leaves
called peisa (ပေစာ) were used as paper, which resulted in the rounded forms of the Burmese alphabet. During
the Bagan Dynasty, King Anawrahta adopted Theravada Buddhism as the state religion, and brought many
Pali texts from Ceylon. These texts were translated, but Pali remained the literary medium of the Burmese
kingdom. Furthermore, Pali influenced Burmese language in structure, because of literal translations of Pali
text called nissaya (နိဿယ).
The earliest works of Burmese literature date from the Bagan dynasty. They include proses recording
monarchical merit acts and poetic works, the earliest of which was Yakhaing minthami eigyin (Cradle Song of
the Princess of Arakan), dated to 1455.[2] During the Bagan and Inwa dynasties, two primary types of literature
flourished, mawgun (မော်ကွန်း) and eigyin, (ဧချင်း) and pyo (ပျ ို့), religious works generally derived from
the Jataka tales.[2]
Non-fiction and religious works prevailed during this period although kagyin (ကချင်း), a war poem by a monarch,
was an early form of this genre in history.[3]
As literature grew more liberal and secular, poetry became the most popular form of literature in Burma. The
flexibility of the Burmese language, because of its monosyllabic and tonal nature, and its lack of
many consonantal finals allowed poetry to utilise various rhyming schemes. By the 15th century, four primary
genres of poetry had emerged, namely pyo(poems based on the Jataka Tales, linka [my] (လင်္က ာ metaphysical
and religious poems), mawgun (historical verses written as a hybrid of epic and ode), and eigyin (lullabies of
the royal family). Courtiers also perfected the myittaza (မေတ္တ ာစာ), a long prose letter.
Buddhist monks were also influential in developing Burmese literature. Shin Aggathammadi rendered in verse
the Jataka stories. During this time, Shin Maha Thilawuntha (1453–1520) wrote a chronicle on the history of
Buddhism. A contemporary of his, Shin Ottama Gyaw, was famous for his epic verses called tawla (တောလား)
that revelled in the natural beauty of the seasons, forests and travel. Yawei Shin Htwe, a maid of honour, wrote
another form of poetry called aingyin on the 55 styles of hairdressing.[4]
After the conquest of Siam by the Toungoo Dynasty, Thailand became a Burmese colony. This conquest
incorporated many Thai elements into Burmese literature. Most evident were the yadu or yatu (ရာတု ), an
emotional and philosophic verse and the yagan (ရာကန်), which imitated the themes of the yadu genre, which
was more emotionally involved, could be inspired by mood, place, incident, and often addressed to
sweethearts and wives. Famous writers of yadu include Nawade I (1545–1600) and
Prince Natshinnaung (1578–1619).[2]Some parts of Laos and Cambodia also became Burmese colonies during
Second Burmese Empire and thereby influenced Burmese literature.
In the areas of law, there were two major types of literature, dhammathat (ဓမ္မသတ်), which appeared prior to the
13th century, and shauk-htone (လျှောက်ထုံ း), which were compilations of brief accounts of historic cases and
events in simple narrative to serve as guides and legal precedents for rulers.[2]
As the Konbaung Dynasty emerged in the 18th century, the Third Burmese Empire was founded. This era has
been dubbed the "Golden Age of Literature". After a second conquest of Ayutthaya (Thailand), many spoils of
war were brought to the Burmese court. The Ramayana (ရာမယန) was introduced and was adapted in
Burmese. In addition, the Ramayanainspired romantic poems, which became popular literary sojourns among
the royal class. Burmese literature during this period was therefore modelled after the Ramayana, and
dramatic plays were patronised by the Burmese court.[5] The Burmese adapted Thai verses and created four
new classical verses, called: taydat (တေးထပ်), laygyo (လေးချ ိုး), dwaygyo (ဒွေးချ ိုး) and bawle (ဘောလယ်).[2]
British Burma (1824-1948)[edit]
When Burma became a colony of British India, Burmese literature continued to flourish, even though the
institution of the Burmese monarchy, the leading patron of Burmese arts and literature in pre-colonial times,
had been dismantled. English literature was still relatively inaccessible although both English and Burmese, in
a curriculum called Anglo-Vernacular, was now taught in schools.[1] Despite the fact that Burmese literature was
well entrenched in Burmese culture, the lack of patrons to support literature slowed its further development.
The colonial period marked a tremendous change in Burmese literature, which had once been patronised and
innovated by members of the royal court, and was now being led by civilians such as university students.
In 1910, J S Furnivall established the Burma Research Society, which further emboldened the Burmese to
protect their literary and cultural heritage.[2] Beginning in the 1920s, a nationalist movement emerged, and this
influence became evident in modern novels, short stories, and poems. At the University of Rangoon, student
writers continued to develop new forms of Burmese poetry.
A major landmark in Burmese literature was called the Hkit san (Testing the Times, ခေတ်စမ်း) movement, a
search for a new style and content, led most notably by Theippan Maung Wa along with Nwe Soe, Zawgyi, Min
Thu Wun and Mya Kaytu, while still at university and after, in the decade before the Second World War.[6]
[7]
 During the Hkit san movement, University of Rangoon students innovated new styles of writing, with shorter
and clearer sentences, and unadorned prose, a radical transformation from royal writings of the pre-colonial
eras beforehand.[2] The movement for independence continued to fuel Burmese literature.
Thakin Kodaw Hmaing was greatly influential in spawning this anti-colonial literature with his powerful laygyo
gyi (လေးချ ိုးကြီး ) and htika (ဋီကာ) verses famous for their patriotic and satirical content.[6] Hmawbi Hsaya
Thein was particularly influential, with Bazat yazawin (Oral Chronicles), which relied on oral tradition. Novels
also came into vogue, with the first being James Hla Kyaw's Maung Yin Maung Ma Me Ma, written in 1904 and
inspired by the Count of Monte Cristo. Kala paw wut-htu (ကာလပေါ်ဝတ္ထု, 'modern novels') became popular during
this era, with P Moe Nin writing the first Burmese novels to focus on the individual and place that character at
the centre of the plot.[2]
Theippan Maung Wa and Thein Pe Myint[6] were among other original and innovative authors from the colonial
period. Female writers, such as Dagon Khin Khin Lay, who wrote about the hardships of peasant life under
colonialism, also gained prominence during the nationalist period leading up to independence.[2] The British
author George Orwell, who was severely critical of British colonialism, wrote Burmese Days published in 1935.
In addition, literary culture in Burma expanded to the masses during this period, with the arrival of printing
presses and publishers, such as the Hanthawaddy Press, a major publisher of Burmese and Buddhist works
established by Phillip Ripley.[2] In the 1920s to the 1930s, monthly literary magazines like Dagon and Ganda
Lawka (World of Classics) were published to connect readers to writers, who often published novels in serial
installations.

Post-independence literature (1948-)[edit]

After independence in 1948, Burmese literature developed further to adopt and assimilate Western styles of
writing. A year earlier, the Burmese Translation Society, a government-subsidised organisation, was founded
to translate foreign works, especially those related to the fields of science and technology. In 1963, a year after
the socialist coup, the Society was merged into the Sapay Beikman (စာပေဗိမာန်), a government publishing
house. Another influential publisher was the Pagan Press (est. 1962), which
translated Socialist and Marxist works into Burmese.[2] In 1976, the first Burmese Encyclopedia (မြန်မာ့
စွယ်စုံ ကျမ်း) was published.
The socialist government, like the previous civilian government, was a patron of Burmese literature, believing
"enriching literature" to be a goal of socialist democracies, as outlined in the Revolutionary Council's System of
Correlation of Man and his Environment. However, censorship and promotion of socialist ideology became
important aims of the government, in regulating literature, as seen in the reorganisation of the Ministry of
Information, which censored works according to three primary objectives that aimed to promote socialism:[1]

1. To introduce necessary bills, acts and orders concerning literature and information agencies.
2. To promote participation of the people in the construction of the socialist state.
3. To defend the socialist system from its ideological enemies.
—Discussion of the National Literary Conference. Rangoon: Ministry of Information, 1963.

Notable writers[edit]
The journalist Ludu U Hla (1910–1982) was the author of numerous volumes of ethnic minority folklore, novels
about inmates in U Nu-era jails, and biographies of people working in different occupations. The Prime Minister
U Nu himself wrote several politically oriented plays and novels. Other writers who came of age prior to 1947
during the colonial era included Hmawbi Saya Thein (1862–1942), James Hla Kyaw (1866-1919), U
Ottama (1879–1939), Thakin Kodaw Hmaing (1876–1964), P Moe Nin (1883-1940), Pe Maung Tin(1888–
1973), Po Kya (1891–1942), Theippan Maung Wa (1899–1942), Dagon Khin Khin Lay (1904–1981), Saya
Zawgyi (1907-1990), Htin Aung (1909–1978), Min Thu Wun (1909-2004), Thukha (1910–2005), Chit
Maung (1913–1945), Thein Pe Myint (1914–1978) who wrote the classic The Ocean Traveller and the Pearl
Queen, Richard Bartholomew (1926–1985) and Taw Phayar Galay (1926–2006).
Younger authors who became well known in Burma include Aung Thin (born c. 1927), Mya Than Tint (1929–
1998) who was known for his translations of Western classics like War and Peace, Tekkatho Phone
Naing (1930–2002), Maung Hsu Shin (c. 1932-2009), Tin Moe (1933–2007), Nanda Thein Zan (1947-2011),
and Pascal Khoo Thwe (born 1967). Other well-known authors include Thawda Swe, Chit Oo Nyo, Maung Khin
Min (Danubyu), and Saw Wai.
Well-known Burmese historians include San C. Po (1870–1946), Htin Aung (1909–1978), Sao Saimong (1913–
1987), Ba Shin (1914-1971), Than Tun (1923–2005), Myoma Myint Kywe (born 1960) and Thant Myint-U (born
1966)
Distinguished female writers, who have also been an ever-present force in Burmese literary history, include Kyi
Aye, Ludu Daw Amar (1915–2008), Khin Hnin Yu (1925–2003), Aung San Suu Kyi (born 1945), Minfong
Ho (born 1951), Nu Nu Yi (born 1957), San San Nweh, Jue (born 1958), Khin Khin Htoo (born 1965) Ma
Sandar (1942 born) and Mi Chan Wai. One of the greatest female writers of the post-colonial period is Journal
Kyaw Ma Ma Lay (1917-1982). Khin Myo Chit (1915–1999) was another important writer, who wrote, among
her works, The 13-Carat Diamond (1955), which was translated into many languages.

