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Myanmar (Burma): Archaeological Heritage and Its Management.

(Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. Ed C. Smith, Springer New York: 5123-
5128.)

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Hudson, Bob 2014 Myanmar (Burma): Archaeological Heritage and Its
Management. Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. (Ed) C. Smith,
Springer New York: 5123-5128.

(This is the content of the paper as submitted for publication- it is not an offprint from the
Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. Recent and current research has already outdated
some of the content of the paper- these points are highlighted in yellow))
Introduction
Myanmar’s predominantly Buddhist culture has a substantial archaeological heritage.
Religious buildings, some dating back to the First Millennium CE, number in the
thousands. Many active Buddhist sites are managed by trustees, sometimes with input
from government authorities. Gazetted archaeological sites, such as Bagan with its more
3,300 buildings, are managed by the Department of Archaeology, National Museum and
Library, which is a division of the Ministry of Culture. The ministry states in part that its
mission is “to love and cherish the country and the people by taking pride in our
traditions as well as by preserving, exposing and propagating Myanmar cultural heritage
... to help develop unity, nationalistic spirit
and patriotism among the people”. The
Archaeology Department employs
conservators and engineers to maintain and
repair buildings and their contents, as well
as research officers, who conduct
excavations.
Palaeolithic to Early Urban.
Myanmar (Figure 1) has had human
settlement dating back to between 55,000
and 70,000 years ago, when the dispersal of
modern homo sapiens out of Africa brought
about the occupation of the coast of the
Arabian peninsula, the river valleys of India
and Burma, island southeast Asia and
Australia. In Myanmar, this population is
still visible in Palaeolithic tools that have
been found across the Ayeyarwady valley.
Occupation of cave sites from around
10,000 years ago has been detected, with the
gradual appearance of polished stone tools,
incised pictographs and ochre paintings.
Settlements from the Bronze Age (from
around 1500 BC) and the Iron Age (from
Figure 1 Myanmar (Burma) and some of its
500 BC) have been located in Upper Burma. main archaeological and cultural sites.
By the middle of the First Millennium BC,
the arrival of iron technology coincided with an expansion of personal wealth and clear
evidence of social differentiation, notably in the Samon Valley and at Halin. Some
skeletons from this period are found with armloads of bracelets, their clothing and
persons decorated with hundreds of beads. Burials include bronzes that probably come
from southern China (Figure 2), carnelian beads originally from India but quickly
produced locally, and blue-green glass ornaments in
styles also found as far away as Cambodia, all suggesting
that goods and information travelled long distances over
the trade routes of the time.
Migrants from the Samon Valley probably built, from
around AD 200, huge walled cities at Pinle and Halin,
north of the Samon, and Beikthano and Sriksetra, to the
south. Brick construction, Indic deities and cremation
suggest that the indigenous leaders were enthusiastic
adaptors of cultural notions from India. Known today as
the Pyu (a name given to them by the Chinese) these
people developed extensive rice agriculture in and
around their cities. Their religion incorporated
Buddhism, Hinduism, naga (snake/dragon) worship and animism. Their settlements
feature pots of cremated bones buried in or around brick shrines. The Pyu used coins
(Figure 3) which featured Indian-style symbols, but no names or dates. A few words of
the Pyu language have been translated from inscriptions,
but they left behind few written records. Figure 2 Bronze pull-toy from a
Samon valley grave, probably
traded from southern China.

