rauk-U (Myo Haung) is another interesting historical site in Rakhine, fast becoming a tourist attraction. Mrauk-U was founded in 1430 AD and flourished till 1785 as recorded in its history. Known as the Golden City by foreign travelers of the era it was a focus of trade due to its strategic on the coastal region of Bay of Bengal. Many historical sites such as the old palace grounds and ancient pagodas principally Shitthoung Pagoda (Eighty thousand pagodas), the old city of Vesali, the Mahamuni Image of Kyauktaw offers a glimpse into the Rakhine history.

Pagoda in Mrauk U


A new tourist site which is becoming increasingly more popular in recent years is the old capital of Rakhine (Arakan) called Mrauk-U. Some of the local people refer to it as Myo ( or Mro) Haung, the old city. It was first constructed by the Rakhine King Min_Saw Mon in 1430 AD, and remained its capital for 355 years until 1784 when the Rakhine Kingdom ceased to exist as a separate entity and became an integral part of the Myanmar Kingdom.
The Golden City of Mrauk-U became known in Europe as a city of oriental splendor after Friar Sebastian Manrique visited the area for about (8) years between 1629 to 1637 AD and though he was a Portuguese Augustinian missionary he wrote his fascinating "Travels" in Spanish and published it as a book in 1649 and 1653. Father Manrique's vivid account of the coronation of King Thiri_Thudhamma in 1635 and about the Rakhine Court and intrigues of the Portuguese adventurers fired the imagination of later authors, especially after an English translation was published by the Hakluyt Society in 1927 in 2 volumes. In Volume One of this English translation we can read the intriguing account of Rakhine in mid-17th century. Manrique wrote of his astonishment when he was shown a pair of pendant ear-rings, set with priceless rubies as large as a small hen's egg. He said when he beheld these kyauk-nagats he could scarcely fix his eyes on them due to the radiant splendor they cast; he just stood amazed. In the markets also he saw "being sold in abundance, diamonds rubies, sapphires, emeralds, topazes, gold and silver in plates and bars, tin and zinc, which were very difficult to get in his home country.
Pagoda in Mrauk U

It was the English author Maurice Collis who made Mrauk-U and Rakhine famous after his book The Land of the Great Image based on Friar Manrique's travels in Arakan, was published in 1942. The Great Image is of course, the Maha Muni Buddha Image which is now in Mandalay, though originally it was made and venerated in this area about 15 miles from Mrauk-U where another Maha Muni Buddha Image flanked by two other Buddha images is now worshipped. You can visit this place also on the hillock called Sirigutta, about (6) miles east of Kyauktaw town.



How to get there
About ten years ago it was difficult to travel to this area but you can easily visit Mrauk-U now. From Yangon there are daily flights to Sittway the capital of Rakhine State. There are Travel and Tour Companies in Yangon and Sittway which operate tours to Mrauk-U and the surrounding area.
Pagoda in Mrauk U

In Sittway you should visit the newly built Rakhine State Cultural Museum and Library and the Buddhist Museum where many interesting antiquities of Rakhine's colorful past are on display.


From Sittway to Mrauk-U you can take a boat on the Kaladan River and then go into some of its tributary streams. Mrauk-U, on Thinghanadi creek is only 45 miles from Sittway and the sea coast. It is a very pleasant river journey. If you are visiting in the winter months you can see flocks of wild geese, ducks and other migrating waterfowl. To the east of the old city is the famous Kiccapanadi stream and far away the Lemro River. The city area used to have a network of canals.

In Mrauk-U itself you can visit the Archaeological Museum which is near the Palace Site. This site is right in the centre of Mrauk-U which was built in a strategic location by leveling three small hills. Recently the Archaeology Department has been excavating the Palace Site which was occupied by Rakhine Kings for over two hundred years.
Even the pagodas are strategically located on hilltops and look like fortresses as indeed they were once used as such in times of enemy intrusion. There are moats, artificial lakes and canals and the whole area could be flooded to deter or repulse attackers.
Pagoda in Mrauk U

There are innumerable pagodas and Buddha images all over the old city and the surrounding hills. Some are still being used as places of worship today; many in ruins are now being restored to their original splendor. You should at least visit some; the most famous and well worth seeing are the Shitthaung, the Andaw, the Dukkhan Thein (Sima or Ordination Hall), the Koethaung, the Laymyetnha and
the Shwe Daung pagodas.


