The Golden days of the 

Great Shan Empire I

 

 

Please may you kindly allow me to acknowledge the references first, as I wish to write this in a series of a few short articles.

REFERENCES

1. Wikipedia encyclopedia
2. The Encyclopedia of World History. 
3. “Story of Myanmar told in pictures” by Dr Than Tun and translated by Maung Win War.
4.  The Shan Herald Agency News’ Shan State Affairs section, Shan History.
5. The folk tales of our Ethnic Minorities.
6. The old records of Chinese and Indian travelers’ chronicles.
7. Thailand and Khmer chronicles,
8. From Hman Nan Yar Za Won, “The Glass Palace Chronicle of the Kings of Burma” (Pe Maung Tin and G.H.Luce, Rangoon University Press, Rangoon, Burma, January 1960.),
9. Dr Than Tun (History Professor, Mandalay University) “Chin, Myu and Khumi, Notthern Rakhine” in Myanmar Magazine Kalya 1994 August and other publications
10. HGE Hall, “History of Southeast Asia”.
11. Burma’s old history text books published by Burmese Education Ministry. 
12.  Edward Albert Gait’s “A history of Assam” book, published by Thacker, Spink in1963 at Calcutta.
13. “Shan State and Union of Burma“_ Editorial: Sai Wansai, 12.02.2006 Issue of Burma Digest
14. “Believing in a Change“_ Interview with: Sao Harn Yawnghwe
15. “Dialogue with a Shan Leader“_ Interview with Tiger Yawnghwe
16. “We Shall Cooperate with All Genuine Democrats“_ The Shan’s Pledge: Sao Hso Khan Pha
17. “Shan People, Shan State & Shan Government“ _ Special Report: Interim Shan Government
18. “Shan Nationals“_ Commentary: Feraya Nangmone 
19. “Letter 1: A Valentine Present with Love” _  Compassionate Letters: Bo Aung Din
20. “Shan Freedom Fighters, Photo article: Chris Sinclair & Tai Sam Yone
21. SAI AUNG TUN, Yangon University, “The Tai Ethnic Migration and Settlement in Myanmar” By the assistance of the Yunnan Institute for Nationalities, China and the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University, Japan he had  attended the Kunming International Workshop on the “Dynamics of Ethnic Cultures Across National Boundaries in Southwestern China and Mainland.
22. Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
23. “Detained Ethnic Leaders Denied Outside Medical Aid“, By Shah Paung, January 8, 2008, Irrawaddy.
24. The Kachin Hill Manual. Rangoon: The Superintendent Government Printing, Union of Burma, 1959. pp. 17-18
25. G.E. Harvey. History of Burma, from “The Earliest Time to March 1824, The Beginning of English Conquest”. London: Frank Case and Co. Ltd., 1967. p. 160.
26. Sir Arthur P. Phayre. History of Burma, Including Burma Proper, Taungu, Tenasserim and Arakan. London: 1883. pp. 290-291. 
27. “The Story of Myanmar told in pictures”, by the famous historian Dr Than Tun.

 Brief history review

Burma, Shan and Thailand

It is interesting to note that the linkage and emergence of the modern Shan State, Burma/Myanmar, Thailand and  Southeast Asia is so intertwined, interdependent and reciprocally affected each other that it is almost impossible to  discuss the making of the historical formation, migration, evolution and progress of these nations, states and ethnic groups separately. Because the history of Shans had also greatly influenced the history of the Burma’s national day and the formation of the Union of Burma.

 

Burma or Myanmar

 

 

Kindly allow me to discuss all those historical events in this series, rather in a random order and not according to the exact time line. I hope we could use a virtual time machine to look at each and every nation, ethnic group and the unfolding of the important historical events. Excuse me for repeating some events repeatedly because I believe that by doing so only, we could grasp the cause/affect and not to lost the the flow of the natural series of events.

Shans

Shan is a Burmese rendering of Siam. The Thai call our Shans as Thai-yai or Elder Thai – and Tai or Thai is only a dialectical rendering.

The Tai Speaking Peoples stretch from North East India, through Burma, the Kachin and Shan States, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and south and southwest China.

Chinese Prime Minister Chou-en-lai of PRC [Communist Mainland China] said in 1957 to Soa Shwe Thaike, who was the first President of the Independent Burma, that in China there were then 100million Tai/Dai Speaking Peoples in China.                                                 

Orientation of Shan State

 

(Nan Cho) Shan before taking over Pagan, Assam, Pegu and Khmer Empires   

 

Ethnic Groups in Yunnan and Myanmar

The regions of Southwestern China and mainland Southeast Asia have been settled by many ethnic peoples since ancient times.

 

Effects of the Himalaya mountain range between China and India.

Their history has been marked by struggles, wars, alliances, the creation and disintegration of their Baans (villages), Mongs (city-states), kingdoms and empires, and the efforts to re-create new ones in new lands.

Burma: “The highway between India and China”

India and China are the world’s biggest and ancient cradle of civilizations. High, snow peaked, rough and steep Himalaya mountain ranges block the direct interaction or travelling between the two of them except for the virtual highway through Myanmar/Burma.

So there were a lot of travelers, migrants, victims of disasters and famine, war refugees and etc moving along this Burma Highway and some of them settled down in Burma temporary or permanently.

Myanmar Neighbours, China and  India

separated by Himilayan mountain ranges 

In the official Thailand History books, they even claim that all of the Tibeto-Burman groups including Tibet came down from Yunnan stressing that Tibet had made an almost U turn and climbed beck onto the Tibet Highlands.