The dominance of the Pyu cities gradually faded away

due to a combination of factors including siltation of
their agricultural systems, a decline in the authority of
the chiefly families and the intrusion, including slave Figure 3 Indic symbols and Pyu
raids, by Nanchao, a Tibeto-Burman speaking rising sun design on a coin from
principality in what is now Yunnan. The Pyu lands and Halin
cities were slowly incorporated into the Bagan kingdom. Halin had a governor appointed
by Bagan in the eleventh century. There are records of princes of Bagan being given
Sriksetra to “eat”, which meant they were entitled to its revenues. The Shans (or Tai)
arrived between the ninth and eleventh centuries and settled in the hills on the Thai-
Burma border. The other major group was the Mon, who spoke a language in same
family as Khmer, and appear to have migrated into southern Burma from the old
Dvaravati kingdom in Thailand.
While the Pyu were active on the central plain, across the Arakan Yoma (mountain
range) on the west coast were two contemporary and in many ways similar cities.
Dhanyawadi (fourth to sixth centuries AD) and Vesali (fifth to eighth centuries AD) were
also large sites enclosed by brick walls. These cities also used coins with Indian symbols.
Artworks suggest a mixture of Buddhist and Hindu elements.
 Bagan: eleventh to fourteenth century AD.
There is a substantial gap between the traditional history and the evidence of archaeology
for the first millennium AD in Myanmar. We know from dates on burial urns, for
example, that there was a royal dynasty at Sriksetra between AD 688 and 718. These
were leaders whose names all ended in “vikrama”, a Sanskrit title. Despite the Burmese
chronicles’ enthusiasm for listing royal dynasties, the “vikramas” are never mentioned.
According to the traditional histories, a dynasty of kings ruled at Bagan from the first
century AD, but there is little evidence to support this. We know, however, that pottery
was being made at Bagan perhaps as early as AD 760. There are also temples, pottery,
beads and Buddhist artworks in the Pyu style at Bagan, suggesting that the site may have
been settled during the second half of the first millennium.
Inscriptions at Bagan itself are so far only known from the early 12th century, although
some of these refer to earlier events. Bagan was the site of an artistic and building
explosion from the eleventh century (Figure 4), peaking with the construction of more
than 2500 religious structures in the thirteenth century. Early artisans may have arrived
from India, as expanding Hindu and Moslem polities
reduced the demand there for Buddhist art and
architecture.
After 300 years of military domination and economic
expansion, the Bagan kingdom was put under pressure
by the Mongols in the late 13th century. The
commitment of resources to religious buildings also
appears to have overstretched the economy. The centre
of Burman government gradually moved north to the Figure 4 The Shwezigon pagoda,
area around Mandalay, and remained there for most of Bagan
the time until colonisation. The geopolitical contraction of Bagan was followed by an
expansion of Mon polities in the south, and the rise of Mrauk-U on the west coast.
Mrauk - U
During the Bagan period a number of small principalities on the west coast, such as
Sambawak, Launggret and Parein, led fairly autonomous lives, despite occasional
attempts by kings of Bagan to carry off the Mahamuni image, which was believed to be a
life-portrait of the Buddha. In the 1500s, King Min Bin employed Portuguese
mercenaries to help fortify his city, train his army, and equip his fleet. Mrauk-u took
advantage of Bengal’s war with the Mughals to seize east Bengal, which it held as vassal
for more than a century. Eventually the Burmese King Bodawpaya (1782-1819)
conquered Mrauk-u. After centuries of trying, the Burmese removed the Mahamuni
image to Mandalay. At the same time, the Burmese took several Khmer bronze statues,
which had passed through several hands before reaching Mrauk-U They are now in the
Mahamuni pagoda compound in Mandalay.
Other Kingdoms
With the decline of Bagan, central Myanmar split into small kingdoms, Burman, Mon
and Shan, which regularly fought each other. At times Bagan was a staging post for
armies moving north or south, and its vast treasures, buried inside pagodas as Buddhist
offerings, were regularly pillaged. In the 18th century, the Burmese King Alaungpaya, a
dominant military leader, founded the Konbaung dynasty which ruled Burma from
Arakan to Tenasserim. In 1767, Burmese troops besieged Ayuthaya, pillaged the city and
carried off many captives. Ayuthaya never recovered, and the Thais re-established their
capital in what is now Bangkok.
Colonial Period to Independence.
Territorial conflicts between the British in India and local Burmese armies led to the first
British-Burmese war in 1824. In a process of colonial annexation that took several
decades, the British finally took over all of Burma in 1886. The Burmese king and his
family were exiled to India, and the last Mughal emperor was exiled to Burma. His grave
can be visited in Yangon.
Japanese forces entered Burma in 1941. The British, including many Indian troops and
civilians, retreated to India, burning or scuttling the old Irrawaddy flotilla that had plied
the “road to Mandalay” as they left. Some of these vessels have been rehabilitated, and
are functioning examples of the country’s modern technological heritage.
Heritage sites.
Palaeolithic implements have been found throughout Myanmar, at sites such as Magwe,
Yenanchaung and Chauk in Central Myanmar and along the river terraces of
Ayeyarwaddy near Sale and Bagan-Nyaung U. Stone implements have also come from