History of Myanmar
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History of Myanmar

 Prehistory of Myanmar 11,000–200 BCE

 Pyu city-states 200 BCE – 1050 CE
(Sri Ksetra Kingdom, Tagaung Kingdom)

 Mon kingdoms 825?–1057
 Arakanese kingdoms 788?–1406

 Pagan Kingdom 849–1297
 Early Pagan Kingdom 849–1044
 Warring states period
 Upper Burma 1297–1555
 Myinsaing and Pinya Kingdoms1297–
1364
 Sagaing Kingdom 1315–1364
 Kingdom of Ava 1364–1555
 Prome Kingdom 1482–1542
 Hanthawaddy Kingdom 1287–1539, 1550–1552
 Shan States 1215–1563
 Kingdom of Mrauk U 1429–1785
 Toungoo Dynasty 1510–1752
 First Toungoo Empire 1510–1599
 Nyaungyan Restoration 1599–1752
 Restored Hanthawaddy 1740–1757
 Konbaung Dynasty 1752–1885

 British colonial period 1824–1948

 Anglo-Burmese Wars 1824–1885
 Nationalist movement 1900–1948
 Japanese occupation 1942–1945

 Modern era 1948–present
 Union of Burma 1948–1962
 Socialist Republic 1962–1988
 Union of Myanmar 1988–2010
  Political reforms 2011–2012

 Timeline
 List of capitals
 Leaders
 Royal chronicles
 Military history

 v
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 e

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The history of Myanmar (also known as Burma) 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 a Tibeto-Burman-
speaking people who established the Pyu city-states ranged as far south as Pyay and adopted Theravada
Buddhism.
Another group, the Bamar people, entered the upper Irrawaddy valley in the early 9th century. They went on to
establish the Bagan Kingdom (1044–1287), the first-ever unification of the Irrawaddy valley and its periphery.
The Burmese language and Bamar culture slowly came to replace Pyu norms during this period. After the First
Mongol invasion of Burma in 1287, several small kingdoms, of which the Kingdom of Ava, the Hanthawaddy
Kingdom, the Kingdom of Mrauk U and the 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 Taungoo Dynasty (1510–1752) reunified the country, and founded the
largest empire in the history of Southeast Asia for a brief period. Later Taungoo kings instituted several key
administrative and economic reforms that gave rise to a smaller, more 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 Taungoo 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 neighbours. The Anglo-Burmese
wars (1824–85) eventually led to British colonial rule.
British rule brought several enduring social, economic, cultural and administrative changes that completely
transformed the once-agrarian society. Most importantly, 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 involving insurgent groups representing political and ethnic minority groups and successive central
governments. 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.

Contents

 1Early history (to the 9th century)

o 1.1Prehistory
o 1.2Pyu city-states
o 1.3Mon kingdoms
 2Pagan Dynasty (849–1297)
o 2.1Early Pagan
o 2.2Pagan Empire (1044–1287)
 3Small kingdoms
o 3.1Ava (1364–1555)
o 3.2Hanthawaddy Pegu (1287–1539, 1550–52)
o 3.3Shan States (1287–1563)
o 3.4Arakan (1287–1785)
 4Taungoo Dynasty (1510–1752)
o 4.1First Taungoo Empire (1510–99)
o 4.2Restored Taungoo Kingdom (Nyaungyan Restoration) (1599–1752)
 5Konbaung Dynasty (1752–1885)
o 5.1Reunification
o 5.2Wars with Siam and China
o 5.3Westward expansion and wars with British Empire
o 5.4Administrative and economic reforms
o 5.5Culture
 6British rule
o 6.1World War II and Japan
o 6.2From the Japanese surrender to Aung San's assassination
 7Independent Burma
o 7.11948–62
o 7.21962–88
o 7.3Crisis and 1988 Uprising
o 7.41990–2006
o 7.52007 anti-government protests
o 7.6Cyclone Nargis
o 7.72011–2016
o 7.82016–present
 8See also
 9Notes
 10References
o 10.1Historiography
 11External links

Early history (to the 9th century)[edit]

Prehistory[edit]
Main article: Prehistory of Burma

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] During the Iron Age, archaeological evidence
also out of Samon Valley reveal changes in infant burial practices that were greatly influenced by India. These
changes include burying infants in jars in which their size depict their family status.[4]
Pyu city-states[edit]
Main article: Pyu city-states

Pyu city-states

Major Pyu city-states (Pagan not contemporary).

 

Bawbawgyi Pagoda at Sri Ksetra, prototype of Pagan-era pagodas.

The 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 Qinghai Lake in present-
day Qinghaiand Gansu.[5] The Pyu were the earliest inhabitants of Burma of whom records are extant.[6] During this
period, Burma was part of an overland trade route from China to India. Trade with India brought Buddhism
from South India. By the 4th century, many in the Irrawaddy valley had converted to Buddhism.[7] Of the many city-
states, the largest and most important was the Sri Ksetra Kingdom southeast of modern Pyay, also thought to once
be the capital city.[8] In March 638, the Pyu of Sri Ksetra launched a new calendar that later became the Burmese
calendar.[6]
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 silkworms. 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.[6]
It was a long-lasting civilisation that lasted nearly a millennium to the early 9th century until a new group of "swift
horsemen" from the north, the Bamars, entered the upper Irrawaddy valley. In the early 9th century, the Pyu city-
states of Upper Burma came under constant attacks by Nanzhao (in modern Yunnan). In 832, the Nanzhao
sacked Halingyi, which had overtaken Prome as the chief Pyu city-state and informal capital. Archaeologists
interpret early Chinese texts detailing the plundering of Halingyi in 832 to detail the capturing of 3000 Pyu prisoners,
later becoming Nanzhao slaves at Kunming.[citation needed]
While Pyu settlements remained in Upper Burma until the advent of the Pagan Empire in the 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 Bamar ethnicity. The
histories/legends of the Pyu were also incorporated to those of the Bamars.[7]
Mon kingdoms[edit]
Main article: Mon kingdoms

According to the colonial era scholarship, as early as the 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) centred
around Bago and Thaton. The earliest external reference to a Mon kingdom in Lower Burma was in 844–848 by
Arab geographers.[9] But recent research shows that there is no evidence (archaeological or otherwise) to support
colonial period conjectures that a Mon-speaking polity existed in Lower Burma until the late 13th century, and the
first recorded claim that the kingdom of Thaton existed came only in 1479.[10]

Pagan Dynasty (849–1297)[edit]

Main article: Pagan Kingdom

Early Pagan[edit]
Main article: Early Pagan Kingdom

Principality of Pagan at Anawrahta's accession in 1044 CE.

Anawrahta was the founder of the Pagan Kingdom.

 Pagodas and kyaungs in present-day Bagan, the capital of the Pagan Kingdom.

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.[11]) 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 River.[12]
It may have been designed to help the Nanzhao pacify the surrounding countryside.[13] 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 accession in 1044.[14]
Pagan Empire (1044–1287)[edit]

Pagan Kingdom during Narapatisithu's reign. Burmese chronicles also claim Kengtung and Chiang Mai. Core areas shown in
darker yellow. Peripheral areas in light yellow. Pagan incorporated key ports of Lower Burma into its core administration by the
13th century.

Over the next 30 years, Anawrahta founded the Pagan Kingdom, 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.[15] The Burmese Chronicles
claim Pagan's suzerainty over the entire Chao Phraya Valley, and the Thai chronicles include the lower Malay
Peninsula down to the Strait of Malacca to Pagan's realm.[13][16]
By the early 12th century, Pagan had emerged as a major power alongside the Khmer Empire in Southeast Asia,
recognised by Song China and the Chola dynasty of India. 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.[17]
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 culture of Burma. The most
important development was the introduction of Theravada Buddhism to Upper Burma after Pagan's conquest of
the Thaton Kingdom in 1057. Supported by royal patronage, the Buddhist school gradually spread to the village
level in the next three centuries although Vajrayana Buddhist, Mahayana, Hindu, and animism remained heavily
entrenched at all social strata.[18]
Pagan's economy was primarily based on the Kyaukse agricultural basin northeast of the capital, and Minbu, south
of Bagan, where the Bamars 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). The
wealthy donated tax-free land to religious authorities.
The Burmese language and culture gradually became dominant in the upper Irrawaddy valley, eclipsing the Pyu
and Pali norms by the late 12th century. By then, the Bamar leadership of the kingdom was unquestioned. The Pyu
had largely assumed the Bamar ethnicity in Upper Burma. The Burmese language, once an alien tongue, was now
the lingua franca of the kingdom.
The kingdom went into decline in the 13th century as the continuous growth of tax-free religious wealth—by the
1280s, two-thirds of Upper Burma's cultivable land had been alienated to the religion—affected the crown's ability to
retain the loyalty of courtiers and military servicemen. This ushered in a vicious circle of internal disorders and
external challenges by Mons, Mongols and Shans.[19]
Beginning in the early 13th century, the Shan began to encircle the Pagan Empire from the north and the east.
The Mongols, who had conquered Yunnan, the former homeland of the Bamar, in 1253, began their invasion in
1277, and in 1287 sacked Pagan, ending the Pagan Kingdom's 250-year rule of the Irrawaddy valley and its
periphery. Pagan's rule of central Burma came to an end ten years later in 1297 when it was toppled by
the Myinsaing Kingdom.

Small kingdoms[edit]

Political Map of Burma (Myanmar) c. 1450 CE.

After the fall of Pagan, the Mongols left the searing Irrawaddy valley but the Pagan Kingdom was irreparably broken
up into several small kingdoms. By the mid-14th century, the country had become organised along four major power
centres: Upper Burma, Lower Burma, Shan States and Arakan. Many of the power centres were themselves made
up of (often loosely held) minor kingdoms or princely states. This era was marked by a series of wars and switching
alliances. Smaller kingdoms played a precarious game of paying allegiance to more powerful states, sometimes
simultaneously.
Ava (1364–1555)[edit]
Main article: Ava Kingdom

Founded in 1364, Kingdom of Ava (Inwa) was the successor state to earlier, even smaller kingdoms based in central
Burma: Taungoo (1287–1318), Myinsaing–Pinya Kingdom (1297–1364), and Sagaing Kingdom (1315–64). In its
first years of existence, Ava, which viewed itself as the rightful successor to the Pagan Kingdom, tried to reassemble
the former empire. While it was able to pull the Taungoo-ruled kingdom and peripheral Shan states
(Kalay, Mohnyin, Mogaung, Hsipaw) into its fold at the peak of its power, it failed to reconquer the rest.
The Forty Years' War (1385–1424) with Hanthawaddy left Ava exhausted, and its power plateaued. Its kings
regularly faced rebellions in its vassal regions but were able to put them down until the 1480s. In the late 15th
century, the Prome Kingdom and its Shan States successfully broke away, and in the early 16th century, Ava itself
came under attacks from its former vassals. In 1510, Taungoo also broke away. In 1527, the Confederation of Shan
States led by Mohnyin captured Ava. The Confederation's rule of Upper Burma, though lasted until 1555, was
marred by internal fighting between Mohnyin and Thibaw houses. The kingdom was toppled by Taungoo forces in
1555.
The Burmese language and culture came into its own during the Ava period.
Hanthawaddy Pegu (1287–1539, 1550–52)[edit]
Main article: Hanthawaddy Kingdom

