Bamar

Influx

  • Aka Mranma.
  • “the people of the ancient kingdom of Sanxingdui in Sichuan (in the 12th–11th centuries BCE) were probably ancestral to the later Tibet-Burmans and perhaps even more narrowly to the ancestors of the Burmese-Yi speakers at Dian and Yelang.”
  • “During the Tang dynasty in China, Yunnan as well as northern Burma was ruled by the Burmese-Yi speaking Nanzhao kingdom. It was during this Burmese-Yi Nanzhao domination of northern Burma that the first Burmese-Yi speakers probably entered the Irrawaddy valley in large numbers, and established the outpost of Pagan or Bagan. The naming system of the earliest Bagan kings is identical to the naming system of the Nanzhao kings. Sculptures found in Halin to the north are almost identical to Nanzhao sculptures. "
  • “The Bamar speak Burmese language, a Sino-Tibetan language. The Burmese-speaking people first migrated from present-day Yunnan, China to the Irrawaddy valley in the 7th century. Over the following centuries, the Burmese speakers absorbed other ethnic groups such as the Pyu and the Mon.”
  • “The Rakhine, although culturally distinct from the Bamar, are ethnically related and speak a dialect of Burmese.”
  • “Karen/ Kayin refers to a heterogeneous lot of ethnic groups that do not share a common language, culture, religion, or material characteristics. … It is estimated by linguists Luce and Lehman that the Tibeto-Burman peoples such as the Karen migrated into present day Burma between AD 300 and AD 800.”
  • Kuki-Chins came down and settled in Mizoram area. Among them, Christianity grew from 35% in 1966 to 90% in 2010. 60k Chins became refugess in India.

Religion

  • The Bamar practise theravAda Buddhism along with Nat worship which predated Buddhism. The acquired this and many other traits from pre-existing Mon.

Dominance over Pyu

  • For conquest of Pyu, see pyu page.
  • In 1050s and 1060s King Anawrahta (aka aniruddha) founded the Pagan Empire, for the first time unifying under one polity the Irrawaddy valley and its periphery.
  • “In the 12th and 13th centuries, Pagan, alongside the Khmer Empire, was one of two main empires in mainland Southeast Asia.”

Dominance by Shan

  • Repeated Mongol invasions (1277–1301) toppled the four-century-old kingdom in 1287. Shan migrants who arrived with the Mongol invasions stayed behind. Several competing Shan States came to dominate the entire northwestern to eastern arc surrounding the Irrawaddy valley. The collapse was followed by 250 years of political fragmentation that lasted well into the 16th century.
  • Ava was led by Bamarised Shan kings who claimed descent from the kings of Pagan. Ava was under intensified Shan raids for the first quarter of the 16th century. In 1527, the Confederation of Shan States, led by the state of Mohnyin in alliance with Prome, sacked Ava.

Toungoo revival

  • “Toungoo’s inevitable break with Ava came soon after the death of Minkhaung II in 1501. … "
  • “Fortunately for Toungoo, the Confederation’s paramount leader Saw Lon was assassinated a few months later, and the coalition suddenly ceased to be a coherent force. … Tabinshwehti and his court decided to take advantage of the lull, and break out of their increasingly narrow realm by attacking Hanthawaddy, the larger and wealthier but disunited kingdom to the south. In 1534, Toungoo forces began annual raids into Hanthawaddy territory.”
  • For subjugation of Mon, see mon page.
  • “Toungoo went on to conquer all of Lower Burma by 1541, gaining complete control of Lower Burma’s manpower, access to Portuguese firearms and maritime wealth to pay for them. … The victories were enabled by a more martial culture and greater military experience of Toungoo armies, Portuguese firearms, and the greater manpower that came with each successive victory.”
  • “the upstart kingdom seized up to Pagan (Bagan) from the Confederation by 1545. The campaigns against Arakan (1545–47) and Siam (1547–49), however, fell short.”
  • “Over the next decade, a series of “breathtaking campaigns” reduced Manipur and the entire Tai-Shan world to tributary status: cis-Salween Shan states (1557), Lan Na (1558), Manipur (1560), Keng Tung (1562), the Chinese Shan States (1563), Siam (1564) and Lan Xang (1565).”
  • “In response to competing requests by the Ceylonese kingdoms of Kotte and Kandy for military aid, he finally sent an elite army in 1576 to Kotte, which he considered a protectorate, ostensibly to protect Theravada Buddhism on the island from the Portuguese threat.”
  • “By 1622, a branch of the fallen house (known retrospectively as the Restored Toungoo Dynasty or Nyaungyan Dynasty) had succeeded in reconstituting a major portion of the First Toungoo Empire, except for Siam, Lan Xang and Manipur. " Aka Nyaungyan Restoration (1599–1752).