built in 586 B. C., which is probably within a few centuries
of the true date. The village was rebuilt by the Talaing king of Pegu
about 744 A. D. The great pagoda, upon which an expensive
_htee_ or umbrella had been placed in 1540, was still further
improved, "to rival the one at Pegu." (The present _htee_ was placed
on the Shwe Dagon pagoda in 1871, by Mindon Min.) But the Talaing
capital of Lower Burma, Pegu, had not yet been taken. We have seen
that in 1613 Syriam was destroyed by the Burmans because of De Brito's
aggressions.
Now, in 1755, both British and French traders were established there.
During the struggles between the Burmans and Talaings, the Europeans
hardly knew which should have their favour and help. Everything
depended on being on the side which should prove victorious.
Alaungpra, after securing Rangoon, returned to Ava. This was
interpreted as a sign of weakness, and thereafter the Europeans openly
showed their sympathy with the Talaings. When the Talaings attacked
the Burmese, they were assisted by the ships of both British and
French.
But alas, Alaungpra returned early in the following year. After a
blockade of several months Syriam was taken and destroyed, including
the European factories. The principal Europeans, after being held a
short time as prisoners, were put to death. The downfall of Pegu soon
followed, marking the end of Talaing supremacy.
Six years later, 1762, Sagaing became the capital of the Burmese
Empire. Passing over the wars with Siam, Manipur, and China, we find
the capital changed, in 1783, to Amarapura, a new city built for the
purpose. The following year Arracan was invaded and conquered. The
most valued booty was an immense brass image of Gautama, cast in the
second century, said to possess miraculous powers. This image, taken
over the mountains, a wonderful feat, was placed in a building erected
for the purpose, on the north side of Amarapura, the new capital,
where it may now be seen by visitors to the "Arracan Pagoda."
In 1795 the first envoy to the king of Burma was sent by the
government of India. The envoy was not well received, and secured no
permanent advantage. The following year another was deputed to be
resident at Rangoon, instead of Ava. He met with the same discourteous
treatment, and accomplished nothing. Up to 1812 five successive
attempts were made to arrive at an understanding with the Burman king,
with reference to political and commercial relations, but without
success. Envoys were either ignored or made the bearers of insolent
replies. At this time war between England and the United States was
about to begin. Adoniram Judson was getting ready to sail as a foreign
missionary.
In 1823 the capital was restored to Ava. A great fire at Amarapura
destroying some of the royal buildings, together with certain "bad
signs," induced the king to abandon the city which had been in
existence only forty years. During the previous year the Burmans had
overrun Manipur and parts of Assam, and claimed the territory as a
part of the Burman Empire. The first battle ever fought between the
Burmese and English was at Cachar--in January, 1824. The Burmans were
defeated. In 1824-5 the British and native troops succeeded in driving
the Burmans back into their own country. The bulk of the Burmese army
had already been recalled to repel the British who were advancing from
the south, war having been formerly declared in March, 1824. In the
meantime the American missionaries, Judson and Price, together with
all Europeans at Ava were imprisoned as suspected spies, or in league
with the enemy.
After eleven months they were transferred to Aungbinle, with the
intention to put them to death. The first Burmese war lasted two years.
Arracan, and all the country east of the Gulf of Martaban was ceded to
the British. Rangoon reverted to the Burmese. But the most interesting
result to American readers, was the release of the missionaries,
Judson and Price, who were utilized as messengers to negotiate the
terms of surrender. After the second installment of indemnity had
been paid, and the British troops withdrawn to territory ceded by
the humiliated king the following record of the affair was added to
the royal chronicles. "In the years 1186, 1187 (Burmese) the white
strangers of the west fastened a quarrel upon the Lord of the Golden
Palace.
"They landed at Rangoon, took that place and Prome, and were permitted
to advance as far as Yandabu, for the king, from motives of piety
and regard to life, made no preparation whatever to oppose them. The
strangers had spent vast sums of money in their enterprise, so that
by the time they reached Yandabu their resources were exhausted, and
they were in great distress. They then petitioned the king, who, in
his clemency and generosity, sent them large sums of money to pay
their expenses back, and ordered them out of the country." The record
modestly omitted to mention the fact that the strangers had permission
to take with them the Arracan, Ye, Tavoy, Mergui, and Tenasserim
provinces!