The Mon-speaking kingdom was founded as Ramannadesa right after Pagan's collapse in 1287. In the beginning,
the Lower-Burma-based kingdom was a loose federation of regional power centres in Mottama, Bago and
the Irrawaddy Delta. The energetic reign of Razadarit(1384–1421) cemented the kingdom's existence. Razadarit
firmly unified the three Mon-speaking regions together, and successfully held off Ava in the Forty Years' War (1385–
1424).
After the war, Hanthawaddy entered its golden age whereas its rival Ava gradually went into decline. From the
1420s to the 1530s, Hanthawaddy was the most powerful and prosperous kingdom of all post-Pagan kingdoms.
Under a string of especially gifted monarchs, the kingdom enjoyed a long golden age, profiting from foreign
commerce. The kingdom, with a flourishing Mon language and culture, became a centre of commerce and
Theravada Buddhism.
Due to the inexperience of its last ruler, the powerful kingdom was conquered by the upstart Taungoo Dynasty in
1539. The kingdom was briefly revived between 1550 and 1552. It effectively controlled only Pegu and was crushed
by Bayinnaung in 1552.
Shan States (1287–1563)[edit]
Main article: Shan States

The Shans, ethnic Tai peoples who came down with the Mongols, stayed and quickly came to dominate much of
northern to eastern arc of Burma, from northwestern Sagaing Division to Kachin Hills to the present day Shan Hills.
The most powerful Shan states were Mohnyin and Mogaung in present-day Kachin State, followed by Hsenwi
(Theinni) (split up in a northern and a southern state in 1988), THsipaw (Thibaw) and Momeik in present-day
northern Shan State.[20]
Minor states included Kalay, Bhamo (Wanmaw or Manmaw), Hkamti Long (Kantigyi) , Hopong (Hopon), Hsahtung
(Thaton), Hsamönghkam (Thamaingkan), Hsawnghsup (Thaungdut), Hsihkip (Thigyit), Hsumhsai (Hsum Hsai),
Kehsi Mangam (Kyithi Bansan), Kengcheng (Kyaingchaing), Kenghkam (Kyaingkan), Kenglön (Kyainglon),
Kengtawng, Kengtung (Kyaington), Kokang (Kho Kan), Kyawkku Hsiwan (Kyaukku), Kyong (Kyon), Laihka (Legya),
Lawksawk (Yatsauk), Loi-ai (Lwe-e), Loilong (Lwelong), Loimaw (Lwemaw), Nyaung Shwe and many more.
Mohnyin, in particular, constantly raided Ava's territory in the early 16th century. The Monhyin-led Confederation of
Shan States, in alliance with Prome Kingdom, captured Ava itself in 1527. The Confederation defeated its erstwhile
ally Prome in 1532, and ruled all of Upper Burma except Taungoo. But the Confederation was marred by internal
bickering, and could not stop Taungoo, which conquered Ava in 1555 and all of the Shan States by 1563.
Arakan (1287–1785)[edit]
Main article: History of Rakhine

Temples at Mrauk U, was the capital of the Mrauk U Kingdom, which ruled over what is now Rakhine State.

Although Arakan had been de facto independent since the late Pagan period, the Laungkyet dynasty of Arakan was
ineffectual. Until the founding of the Mrauk-U Kingdom in 1429, Arakan was often caught between bigger
neighbours, and found itself a battlefield during the Forty Years' War between Ava and Pegu. Mrauk-U went on to
be a powerful kingdom in its own right between 15th and 17th centuries, including East Bengal between 1459 and
1666. Arakan was the only post-Pagan kingdom not to be annexed by the Taungoo Dynasty.

Taungoo Dynasty (1510–1752)[edit]

Main article: Taungoo Dynasty

First Taungoo Empire (1510–99)[edit]

Main article: First Toungoo Empire

First Taungoo Empire

Political Map of Burma (Myanmar) in 1530 CE at Tabinshwehti's accession.

  

Tabinshwehti was the founder of Toungoo Empire.

Toungoo Empire under Bayinnaung in 1580 CE.

 

Statue of King Bayinnaung in front of the National Museum.

Beginning in the 1480s, Ava faced constant internal rebellions and external attacks from the Shan States, and
began to disintegrate. In 1510, Taungoo, located in the remote southeastern corner of the Ava kingdom, also
declared independence.[20] When the Confederation of Shan States conquered Ava in 1527, many refugees fled
southeast to Taungoo, the only kingdom in peace, and one surrounded by larger hostile kingdoms.
Taungoo, led by its ambitious king Tabinshwehti and his deputy general Bayinnaung, would go on to reunify the
petty kingdoms that had existed since the fall of the Pagan Empire, and found the largest empire in the history of
Southeast Asia. First, the upstart kingdom defeated a more powerful Hanthawaddy in the Taungoo–Hanthawaddy
War (1534–41). Tabinshwehti moved the capital to newly captured Bago in 1539.
Taungoo had expanded its authority up to Pagan by 1544 but failed to conquer Arakan in 1545–47 and Siam in
1547–49. Tabinshwehti's successor Bayinnaung continued the policy of expansion, conquering Ava in 1555,
Nearer/Cis-Salween Shan States (1557), Lan Na (1558), Manipur (1560), Farther/Trans-Salween Shan states
(1562–63), the Siam (1564, 1569), and Lan Xang (1565–74), and bringing much of western and central mainland
Southeast Asia under his rule.
Bayinnaung put in place a lasting administrative system that reduced the power of hereditary Shan chiefs, and
brought Shan customs in line with low-land norms.[21] But he could not replicate an effective administrative system
everywhere in his far flung empire. His empire was a loose collection of former sovereign kingdoms, whose kings
were loyal to him as the Cakkavatti (စကြဝတေးမင်း , [sɛʔtɕà wədé mɪ́ɴ]; Universal Ruler), not the kingdom of
Taungoo.
The overextended empire unravelled soon after Bayinnaung's death in 1581. Siam broke away in 1584 and went to
war with Burma until 1605. By 1597, the kingdom had lost all its possessions, including Taungoo, the ancestral
home of the dynasty. In 1599, the Arakanese forces aided by Portuguese mercenaries, and in alliance with the
rebellious Taungoo forces, sacked Pegu. The country fell into chaos, with each region claiming a king. Portuguese
mercenary Filipe de Brito e Nicote promptly rebelled against his Arakanese masters, and established Goa-backed
Portuguese rule at Thanlyin in 1603.
Restored Taungoo Kingdom (Nyaungyan Restoration) (1599–1752) [edit]

The restored Taungoo or Nyaungyan Dynasty c. 1650 CE.

While the interregnum that followed the fall of Pagan Empire lasted over 250 years (1287–1555), that following the
fall of First Taungoo was relatively short-lived. One of Bayinnaung's sons, Nyaungyan Min, immediately began the
reunification effort, successfully restoring central authority over Upper Burma and nearer Shan states by 1606.
His successor Anaukpetlun defeated the Portuguese at Thanlyin in 1613. He recovered the upper Tanintharyi coast
to Daweiand Lan Na from the Siamese by 1614. He also captured the trans-Salween Shan states (Kengtung and
Sipsongpanna) in 1622–26.
His brother Thalun rebuilt the war-torn country. He ordered the first ever census in Burmese history in 1635, which
showed that the kingdom had about two million people. By 1650, the three able kings–Nyaungyan, Anaukpetlun,
and Thalun–had successfully rebuilt a smaller but far more manageable kingdom.
More importantly, the new dynasty proceeded to create a legal and political system whose basic features would
continue under the Konbaung Dynasty well into the 19th century. The crown completely replaced the hereditary
chieftainships with appointed governorships in the entire Irrawaddy valley, and greatly reduced the hereditary rights
of Shan chiefs. It also reined in the continuous growth of monastic wealth and autonomy, giving a greater tax base.
Its trade and secular administrative reforms built a prosperous economy for more than 80 years.[22] Except for a few
occasional rebellions and an external war—Burma defeated Siam's attempt to take Lan Na and Mottama in 1662–
64—the kingdom was largely at peace for the rest of the 17th century.
The kingdom entered a gradual decline, and the authority of the "palace kings" deteriorated rapidly in the 1720s.
From 1724 onwards, the Meitei people began raiding the upper Chindwin River. In 1727, southern Lan Na (Chiang
Mai) successfully revolted, leaving just northern Lan Na (Chiang Saen) under an increasingly nominal Burmese rule.
Meitei raids intensified in the 1730s, reaching increasingly deeper parts of central Burma.
In 1740, the Mon in Lower Burma began a rebellion, and founded the Restored Hanthawaddy Kingdom, and by
1745 controlled much of Lower Burma. The Siamese also moved their authority up the Tanintharyi coast by 1752.
Hanthawaddy invaded Upper Burma in November 1751, and captured Ava on 23 March 1752, ending the 266-year-
old Taungoo dynasty.

Konbaung Dynasty (1752–1885)[edit]

Main article: Konbaung Dynasty

Reunification[edit]
Main article: Konbaung–Hanthawaddy War

Konbaung Dynasty
 

Alaungpaya was the founder of the Konbaung Dynasty.

 

Shwebo Palace is a royal palace built in 1753 CE by King Alaungphaya.

Soon after the fall of Ava, a new dynasty rose in Shwebo to challenge the authority of Hanthawaddy. Over the next
70 years, the highly militaristic Konbaung dynasty went on to create the largest Burmese empire, second only to the
empire of Bayinnaung. By 1759, King Alaungpaya's Konbaung forces had reunited all of Burma (and Manipur),
extinguished the Mon-led Hanthawaddy dynasty once and for all, and driven out the European powers who provided
arms to Hanthawaddy—the French from Thanlyin and the English from Cape Negrais.[23]
Wars with Siam and China[edit]
Main articles: Burmese–Siamese wars and Sino-Burmese War (1765–69)

The kingdom then went to war with the Ayutthaya Kingdom, which had occupied up the Tanintharyi coast to
Mottama during the Burmese civil war (1740–1757), and had provided shelter to the Mon refugees. By 1767, the
Konbaung armies had subdued much of Laos and defeated Siam. But they could not finish off the remaining
Siamese resistance as they were forced to defend against four invasions by Qing China (1765–1769).[24] While the
Burmese defences held in "the most disastrous frontier war the Qing dynasty had ever waged", the Burmese were
preoccupied with another impending invasion by the world's largest empire for years. The Qing kept a heavy military
line-up in the border areas for about one decade in an attempt to wage another war while imposing a ban on inter-
border trade for two decades.[25]
The Ayutthaya Kingdom used the Konbaung preoccupation with the Qing to recover their lost territories by 1770,
and in addition, went on to capture much of Lan Na by 1776, ending over two centuries of Burmese suzerainty over
the region.[26] They went to war again in 1785–1786, 1787, 1792, 1803–1808, 1809–1812 and 1849–1855, but these
all resulted in a stalemate. After decades of war, the two countries essentially exchanged Tanintharyi (to Burma)
and Lan Na (to Siam).
Westward expansion and wars with British Empire[edit]
Main article: Anglo-Burmese wars

Faced with a powerful China in the northeast and a resurgent Siam in the southeast, King Bodawpaya turned
westward for expansion.[27] He conquered Arakan in 1785, annexed Manipur in 1814, and captured Assam in 1817–
1819, leading to a long ill-defined border with British India. Bodawpaya's successor King Bagyidaw was left to put
down British instigated rebellions in Manipur in 1819 and Assam in 1821–1822. Cross-border raids by rebels from
the British protected territories and counter-cross-border raids by the Burmese led to the First Anglo-Burmese
War (1824–26).[28]
British soldiers dismantling cannons belonging to King Thibaw's forces, Third Anglo-Burmese War, Ava, 27 November 1885.
Photographer: Hooper, Willoughby Wallace (1837–1912).

