Update:
2018-09-30 08:52 PM -0400
Burma to Central Asia
Paradigms.htm
by U Kyaw Tun (UKT) (M.S., I.P.S.T., USA),
Daw Khin Wutyi, Daw Thuzar Myint, Daw Zinthiri Han
and staff of Tun Institute of Learning (TIL).
Not for sale. No copyright. Free for everyone.
Prepared for students and staff of TIL
Research Station, Yangon, MYANMAR
-
http://www.tuninst.net ,
www.romabama.blogspot.com
index.htm |
Top
BEPS-indx.htm
Introduction
Mon paradigm vs. Pyu paradigm
Dawei aka Tavoy - southern most Pyu sites
Burma paradigm
Origins of Burma farming
Long lost history of Talang Tuwo language
Contents of this page
- UKT 180913
UKT refutation on
“Brahmadesh ”: Skt-Dev is an
Abugida-Akshara script just like Bur-Myan. Just
because a Bur-Myan word can be transliterated
in Sanskrit does not mean that the Burmese word
is derived from Sanskrit. Quoting the name of a
distinguished person does not lend credit to it.
- My message to the Myanmar historians.
Google gives: " Burma
is the Burmese name, used at the beginning
of the 12th century, but its origin is
still unclear, but historians of Myanmar
agreed that, the name derived from
“Brahmadesh” in Sanskrit, which means
“land of Brahma” Hindu god of all
things." .
My question: Which "historians of
Myanmar"? Was the first one Taw Sein Ko?
My observation: historians are not
scientists - newer ones quoting older ones!
My question: What about archaeologists writing
history?
My observation: Relying on stone
inscriptions - which may be just as unreliable
as those by modern historians - can be just
hearsay. As an example, see Sacred Geography
of Dawei, by E. H. Moore, 2013 in TIL
HD-PDF and SD-PDF libraries:
-
EHMoore-SacredGeogrDawei<Ô> /
Bkp<Ô> (link chk 180813)
On (p3/34), E. Moore writes: "The paper
opens by recounting the beginnings of Buddhism in Dawei as preserved in
local chronicles and sustained in stupas marking the episodes of the
chronicle narrative. (UKT ¶)
The chronicles start with a visit of the Buddha whose arrival triggers a
series of events bringing together pre-existing tutelary figures, weiza, a
hermit and offspring born of a golden fish, culminating in the establishment
of the first Buddhist kingdom ca. the 8 - 10 century CE. The
enshrinement of sacred hairs gifted by the Buddha also includes patronage by
a king of the ‘Suvaṇṇabhūmi’
{þu.wûN~Na.Bu-mi.} lineage. (UKT ¶).
Associated with the monks Sona and Uttara from Sri Lanka sent by King
Asoka’s son Mahinda, ‘Suvaṇṇabhūmi’
{þu.wûN~Na.Bu-mi.} literally can refer to the archaeology of Thaton, a
walled site in the present day Mon State, or, as is the case here, more
widely to the missionary tradition associated with Asoka (Sao Saimong
Mengrai 1976). The third story in the establishment of the Buddhist king at
Thagara is the longest of the chronicle, the tale of a royal hunter who
failed to capture a golden peacock for the queen. The hunter became a hermit
living by a pond with a golden fish and as he urinated in the pond, two
children were born from the fish. (UKT ¶)
The boy becomes the first Buddhist king of Thagara, 11 km north of Dawei,
where artefacts from survey and excavation confirm the chronology of the
chronicle, with the closest archaeological parallels found not at the
ancient sites of the Mon State, but to the first millennium CE
Buddhist ‘Pyu’ heritage of Upper Myanmar which is notably absent in the
chronicle compilation."
Contents of this page
UKT 180829: "Mon Paradigm vs. Pyu
Paradigm" has been moved under:
- BEPS-indx.htm
Mon Paradigm - Culture in form of written script
had spread from Lower Burma to Upper Burma
Pyu Paradigm - The opposite of the above.
Let's see:
-
DGDenovanEtAl-PyuLandscape<Ô> /
Bkp<Ô> (link chk 180816)
UKT 180817: The English transcriptions below have
been changed so much that even I have difficulty
in changing to Bur-Myan.
