Shwe Yar Man Part 1: Mon legacy in Burma
Advertising the 73rd anniversary of Mon National Day in Mon state. ©Min Oakar
Lethwei is more than just two figures opposing each other in combat. It has a rich history as a sport, but the people who practice it have stories of their own.
I delve into the history of the Mon people and try to understand how it shaped some aspects of the sport in their perspective.
Inspecting the history and the people involved in someones upbringing will give you a better insight into the person they are. In this first part I will examine the history of the Mon-Khmer settlers in Indochina and how lethwei eventually was born on this timeline.
The reason I became interested in the subject is because of Shwe Yar Man's grandfather (who we'll get to in part two) as he joined the Mon resistance in a fight against the suppressive government after his successful lethwei career. Furthermore, lethwei clubs like Thuwunnabhumi, Ramanya Arman and Razadarit, the temples in Bagan, Mon presence and the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon are all references to Mon identity and achievement centuries ago. In fact some 900 words in the Thai language can be traced back to a Mon source.
If you were to further read into the history of the Pyu or Mon people, you will find that many historians and researchers have conflicting views regarding the development of civilization in the areas described in this article. The view presented here is the most commonly accepted version of the Mon timeline supported by a larger audience and with a substantial amount of evidence. People have challenged various claims on this timeline and others have in turn refuted. This is however a more recent development and needs more people to join this counter-argument for it to have more validity.
The history of early Burma will constantly be subject to new discoveries and found evidence, so I must warn that the history presented here is much more expansive and storied in its original presentation. Further reading is required for an infinitely detailed look not only into the history of the Mon but Burma as a whole.
The History
The Mon people currently living in and around Myanmar descend from the Mon-Khmer peoples who settled across mainland Southeast Asia (Indochina) over two thousand years ago. They had ruled most of the area (including parts of Thailand, Cambodia and Laos) for a thousand years and flourished in brilliant ways, achievements gained amid periods of great strife and conflict. Surrounding societies at that time have greatly benefited from the Mon culturally, politically and religiously.
The old Mon-Khmer civilization is believed to have settled in present-day central and lower Burma by north-south migration from Mongolia, via the Yangtze river which dips into Yunnan province in China to the north-east of Myanmar.
Like the ebb and flow of the sea, the settlements and the later Kingdoms of the Mon and Khmer enjoyed great expansion and retreat in the first millennium AD. The most notable regions at that time were Dvaravati, centered in present-day Thailand, and Ramannadesa (or Monland) which was made up of Thaton and Pegu in lower Burma. Early merchants from India referred to this land as Suvannabhumi, the golden land.
Inhabiting rich and agricultural land the Mon were traders by sea to Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Malaysia and India by cultivating and exporting rice systematically. They also played a vital role in the teaching and spread of Buddhism, something they themselves adopted from India and possibly the Pyu people who had already settled in Burma before the arrival of the Mon.
The Pyu, who originally migrated from the Qinghai province in China had occupied the central area of Burma for about a millennium before they were eventually overrun by the Burmans in the eighth to ninth century. You might remember the Pyu from my introduction piece for The Fight Site. While the Thai had already developed a defined early Muay variant around the fourteenth century the Burmese insist that their version of Lethwei originated at the end of the Pyu millenium in the 12th century. While there is no clear pinpointing evidence, aside from vague murals, we may assume that in those times of war (not necessarily in the 12th century) it may have seen its birth in its most primitive form. So there may not be an answer as to which came first, but there is definitely a case to be made on which fighting art had significantly evolved first.
Ashley South in his book 'Mon Nationalism and Civil War in Burma: The Golden Sheldrake' describes the original culture of the Mon:
“The earliest mass settlements in Southeast Asia were established on the edges of flood plains and rivers, where large-scale wet rice cultivation was most easily adopted, and from which ships departed for sometimes distant shores. The Mon have since time immemorial been a sea-faring people, and the cities of Ramanyadesa were all situated close to major rivers, and - with the exception of Haripunjaya - the sea. These kingdoms traded by ship with Ceylon and beyond, to the great emporia of India and the Indonesian archipelago, where Mon trading communities were established.