The Shitthaung or "temple of the 80,000 Buddhas" is a fascinating place full of small images, scenes in sculpture of Buddhist stories with the kings and queens, courtiers and common people portrayed in their mediaeval costumes and head-dresses, all frozen in stone throughout the ages. You should take a good torch-light to examine the myriad interesting scenes and figures lining the dark corridors of this temple. You can see some Rakhine men boxing and wrestling, some girls dancing and playing, and then there are also the mythical birds, beasts and half-human celestials and demons. Try and find the figures of both the male and female Vasundhra/ Vasundhari symbolizing the God /Goddess of the Earth.

The Shitthaung Pagoda, located about half a mile to the north of the palace site was built by one of the most powerful kings of the Mrauk-U Dynasty, called by the people, Minbargyi, but according to records on inscriptions as King Minbin who reined from 1513 to 1553. The king built this fortress-temple after repulsing a Portuguese attack. The Portuguese mercenaries later served under Rakhine kings. There was also surprisingly an elite corp of Japanese bodyguards protecting the kings of Rakhine.

The Andaw (meaning the tooth relic of Buddha) is a pagoda only 86 feet to the north-east of the Shitthaung Pagoda. Built by King Min Hla Raza in 1521 it is said to enshrine the tooth relic received from a Sri Lankan king by King Minbin.

This temple is a hollow octagonal building made of pure sandstone blocks; there are two internal concentric passages, with a prayer hall on the east. Like other temples it is on a small hillock.
Visitors should see the frescoes giving detailed portrayals of life in the Mrauk-U court; these frescoes are found in Laymyetnha and the Shwe Daung Pagoda. Laymyetnha Pagoda was built by King Min Saw Mon in 1430 AD as one of the original pagodas at the time of the founding of Mrauk-U. The name of the Pagoda means "Four faced" as there are four entrances to this square sandstone structure with a central solid stupa 80 feet high. There are 28 Buddha images as mentioned in the Sambuddha scripture.
Shwe Daung pagoda

The Shwe Daung pagoda or the "Golden Hill Pagoda" is also believed to have been built by King Minbin between the years 1531-1553. It is a landmark pagoda as it is the tallest in this area and can be seen as far away as 20 miles from the main Kaladan River. The hill itself is 250 feet high and is about half a mile to the south-east of the Palace Site. It is a solid stupa with a circular base. During the First Anglo-Burmese War, 1824-26, the Myanmar forces built earthen fortifications on this hill and mounted guns which inflicted heavy losses on the British forces. Some of these fortifications can still be seen today.

Standing on a plain of rice fields is the Koethaung Pagoda; the name means 90,000 and probably signified the number of Buddha images it was supposed to contain. It was built by King Min Taikkha, the son of King Min Bin who built the Shitthaung or temple of 80,000 images, so the son exceeded the father by 10,000! It is the biggest pagoda in the Mrauk-U area. Like the Shitthaung, this pagoda is also a massive fortress-like structure built with stone walls and terraces. There are 108 smaller pagodas surrounding it, all made of sandstone. With a winding corridor it is like a cave tunnel which you have to traverse until you reach the central chamber. The inner gallery has collapsed and is no longer accessible. There is an octagonal pagoda in the middle surrounded by over one hundred smaller pagodas. Unlike some of the other temples, not only sandstone, but bricks were also used in this pagoda.

Apart from the pagodas, visitors should not miss seeing the Ordination Hall, Htukkan Thein, and the exquisite little library the Pitakataik. Htukkan (or Dukkhan) Thein is located about 300 feet to the north-west of Shitthaung Pagoda. Built in 1571 by King Min Phalaung it is on a hillock 30 feet high, with two stone stair ways (8) feet broad on the east and south.
Ordination Hall in Mrauk-U


No longer used as an Ordination Hall, it is now one of the well-known pagodas of Mrauk-U. There is a long vaulted passageway which leads to the central shrine room which is 15 feet in height. This room is said to be the place where the Buddhist Archbishop used to sit to discuss religious affairs with Senior Monks. See the seated stone ladies preserving in sculpture the ancient hair-styles, among the many other interesting figures. There are also 140 niches with Buddha images.