"The Ayeyarwady Basin
{É-ra-wa.ti mric-whûm:} occupies the depressional
portion of a geological unit called the West Burma
Plate. It is clearly demarcated by Arakan Yoma
{ra.hkaín ro:ma.} on the west (an accretionary
plism caused by collision of the Indian Plate
to the West Burma Plate) [UKT ¶]
UKT 180819: accretionary plism - noun,
Geology . a mass of sedimentary material
scraped off a region of oceanic crust during
subduction and piled up at the edge of a continental
crustal plate. - Google
See Section 08
¤ Geology --
geol-indx >
Geology of Myanmarpré -
myan-geol.htm - update 2018Feb
which on Geology of Myanmarpré in which you will
see why we, descendants of Pyus are so rich, in
spite of ourselves.
and the Shan Plateau
{shûm:koan:prín-mrín.} on the east (the boundary
is the Sagain-Namyin strike-slip fault). The basin,
mostly covered with Tertiary sediment, is divided
into two parts, the western trough (interdeep) and
the eastern trough (backdeep), by the now extinct
Bago (Pegu) Yoma volcanic arc running north-south
through the Jade Mine, Wuntho, Mt. Popa
{poap-pa:taún}, and the Bago Yoma
{pè:hku: ro:ma.}. The western trough is further
subdivided into the Upper Chindwinn (Chindwin), the
Central (or Ma-gway (Magwe)), and the Lower Ayeyarwady
Basins. The Central and Lower Ayeyarwady Basins are
separated by the Tayetmyo (Thayetmyo) Syntaxis. The
eastern trough
consists of the Monywa-Shwebo Alluvial Plain,
(p119end-p120begin)
the Sittaung (Sittang) Depression, and the
Bago Alluvial Area.
"The Ayeyarwady River flows down southward
within the eastern trough until its makes an abrupt
turn at Sagain toward the southwest. After crossing
the volcanic arc around Pakkoku into the western
trough, it flows down southward to the delta. Most
probably, the Ayeyarwady used to flow straight to
the south from Mandaley to the Mottama (Martaban)
Bay through the Sittaung Depression. This depression
becomes a narrow corridor (a few tens of km wide)
between the Shan Plateau
{shûm:koan:prín-mrín.} and the Bago Yoma
{pè:hku: ro:ma.}. Presently the corridor is drained
to the north to the Ayeyarwady
{É-ra-wa.ti mric} and to the south to the
Sittaung River
{sic~taún: mric}. The divide is somewhere
between Pyawbwe
{pyau-Bwèý mro.} and Yamethin
{ra.mæÑ:þín: mro.}.
"Thus, the Upper Ayeyarwady has two access
routes to the sea; the one along the Ayeyarwady
directly to the sea, and the other through the
corridor to Mottama. The former actually is part
of the great distant route to Yunnan via Bhamo, and
navigable most of it. The part downstream of Pyay
{præÑ mro.} along this route must have been only
sparsely settled until the mid-19th century [UKT:
the date mid-19th does not make sense.]. The latter
is mostly an overland route and passes through the
fertile lowlands apparently densely populated since
the early times. Kyaukse, Meiktila (Meikthila), and
Toungoo are all located along the corridor, with
Bago at the southern exit."
UKT note: The paper gives the Pyu sites within the
above area. Now, where are the Mon sites?
Contents of this page
Dawei aka Tavoy - southern most Pyu sites
- UKT 180924: The Bur-Myan word Dawei {hta:wèý} can mean the the
Tanintharyi Division
{ta.nïn~þa-ri teing:}, the capital city
{hta:wèý mro.}, an ethnic of officially recognized 135 ethnic minorities
speaking a dialect of Bamah language, or the river.
- source: Wikipedia -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawei 180924
PIX: Several brothers of Dr. U Soe Myint, gynaecologist (husband of
Prof. Daw Own Kyi, historian) - the eldest being Thakin Ba Thein Tin, former
chairman of the Communist Party of Burma (CPB). My close friend U Soe Myint
told me about his elder brothers joining the BIA in Dawei. He was too young
to join them. Though children, we were eager to fight the Leik-Kan 'meaning
English and Americans'.
