Mon
The Mon (in Mon : မောန် or မည် ; Burmese : မွန်လူမျိုး , pronunciation: mʊ̀ɴ lù mjó ; Thai : มอญ ; Khmer : មន ; also known as Talaing ) are a people living mainly in eastern Myanmar and the neighboring area of Thailand ( Kanchanaburi , Bangkok ) settles in the confluence of the Sittang and the Saluen . The Mon are among the oldest known inhabitants in southern Burma and parts of Thailand (central and northern).
The language of the Mon is counted to the Mon-Khmer group of the Austro-Asian languages .
Early history
The most important of the early Mon states was Dvaravati in Thailand (6th century to 10th century) with a culture strongly influenced by India . From here, for example, Tenasserim in southern Burma was ruled, from where the Mon spread to the north. In 573 the brothers Prince Samala and Prince Wimala founded the Mon Kingdom of Hongsavatoi (Hongsawadi), today called Pegu , which lasted for several centuries and, together with the Khmer Empire, was one of the most important states in continental Southeast Asia.
Due to active trade relations with India, the Mon adopted and spread Buddhism and Brahmanism at an early stage and also adopted other Indian traditions in art, architecture and politics. Historically, they feel like “teachers” of the Thai and Burmese , as they had a written language before them.
From the 10th century the Mon had to evade the expanding Khmer to the north, their center became Hariphunchai (today's Lamphun ) until this area was conquered by the Khmer in 1292. Afterwards the Mon were assimilated by the Thai , the latter taking over the Buddhist culture of the Mon. The later culture of Thailand emerged from a mixture of elements of the culture of the Tai peoples with those of the Mon and Khmer. Parts of the Mon emigrated to Burma. The kingdoms there, in turn, were later oppressed by the Burmese of the Taungu Kingdom , who allied themselves with the Syriam Kingdom founded by the Portuguese adventurer Felipe de Brito .
On May 18, 1757, the Burmese finally destroyed the capital, Hongsawadi, killing tens of thousands of men, women and children; more than 3,000 Mon monks were also killed in the destruction of Hongsawadi. The surviving priests fled to Thailand or south to Tenasserim . Their monasteries were taken over by Burmese monks. As a result, the Burmese destroyed the remains of the Mon culture so completely that only a few remains bear witness to the once rich history, including the literature of the Mon, which was traditionally written on dried palm leaves.
Recent history and present
During the colonial period (Burma became British East Indies in 1868 ) tensions between the population groups were suppressed. Only after the independence of Burma in 1948 did the old policy of repression against the Mon and the other mountain peoples of Burma resume.
Today there are around 400,000 members of the Mon, who mostly make their living as rice farmers and animal breeders (beef, buffalo, pork) and as fishermen.
The main habitat of the Mon is the Mon State , one of the fourteen administrative units of Burma with the capital Mawlamyaing. It was created in 1974 when the northern part of the Tenasserim division was split off . Also in the west of Thailand there is again a minority of several thousand Mon who have fled Burma.
Web links
- Australian National University article on the Mon language. Archived from the original on October 18, 2007 ; accessed on August 2, 2015 .
- The Urban Age of the Mon and the Pyu
literature
- Ashley South: Mon Nationalism and Civil War in Burma. The Golden Sheldrake. Routledge, Abingdon / New York 2003.