Important commodities included camphor, areca nuts, aromatic and hardwoods, tin and copper, and precious stones (especially rubies from northern Burma). The famous glazed “Martaban jars”, which were in fact made in the interior, even found their way to such far-flung markets as Japan and Turkey. As a result of these trade links, Mon society was exposed to diverse foreign cultural influences and traditions. The genius of Mon civilization was that it combined these with classical Indian traditions, to create a sophisticated and original culture.”
By the eighth and ninth century the collective Mon settlements now known as Ramannadesa excelled with advances in religion, literature, law, politics, architecture and the arts. At the same time the Burmans—who currently make up the majority of the population in Myanmar—arrived from Tibet in a march down south into Burma - and the Dvaravati territory saw the founding of Haripunjaya in the north of Thailand in an effort to establish trade with non-coastal Indochina.
In the centuries to come Kingdoms were established but also overthrown in conflicts with the Khmer and Burmans. Early in the second millennium the Mon communities abroad declined and over time in lower Burma the Kingdoms of Pegu and Thaton submitted to the Burman King Anawratha, who had settled in Pagan in central Burma, in a supposed effort to halt re-emerging Khmer advances from the east.
This particular time period, variously dated, is unclear and full of inconsistencies. This perhaps is leading to the different views researchers have in whether the Pyu or the Mon were the more powerful people in the area.
While spreading Buddhism even further throughout the country it was at this time that thousands of monuments in Pagan were built in part by Mon craftsmen and architects, something that seems to contradict the advancement of the Pagan King described above. Both events are true, but the time at which they happened and to what degree both Kingdoms were allies or foes needs further investigation.
The fall of the Pagan Kingdom, ultimately due to its war with the Mongols under the leadership of Emperor Kublai Khan, subsequently led to the creation of the Hantharwaddy-Pegu Kingdom in its wake. It was to be the last of the great Mon Kingdoms with a prosperous reign in the thirteenth to sixteenth century. With Pegu at its center and having grown from the smaller principality of Thaton, it was a successor to the Ramannadesa Kingdom.
Despite this prosperity for the Mon, it should be clear that by the fourteenth century surrounding territories had slowly fallen due to the advances of the Malay in the south, the rise of the (Khmer) Angkor empire in the East, and the migrating Tai from the north who had taken back the areas previously known as Dvaravati and Haripunjaya. Since the start of the second millennium the identity of the Mon became subject to cultural assimilation from the Burmans, who started to adopt various facets of their culture as their own.
Robert H. Taylor in his book ‘The State in Burma’ describes the power of the growing Burman state and its appropriation of lowland identities:
“The gradual transformation of the residents’ ethnic affinities in the expanded nuclear zone indicates both the greater power of the state as well as its greater ability to affect the identity of its subjects. The permanency and power of the state, and its identity with monarchs who were considered to be ethnically and culturally Burman, led communities and individuals to accept the state’s definition of their cultural orientation. (...) The distinctive identity of being a Mon which had marked the south in earlier eras was disappearing, and a proto-national cultural and ethnic formation was being created throughout the Irrawaddy river valley.”
During their time as rulers in Burma and much of Thailand, the Mon had always made a distinction between those from the lowlands and those living in mountain regions within—and surrounding—their territories. Although they co-existed in relative peace the hill-tribes were always looked down upon and deemed inferior to those living on the plains and basins of lower lands. The intelligent and inventive Mon who had been at the cradle of advanced civilization in Southeast Asia had been pushed back only to rule central and lower Burma come the sixteenth century and were now undergoing the same fate with the oppression, forced displacement and further assimilation from not only the Burmans, but also from the Tai and Khmer.
An even more tumultuous time ensued when King Bayinnaung took over the reigns and started establishing his Taungoo Empire, which in some ways covered the same area that the Mon had occupied centuries earlier. Many Mon fled to the new Kingdom of Ayuthaiya (previously Dvaravati without the inclusion of Haripunjaya).
It was at this point that King Bayinnaung turned his attention to the east and allows me to interject this excellent article by Vincent Giordano of the Born Warriors Project explaining in detail the relationship between Myanmar and Thailand during wartime and the evolution of each sport along the way.