Those at the TIL research station can watch how the Imperial Japanese
Govt. had granted us "independence" in 1942 during WWII, and could imagine
how elated we have been elated . Downloaded BBC video in TIL HD-VIDEO and SD-VIDEO
undert Burma section:
-
BurmaIndependence<Ô> /
Bkp<Ô>
(link chk 180930)
Read papers of E. Moore, the archaeologist working on Dawei sites in HD-PDF and
SD-PDF libraries:
• The Early Buddhist Archaeology of Myanmar: Tagaung, Thagara, and the Mon-Pyu
Dichotomy
-
EMoore-BuddhArcheol<Ô> /
Bkp<Ô> (link
chk 180924)
• The sacred geography of Dawei: Buddhism in peninsular Myanmar (Burma)
-
EMoore-SacreGeogDawei<Ô> /
Bkip<Ô>
(link chk 180924)
Contents of this page
- A possible direct link between central Asia and Myanmarpré
that did not involve mainland India and Asokan script
UKT
180813: I beginning to get fond of the
word Paradigm, after coming across Mon Paradigm and Pyu Paradigm !
par·a·digm - n. ¹. An
example that serves as pattern or model.
- AHTD
Scripts are the only reliable way to look
for a connection. As for Speech, the
analysis based on grammar (with tenses,
gender and number) the picture is simply
confusion, because some like Bur-Myan
do not have tenses, genders and numbers.
I keep myself insane only because of the
Sonority scale.
It is interesting to note that the circularly
rounded forms in scripts are not only unique to
Myanmarpré. They are also found in the country
of Georgia. With the background knowledge that
King Asoka's Buddhist missionaries went even to
Rome in Europe, I suggest that among them might
have been monks from the Kingdom of Tagaung
{ta.kaún:præÑ} of northern Burma. And the Myanmar
script might have traveled with them to
Central Asia. I base my conjecture on the
presence of the circularly rounded script in
Georgia, bordered by Russia in the north, and
Turkey in the south. In the Georgian letters, there
are definitely two from the Myanmar script:
UKT 170526, 180723, 180808:
თ (U10D7: consonant "Tan"), ი
(U10D8: vowel "In") and /a/ inherent
vowel ა (U10D0: vowel "An")(equiv. to
{a.}. You can check on the pronunciations from:
http://ilanguages.org/georgian_vocabulary.php
150220, 180723.
e.g. (number) Ten: ათი
[ati]
ati<))
The name of the capital of Georgia - the
country - is spelt the Bur-Myan თ {ta.}.
Then the bombshell: why hadn't the Asokan
Brahmi consonant, which has
the shape of a bola 'the triangular cross'
went along?
It suggests that
Bur-Myan script is
older than the Asokan Brahmi
!
Or, it can also mean that Myanmar script
is an improvement on Asokan Brahmi.
Or, it can mean that Myanmar script is descended
from an unknown script which uses the logical idea
of using a single shape - the circle , just
as the Canadian Abugida, and Cuniform (central Asia)
are based of the shape of triangle (note:
the chevron is an open triangle, and a line is a remnant of the chevron). Whatever the case
maybe Asokan, Pyu, and Myanmar are closely related.
Another connection between Myanmarpré and central
Asia, is the use of Metonic cycles - discovered by
Babylonian astronomers before the Greeks - in Burmese
calendar calculations. It is not found in India. See Wikipedia:
-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burmese_calendar 180813
So far, (up to 170526, 180806), scholars in
Myanmarpré including those from Myanmar Historical
Commission and Myanmar Language Commission, have
failed to address my above problems. I continue to
search for an answer to them. A possible source is
in Greco-Buddhism -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greco-Buddhism
170526
"... is the cultural syncretism between
Hellenistic culture and Buddhism, which developed
between the 4th century BC and the 5th century AD in
Bactria and the Indian subcontinent, ..." .
I will now look into Empires of the Silk Road
by C. I. Beckwith, 2009, in TIL HD-PDF and SD-PDF
libraries: -
CIBeckwith-EmpiresSilkRd<Ô> /
Bkp<Ô> (link chk 180806)
What C. I. Beckwith has written on is history of
central Eurasia from the Bronze age to the present.