Lasting 2 years and costing 13 million pounds, the first Anglo-Burmese War was the longest and most expensive
war in British Indian history,[29] but ended in a decisive British victory. Burma ceded all of Bodawpaya's western
acquisitions (Arakan, Manipur and Assam) plus Tenasserim. Burma was crushed for years by repaying a large
indemnity of one million pounds (then US$5 million).[30] In 1852, the British unilaterally and easily seized the Pegu
province in the Second Anglo-Burmese War.[28][31]
After the war, King Mindon tried to modernise the Burmese state and economy, and made trade and territorial
concessions to stave off further British encroachments, including ceding the Karenni States to the British in 1875.
Nonetheless, the British, alarmed by the consolidation of French Indochina, annexed the remainder of the country in
the Third Anglo-Burmese War in 1885,[32][dubious  –  discuss]and sent the last Burmese king Thibaw and his family to exile in
India.
Administrative and economic reforms[edit]
Konbaung kings extended administrative reforms first begun in the Restored Taungoo Dynasty period (1599–1752),
and achieved unprecedented levels of internal control and external expansion. Konbaung kings tightened control in
the low lands and reduced the hereditary privileges of Shan saophas (chiefs). Konbaung officials, particularly after
1780, began commercial reforms that increased government income and rendered it more predictable. Money
economy continued to gain ground. In 1857, the crown inaugurated a full-fledged system of cash taxes and salaries,
assisted by the country's first standardised silver coinage.[24]
Culture[edit]
Cultural integration continued. For the first time in history, the Burmese language and culture came to predominate
the entire Irrawaddy valley, with the Mon language and ethnicity completely eclipsed by 1830. The nearer Shan
principalities adopted more lowland norms. The evolution and growth of Burmese literature and theatre continued,
aided by an extremely high adult male literacy rate for the era (half of all males and 5% of females).[33] Monastic and
lay elites around the Konbaung kings, particularly from Bodawpaya's reign, also launched a major reformation of
Burmese intellectual life and monastic organisation and practice known as the Sudhamma Reformation. It led to
amongst other things Burma's first proper state histories.[34]

British rule[edit]
Main article: British rule in Burma

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Recorder's Court on Sule Pagoda Road, with the Sule Pagoda at the far end, Rangoon, 1868. Photographer: J. Jackson.

Britain made Burma a province of India in 1886 with the capital at Rangoon. Traditional Burmese society was
drastically altered by the demise of the monarchy and the separation of religion and state.[citation needed] Though war
officially ended after only a couple of weeks, resistance continued in northern Burma until 1890, with the British
finally resorting to a systematic destruction of villages and appointment of new officials to finally halt all guerrilla
activity. The economic nature of society also changed dramatically. After the opening of the Suez Canal, the
demand for Burmese rice grew and vast tracts of land were opened up for cultivation. However, to prepare the new
land for cultivation, farmers were forced to borrow money from Indian moneylenders called chettiars at high interest
rates and were often foreclosed on and evicted losing land and livestock. Most of the jobs also went to indentured
Indian labourers, and whole villages became outlawed as they resorted to 'dacoity' (armed robbery).[citation needed] While
the Burmese economy grew, all the power and wealth remained in the hands of several British firms, Anglo-
Burmese people, and migrants from India.[35] The civil service was largely staffed by the Anglo-Burmese community
and Indians, and Bamars were excluded almost entirely from military service. Though the country prospered, the
people largely failed to reap the rewards. George Orwell's novel Burmese Days is a fictional account of the British
period. Throughout colonial rule, the Anglo-Burmese dominated the country, causing discontent among the local
populace.
By around the start of the 20th century, a nationalist movement began to take shape in the form of the Young Men's
Buddhist Association (YMBA), modelled on the YMCA, as religious associations were allowed by the colonial
authorities. They were later superseded by the General Council of Burmese Associations (GCBA) which was linked
with Wunthanu athin or National Associations that sprang up in villages throughout Burma Proper.[citation needed] Between
1900 – 1911 the "Irish Buddhist" U Dhammaloka challenged Christianity and British rule on religious grounds. A new
generation of Burmese leaders arose in the early 20th century from amongst the educated classes that were
permitted to go to London to study law. They came away from this experience with the belief that the Burmese
situation could be improved through reform. Progressive constitutional reform in the early 1920s led to a legislature
with limited powers, a university and more autonomy for Burma within the administration of India. Efforts were also
undertaken to increase the representation of Burmese in the civil service. Some people began to feel that the rate of
change was not fast enough and the reforms not expansive enough.

Vegetable stall on the roadside at the Madras Lancer Lines, Mandalay, January 1886. Photographer: Hooper, Willoughby
Wallace (1837–1912).

In 1920 the first university students strike in history broke out[citation needed] in protest against the new University Act which
the students believed would only benefit the elite and perpetuate colonial rule. 'National Schools' sprang up across
the country in protest against the colonial education system, and the strike came to be commemorated as 'National
Day'.[36] There were further strikes and anti-tax protests in the later 1920s led by the Wunthanu athins. Prominent
among the political activists were Buddhist monks (pongyi), such as U Ottama and U Seinda in the Arakan who
subsequently led an armed rebellion against the British and later the nationalist government after independence,
and U Wisara, the first martyr of the movement to die after a protracted hunger strike in prison.[36] (One of the main
thoroughfares in Yangon is named after U Wisara.) In December 1930, a local tax protest by Saya San in
Tharrawaddy quickly grew into first a regional and then a national insurrection against the government. Lasting for
two years, the Galon rebellion, named after the mythical garuda — the enemy of the nāgas (i.e., the British) –
emblazoned on the pennants the rebels carried, required thousands of British troops to suppress along with
promises of further political reform. The eventual trial of Saya San, who was executed, allowed several future
national leaders, including Ba Maw and U Saw, who participated in his defence, to rise to prominence.[36]

The paddle steamer Ramapoora (right) of the British India Steam Navigation Company on the Rangoon river having just arrived
from Moulmein. 1895. Photographers: Watts and Skeen.

May 1930 saw the founding of the Dobama Asiayone ("We Bamars Association") whose members called
themselves Thakin (an ironic name since thakin means "master" in Burmese, rather like sahib— proclaiming that
they were the true masters of the country entitled to the term usurped by the colonial masters).[36] The second
university students strike in 1936 was triggered by the expulsion of Aung San and Ko Nu, leaders of the Rangoon
University Students Union (RUSU), for refusing to reveal the name of the author who had written an article in their
university magazine, making a scathing attack on one of the senior university officials. It spread to Mandalay leading
to the formation of the All Burma Students Union (ABSU). Aung San and Nu subsequently joined the Thakin
movement progressing from student to national politics.[36] The British separated Burma from India in 1937 and
granted the colony a new constitution calling for a fully elected assembly, but this proved to be a divisive issue as
some Burmese felt that this was a ploy to exclude them from any further Indian reforms whereas other Burmese saw
any action that removed Burma from the control of India to be a positive step. Ba Maw served as the first prime
minister of Burma, but he was succeeded by U Saw in 1939, who served as prime minister from 1940 until he was
arrested on 19 January 1942 by the British for communicating with the Japanese.
A wave of strikes and protests that started from the oilfields of central Burma in 1938 became a general strike with
far-reaching consequences. In Rangoon student protesters, after successfully picketing the Secretariat, the seat of
the colonial government, were charged by the British mounted police wielding batons and killing a Rangoon
University student called Aung Kyaw. In Mandalay, the police shot into a crowd of protesters led by Buddhist monks
killing 17 people. The movement became known as Htaung thoun ya byei ayeidawbon (the '1300 Revolution' named
after the Burmese calendar year),[36] and 20 December, the day the first martyr Aung Kyaw fell, commemorated by
students as 'Bo Aung Kyaw Day'.[37]
World War II and Japan[edit]
Main articles: Japanese occupation of Burma, Burma Campaign, and State of Burma

Some Burmese nationalists saw the outbreak of World War II as an opportunity to extort concessions from the
British in exchange for support in the war effort. Other Burmese, such as the Thakin movement, opposed Burma's
participation in the war under any circumstances. Aung San co-founded the Communist Party of Burma (CPB) with
other Thakins in August 1939.[36] Marxist literature as well as tracts from the Sinn Féin movement in Ireland had been
widely circulated and read among political activists. Aung San also co-founded the People's Revolutionary Party
(PRP), renamed the Socialist Party after the World War II. He was also instrumental in founding the Freedom
Bloc by forging an alliance of the Dobama, ABSU, politically active monks and Ba Maw's Poor Man's Party.[36] After
the Dobama organisation called for a national uprising, an arrest warrant was issued for many of the organisation's
leaders including Aung San, who escaped to China. Aung San's intention was to make contact with the Chinese
Communists but he was detected by the Japanese authorities who offered him support by forming a secret
intelligence unit called the Minami Kikan headed by Colonel Suzuki with the objective of closing the Burma
Road and supporting a national uprising. Aung San briefly returned to Burma to enlist twenty-nine young men who
went to Japan with him to receive military training on Hainan Island, China, and they came to be known as the
"Thirty Comrades". When the Japanese occupied Bangkok in December 1941, Aung San announced the formation
of the Burma Independence Army (BIA) in anticipation of the Japanese invasion of Burma in 1942.[36]

British soldiers on patrol in the ruins of the Burmese town of Bahe during the advance on Mandalay, January 1945.