The whole period from 1826 to the second Burmese-English war, in 1852,
was marked by heartless cruelties inflicted by successive Burman kings
upon all real or suspected offenders; by persistent repudiation of
the terms agreed upon at the close of the first war; and by gross
insults to British representatives. The second Burmese-English war
lasted a year and a half, and resulted in the annexation of the
Province of Pegu, which included Rangoon and extended to a point
about thirty miles north of Toungoo. In about 1837 the capital was
again transferred to Amarapura, where it remained until Mandalay was
founded, in 1860, by Mindon Min. A new king, Mindon Min, was soon
proclaimed at Amarapura. Throughout his reign, from 1853 to 1878,
relations between the British and Burmese were greatly improved.
Mindon Min was the best king Burma ever had. Moreover, the loss of
Arracan, Tenasserim, and Pegu had inspired some degree of respect
for representatives of the British Indian Government. With the death
of Mindon, and the ascension of Thibaw, trouble began. The great
massacre, in which about seventy of royal blood, including women
and children, were ruthlessly butchered, called forth a vigorous
remonstrance from the British Government. An insolent reply was
returned, rejecting outside interference.
In August 1879 the resident at Mandalay was withdrawn. Massacres
soon followed, rivalling the horrors of the past. At this time many
thousands of Burmese migrated to Lower Burma to escape oppression.
Thibaw then began a flirtation with France. The Bombay Burma
Trading Company was accused of defrauding the king in the matter of
royalty on teak logs. An enormous fine was inflicted. Arbitration
was rejected. The French were conspiring with the king to gain
commercial advantages, giving them practically full control of Upper
Burma, including the only route to western China. In June, 1885, the
government of India obtained conclusive evidence as to the nature
of these negotiations. A demand was made that a British resident be
received at Mandalay, and that Thibaw reveal his foreign policy.
This ultimatum was refused. The British immediately advanced on the
capital. On the 28th of November, 1885, Mandalay was taken, and King
Thibaw made a prisoner. The great, self-sufficient Burman kingdom had
fallen to rise no more.
French diplomatists had outreached themselves, and precipitated the
annexation of Upper Burma.
On the first of January, 1886, the following proclamation was issued:
"By command of the Queen-Empress it is hereby notified that the
territories formerly governed by King Thibaw will no longer be under
his rule, but have become a part of Her Majesty's dominions, and will
during Her Majesty's pleasure, be administered by such officers as the
viceroy and government of India may from time to time appoint."
It will be seen that the Burmese throughout their history have been a
warlike people. The adoption of Buddhism, as the national religion,
with its strict rules concerning the taking of life, does not seem to
have wrought any change in this respect. The grossest cruelties were
practiced, suspected conspirators slaughtered by hundreds, generals
who had failed in battle, as well as others of high rank or noble
blood were executed, sewed up in red sacks, and sunk in the Irrawadi
River. Sometimes the preliminary execution was dispensed with.
Victorious kings built great pagodas, at the expense of the people, to
expiate their sins of bloodshed,--and then renewed the carnage.
The cruelties inflicted upon Judson and his companions at Ava and
Aungbinle; the history of Burman dacoity since the English occupation;
together with many other evidences,--stamp the Burman as far from
being the tolerant, peace-loving, life-reverencing character that
many of his admirers, on the interest of Buddhism, or Theosophy,
have pictured. It is said that a professor in a certain theological
seminary, seeking to cast discredit on the historical authenticity
of the Book of Daniel, called the attention of his class to the
unlikelihood that any Oriental monarch would have issued such decrees
as are attributed to Nebuchadnezzar, in the third chapter. To say
nothing of Mohammedan fanaticism, familiarity with Oriental character
as exhibited by Burman kings would have dispelled the professor's
doubts.