My interest is on Bronze age centered in Georgia:
Ten: ათი [ati]
ati<)) : sounds
{a-ti} to me which could be
{a.ti.} 'exactly full'.
A possible connection between Burma (Myanmarpré) and
Georgia is through the Scythian languages, in
particular the Saka language:
-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scythian_languages
180814
-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saka_language
180814
"(Eastern) Saka or Sakan is a
variety of Eastern Iranian languages, attested
from the ancient Buddhist kingdoms of Khotan,
Kashgar and Tumshuq in the Tarim Basin, in what is now
southern Xinjiang, China. "
Now that there is mention of Pyus (original peoples
of Burma) having their homeland in China, I must
mention an article:
-
http://factsanddetails.com/southeast-asia/Myanmar/sub5_5a/entry-2996.html#chapter-1
180814
"Based on limited archaeological evidence, it is inferred that the earliest
cultures existed in Burma as early as 11,000 B.C. [11 Ka ago, cf. Buddha
lifetime 2.5 Ka ago], mainly in the central dry
zone close to the Irrawaddy. Circa 2nd century B.C., the Tibeto-Burman-speaking
Pyu began to enter the Irrawaddy valley from present-day Yunnan via Tapain
and Shweli rivers. The original home of the Pyu is reconstructed to be
Kokonor Lake in present-day Qinghai and Gansu provinces. [UKT ¶]
UKT 180823: Qinghai Lake or
Kokonor is China’s largest inland lake
and saline lake [I presume it is the remnant
of the ancient Tethys sea during the
last tectonic change in Permian geologic
period (299 - 251 Ma ago] with enchanting
natural beauty and uncountable species of birds.
- from
https://www.chinadiscovery.com/qinghai/xining/qinghai-lake.html
180823
See also:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geology_of_the_Himalaya
180823
See also Section 8: Geology for Permian Period
(299 - 251 Ma ago): Formation of the land of
Myanmarpré
- geol-indx >
permian.htm (link chk 180820)
sublink:
-
permian-2.htm (link chk 180820)
The Pyu, the earliest inhabitants of Burma of whom
records are extant, went on to found settlements
throughout the plains region centered around the
confluence of the Irrawaddy and Chindwin rivers that
has been inhabited since the Paleolithic age. The Pyu realm was longer than wide, stretching from
Sri Ksetra in the south to Halin in the north,
Binnaka and Maingmaw to the east and probably Ayadawkye
to the west. [Source: Wikipedia +] "
Contents of this page
- UKT 180924: Why do Westerners have to imagine that ancient peoples of Burma
(presently called Myanmarpré) could not originate anything.? I was told that
Burma was the origin of rice cultivation by a visiting Soviet Russian
agricultural professor, Dr. Voronsov. I was his counterpart teaching Food
Technology to Chemical Engineering , with whom I had to work as his counterpart
during my tenure at Rangoon Institute of Technology (RIT) in 1966.
From:
U Aung Kyaw and Dr T.O PryceD
The present-day Myanmar people have evolved from
human-like primates who lived in Myanmar 40 million years ago. Primates
started to use implements and tools at a period of relatively high culture,
thereby letting researchers distinguish at which Age (Bronze or Iron)
primates used these tools. Geologist Professor Dr. Nyi Nyi divided the Stone
Age into the Palaeolithic Age, Mesolithic Age and Neolithic Age; there was
no existence of Mesolithic Age in Myanmar, he continued to write about our
ancient history. According to basic history of Myanmar, there were evidences
of Palaeolithic Age and Neolithic Age , with discoveries of very few
evidences of the Mesolithic Age. But the period between the two Ages could
be generally assumed to be the Mesolithic Age.