The BIA formed a provisional government in some areas of the country in the spring of 1942, but there were
differences within the Japanese leadership over the future of Burma. While Colonel Suzuki encouraged the Thirty
Comrades to form a provisional government, the Japanese Military leadership had never formally accepted such a
plan. Eventually the Japanese Army turned to Ba Maw to form a government. During the war in 1942, the BIA had
grown in an uncontrolled manner, and in many districts officials and even criminals appointed themselves to the BIA.
It was reorganised as the Burma Defence Army (BDA) under the Japanese but still headed by Aung San. While the
BIA had been an irregular force, the BDA was recruited by selection and trained as a conventional army by
Japanese instructors. Ba Maw was afterwards declared head of state, and his cabinet included both Aung San as
War Minister and the Communist leader Thakin Than Tun as Minister of Land and Agriculture as well as the
Socialist leaders Thakins Nu and Mya. When the Japanese declared Burma, in theory, independent in 1943, the
Burma Defence Army (BDA) was renamed the Burma National Army (BNA).[36]
It soon became apparent that Japanese promises of independence were merely a sham and that Ba Maw was
deceived. As the war turned against the Japanese, they declared Burma a fully sovereign state on 1 August 1943,
but this was just another facade. Disillusioned, Aung San began negotiations with Communist leaders Thakin Than
Tun and Thakin Soe, and Socialist leaders Ba Swe and Kyaw Nyein which led to the formation of the Anti-Fascist
Organisation (AFO) in August 1944 at a secret meeting of the CPB, the PRP and the BNA in Pegu. The AFO was
later renamed the Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League(AFPFL).[36] Thakin Than Tun and Soe, while in Insein
prison in July 1941, had co-authored the Insein Manifesto which, against the prevailing opinion in the Dobama
movement, identified world fascism as the main enemy in the coming war and called for temporary co-operation with
the British in a broad allied coalition which should include the Soviet Union. Soe had already gone underground to
organise resistance against the Japanese occupation, and Than Tun was able to pass on Japanese intelligence to
Soe, while other Communist leaders Thakin Thein Pe and Tin Shwe made contact with the exiled colonial
government in Simla, India.[36]
There were informal contacts between the AFO and the Allies in 1944 and 1945 through the British
organisation Force 136. On 27 March 1945 the Burma National Army rose up in a countrywide rebellion against the
Japanese.[36] 27 March had been celebrated as 'Resistance Day' until the military renamed it 'Tatmadaw (Armed
Forces) Day'. Aung San and others subsequently began negotiations with Lord Mountbatten and officially joined
the Allies as the Patriotic Burmese Forces (PBF). At the first meeting, the AFO represented itself to the British as the
provisional government of Burma with Thakin Soe as chairman and Aung San as a member of its ruling committee.
The Japanese were routed from most of Burma by May 1945. Negotiations then began with the British over the
disarming of the AFO and the participation of its troops in a post-war Burma Army. Some veterans had been formed
into a paramilitary force under Aung San, called the Pyithu yèbaw tat or People's Volunteer Organisation (PVO), and
were openly drilling in uniform.[36] The absorption of the PBF was concluded successfully at the Kandy conference
in Ceylon in September 1945.[36]
Under Japanese occupation, 170,000 to 250,000 civilians died.[38][39]
From the Japanese surrender to Aung San's assassination [edit]
The surrender of the Japanese brought a military administration to Burma and demands to try Aung San for his
involvement in a murder during military operations in 1942. Lord Mountbatten realised that this was an impossibility
considering Aung San's popular appeal.[36]
After the war ended, the British Governor, Sir Reginald Dorman-Smith returned. The restored government
established a political program that focused on physical reconstruction of the country and delayed discussion of
independence.
The AFPFL opposed the government, leading to political instability in the country. A rift had also developed in the
AFPFL between the Communists and Aung San together with the Socialists over strategy, which led to Than Tun
being forced to resign as general secretary in July 1946 and the expulsion of the CPB from the AFPFL the following
October.[36]
Dorman-Smith was replaced by Sir Hubert Rance as the new governor, and almost immediately after his
appointment the Rangoon Police went on strike. The strike, starting in September 1946, then spread from the police
to government employees and came close to becoming a general strike.
Rance calmed the situation by meeting with Aung San and convincing him to join the Governor's Executive Council
along with other members of the AFPFL.[36] The new executive council, which now had increased credibility in the
country, began negotiations for Burmese independence, which were concluded successfully in London as the Aung
San-AttleeAgreement on 27 January 1947.[36] The agreement left parts of the communist and conservative branches
of the AFPFL dissatisfied, however, sending the Red Flag Communists led by Thakin Soe underground and the
conservatives into opposition.
Aung San also succeeded in concluding an agreement with ethnic minorities for a unified Burma at the Panglong
Conference on 12 February, celebrated since as 'Union Day'. U Aung Zan Wai, U Pe Khin, Myoma U Than Kywe,
Major Aung, Sir Maung Gyi and Dr. Sein Mya Maung. were most important negotiators and leaders of the historical
pinlon (panglong) Conference negotiated with Burma national top leader General Aung San and other top leaders in
1947. All these leaders decided to join together to form the Union of Burma. Union day celebration is one of the
greatest in the history of Burma. The popularity of the AFPFL, now dominated by Aung San and the Socialists, was
eventually confirmed when it won an overwhelming victory in the April 1947 constituent assembly elections.[36] On 19
July 1947 U Saw, a conservative pre-war Prime Minister of Burma, engineered the assassination of Aung San and
several members of his cabinet including his eldest brother Ba Win, while meeting in the Secretariat.[36][40][36][41] 19 July
has been commemorated since as Martyrs' Day. Shortly after, rebellion broke out in the Arakan led by the veteran
monk U Seinda, and it began to spread to other districts.[36]
Thakin Nu, the Socialist leader, was now asked to form a new cabinet, and he presided over Burmese
independence on 4 January 1948. The popular sentiment to part with the British was so strong at the time that
Burma opted not to join the Commonwealth of Nations, unlike India or Pakistan.[36]

Independent Burma[edit]
1948–62[edit]
Main article: Post-independence Burma, 1948–1962

See also: Internal conflict in Burma

The first years of Burmese independence were marked by successive insurgencies by the Red Flag
Communists led by Thakin Soe, the White Flag Communists led by Thakin Than Tun, the Yèbaw Hpyu (White-band
PVO) led by Bo La Yaung, a member of the Thirty Comrades, army rebels calling themselves the Revolutionary
Burma Army (RBA) led by Communist officers Bo Zeya, Bo Yan Aung and Bo Yè Htut – all three of them members
of the Thirty Comrades, Arakanese Muslims or the Mujahid, and the Karen National Union(KNU).[36]
After the Communist victory in China in 1949 remote areas of Northern Burma were for many years controlled by an
army of Kuomintang (KMT) forces under the command of General Li Mi.[36]
Burma accepted foreign assistance in rebuilding the country in these early years, but continued American support
for the Chinese Nationalist military presence in Burma finally resulted in the country rejecting most foreign aid,
refusing to join the South-East Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) and supporting the Bandung Conference of 1955.
[36]
 Burma generally strove to be impartial in world affairs and was one of the first countries in the world to
recognise Israel and the People's Republic of China.
By 1958, the country was largely beginning to recover economically, but was beginning to fall apart politically due to
a split in the AFPFL into two factions, one led by Thakins Nu and Tin, the other by Ba Swe and Kyaw Nyein.[36] And
this despite the unexpected success of U Nu's 'Arms for Democracy' offer taken up by U Seinda in the Arakan,
the Pa-O, some Mon and Shan groups, but more significantly by the PVO surrendering their arms.[36] The situation
however became very unstable in parliament, with U Nu surviving a no-confidence vote only with the support of the
opposition National United Front (NUF), believed to have 'crypto-communists' amongst them.[36] Army hardliners now
saw the 'threat' of the CPB coming to an agreement with U Nu through the NUF, and in the end U Nu 'invited' Army
Chief of Staff General Ne Win to take over the country.[36] Over 400 'communist sympathisers' were arrested, of
which 153 were deported to the Coco Island in the Andaman Sea. Among them was the NUF leader Aung Than,
older brother of Aung San. The Botataung, Kyemon and Rangoon Daily newspapers were also closed down.[36]
Ne Win's caretaker government successfully established the situation and paved the way for new general elections
in 1960 that returned U Nu's Union Party with a large majority.[36]The situation did not remain stable for long, when
the Shan Federal Movement, started by Nyaung Shwe Sawbwa Sao Shwe Thaik (the first President of independent
Burma 1948–52) and aspiring to a 'loose' federation, was seen as a separatist movement insisting on the
government honouring the right to secession in 10 years provided for by the 1947 Constitution. Ne Win had already
succeeded in stripping the Shan Sawbwas of their feudal powers in exchange for comfortable pensions for life in
1959.
1962–88[edit]
See also: Burmese Way to Socialism
On 2 March 1962, Ne Win, with sixteen other senior military officers, staged a coup d'état, arrested U Nu, Sao Shwe
Thaik and several others, and declared a socialist state to be run by their Union Revolutionary Council. Sao Shwe
Thaik's son, Sao Mye Thaik, was shot dead in what was generally described as a 'bloodless' coup. Thibaw Sawbwa
Sao Kya Seng also disappeared mysteriously after being stopped at a checkpoint near Taunggyi.[36]
A number of protests followed the coup, and initially the military's response was mild.[42] However, on 7 July 1962, a
peaceful student protest on Rangoon University campus was suppressed by the military, killing over 100 students.
The next day, the army blew up the Students Union building.[36] Peace talks were convened between the RC and
various armed insurgent groups in 1963, but without any breakthrough, and during the talks as well as in the
aftermath of their failure, hundreds were arrested in Rangoon and elsewhere from both the right and the left of the
political spectrum. All opposition parties were banned on 28 March 1964.[36] The Kachin insurgency by the Kachin
Independence Organisation (KIO) had begun earlier in 1961 triggered by U Nu's declaration of Buddhism as the
state religion, and the Shan State Army (SSA), led by Sao Shwe Thaik's wife Mahadevi and son Chao Tzang
Yaunghwe, launched a rebellion in 1964 as a direct consequence of the 1962 military coup.[36]
Ne Win quickly took steps to transform Burma into his vision of a 'socialist state' and to isolate the country from
contact with the rest of the world. A one-party system was established with his newly formed Burma Socialist
Programme Party (BSPP) in complete control.[36] Commerce and industry were nationalised across the board, but
the economy did not grow at first if at all as the government put too much emphasis on industrial development at the
expense of agriculture. In April 1972, General Ne Win and the rest of the Union Revolutionary Council retired from
the military, but now as U Ne Win, he continued to run the country through the BSPP. A new constitution was
promulgated in January 1974 that resulted in the creation of a People's Assembly (Pyithu Hluttaw) that held
supreme legislative, executive, and judicial authority, and local People's Councils. Ne Win became the president of
the new government.[36]
Beginning in May 1974, a wave of strikes hit Rangoon and elsewhere in the country against a backdrop of
corruption, inflation and food shortages, especially rice. In Rangoon workers were arrested at the Insein railway
yard, and troops opened fire on workers at the Thamaing textile mill and Simmalaik dockyard.[36] In December 1974,
the biggest anti-government demonstrations to date broke out over the funeral of former UN Secretary-General U
Thant.[36] U Thant had been former prime minister U Nu's closest advisor in the 1950s and was seen as a symbol of
opposition to the military regime. The Burmese people felt that U Thant was denied a state funeral that he deserved
as a statesman of international stature because of his association with U Nu.
On 23 March 1976, over 100 students were arrested for holding a peaceful ceremony (Hmaing yabyei) to mark the
centenary of the birth of Thakin Kodaw Hmaing who was the greatest Burmese poet and writer and nationalist
leader of the 20th century history of Burma. He had inspired a whole generation of Burmese nationalists and writers
by his work mainly written in verse, fostering immense pride in their history, language and culture, and urging them
to take direct action such as strikes by students and workers. It was Hmaing as leader of the mainstream Dobama
who sent the Thirty Comrades abroad for military training, and after independence devoted his life to internal peace
and national reconciliation until he died at the age of 88 in 1964. Hmaing lies buried in a mausoleum at the foot of
the Shwedagon Pagoda.[43]
A young staff officer called Captain Ohn Kyaw Myint conspired with a few fellow officers in 1976 to assassinate Ne
Win and San Yu, but the plot was uncovered and the officer tried and hanged.[36][44]
In 1978, a military operation was conducted against the Rohingya Muslims in Arakan, called the King Dragon
operation, causing 250,000 refugees to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh.
U Nu, after his release from prison in October 1966, had left Burma in April 1969, and formed the Parliamentary
Democracy Party (PDP) the following August in Bangkok, Thailand with the former Thirty Comrades, Bo Let Ya, co-
founder of the CPB and former Minister of Defence and deputy prime minister, Bo Yan Naing, and U Thwin, ex-BIA
and former Minister of Trade. Another member of the Thirty Comrades, Bohmu Aung, former Minister of Defence,
joined later. The fourth, Bo Setkya, who had gone underground after the 1962 coup, died in Bangkok shortly before
U Nu arrived.[36] The PDP launched an armed rebellion across the Thai border from 1972 till 1978 when Bo Let Ya
was killed in an attack by the Karen National Union (KNU). U Nu, Bohmu Aung and Bo Yan Naing returned to
Rangoon after the 1980 amnesty.[36] Ne Win also secretly held peace talks later in 1980 with the KIO and the CPB,
again ending in a deadlock as before.[36]
Crisis and 1988 Uprising[edit]
Main article: 8888 Uprising