The little library or Pitaka-taik, the Repository for the Buddhist scriptures was built in 1591 also by King Min Phalaung. It measures only 14 feet from east to west, 10 feet from north to south and is only 9 feet in height. Built entirely of stone there are lovely designs on the outer walls making it look like a tiny jeweled casket shaped like a blooming lotus. There were 48 libraries in Mrauk-U but only this one is preserved, though it is sometimes obscured by thickets of bushes and partly covered by moss and weeds which flourish in the 200" of annual rainfall in the region.

This library is reputed to have housed 30 sets of the Buddhist Tipitaka which King Narapatigyi (1638-1645) received from Sri Lanka. Unfortunately it acquired an unpleasant appellation due to its dark windowless interior. It is now known as Chin-kite library, Chin-kite meaning mosquito-bite. The Rakhine people say that Chin-kite is a Myanmar mispronunciation of the Rakhine word Khraung kaik, the name of the city wall which is close to the north of the library. If you have difficulty in finding this library asks for the Htupayon Pagoda as it is just north of this pagoda.
The artificial, man-made lakes named Anomakan and Letsekan on the southern part of Mrauk-U were once part of the defense system. They are now peaceful havens for visitors as well as for the local people, and for animals, birds and fish. Letsekan is (3) miles in length and half a mile wide. Some of the old city walls can also be seen.
Mrauk-U


The Portuguese and other Europeans were given a separate quarter at Mrauk U, only about half a mile west of the palace site. The place is called Daingripet and this place for the European settlement is on the other bank of Aungdat creek. The old church built by Father Manrique, now in ruins, can still be seen in this place. It is near the Daingri tank built by King Ba Saw Phyu (1459-1482).

Rakhine has other historical sites which are earlier than Mrauk U, at Vesali, only 6 miles to the north, and at Launggret a little further away, but easily reached by car in about half an hour.

If you are interested in spectacular places of historical interest and natural beauty Mrauk-U is the place. There are now comfortable hotels and guest houses where you can stay while exploring this ancient land, which was once a seat of oriental splendor.


here

After the first Anglo-Burmese war in 1826 two former provinces of the Burmese Empire, Arakan and Tenasserim, were governed by British commissioners. The two provinces developed distinctly different forms of government. In Arakan colonial policy paid little deference to traditional Arakanese or Burmese institutions; rather, it reflected more strongly the influence of neighboring Bengal. In Tenasserim the British built on existing forms of government, using indigenous leadership and codifying local law. In 1862 Arakan and Tenasserim were united with the rest of Lower Burma to form the province of British Burma. The administrative layout in theory conformed to the Indian model, but in practice tended to conform to Burmese traditional methods. The mode of government used by the British during this period was not unlike the Dutch system in Java, in which indirect rule prevailed.

In Upper Burma, which remained under Burmese rule until the third Anglo-Burmese war of 1885, the economy became dangerously dependent on the export of mainly cotton and teak. In the teak industry elaborate contracts and concessions were developed over time and honored to such a degree as to warrant substantial investments on the part of British-Indian trading houses. At the same time, in other fields royal monopolies often excluded independent merchants. Rice however had to be imported in ever-larger quantities, which drained Upper Burma of cash. The world depression of the 1870s led to a dramatic decline in prices and plunged the Burmese state into economic hardship and fiscal collapse.

Under British rule Lower Burma developed into an export-oriented economy depending almost totally on rice production. Lower Burma’s rice exports helped make up for food shortages in other parts of the empire. In this sense the colonial state in Burma developed within the context of a larger set of imperial, economic, political, and strategic interests.