Between one million years and ten thousand
years, heavy rain poured out all over grassy plains in Myanmar, creating a
layer of lateritic pebbles by means of erosion. Five terraced deposits along
the Ayeyarwady Valley created the present-day Sale Town and Chauk Town
within the duration of million of years. Weapons and chopping tools of
Paleolithic Age were found among one to four terraced deposits and the
Neolithic Age was discovered terrace of the river bank. A lot of Paleolithic
Age weapons were found in Upper Myanmar and so Paleolithic Age was dubbed as
the Anyathian Culture by researchers
Between one million years and ten thousand
years, heavy rain poured out all over grassy plains in Myanmar, creating a
layer of lateritic pebbles by means of erosion. Five terraced deposits along
the Ayeyarwady Valley created the present-day Sale Town and Chauk Town
within the duration of million of years. Weapons and chopping tools of
Paleolithic Age were found among one to four terraced deposits and the
Neolithic Age was discovered terrace of the river bank. A lot of Paleolithic
Age weapons were found in Upper Myanmar and so Paleolithic Age was dubbed as
the Anyathian Culture by researchers
The culture of Myanmar Stone Age flourished
between five to six and ten thousand years ago. In Myanmar, the culture of
late Stone Age or that of New Stone Age flourished in some areas in Salingyi
Town, some areas in Kani town , some areas in Chaung-U, some from Monwya and
some areas from including Oakaie from Butalin Township
Myanmar Bronze Age evidences in Nyaungkan
Village Myanmar primate anthropoids went through the Paleolithic Age,
Mesolithic Age and Neolithic Age and are believed by researchers to have
reached to the Bronze Age since circa. 3500 years when they started to use
weapons and tools on bronze metals. Myanmar Archaeology Department started
recent excavations in 1904 and no evidences of the Bronze Age were found up
until 1998. T. O. Morris who wrote an essay on Myanmar Stone Age said that
he found bronze axes and arrows in Myanmar and wrote about them in vol.28
issue of Journal of Burma Research Society in 1938. He wrote about the
bronze weapons found on the ground not from excavations, so the period of
the Myanmar Bronze Age and the culture in that period cannot be described
firmly.
In the course of world history, primate
anthropoids went the Stone Age, the Bronze Age and the Iron Age, but some
foreign researchers believed that there was no existence of the Bronze Age
in Myanmar.
"Between 1998 and 1999 the researchers and scholars excavated an ancient
graveyard , near Nyaungkan village , Butalin Town, finding a buried corpse
surfacing and establishing a concept of the Bronze Age in Myanmar. Three
more excavations revealed a lot of anthropoid fossils including cadavers,
bronze tools and weapons, partially depicting a Myanmar Bronze Age culture.
The place of flourishing culture is located one mile southwest of the
village at northerly lat. of 22 degrees, 24 min, 40 sec and eastern long. Of
95 degrees, 3 min 28 sec and 500 feet above the sea level. The graveyard
where three excavations were carried out is 250 feet long from the south to
north and 130 feet from the east to west.
Some villagers from nearby villages often found
ancient bronze Artefacts, human bones and broken pots near the Shinmachauk
Hill some years back. The place once used to a graveyard and later that
cultivated land belongs to U Chit Hlaing of Ywatha Village. He started
hill-side cultivation by clearing underbrush and bushes, thereby finding
human bones, earthen pots and bronze weapons. ‘A committee for studying
evidences on ancient cultures’ was formed with scholars and members from
Ministry of Defence Strategic Studies, Yangon University, Archaeology
Department, Anthropology Department and Ministry of Culture. The Committee
carried out extensive excavations systematically from January, 1998 towards
the end of March , 1999.
Contents of this page
For Talang Tuwo Inscription, see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srivijaya 180829
For location of the long lost empire, Sri Vijaya, see Palembang as Sri Vijaya
by B. Bronson and J. Wisseman, 1975,
in TIL HD-PDF and SD-PDF libraries:
-
BBronsonJWisseman-PalembangSrivijaya<)) /
Bkp<)) (link chk 180829)
"Srivijaya is the best-described and most securely historical of the
early statelike polities that can be more or less definitely located in Malesia.
Wolters (1967: 220-21) has suggested that Srivijaya had predecessor states near
its later location, and Wheatley (1961: 41-60) and Coedes (1968: 50-55, 77-80)
have placed other "states" with citylike capitals elsewhere in the South at
about the same time that Srivijaya was beginning its rise to power. But as far
as the earlier sources go, Srivijaya is the most solidly authenticated 1st
millennium state between Indochina and India. It was actually visited for an
extended period in the 680s by the famous Buddhist pilgrim, I Ch'ing (Chavannes
1894; Takakusu 1896)."
Contents of this page
End of TIL file