When Naungdawgyi had completed the great Shwe Dagon pagoda, in
comparison with which Nebuchadnezzar's image was Liliputian, he made
a decree that all peoples must fall down and worship it, on penalty
of death. The majority of the people being spirit-worshippers, the
decree could not be enforced. To let himself down easily, the king
commanded that a _nat-sin_, or spirit-house be erected near the
pagoda. The people coming to make offerings to the _nats_--would
also be coming to the pagoda, and so the decree would be obeyed,
and, in time, its purpose effected. The character of the Burman king
Bodaw-para, who was on the throne when Judson came to Burma, is thus
described by Father San-Germano, who lived in Burma twenty years
during this king's reign. "His very countenance is the index of a
mind ferocious and inhuman in the highest degree,--and it would not
be an exaggeration to assert that during his reign more victims have
fallen by the hand of the executioner than by the sword of the common
enemy....
"The good fortune that has attended him ... has inspired him with the
idea that he is something more than mortal, and that this privilege
has been granted him on account of his numerous good works....
"A few years since he thought to make himself a god." He did in fact,
proclaim himself as the fulfillment of the national expectation of
a fifth Buddha. Priests who refused to recognize his claims, were
punished. Who can doubt that the late King Thibaw would have been
quite capable of repeating Nebuchadnezzar's decree, had he thought of
it, and seen any advantage in it, to himself.
The census of 1901 gives the total population of the province as
10,490,624. Of this total the Burmese number 6,508,682, while the
number returning the Burmese language as their ordinary tongue was
7,006,495. The total number of Buddhists, including the Shans and
Talaings, is 9,184,121. The area of the province is 286,738 square
miles. To the casual visitor the country seems to be peopled almost
exclusively by Burmese, and Buddhism the only form of worship, the
other races inhabiting isolated parts of the country, far removed from
the main lines of travel. The population of Rangoon is about 235,000.
Buddhists and Hindus number about the same, with more than half as
many Musalmans as of either. Fifty per cent. of the population are
immigrants. Rangoon is no longer a Burman city.
In Mandalay, their last capital, and second city of Burma, the
situation is quite different. In a total of 178,000 over 152,000
are Buddhists. This city has been in existence only sixty-three
years. Its outward appearance is much the same as it was when taken
by the British in 1885. The same brick wall, twenty-six feet high,
with its crenelated top, a mile and a quarter on each side of the
square, forming an impregnable (!) barrier against all comers,--still
surrounds what was the royal town. On each side are three gates,
reached by bridges across the wide moat, which is kept filled with
water by a connection with a natural lake a few miles to the northeast.
[Illustration: BURMESE WOMAN WEAVING]
Inside of the walled town comparatively little now remains as it was
when captured. The natives occupying thatched houses, were compelled
to move outside the wall, taking their shanties with them. For this
they were amply compensated by the British Indian Government. A large
city, regularly laid out with straight wide streets, was already
flourishing outside of the walled section. Within the walls the palace
and monasteries still remain, the former now being restored by the
provincial government, at great expense. Services of the Church of
England are held in one of the large halls. In one of the buildings
near the palace the Mandalay Club is comfortably established. Several
old cannon, used by the Burmese in their wars, more for the noise they
could make than for any death-dealing powers they possessed, now adorn
the grounds. The king's monastery, and the queen's monastery, are
objects of interest. Near the former is the site of the "Incomparable"
temple, destroyed by fire in 1892. This immense structure, with its
gilded columns and lofty ceiling, was the grandest building in the
city. Near by is a huge pagoda within a high rectangular wall. The
space enclosed is subdivided into three compartments by low walls
extending around the pagoda, to represent the threefold division
of the Buddhist scriptures. These spaces contain seven hundred and
twenty shrines about fifteen feet high, their tops supported by four
columns. In the centre of each shrine, set like a gravestone in the
cement floor, is a stone tablet about three feet wide by five and a
half feet high, covered on both sides with portions of the sacred
writings. The floor around each tablet is polished by the bare feet of
many devotees,--for the "Law" is one of the "three precious things"
of Buddhism--commanding their worship. For all this immense outlay
of time and money devoted to sacred objects Mindon Min is supposed
to have secured the royal merit, freeing him from the countless
existences through which the ordinary mortal must pass. The prevailing
impression that as a result of the monastic school system all of
the Burmese males can read and write, is not corroborated by the
recent census. A little less than half (490 in each 1,000) are able
to both read and write. Doubtless a large majority spent enough of
their childhood in the monastery to acquire these accomplishments,
but, to many, they have become lost arts, through disuse. Only
fifty-five in each thousand of Burmese women can read and write. Girls
are not admitted to monastic schools. This small gain is chiefly
due to mission schools. The demand for female education is rapidly
increasing. All Burmans, except the relatively small number of
converts to Christianity, are Buddhists. Nearly all are worshippers of
idols.
