Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
HISTORY
Myanmar's past reflects its unique geographical location at the cultural watershed
between China, Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent, and the country has been
buffeted throughout its history by the rival claims of competing kingdoms and cultures
- not to mention the conflicting demands of its numerous ethnic groups and the trau-
matic effects of colonial occupation. Myanmar's tendency to disintegrate into compet-
ingkingdoms(oftendividedalongethniclines)hasbeenarepeatedfeatureofitshistory,
like a kind of tropical Yugoslavia, and the threat of imminent Balkanization continues
to hang over the country right up to the present day.
Physically, Myanmar grew up around its great river valleys, particularly the mighty
Ayeyar-
wady
- a cradle of civilization every bit as impressive as the Ganges, Indus or Nile. Cultur-
ally, the unifying effect of
Theravada Buddhism
has played a major role in uniting Bamar,
Mon and other Burmese peoples throughout their history, although significant Christian and
Muslim minorities remain.
Written
records
of early Burmese history are slight - much of what is known about the Pyu
- the first recorded settlers - for example, comes from Chinese annals (and the now extinct
Pyu language itself wasn't deciphered until the early twentieth century) - while even some
quite basic assumptions about Burmese history have been repeatedly questioned. Many de-
tails remain politically charged to this day (the exact role of the Mon in the development of
the Bagan Empire, for example). Early
dates
can also be problematic - two different dating
systems exist for the rulers of Bagan, for instance, meaning that sources don't always agree.
Prehistory
The first modern humans,
Homo erectus
, are thought to have arrived in Myanmar as early
as 750,000 BC, settling around the Ayeyarwady River.
Homo sapiens
appears to have been
presentinMyanmarsinceatleast11,000BC,judgingbyarcheologicalfindsfromthePadah-
Lin Caves near Taunggyi, including pieces of charcoal, stone tools, fragments of bone and
simple cave paintings in red ochre.
By 1500 BC, the inhabitants of Myanmar had spread along the Ayeyarwady and Chindwin
riversandoutintotheareasthatnowformShanandKachinstates.Inhabitantsofthecopper-
rich Shan hills had begun to smelt
bronze
, while in the river valleys the art of growing
rice had also been mastered - although perhaps the most notable achievement of the early
Burmese is to have been among the first people in the world to have domesticated the chick-
en. By 500 BC villages in the vicinity of modern Mandalay were producing
iron
, while there
is also evidence of trade both locally and as far afield as China - a precursor of the human
migrations from southern China into Myanmar that were to prove so crucial in the country's
early development.