Immediately at the end of the third Anglo-Burmese war, with the last Burmese king in exile, several important decisions were taken by the colonial power, which would dramatically change the way Burma was governed. A first attempt to govern through the old royal council, the Hlutdaw, failed. The reforms the British subsequently introduced meant nothing less than a complete dismantling of existing institutions of political authority. They resulted in the undermining of many established structures of social organization. In contrast to India the British decided that Burma would be governed directly, without making use of local elites. The monarchy, the nobility, and the army all disappeared. In the countryside local ruling families lost their positions. The existing political framework vanished. Only in outlying areas like the Shan states did the British use local intermediaries in government. In the heartland of the old Burmese empire, the Irrawaddy Valley, the colonial rulers imposed bureaucratic control right down to the village level. A wholly new framework of government rapidly supplanted existing institutions.

From the late nineteenth century onward village headmen were frequent targets of peasant uprisings, indicating how much they were perceived as tools of the colonial administration. At the same time the colonial power failed to adopt the symbols and roles that had legitimized precolonial rulers. The precolonial state had relied for the maintenance of order and security on its intimate involvement with the symbolic and spiritual life of society. The colonial state viewed its role very differently. The British administrators were not only foreigners, their idea of government presumed a marked distinction between the public and private spheres of life. British rule in effect destroyed the Burmese cosmological order and signified for the Burmese the end of a Buddhist World Age. This produced armed resistance in which Buddhist monks played a significant part. Burmese monks fanned rural rebellion, notably during the economic depression of the 1930s. The main causes of rural unrest and rebellions in the 1930s were taxes, usury, and depressed rice prices.

At the end of World War II, Burma was equipped with social and political institutions established only at the beginning of the twentieth century and without roots in local society. Apart from Buddhism, it would be difficult to define a supra-local institution that survived from precolonial times. As for the colonial administration, it had been shattered by the Japanese during the war years. Burma thus faced at independence in 1948 a weak institutional legacy, a vacuum that would be soon filled by the army.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Desai, Walter Sadgun. History of the British Residency in Burma. London: Gregg International, 1968. Harvey, Godfrey. British Rule in Burma 1824–1942. London: Ams Pr., 1992.

Here

From the end of the eighteenth century the Burmese king Bodawpaya (r. 1782–1817), steadily expanded his realm westward. At the same time the British gained territorial control over Bengal and elsewhere in India. In 1784 Bodawpaya attacked and annexed the kingdom of Arakan on the coast of the Bay of Bengal and brought his frontier to what would become British India. Arakanese rebels operating from within British territory created a tense situation on the Anglo-Burmese border, resulting in frequent border clashes. The Burmese threatened invasion if the British failed to stop rebel incursions from their territory.

From the late eighteenth century the kingdom of Assam to the North of British Bengal was in decline. The kingdom covered the Brahmaputra valley from the Himalayas to the entry of the river into the plains of Bengal. Rival groups at the Assamese court turned both to the British and the Burmese for assistance, leading to a British expedition in 1792. In 1817 turmoil at the Assamese court led to another request for assistance and this time Bodawpaya sent an invading army. The Assamese were defeated and a pro-Burmese premier was installed.

Two decades earlier Bodawpaya had invaded Manipur, a kingdom set in a small valley to the west of the Chindwin River, and installed a puppet prince. In 1819 the Manipur Prince asserted his autonomy from the Burmese court by not attending the coronation of Bagyidaw, Bodawpaya’s successor. The Burmese invaded again and stationed a permanent garrison in Manipur. Manipur would now form a base from which further Burmese military expeditions into Assam would be conducted. In 1821, following years of local unrest, Bagyidaw sent general Mahabanula with a 20,000-person-strong army across the mountains to consolidate Burmese rule in Assam. In 1823, with Assamese resistance largely broken, Mahabandula set up his base at Rangpur and began his attacks on Cachar and Jaintia. The British in turn declared Cachar and Jaintia a protectorate. British Bengal was now hemmed in on its northern and eastern borders by the Burmese Empire.