cave sites such as Pindaya, under what are now Buddhist shrines, and Padah-lin, which
like several other cave sites is protected as much by its remoteness as by official decree.
The Archaeology Department maintains a list of sites and their locations, but they are
rarely visited except for study purposes.
There are sixteen officially gazetted Bronze and Iron Age sites, some of which have been
excavated and published by a joint Myanmar-French team. Details of sites can be found
on Archaeology Department websites. Rather than provide a URL that may become
outdated, we suggest that interested parties search the internet using keywords such as
Myanmar, ministry and culture.
Seven sites are designated as “Pyu ancient cities”. These are Beikthano, Sriksetra, Halin,
Kyaikkatha, Wethali (Vesali), Pinle (Maingmaw) and Tagaung. Halin, whose history
goes back at least 4500 years to a Neolithic pottery production site, also has several
Neolithic, Bronze and Iron period excavations conserved under cover as site museums.
(Sriksetra, Beikthano and Halin were inscribed on the World Heritage list in 2014)
Thirty three areas are named as Cultural Heritage Zones. These are generally sites that
feature Buddhist pagodas, monasteries or major sculptures. They include Bagan, Bago,
several pagodas in the Mandalay area, Sagaing (a huge monastic site on the west bank of
the Irrawaddy from Mandalay), and cave sites including Kawgun, which contains ancient
stone sculptures.
The Archaeology Department has a priority list of over 2,000 buildings with mural
paintings, with water leakage the key factor in deterioration. There are more than 4,000
stone inscriptions, many housed locally in more than 50 storage sheds. Scholars
occasionally obtain rubbings from these. The sheds are usually maintained by
monasteries, villages or pagoda committees. Other classes of object that are the focus of
conservation are parabaiks (folded paper books), inscribed bronze bells, clay votive
tablets and palm-leaf manuscripts.
In 2011 conservation-repair-reconstruction schemes were active at Sriksetra
(Thayekhittaya), Bagan, Halin, Inwa, Bago, Pakhangyi, Tagaung, Mrauk-U. There was
also a focus on the restoration of nineteenth century wooden monasteries at Mandalay,
Sagaing, Inwa, Sale, Salin, Legaing, Pakhangyi and Pakhannge, and repair of the wooden
U Bein Bridge at Amarapura.
The Department of Archaeology, National Museum and Library maintains museums at
twelve archaeological sites, with important collections at Bagan, Sriksetra (Hmawza) and
Mrauk-U, as well as the National Museum in Yangon. There are many small museums in
monasteries or local towns, under local control.
The Myanmar government has “spent a large amount of state budget for the national
culture preservation” by building replica royal palaces at Bagan, Bago, Shwebo and
Mandalay, as a “symbol of success” and a “way of uplifting … the national prestige”
Key Issues & Current Debates.
Anthropoid origins.
The study of Myanmar’s palaeontological record was brought to attention worldwide in
1999 when anthropologist Gustaaf Houtman focused on a search for fossils, including
early primates, in a critique of what he called “Myanmafication”, an institutionalisation
of tradition for political purposes. In particular, he pointed to the substantial involvement
of the military in the search in the mid-1990s for primate fossils around the Pondaung
hills. The palaeontological evidence supports the theory that East Asia, including
Myanmar, may have been the homeland of the first primates. However Myanmar scholars
have at times taken theory as fact, linking this directly to later human populations, as
“proof” that “Myanmar's pre-history dates back 50 million years”.
The Mon paradigm.
The first significant leader of the Bagan period is considered to be Anawratha (r. 1044-
1077), although his story is suffused with legend. He is credited with the construction of
irrigation works at Kyaukse, after dreaming of three snakes (perhaps representing the
major rivers) which he battled. Anawratha is said to have conquered a Mon-Khmer
speaking kingdom at Thaton, south-east of the modern capital Yangon (Rangoon), taking
captives, Buddhist scriptures and a generally more advanced culture to Bagan. The
standard histories of Burma accept the story of the Mon conquest as factual. Professor
Michael Aung-Thwin has suggested that the story was made up several centuries after the
alleged event, and has been wrongly adopted as fact by modern historians. This debate
continues at conferences and in print.
The repair program.
In 1975 a severe earthquake damaged many buildings at Bagan. UNESCO became
involved in reconstruction. Since 1994, repairs have largely been funded by donations
raised locally- something seen by many as an act that acquires religious merit.
International participants in the post-earthquake repairs remain concerned about the
direction the donor programme has taken and the quality of the work. A Cultural Heritage
 conference was told in 2007 that “the utilisation of new materials and the indiscriminate
use of concrete have contributed to falsifying to a considerable extent the existing
monuments … the recommendations of UNESCO for the conservation of the masonry
works and the paintings with the drawing up of a master plan went unheeded”.
In defence of the repair programme, Culture Minister Win Sein had said in 2001 that the
objectives had been to satisfy the donors, to retain the original workmanship and design,
and to make the buildings last longer. “These are living religious monuments highly
venerated and worshipped by Myanmar people” he said, “it is our national duty to
preserve, strengthen and restore all the cultural heritage monuments of Bagan to last and
exist forever”.
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