Ne Win retired as president in 1981, but remained in power as Chairman of the BSPP until his sudden unexpected
announcement to step down on 23 July 1988.[36] In the 1980s, the economy began to grow as the government
relaxed restrictions on foreign aid, but by the late 1980s falling commodity prices and rising debt led to an economic
crisis. This led to economic reforms in 1987–1988 that relaxed socialist controls and encouraged foreign investment.
This was not enough, however, to stop growing turmoil in the country, compounded by periodic "demonetisation" of
certain bank notes in the currency, the last of which was decreed in September 1987, wiping out the savings of the
vast majority of people.[36]
In September 1987, Burma's de facto ruler U Ne Win suddenly cancelled certain currency notes, which caused a
great down-turn in the economy. The main reason for the cancellation of these notes was superstition on U Ne
Win's part, as he considered the number nine his lucky number—he only allowed 45 and 90 kyat notes, because
these were divisible by nine.[45] Burma's admittance to Least Developed Country status by the UN the following
December highlighted its economic bankruptcy.[36]
Triggered by brutal police repression of student-led protests causing the death of over a hundred students and
civilians in March and June 1988, widespread protests and demonstrations broke out on 8 August throughout the
country. The military responded by firing into the crowds, alleging Communist infiltration. Violence, chaos and
anarchy reigned. Civil administration had ceased to exist, and by September of that year, the country was on the
verge of a revolution. The armed forces, under the nominal command of General Saw Maung, staged a coup on 8
August to restore order. During the 8888 Uprising, as it became known, the military killed thousands. The military
swept aside the Constitution of 1974 in favour of martial law under the State Law and Order Restoration
Council (SLORC) with Saw Maung as chairman and prime minister.[36]
At a special six-hour press conference on 5 August 1989, Brig. Gen. Khin Nyunt, the SLORC Secretary 1, and chief
of Military Intelligence Service (MIS), claimed that the uprising had been orchestrated by the Communist Party of
Burma through its underground organisation.[46] Although there had inevitably been some underground CPB
presence as well as that of ethnic insurgent groups, there was no evidence of their being in charge to any extent.
[36]
 In fact, in March 1989, the CPB leadership was overthrown by a rebellion by the Kokang and Wa troops that it
had come to depend on after losing its former strongholds in central Burma and re-establishing bases in the
northeast in the late 1960s; the Communist leaders were soon forced into exile across the Chinese border.[36]
1990–2006[edit]
Main article: State Peace and Development Council

The military government announced a change of name for the country in English from Burma to Myanmar in 1989. It
also continued the economic reforms started by the old regime and called for a Constituent Assembly to revise the
1974 Constitution. This led to multiparty elections in May 1990 in which the National League for Democracy (NLD)
won a landslide victory over the National Unity Party (NUP, the successor to the BSPP) and about a dozen smaller
parties.[36]
The military would not let the assembly convene, and continued to hold the two leaders of the NLD, Tin
Oo and Aung San Suu Kyi, daughter of Aung San, under the house arrest imposed on them the previous year.
Burma came under increasing international pressure to convene the elected assembly, particularly after Aung San
Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, and also faced economic sanctions. In April 1992 the military
replaced Saw Maung with General Than Shwe.
Than Shwe released U Nu from prison and relaxed some of the restrictions on Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest,
finally releasing her in 1995, although she was forbidden to leave Rangoon. Than Shwe also finally allowed a
National Convention to meet in January 1993, but insisted that the assembly preserve a major role for the military in
any future government, and suspended the convention from time to time. The NLD, fed up with the interference,
walked out in late 1995, and the assembly was finally dismissed in March 1996 without producing a constitution.
During the 1990s, the military regime had also had to deal with several insurgencies by tribal minorities along its
borders. General Khin Nyunt was able to negotiate cease-fire agreements that ended the fighting with the Kokang,
hill tribes such as the Wa, and the Kachin, but the Karen would not negotiate. The military finally captured the main
Karen base at Manerplaw in spring 1995, but there has still been no final peace settlement. Khun Sa, a major opium
warlord who nominally controlled parts of Shan State, made a deal with the government in December 1995 after US
pressure.
After the failure of the National Convention to create a new constitution, tensions between the government and the
NLD mounted, resulting in two major crackdowns on the NLD in 1996 and 1997. The SLORC was abolished in
November 1997 and replaced by the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), but it was merely a cosmetic
change. Continuing reports of human rights violations in Burma led the United States to intensify sanctions in 1997,
and the European Union followed suit in 2000.
The military placed Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest again in September 2000 until May 2002, when her travel
restrictions outside of Rangoon were also lifted. Reconciliation talks were held with the government, but these came
to a stalemate and Suu Kyi was once again taken into custody in May 2003 after an ambush on her motorcade
reportedly by a pro-military mob. The government also carried out another large-scale crackdown on the NLD,
arresting many of its leaders and closing down most of its offices. The situation in Burma remains tense to this day.
In August 2003, Kyin Nyunt announced a seven-step "roadmap to democracy", which the government claims it is in
the process of implementing. There is no timetable associated with the government's plan, or any conditionality or
independent mechanism for verifying that it is moving forward. For these reasons, most Western governments and
Burma's neighbours have been sceptical and critical of the roadmap.
On 17 February 2005, the government reconvened the National Convention, for the first time since 1993, in an
attempt to rewrite the Constitution. However, major pro-democracy organisations and parties, including the National
League for Democracy, were barred from participating, the military allowing only selected smaller parties. It was
adjourned once again in January 2006.
In November 2005, the military junta started moving the government away from Yangon to an unnamed location
near Kyatpyay just outside Pyinmana, to a newly designated capital city. This public action follows a long term
unofficial policy of moving critical military and government infrastructure away from Yangon to avoid a repetition of
the events of 1988. On Armed Forces Day (27 March 2006), the capital was officially named Naypyidaw
Myodaw (lit. Royal City of the Seat of Kings).
In 2005, the capital city was relocated from Yangon to Naypyidaw.
In November 2006, the International Labour Organization (ILO) announced it will be seeking – at the International
Court of Justice[47] – "to prosecute members of the ruling Myanmar junta for crimes against humanity" over the
continuous forced labour of its citizens by the military. According to the ILO, an estimated 800,000 people are
subject to forced labour in Myanmar.[48]
2007 anti-government protests[edit]
Main article: 2007 Burmese anti-government protests
Protesters in Yangon with a banner that reads non-violence: national movement in Burmese, in the background is Shwedagon
Pagoda.

The 2007 Burmese anti-government protests were a series of anti-government protests that started in Burma on 15
August 2007. The immediate cause of the protests was mainly the unannounced decision of the ruling junta,
the State Peace and Development Council, to remove fuel subsidies, which caused the price of diesel and petrol to
suddenly rise as much as 100%, and the price of compressed natural gas for buses to increase fivefold in less than
a week.[49] The protest demonstrations were at first dealt with quickly and harshly by the junta, with dozens of
protesters arrested and detained. Starting 18 September, the protests had been led by thousands of Buddhist
monks, and those protests had been allowed to proceed until a renewed government crackdown on 26 September.
[50]

During the crackdown, there were rumours of disagreement within the Burmese military, but none were confirmed.
At the time, independent sources reported, through pictures and accounts, 30 to 40 monks and 50 to 70 civilians
killed as well as 200 beaten. However, other sources reveal more dramatic figures. In a White House statement
President Bush said: "Monks have been beaten and killed.... Thousands of pro-democracy protesters have been
arrested". Some news reports referred to the protests as the Saffron Revolution.[51][52]
On 7 February 2008, SPDC announced that a referendum for the Constitution would be held, and Elections by
2010. The Burmese constitutional referendum, 2008 was held on 10 May and promised a "discipline-flourishing
democracy" for the country in the future.
Cyclone Nargis[edit]
See also: Cyclone_Nargis § Burma_controversy

On 3 May 2008, Cyclone Nargis devastated the country when winds of up to 215 km/h (135 mph)[53] touched land in
the densely populated, rice-farming delta of the Irrawaddy Division.[54] It is estimated that more than 130,000 people
died or went missing and damage totalled 10 billion US dollars; it was the worst natural disaster in Burmese history.
The World Food Programme report that, "Some villages have been almost totally eradicated and vast rice-growing
areas are wiped out."[55]
The United Nations estimates that as many as 1 million were left homeless and the World Health Organization "has
received reports of malaria outbreaks in the worst-affected area."[56] Yet in the critical days following this disaster,
Burma's isolationist regime complicated recovery efforts by delaying the entry of United Nations planes delivering
medicine, food, and other supplies. The government's failure to permit entry for large-scale international relief efforts
was described by the United Nations as "unprecedented."[57]
2011–2016[edit]
Further information: 2011–12 Burmese political reforms