A sect called Paramats was founded at the beginning of last century.
The Paramats will have nothing to do with pagodas and idols. They
respect the ordinary Buddhist priests, as representatives of Gautama,
who was the incarnation of eternal wisdom. They do not hold that
eternal wisdom is reincarnated in the priests, and therefore do not
worship them as orthodox Buddhists do. This eternal wisdom, which
existed before the world was made, and will exist throughout eternity,
fills all space, but exercises no influence over this world. Eternal
wisdom is not, except in a very vague sense, personified--as an
equivalent of the Christian conception of an eternal God. But the
Paramats have the germ of a true belief, and, as a rule, are thinking
men, which is more than can be said of the ordinary Buddhist. Numerous
in the district midway between Mandalay, and Rangoon, they furnish a
hopeful field for missionary effort.
THE SHANS
_The Shans_ rank second in point of numbers. Max Muller held that the
Shans were the first to leave their original home in western China.
Contact with the Chinese has left its mark upon them, sufficient,
apart from other evidence, to prove their origin. Having been forced
out of western China they drifted southward, and founded some of the
large towns in the territory now known as "Shan-land" as early as 400,
or 500 B. C.--if their own chronicles can be believed. But
at this point different conclusions have been reached from the same
sources of information, some accepting these dates as approximately
correct, others rejecting them as too remote by several centuries.
Indeed, it is difficult to determine whether the first migration was
southward, or to the southwest, or whether there were two migrations
simultaneously. As we have seen in our study of the Burmese, the Shans
were supreme on the Upper Irrawadi early in the Christian era, having
expelled the Burmese and taken possession of that part of the country.
It may have been as early as 400 or 500 B. C., when they
overthrew the Tagaung monarchy. My own view is that the Shans first
migrated to the southwest across the Namkham valley, founding the "Maw
Kingdom," which finally extended to the Irrawadi and Chindwin rivers
in northern Burma. And that not until several centuries later did they
extend their sway to the southeast, founding Thibaw, Mone, and other
towns.
That there is a discrepancy of ten centuries or more between this
view and the Shan Chronicles, in which the most striking feature is
exaggeration, need not disturb any one. In fact, a sound "principle
of interpretation" of legendary history, whether Burmese or Shan, is
to cut down its figures by about one half.
Near the end of the tenth century the Shans occupied Arracan about
eighteen years. The Shan kingdom continued until overcome by the
Burmese, in the middle of the eleventh century. They still remained
in power in the far north. In 1281 Shans from Siam joining with Shans
of Martaban, conquered Martaban, then with assistance of Shans from
the north they captured Pegu from the Burmans. At the beginning of
the fourteenth century the Shans were again in the ascendant in Upper
Burma, the Burmans having been weakened by Chinese invasions. The
Shans now ruled the country from the upper reaches of the Irrawadi
as far south as Prome, but not including Toungoo. All Burma was
threatened with Shan supremacy. This might have been realized but
for the Shan emperor's own recklessness and tyranny, working his own
downfall.
Kings of Shan race controlled Pegu from 1281 until conquered by the
Toungoo Burman prince, Tabin Shwe' Htee, in 1539. The Shan power in
the north having become weakened, the Burmese in 1554, captured Ava,
and in 1557 conquered the Shans throughout the Upper Irrawadi region.