There was the Burma Road which linked Burma and China. Its terminals are Kunming in China and Lashio in Burma. The road is about 1,130 kilometres long and runs through rough mountain country. General Merrill and General Stillwell built during the colonial times under British. When the Japanese overran sections of the Burma Road the Allies built the Ledo Road, also later known as the Stillwell Road. Ledo Road was built from Ledo in Assam into the Hukawng Valley as an alternative to the Burma Road. It was completed in January 1945 and was renamed Stilwell Road by Chiang Kai-shek.

 

Situation of Myanmar as a convenient highway between India and China 

Now China and India are negotiating with Myanmar to build a modern high way liking their countries through Burma including to lay natural gas pipe line from Rakhine to India, Yunnan, China.

Recently Indian President went to Myanmar and signed an agreement to lay natural gas pipe line through Rakhine from Myanmar to India.

And there is already an agreement to connect the gas pipe line from through Rakhine from Myanmar to Yunnan China. So these high ways and pipelines would become the renaissance of our forefather’s migration. 

Some ethnic groups succeeded in creating highly organized kingdoms and empires, but others failed and, abandoning their old settlements, continued their migration south- and southeastward.Their migration was sometimes gentle, sometimes forceful depending on the pressures from new emigrants and the conflicts that took place among themselves.

Indonesians, Malays and Polynesians were believed to be the earliest migrants came down from Yunnan through Burma to their homelands in south.

Myanmar highway along the valleys with water-supply along it, connecting China and ASEAN.

 Those who picked hilltops and deep valleys for their settlements and were cut off and isolated from their parent stock became in the process of time a new ethnic group with a distinctive culture of their own, their linguistic affiliation later to be established by linguists and philologists. They survived on a simple sustainable type of economy and came to have new local names. 

Strategic situation of Myanmar between its Neighbours (China, India, Bangladesh, Thailand and Laos)

Myanmar highway, connecting China and ASEAN.

Indonesians, Malays and Polynesians were believed to be the earliest migrants came down from Yunnan through Burma to their homelands in south.

Human migration from one region to another is known to have taken place since time immemorial. Even after “national” boundaries appeared in history, the migration process remained an on-going one, and the trends of human migration have continued to the present time, gathering momentum and involving large numbers of people at certain times more than others. In some places ethnic crossings over national boundaries become serious problems and disputes over such issues are common between adjacent countries. Today any ethnic problem occurring along a border can precipitate an international crisis, which may need either a short or a long term solution. 

Myanmar in ASEAN

Ethnology has also become a subject of study for scholars of international relations. Words such as ethnic identity, ethnic adaptation, ethnicity, ethnic politics, ethnic consciousness, ethnocentrism, ethnic discrimination, ethnic conflict, ethnic attachment, ethnic ideology, ethnic aspects, ethnic responses, ethnic issues, ethnic plurality, ethnic relations, ethnic misunderstanding, multi-ethnic problems, ethnogency and ethnography have become catch-words of the ethnologists in their dealings with ethnic issues in our international setting. 

 Orietation of Myanmar in the world map

In some countries, national governments have explicitly provided in their Constitutions certain provisions, regulations, and laws regarding the rights and roles of ethnic minorities.Assurances and guarantees are given for the promotion and preservation of their cultures, languages, customs, traditions and beliefs.

Usually, boundaries and areas that we call ethnic autonomy, ethnic centers, ethnic zones, ethnic belts, or ethnic communities are demarcated by national governments with the intention of having harmonious relationships among ethnic nationalities. Opportunities are also provided to ethnic nationalities to participate in local administration, in the management of national development projects and in the defense of sovereignty. In some countries provided with such assurances and guarantees, ethnic peoples co-exist peacefully and have cordial relations with each other.

But in other places, racial prejudices are so deep-seated and socio-religious differences so great that conflict has occurred, quarrels have developed into armed clashes and ethnic cleansing, leading to loss of lives and property, and upheavals on a large scale. Such unrest and violent outbreaks have led to renewed ethnic migrations from one region to another and across national boundaries.    

Burma or Myanmar

Yunnan, where numerous ethnic peoples make their homeland, is situated in southwest China, bounded on the north by Sichuan and Sizang (Sikang), on the east by Guizhou and Guangxi, on the south by Vietnam and Myanmar, and on the west by Myanmar and Assam. It is extremely mountainous with only a limited area of level plains.

It is furrowed by the Taiping, Shweli, Salween, Mekong, Black and Red rivers.The Salween and the Mekong are rivers of great length, having their sources in the interior part of Tibet, and flowing through Yunnan and the neighboring lands of Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.

The basins of these rivers and their tributaries form deep, narrow valleys which, with the high parallel mountain ranges running generally north and south, constitute a favourable home for numerous ethnic minorities.

Yunnan shares a long common border with Myanmar and many ethnic groups that live in Yunnan can also be found in Myanmar. For example, the following ethnic nationalities, among many others, are common to both Yunnan and Myanmar:
1. Miao (Mhong)
2. Yao
3. Minchia (Pe-tso)
4. Wa
5. La
6. P’u-man
7. Palaung
8. K’a-mu
9. Shan (Tai)
10. Chinese
11. Tibetan (Petorpo)
12. Li-so (Li-su)
13. Mo-so (Na-She)
14. La-hu (Lo-hei)
15. A-ch’ang (Maingtha)
16. Ma-ru
17. La-shi
18. Kachin (Ching P’aw)
19. A-K’aLinguistically these ethnic peoples belong to three families: Mon-Khmer, Tai, Chinese and Tibeto-Burman.  

Please continue to read the  The Golden days of the Great Shan Empire  II