The 2011–2012 Burmese democratic reforms are an ongoing series of political, economic and administrative
reforms in Burma undertaken by the military-backed government. These reforms include the release of pro-
democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest and subsequent dialogues with her, establishment of
the National Human Rights Commission, general amnesties of more than 200 political prisoners, institution of new
labour laws that allow labour unions and strikes, relaxation of press censorship, and regulations of currency
practices.
As a consequence of the reforms, ASEAN approved Burma's bid for the chairmanship in 2014. United States
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Burma on 1 December 2011, to encourage further progress; it was the first
visit by a Secretary of State in more than fifty years. United States President Barack Obama visited one year later,
becoming the first US president to visit the country.
Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy, participated in by-elections held on 1 April 2012 after the
government abolished laws that led to the NLD's boycott of the 2010 general election. She led the NLD in winning
the by-elections in a landslide, winning 41 out of 44 of the contested seats, with Suu Kyi herself winning a seat
representing KawhmuConstituency in the lower house of the Burmese Parliament.
2015 election results gave the National League for Democracy an absolute majority of seats in both chambers of the
Burmese parliament, enough to ensure that its candidate would become president, while NLD leader Aung San Suu
Kyi is constitutionally barred from the presidency.[58] However, uncertainties exist as clashes between Burmese
troops and local insurgent groups continue.
2016–present[edit]
The new parliament convened on 1 February 2016 and, on 15 March 2016, Htin Kyaw was elected as the first non-
military president of the country since the Military coup of 1962.[59][60] Aung San Suu Kyi assumed the newly created
role of the State Counsellor, a position similar to Prime Minister, on 6 April 2016.
The resounding victory of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy in 2015 general elections has raised
hope for a successful transition of Myanmar from a closely held military rule to a free democratic system. However,
internal political turmoil, crumbling economy and ethnic strife continue to make the transition to democracy a painful
one. The recent murder of Ko Ni, a prominent Muslim lawyer and a key member of Myanmar’s governing National
League for Democracy party is seen as a serious blow to the country’s fragile democracy. Mr. Ko Ni’s murder is
feared to be depriving Aung San Suu Kyi of trusted adviser, particularly on reforming Myanmar’s military-drafted
Constitution and ushering the country to democracy.

National symbols of Myanmar

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This article contains Burmese

script. Without proper rendering
support, you may see question
marks, boxes, or other
symbolsinstead of Burmese script.

The national symbols of Myanmar (also known as Burma) are icons, symbols and other cultural expressions
which are seen as representative of the Burmese people. These have been accumulated over centuries and are
mainly from the Bamar majority, while other ethnic groups also maintain their own symbols.
No official codification or de jure recognition exists, but most of these symbols are seen as de facto representative of
the Burmese people. The use of much of these symbols were cultivated during the Konbaung dynasty which ruled
the country from 1761 to 1885.

Contents

 1Flora
 2Fauna
 3Food
 4Sport
 5Musical instruments
 6See also
 7References

Flora[edit]
The Burmese ascribe a flower to each of the twelve months of the traditional Burmese calendar.[1] However, two
flowers are seen as national symbols.

The padauk (Burmese: ပိတောက်) is referred to as the national flower of Myanmar and is associated

with the Thingyan period (Burmese New Year, usually mid-April). Unfortunately, it is often mistaken
with the Cassia fistula(Ngu-wah), which is the national flower of Thailand. [2]

The Bulbophyllum auricomum or thazin orchid (Burmese: သဇင်) is another national flower.

[2]
 According to a Burmese poem, during the Konbaung era, the king had the right to claim the first
flowering bud of thazin within the realm and any transgression was punishable by death.

The ingyin (အင်ကြင်း ) is the third national flower of Myanmar. [2]

Fauna[edit]

The green peafowl, called the 'daung' (Burmese: ဒေါင်း) or u-doung in Burmese, is one of the
national animals of Myanmar. It is strongly associated with the Konbaung monarchy and the anti-
colonial nationalist movements and thus is popularly seen as the symbol of the Burmese state. The
dancing peacock, ka-daung (Burmese: ကဒေါင်း) was used as the symbol of the Burmese monarch
and was stamped on the highest denominator coins minted by Burma's last dynasty. Upon
independence, it was again featured on Burmese banknotes from 1948 til 1966. The 'dancing
 peacock' also appeared on certain flags of the Konbaung dynasty, British Burma and also the State
of Burma which was a collaborationist Japanese client state during the Second World War.

An alternative pose, to denote struggle, is the fighting peacock, khoot-daung (Burmese: ခြတ္ဒေါင်း )

as seen visibly on the party flag of Aung San Suu Kyi's de jure disbanded National League for
Democracy. Due to the political connections, the peacock has been discarded in favour of the
Chinthe by the military juntawhich ruled Burma after 1988.

The chinthe, (Burmese: ခြင်္သေ့ ) a leogryph found mainly in front of pagodas and temples, have
been promoted by the previous military government as the symbol of state. The Chinthe had been
used as a symbol of state, mainly as a supporting figure to the peacock, after independence, but it
became more prominent only after 1988 - when it began to appear on almost all denominations of
Burmese banknotes and coins (1999).

The main throne of the later Konbaung dynasty was the Golden Lion Throne (Burmese: သီဟာသန
ပလ္လင်).

The white elephant (Burmese: ဆင်ဖြူတော် ) is another symbol of state associated with the days of

the monarchy. Like in neighbouring Thailand, the white elephant is revered as a blessing towards
the entire country. The importance of the white elephant to Burmese and Theravada culture can be
traced to the role which white elephants play in Buddhist cosmology and the Jatakas. Hsinbyushin,
the name of a Konbaung King means 'Lord of the White Elephant'.

Food[edit]
A popular saying states "A thee ma, thayet; a thar ma, wet; a ywet ma, lahpet" (အသီးမှ သရက်၊ အသားမှ ဝက်၊ အရွက်မှ
လက်ဖက်။), translated as "Of all the fruit, the mango's the best; of all the meat, the pork's the best; and of all the
leaves, lahpet's the best".

Mohinga is the de facto national dish of Myanmar. [3] It is a rice noodle dish served with thick fish
broth and is generally eaten for breakfast. The main ingredients of the broth are catfish, chickpea
flour, lemongrass, banana stem, garlic, onion, ginger and ngapi.

Laphet thoke is another symbolic dish of Myanmar, albeit a snack. It consists of pickled tea leaves
soaked in oil eaten with an assortment of fritters including roasted groundnuts, deep fried garlic,
sun dried prawns, toasted sesame and deep fried crispy beans. Laphet is served in a traditional 'oat'
- a lacquer container with individual compartments for each ingredients. Lahpet was an ancient
symbolic peace offering between warring kingdoms in the history of Myanmar, and is exchanged
and consumed after settling a dispute.

Sport[edit]

Chinlone is the national sport of Myanmar.[4] A non-competitive sport, the game focuses on players
attempting to exhibit moves designed to prevent the ball from touching the ground, without using
their hands. Mandalay is a major centre for playing and learning chinlone.

Musical instruments[edit]

The saung or Burmese harp, is the national musical instrument of Myanmar. [5] Although not used
much in modern music, it is seen as the epitome of Burmese culture. It is the only surviving harp in
Asia.[6]
 The hne is another national instrument.

See also
Religion in Myanmar
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Religion in Myanmar (2014 Myanmar Census)[1][note 1]

  Buddhism (88%)

  Christianity (6.2%)

  Islam (4.2%)

  Hinduism (0.5%)

  Tribal religions (0.8%)

  Other (0.2%)

  No religion (0.1%)

Myanmar (Burma) is a multi-religious country. There is no official state religion, but the government shows
preference for Theravada Buddhism, the majority religion.[2] According to both the 2014 census of the Burmese
government Buddhism is the dominant religion, of 88% of the population, practiced especially by
the Bamar, Rakhine, Shan, Mon, Karen people and Chinese ethnic groups. Bamar people also practice
the Burmese folk religion under the name of Buddhism. The new constitution provides for the freedom of religion;
however, it also grants broad exceptions that allow the regime to restrict these rights at will.[2] Ethnic minorities
practice Christianity (6.2%, particularly the Chin, Kachin and Karen people), Islam (4.3%, particularly
the Indians, Malays, and other minorities), and Hinduism (0.5%, particularly by Burmese Indians).[1]
Nat worship is common in Myanmar. Nats are named spirits and shrines can be seen around the country, either
standing alone, or as part of Buddhist temples. Nat worship has a relationship with Myanmar Buddhism and there is
a recognised pantheon of 37 nats.

Contents

 1Census statistics
 2Buddhism in Myanmar
 3Christianity in Myanmar
 4Hinduism in Myanmar
 5Judaism in Myanmar
 6Islam in Myanmar
o 6.1Burmese Muslim groups
o 6.2Rohingya conflict
o 6.3Persecution
 7See also
 8Notes
 9References

Census statistics[edit]
Religious Population  Population  Population 
group % 1973[1] % 1983[1] % 2014[1]
Buddhism 88.8% 89.4% 87.9%
Christianity 4.6% 4.9% 6.2%
 Religious Population  Population  Population 
group % 1973[1] % 1983[1] % 2014[1]
Islam 3.9% 3.9% 4.3%
Hinduism 0.4% 0.5% 0.5%
Tribal religions 2.2% 1.2% 0.8%
Other
0.1% 0.1% 0.2%
religions
Not religious n/a n/a 0.1%

 Note: the figures of Burma's Muslim population is divided into two. One that ignores the people who are
believed to be not citizens of Burma and the other that includes them. Without these people in the
demographics the Muslim population will only be as low as 2.3℅ of the whole population of Burma. Many
minority religions claim that they have a greater following than the official statistics but they also tend to over-
represent the number of adherents.[citation needed]

Buddhism in Myanmar[edit]
Further information: Buddhism in Myanmar

Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon - the most revered pagoda in Myanmar

The Payathonzu Temple is built in the Mon style.

Buddhism in Myanmar is predominantly of the Theravada tradition, practised by 88% of the country's population.[1][3]

[4]
 It is the most religious Buddhist country in terms of the proportion of monks in the population and proportion of
income spent on religion.[5]
Adherents are most likely found among the dominant ethnic Bamar, Shan, Rakhine, Mon, Karen, and Chinese who
are well integrated into Burmese society. Monks, collectively known as the Sangha, are venerated members of
Burmese society. Among many ethnic groups in Myanmar, including the Bamar and Shan, Theravada Buddhism is
practised in conjunction with nat worship, which involves the placation of spirits who can intercede in worldly affairs.
Buddhists, although clearly professed by the majority of people in Myanmar, have their complaints regarding
religious freedom. A political party, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, split from the main Karen nationalist
movement, the Karen National Union (KNU), after the Buddhists were denied to rebuild and repair the stupas
at Manerplaw. The top leadership of the KNU were also dominated by Christians, although roughly 65% of the
Karen are Buddhist.
Many monks took part in the 2007 Saffron Revolution and were reportedly arrested by government security forces.
Some of the leading monks are still detained in various prisons across the country.[6]

Christianity in Myanmar[edit]
Further information: Christianity in Myanmar
St. Mary's Cathedral, Yangon

Christianity is practised by 6.2% of the population,[1][7] primarily among the Kachin, Chin and Karen people,

and Eurasians because of missionary work in their respective areas. About four-fifths of the country’s Christians
are Protestants, in particular Baptists of the Myanmar Baptist Convention; Roman Catholics make up the remainder.
Christians were the fastest growing religious group in Burma for the last 3 decades, still even though that growth
gap have narrowed close to the general population they still are the fastest growing religious group.