Thibaw, Mone, and "Zimme" in northern Siam, fell to the Burmans a
year later. The Shans seem to have remained subject to the Burman
kings until the annexation of Upper Burma; and sometimes assisted the
Burmans in their wars with the Talaings and Siamese.
The census of 1901 gives a total of 751,759 Shan-speaking people.
Besides the northern and southern Shan States, a large number of Shans
are still found in Upper Burma, and many Shan villages throughout
Lower Burma. It is not definitely known when the Shans adopted
Buddhism. There are evidences that the Shans, who were supreme on the
Upper Irrawadi at the opening of the Christian era, and for several
centuries after, were influenced by Buddhism introduced from India
by way of Manipur, and that many accepted it. After the introduction
of Buddhism from the south it spread rapidly among the Burmese, and
through them to the Shans, becoming the national religion of both
races.
It is said that many Shan Buddhist priests sought reordination
according to the rules of the southern type of Buddhism.
The Shans established monasteries throughout their country. Under the
later Burman kings, Burman priests were sent to propagate Buddhism
in the Shan country. In some places the sacred books were destroyed,
and other books written in the Burmese language substituted, Burmese
becoming the language of the Monastic schools for Shan boys.
Burman kings adopted the same tactics in dealing with the Talaings.
The customs of the Shans and the Burmese are much the same, but
their costume is more like that of the Chinese. The same is true of
the Karen costume. Though differing from the costume of the Shan,
both seem to have been derived from their contact with the Chinese
before their migration to Burma. The broad lopped-rim Shan hat and
flowing trousers with the seat between the knees differentiate the
Shan from other races. They have a written language, adopted from the
Burmese,--some four or five hundred years ago,--as the Burmese had
adopted theirs from the Talaing.
THE KARENS
_The Karens_ found their way in Burma from western China; forced
southward by the Chinese. Then when the Shans were in like manner
driven into Burma, the Karens were pushed on still further south, like
driftwood before the tide. Their original home is uncertain. It seems
evident that at a much earlier period they had migrated into western
China from some place still further north. One of their own traditions
is that their ancestors, in their wanderings, crossed a "river of
sand."
The desert of Gobi best answers to their tradition. Other traditions
point to western China as their early home. It is not unlikely that
the tradition of the "river of sand" is much the older, and these
traditions taken together mark the progress of the Karens in at
least two widely separated migrations southward. The Karens strongly
resemble certain hill-tribes now living in western China; in fact
some of the Karens have identically the same customs, as these China
hill-tribes, who are also said to have the tradition of a "river of
sand."
There are three main divisions of the Karens, known as Pwo, Sgaw, and
Karennee or "Red Karens." This threefold division antedates their
migration to Burma. The Pwos, sometimes called "the mother race," are
supposed to have been the first arrivals, working their way south
by the way of the valleys of the Salwen and Mekong Rivers; followed
by the Sgaws, and finally by the Karennees, though it is doubtful
whether there was any interval between these main divisions in the
general migration. But in some way they have--to this day--maintained
the distinction. It is probable that for a time the Karens held the
territory now known as the eastern Shan states, and all the upper
Salwen region. The coming of the Shans, whether from the north or
west, drove them southward, each of these tribal divisions advancing
under compulsion in the same order in which they first entered the
country.
The Pwos are now found in the delta and still farther south in the
Maulmain district; the Karennees farther north, bordering on the Shan
country, and east to the Siam border; the Sgaws keeping to the central
territory, in the Toungoo district and diagonally across to Bassein,
sharing parts of the delta with the Pwos. A large body of Sgaw Karens,
as well as many Pwos, are found in the Tavoy district, farthest south
of all. The Tavoy Karens drifted in from Siam, not extending to the
seacoast until early in the last century.
There is now a continuous chain of Karens from Tavoy far into the
north of Siam. In general, the Karens live in the highlands, the
Burmans occupying the plains. Formerly this was partly from choice,
but unavoidable whether from choice or not, on account of the cruel
oppression suffered at the hands of the more powerful Burmans. But
under British rule many Karens have come down to the plains, and
forming villages of their own, have engaged in cultivation. They still
like to be within easy reach of the mountains, to which they resort
for game and other food.