Well into the eighteenth century the Mon struggled to regain any lasting foothold in Burma, even on the coattails of the Tai, Portugese or French. Two notable short-lived uprisings in Pegu in the south and Ava in central Burma during the Konbaung-Hongsawaddy War are described as vigorous but ultimately useless:
Brief retake of Ava 1752-1753:
Instead of preserving their special characteristics and making yet another attempt to realize the millenarian dream of a civilization in which Thai, Burman and Mon would play their respective parts, and undoubtedly driven by an exasperation nourished by decades of humiliation, they jumped into a war of revenge and subjugation in which they had everything to lose, and in which, indeed, everything was lost."
- Emmanuel Guillon in his book The Mons: A Civilization of Southeast Asia
Brief retake of Pegu 1740-1757:
The Talaings in the city made sorties, and still fought with the courage of men of spirit, who struggle for national independence in its last place of refuge"
- Arthur P. Phayre in his book History of Burma: From the Earliest Time to the End of the First War with British India (1883)
With every bit of Mon culture and language suppressed and largely assimilated into a new Burmese culture, the transformation into an all Burmese nation had entered an irreversible stage. The Mon were further displaced into the mountains and into southern Burma as well as along the border with Thailand. Over time, the displaced had settled and eventually breathed new life into their surroundings. Although they had to flee their homeland - their culture, wisdom and craftsmanship remained. Mon princes settled in Thailand and rebuilt their communities. The Mon were respected soldiers and thus incorporated into the Siamese army and further intermarriage between Siamese and Mon royals established a lasting presence of their culture and religion abroad.
The British occupation back in Burma did not do the remaining Mon population any good. Aside from adopting Burmese as the official language of the state administration, massive amounts of Burmans again moved into the southern areas into Mon and Karen territory.
This ethnolinguistic map of Burma in 1972 gives some perspective into how much the language of the Mon has been suppressed and forbidden and confined to such a small area. The political landscape in Burma after the war favored the Burman leaders above all minorities, not only the Mon. The increasing number of opposition parties and their armed groups in search and defense of self-determination are in constant conflict with the government and other militias from surrounding territories in a seemingly never-ending effort to achieve independence, recognition, self-autonomy and proper representation in the government.
In closing
A boy looking at a poster for an event in Thaung Pyin, Mon state. ©Giovanni Gallio.
Whether you believe in the Mon timeline as described above, or in the Pyu version as proposed by Michael A. Aung-Thwin, one thing is for sure; the Mon today are not fighting for nothing. They played a big role in the early evolution of civilization in parts of mainland Southeast Asia. Although the teaching of their language was long prohibited and their celebrations of Mon culture forbidden, they are at least able to resume both nowadays. The insurgent groups and Mon political counter offenses have so far yielded the Mon National Day (1947) and the assignment of a Mon State (1974), which surprisingly does not include the ancient city of Pegu (now Bago) mere miles from the Mon State border.
With an abiding desire to re-establish his Monland, one man whose purpose has been to preserve the language, history and culture that thrived for centuries—the Mon identity—was Shwe Yar Man’s grandfather.
More about him in part two.
The writing of this article requires thanks be given to Min Oakar, Saw Myo Min Hlaing, Kyaw Soe and Thurein Ye Kyaw.
References:
Mon Nationalism and Civil War in Burma: The Golden Sheldrake by Ashley South
The Mons: A Civilization of Southeast Asia by Emmanuel Guillon
History of Burma: From the Earliest Time to the End of the First War with British India by Arthur P. Phayre
The Mon of Lower Burma by Donald M. Stadtner
The Mists of Ramanna: The Legend That Was Lower Burma by Michael A. Aung-Thwin
International Dictionary of Historic Places: Asia and Oceania by Sharon La Boda
Historical Perspective on Mon Settlements in Myanmar by Khin May Aung
Mon National Day: The History of The Celebration and The Mon People’s Movement for Self-Determination in Myanmar in the Modern Era (MNA; Mon News Agency)