Hinduism in Myanmar[edit]
Further information: Hinduism in Myanmar

A Hindu procession in Yangon, Myanmar

Shri Kali Temple in Yangon

Hinduism is practised by 0.5% of the population.[1][8] Most Hindus in Myanmar are Burmese Indians.

Hinduism, along with Buddhism, arrived in Burma during ancient times. Both names of the country are rooted in
Hinduism; Burma is the British colonial officials' phonetic equivalent for the first half of Brahma Desha the ancient
name of the region.[9] Brahma is part of Hindu trinity, a deity with four heads. The name Myanmar is regional
language[10] transliteration of Brahma, where b and m are interchangeable.[9]
Arakan (Rakhine) Yoma is a significant natural mountainous barrier between Burma and India, and the migration of
Hinduism and Buddhism into Burma occurred slowly through Manipur and by South Asian seaborne traders.
Hinduism greatly influenced the royal court of Burmese kings in pre-colonial times, as seen in the architecture of
cities such as Bagan. Likewise, the Burmese language adopted many words from Sanskrit and Pali, many of which
relate to religion. While ancient and medieval arrival of ideas and culture fusion transformed Burma over time, it is in
19th and 20th century that over a million Hindu workers were brought in by British colonial government to serve in
plantations and mines. The British also felt that surrounding the European residential centre with Indian immigrants
provided a buffer and a degree of security from tribal theft and raids. According to 1931 census, 55% of Rangoon's
(Yangon) population were Indian migrants, mostly Hindus.[11] After independence from Britain, Burma Socialist
Programme Party under Ne Win adopted xenophobic policies and expelled 300,000 Indian ethnic people (Hindus
and Buddhists), along with 100,000 Chinese, from Burma between 1963 and 1967. The Indian policy of encouraging
democratic protests in Burma increased persecution of Hindus, as well as led to Burmese retaliatory support of left-
leaning rebel groups in northeastern states of India.[11] Since the 1990s, the opening of Burma and its greater
economic engagement has led to general improvement in the acceptance of Hindus and other minority religions in
Myanmar.
Aspects of Hinduism continue in Burma today, even in the majority Buddhist culture. For example, Thagyamin is
worshipped whose origins are in the Hindu god Indra. Burmese literature has also been enriched by Hinduism,
including the Burmese adaptation of the Ramayana, called Yama Zatdaw. Many Hindu gods are likewise
worshipped by many Burmese people, such as Saraswati (known as Thuyathadi in Burmese), the goddess of
knowledge, who is often worshipped before examinations; Shiva is called Paramizwa; Vishnu is called Withano, and
others. Many of these ideas are part of thirty seven Nat or deities found in Burmese culture.[12]
In modern Myanmar, most Hindus are found in the urban centres of Yangon and Mandalay. Ancient Hindu temples
are present in other parts of Burma, such as the 11th-century Nathlaung Kyaung Temple dedicated to Vishnu
in Bagan.

Judaism in Myanmar[edit]
Although Burma's Jews once numbered in the thousands, there are currently only approximately twenty Jews
in Yangon (Rangoon), where the country's only synagogue is. Most Jews left Myanmar at the commencement of the
Second World War, and also after General Ne Wintook over in 1962.

Islam in Myanmar[edit]
Further information: Islam in Myanmar

Bengali Sunni Jameh Mosque in Yangon

Islam, mainly of the Sunni group, is practised by 4.3% of the population according to the government census.[1]
Burmese Muslim groups[edit]

 Muslims are spread across the country in small communities. The Indian-descended Muslims live mainly
in Rangoon. See Burmese Indian Muslims.
 Rohingyas, a minority Muslim ethnic group in northern Rakhine State, Western Burma. The Rohingya
population is mostly concentrated in five northern townships of Rakhine
State: Maungdaw, Buthidaung, Rathedaung, Akyab, Sandway, Tongo, Shokepro, Rashong Island
and Kyauktaw.
 Panthay, Burmese Chinese Muslims.
 Muslims of Malay ancestry in Kawthaung. People of Malay ancestry are locally called Pashu regardless of
religion.
 Zerbadi Muslims are descendent community of intermarriages between foreign Muslim (South
Asian and Middle Eastern) males and Burmese females.[13]
 Kamein
Rohingya conflict[edit]
Main article: Rohingya rebellion in Western Burma

Around 800,000 Muslim Rohingyas live in Burma with around 80% living in the western state of Rakhine. Some
Rohingya militant have been fighting on and off since the 1940s to create an Islamic state in Western Burma.
[14]
 Their initial ambition during Mujahideen movements (1947-1961) was to separate the Rohingya-
populated Mayu frontier region of Arakan from western Burma and annex that region into newly formed
neighbouring East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh).[15]
In the 1970s, uprisings appeared again during the period of the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971. Recently,
during the Arakan State Riots, the aspiration of the Rohingya militant groups, according to various media reports, is
to create northern part of Arakan an independent or autonomous state.[16][17]
According to the US State Department’s 2009 international religious freedom report, the country's non-Buddhist
populations were underestimated in the census. Islamic scholars claim the country's Muslim population at around 6
to 10% of the total populace.[18] Muslims are divided amongst Indians, Indo-Burmese, Persians, Arabs, Panthays and
the Chinese Hui people.
Persecution[edit]
Main articles: Persecution of Muslims in Myanmar and Freedom of religion in Myanmar

The Muslim population faces religious persecution in Myanmar. Since independence, successive governments (both
democratic and military) did not grant the citizenship of the Muslim Rohingya of Northern Rakhine (Arakan) and
forbid missionary activities. The Rohingyas have been forced to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh or to Muslim
states.
Their claim to citizenship has been marred by disputes with the ethnic Arakanese, who are mainly Buddhists. Aye
Chan, a historian at the Kanda University, has written that as a consequence of acquiring arms from the British
during World War II, Rohingyas tried to destroy the Arakanese villages instead of resisting the Japanese.[19] On 28
March 1942, Rohingya Muslims from Northern Rakhine State killed around 20,000 Arakanese. In return, around
5,000 Muslims in the Minbya and Mrohaung Townships were killed by Rakhine nationalists and Karenni.[20]

See also[edit]
 Burmese folk religion

Languages of Myanmar
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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A map of languages used in Burma.

There are approximately a hundred languages spoken in Myanmar (also known as Burma).[1] Burmese, spoken by
two thirds of the population, is the official language.[2]
Languages spoken by ethnic minorities represent six language families: Sino-Tibetan, Austro-Asiatic, Tai–
Kadai, Indo-European, Austronesian, and Hmong–Mien, [3] as well as an incipient national standard for Burmese
sign language.[4]
 Contents

 1Burmese
 2Indigenous languages
o 2.1Sino-Tibetan
o 2.2Austroasiatic
o 2.3Kra-Dai
o 2.4Austronesian
o 2.5Hmong-Mien
o 2.6Indo-Aryan
 3English as a second language
 4See also
 5Footnotes
 6References
 7Bibliography
 8External links

Burmese[edit]
Further information: Burmese language

Burmese is the native language of the Bamar people and related sub-ethnic groups of the Bamar, as well as that of
some ethnic minorities in Burma like the Mon. Burmese is spoken by 32 million people as a first language. Burmese
is spoken as a second language by another 10 million people, particularly ethnic minorities in Burma and those in
neighbouring countries.
Burmese is a Sino-Tibetan language belonging to the Southern Burmish branch of the Tibeto-Burman languages.
Burmese is the most widely spoken of the Tibeto-Burman languages and among the Sino-Tibetan languages, the
second most widely spoken, after the Sinitic languages.[5] Burmese was the fourth of the Sino-Tibetan languages to
develop a writing system, after Chinese, Tibetan, and Tangut.[5]
As far as Natural Language Processing (NLP) research dealing with interaction of computers and Burmese human-
spoken language is concerned, during the period spanning more than 25 years, from 1990 to 2016, notable work
has been done and annotated in the areas of Burmese language Word Identification, Segmentation,
Disambiguation, Collation, Semantic Parsing and Tokenization followed by Part-Of-Speech (POS) Tagging, Machine
Translation Systems (MTS), Text Keying/Input, Text Recognition and Text Display Methods.[6] The scope for further
research too has been explored for areas of parallel corpus development as well as development of Search Engine
and WordNet for the Burmese language.[6]English Zawgyi

Indigenous languages[edit]
Aside from Myanmar (Burmese) and its dialects, the hundred or so languages of Myanmar include Shan (Tai,
spoken by 3.2 million), Karen languages (spoken by 2.6 million), Kachin(spoken by 900,000), various Chin
languages (spoken by 780,000), and Mon (Mon–Khmer, spoken by 750,000).[1][3] Most of these languages use the
Myanmar (Burmese) script.
In Myanmar, usage of its minority languages is discouraged.[7]
It's not clear if there are one or two Burmese sign languages.
Sino-Tibetan[edit]

 Chin languages
 Anu-Hkongso
 Shö
 Bawm
 Daai
 Khumi
 Falam
 Hakha Chin
 Kaang
 Laitu
 Lautu
 Mara
 Nga La
 Mizo
 Mün
 Ngawn
 Welaung
 Rungtu
 Senthang
 Sizang
 Songlai
  Sumtu
 Tawr
 Tedim
 Thadou
 Thaiphum
 Zotung
 Zyphe
 Other
 Akeu
 Akha
 Anal
 Nung
 Sak
 Derung
 Hpon
 Kadu
 Ganan
 Kayaw
 Red Karen
 Padaung
 Kayaw
 Lashi
 Lahta
 Lahu
 Lhao Vo
 Lisu
 Mru
 Mro
 Akyaung Ari
 Kayaw
 Eastern Pwo
 Western Pwo
 Para
 Khiamniungan
 Koki
 Konyak
 Leinong
 Tangsa
 Long Phuri
 Makury
 Ponyo
 Tangkhul
 Tangsa
 Achang
 Nusu
 Pa'o
 Pyen
 Arakanese
 Rawang
 Riang
 Taman
 Khams Tibetan
 Geko Karen
 Zaiwa
 Zou
Austroasiatic[edit]

 Blang
 Danau
 Muak Sa-aak
 Palaung
 Riang
 Blang
 Tai Loi
 Wa
Kra-Dai[edit]

 Khamti
 Khün
 Tai Lue
 Tai Laing
 Tai Nuea
Austronesian[edit]

 Kedah Malay
 Moken
Hmong-Mien[edit]

 Hmong
Indo-Aryan[edit]

 Chakma
 Rohingya

English as a second language[edit]

Newspapers in the street of Yangon (February 2006) including publications also in English

Today, Burmese is the primary language of instruction, and English is the secondary language taught.[7] English was
the primary language of instruction in higher education from late 19th century to 1964, when Gen. Ne Win mandated
educational reforms to "Burmanise".[8] English continues to be used by educated urbanites and the national
government.

See also