In January 1824 Mahabandula assumed command in Arakan and started on a campaign against Chittagong with the ultimate goal to capture Bengal. In response, on March 5, 1824, the British declared war on Burma from their headquarters at Fort William in Calcutta. The British plan was to draw away Mahabandula’s forces from the Bengal frontier by performing a large-scale sea-borne invasion of Lower Burma. The attack on Rangoon, lead by Sir Archibald Campbell, completely surprised the Burmese and the city was taken on May 10, 1824 without any loss to the invaders. The news of the fall of Rangoon forced Mahabandula to a quick retreat. The British force in Rangoon had meanwhile been unable to proceed upcountry because it did not have adequate river transports. After having been resupplied after the monsoon Campbell continued the operations and in 1825 at the battle of Danubyu Mahabandula was killed and the same year Arakan, Lower Burma, and Tenasserim were conquered.

After a second battle the way to the Burmese capital, Amarapura, lay wide open. Campbell now possessed adequate river transport and rapid progress was made up the Irrawaddy. British peace terms were so staggering that not until the British army arrived at Yandabo, a few days’ march from the Burmese capital, did the Burmese accept the terms. After the peace of Yandabo the Burmese had ceded to the British Arakan, Tenasserim, Assam, and Manipur. An indemnity in rupees, equal to 1 million pound sterling, was paid to guarantee removal of British troops from Lower Burma.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Hall, D.G.E. A History of South-east Asia, 4th rev. ed. London: Macmillan, 1981. Pollak, Oliver B. Empires in Collision: Anglo-Burmese Relations in the Mid-Nineteenth Century. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1979. Wilson, Horace Hayman. Narrative of the Burmese War, in 1824- 25. London: W.H. Allen and Co., 1852.


Here

ညွီနံ႔တေထာင္းေထာင္းနန္႕နုိးထ
ညဇာကအခုိးတိေတာင္
အကင္းမသီသိ ။
စုိးရိမ္စိတ္တိနန္႕ မ်က္ႏွာသစ္ခ
ဘယ္ျခီလွမ္း-လွမ္းရဖို႕လား
ညာျခီလွမး္-လွမ္းရဖို႕လား
ေဝခဲြရခက္နိန္ရ
Update ျဖစ္ေရသတင္းက
ဟန္ေဆာင္မႈတိ
ပကာသနတိ
စ်ီးကြက္ကိုဝင္နီဆဲ
တပိုင္တႏိူင္ေတာ့
ထမ္းလားဂါတ္ပါ။
.
မုသားတကိ ျခီလွမ္းႀကဲလိုက္တာ
ငါ့ေနရာ သူရလားဗ်ာလ္။
အတုေယာင္တီ ေရာင္းအားေကာင္းလိုက္တာ
ငါ့ေနရာကို သူရလားဗ်ာလ္။
ဟန္မေဆာင္တတ္ရင္
လူမႈေရးေနာက္က် က်န္ခဖို႔လတ္
ေအာ္…………
လူမႈေရးလတ္….အျပဳံေတြ ခ်ဥ္လိုက္ဂါတ္စြာ
မုသားပါးပါးေခ် ေျပာလိုက္မွ
ငါ့နားေတာင္ နဝင္ခ်ိဳတတ္နိန္ဗ်ာလ္။
အိုျခင္း နာျခင္း သီျခင္းမွ အပ
က်န္စာတိ Equation နည္းနီေရ။
ယင္းခ်င့္ကိုု မ်က္ကန္းေယာင္ေဆာင္နိန္ေရ လူတိက
Global ဆိုေရ ေခါင္းစဥ္တိနန္႕။
လမ္းေဘးေစ်းသယ္ပစပ္က
အမွန္တရားေလာက္
ငါရို႕ျမတ္ႏိူးနိန္ရစြာ
ေခတ္ကိုက ဘာလာလာေဒါင္းမွ
ထမင္းဝေရေခတ္။
ယင္းပိုင္နန္႕ ……..
မိုးထစာ ညစာနန္႕ နီဝင္မိုးခ်ဳပ္
ေခြ်း ..သြီြး…မ်က္ရည္တိ
ပဲြေတာ္က်င့္ပခံခရစြာ
ေအာ္….ကမၻာႀကီးေတာင္ ပ်က္ဖို႔ဗ်ာလ္လတ္။

တယူသန္
……………………..
ရခိုင္ဘာသာသို႕ ျပန္ဆိုထားသည္။

.